novelxo Chapter 176
Chapter 176
Penny Smith was slightly startled by her husband’s reply. However, immediately after, she figured out the meaning of his words.
If her grandpa and two uncles each held 20% of the company’s shares, they would occupy 60% of the shares in total.
That would make them the majority shareholders of the company, and they would hold the decisive vote in any matters
concerning Cross Corporation.
According to Nathan Cross’s counter-proposition, the shares that Sean Smith and his sons were entitled to would only equate to
30% of the company’s total shares. That meant that the final decision of any company matters would still be in Penny Smith’s
hands.
Sean, Samuel and Paul widened their eyes and said in dissatisfaction, “You mean our nine hundred million is only worth 30% of
your company’s shares?”
Nathan Cross replied indifferently, “If you think this is a losing proposition for you, you don’t have to force yourselves to take it up.
Besides, even if you become our shareholders, you will only be common shareholders who receive dividends and would not be
involved in making day-to-day decisions.”
Sean Smith and his sons’ original plan was to own more than half of the company’s shares among the three of them and have a
controlling interest in Cross Corporation. This way, it would make it easier for them to seize the company entirely.
They had not expected Nathan Cross to see through their scheme.
Even though the three men deeply resented Nathan, they hid their true feelings as they had their eyes on the Cross Group’s
fortune. Smiling ear to ear, they replied, “Okay, let’s just do as you say then.”
As such, on the very day itself, Penny Smith signed a contract with her grandpa and two uncles, stating that the three men would
put in nine hundred million in total, and occupy 30% of Cross Corporation’s total shares.
Nathan and Penny had dinner together with Penny’s parents that evening.
One could easily tell from Leah’s expression, that she was still upset over what happened in the afternoon. At the same time, her
eyes were also filled with worry.
In Leah’s opinion, her husband’s dad had never taken care of their family nor had he ever offered to share any benefits that the
rest of the Smith family enjoyed with them.
They only offered to invest after seeing the potential of the Cross Corporation and the good results which the company was
achieving. They merely did not want to miss out on a slice of the pie.
Benson and Penny were aware that Leah was unhappy that the old man had taken advantage of their family. However, neither of
them dared to say anything, as they did not want to risk Leah’s wrath.
The father-daughter pair kept casting glances at Nathan, signaling him to placate Leah.
Recently, Leah had been growing increasingly fond of her son-in-law.
As such, he was the only one Leah was likely to listen to.
Nathan Cross was all smiles as he asked his mother-in-law, “Mom, are you feeling upset?”
The woman replied indignantly, “Your grandpa is always taking advantage of us! He wants to have a share in our company after
seeing its stellar performance. Isn’t it too much?”
“That’s not a problem. We could use the extra funds anyway. It doesn’t matter who the investors are. Even though grandpa and
uncles hold some of the company’s shares now, with their additional investment, Penn now has more resources to work with,
without having to worry about cash flow. She will also be able to achieve more and lead the company to greater heights,” Nathan
Cross tried to console Leah.
Penny agreed softly with what her husband said. “Yeah mom, let me draw an analogy. With more resources, I will be able to
bake a bigger cake. Even though we have to share a portion of the cake with grandpa and uncles, our remaining cake would still
be bigger than the cake we had before we had the additional resources.”
“Shut up, Penny!” Leah was still in a bad mood and grumped at her daughter.
Penny Smith begrudgingly kept quiet as her mom turned her head towards Nathan Cross, with a much tender look in her eyes.
With a gentle voice, Leah said to Nathan, “I don’t know anything about business, but I know your grandpa and uncles are up to
no good. Sean and Penn are sentimental people, I’m just worried they will be taken advantage of. Nathan, you have to keep an
eye on the situation yeah? We can’t allow them to exploit our family anymore.”
Nathan Cross offered a comforting smile and replied, “Mom, don’t worry. I will never allow anyone to bully our family.”
What Nathan said was the absolute truth. Ever since he married Penny, no one had dared to offend their family, unless they
wanted to risk being taught a lesson by Nathan Cross.
Leah finally broke into a smile and said, “I trust you, Nathan. You’re always so dependable.”
The father-daughter pair looked at each other knowingly and let out a bitter laugh simultaneously.
It seems like Nathan is Leah’s favorite now. She trusts him more than her own husband and daughter.
Three days later, at the Asiatic Shopping Mall construction site, construction workers were gathered in the workers’ dormitory,
which was made of stacked-up containers. Some of them were browsing their phones while some were playing card games.
Majority of the workers had gone out for supper or to drink and make merry.
At this moment, without anyone knowing, a suspicious person had climbed over the fence and sneaked into the construction site.
With agile movements, the person speedily ran towards the tower crane...
Slightly more than 10 minutes later, the massive construction crane collapsed with a loud thud.
BOOM!
An earth-shattering crash was heard as the tower crane smashed onto the workers’ makeshift dormitory.
In that very instant, the containers which were occupied by the construction workers fell into ruins.
As shrieks and wails filled the construction site, the suspicious person sneaked out stealthily.
After the man escaped unnoticed, the first thing he did was to ring Jerry Zabinski. “Mr. Zabinski, it’s been done. From the looks of
it, there should be a lot of casualties. The person-in-charge of this project, Penny Smith, is definitely doomed.”