novelxo Chapter 225
After Max left, storm clouds seemed to gather on Yorick's face, his frustration palpable.
Orion glanced at him, struggling to find the right words. Thane's barely contained anger earlier had made the outcome abundantly clear.
And for good reason!
The ores from the Lugar family were supposed to be their only alternative. Now, that option was off the table. The Quarry Group was in deep water now! Yorick closed his eyes for a moment. "Stella!"
Hearing the grit in Yorick's voice made Orion's heart skip a beat.
Max's implication was clear: Stella was at the center of this mess.
Orion thought it over and decided he should give Yorick a heads-up about the Larkin Group.
"The Larkin Group's been hitting rough waters lately. Word is, it's tied to StarRiver Corp."
Yorick turned to look at Orion, an eyebrow raised.
"StarRiver Corp.?"
"The very one that netted Ms. Quinn a few hundred thousand last year."
Stella's windfall of seven hundred thousand last year, with over six hundred thousand attributed to deals with StarRiver, was the talk of the town.
The rest was just typical studio profits, but StarRiver had catapulted Stella's studio to the top spot in Portis City practically overnight.
Yorick's thought drifted back to their failed attempt to shut down Stella's studio. StarRiver's audacious defense of her still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Yorick scoffed. "Tell me this has nothing to do with Stella."
Orion said nothing, but his silence was answer enough.
"Who's running StarRiver Corp.?"
"Some foreigner, Joe Haggard."
Yorick's expression turned sour.
A foreigner!
No wonder he didn't play by Portis City's unwritten rules.
A flicker of irritation crossed Yorick's eyes. "I underestimated Stella, seriously underestimated her."
"Dig up whatever dirt you can find on Joe Haggard's relations with Stella."
It felt like Stella was the common thread tying together everything happening around them.
Orion nodded. "Will do."
But he hesitated for a moment before asking, "And earlier, did Mr. Thane Quarry meet with Mr. Lugar?"
Yorick's mood soured further at the mention. "Wave Residence belongs to the Lugar family."
Orion was taken aback. "So... you're saying Ms. Quinn's tied to the Lugar family now?"
Yorick waved him off, his annoyance mounting. "Enough. Drop it."
The more they delved into Stella's
and intertwined they appeared t was as if she had her fingers in every pie.
Sections, the more complicated
Seeing Yorick's frustration, Orion dared not push further, though he couldn't shake his astonishment.
The Lugar family was a force to
reckon with. If Stella had managed to forge a connection with them, her ties with StarRiver suddenly didn't seem so far-fetched.
Just as Yorick turned to leave, his phone buzzed again with a message from Thane.
[Try negotiating with the Lugar family again.]
Thane was clearly at his wit's end, opting for a message over a call.
In Portis City, it was rare for Thane to face a situation he couldn't handle personally. Yet, this particular issue proved to be a tough nut to crack.
Yorick's frustration was palpable as he replied: [Got it.]
Thane added: [The loss we're facing is significant. If we don't find a replacement...]
The message trailed off, as if Thane couldn't quite articulate the gravity of the situation. But Yorick understood all too well. His response was brief: [Understood.]
He knew the stakes, but the real challenge was figuring out how to navigate this mess.
At the hospital, when Ursula saw Yorick's single-word reply, 'Yes', it felt like the ground had been pulled from under her feet.
Had she not seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed Yorick could respond like that.