"Greedy?!" She scoffed and stood again. "Who among us is the greedy one? You're refusing to give me my prize, and sign over the shares promised. I'm demanding what I won, fair and square. I'm not asking for a handout. I also didn't ask for more shares, even though at the moment, I have enough leverage to do so. I could have mentioned this at the meeting, and forced you to give me more shares than ten percent as part of the clause of my stay in this company, but I didn't. Have I not been gracious enough to all of you? Why do you still insist on treating me this way?"
"You always nag and complain like we owe you anything. Haven't you already been given a good offer? A new position, a good salary. Why do you still want the shares?" Marco asked with a sneer.
"The better question is, why do you want it? Why do you all want to keep it, instead of giving her what rightfully belongs to her? If the shares were as unimportant as you're implying, then you wouldn't mind sending it to her right now. Instead, you're delaying, and trying to gaslight her into abandoning the shares. No one here is dumb. As much as you like to make jokes about my previous unstable mental state, even a blind man can see what's going on here." Alrik stepped in, and gestured for Eliza to come closer to him.
She obeyed, even though there was a frown on her face, and she had no idea what he planned to do. He just held her hand as she came close enough while speaking to her family.
"Don't even think of interrupting. This issue is between family members only. Stay out of it." Her father warned Alrik.
"Oh, now she's family? Because you've all been so adamant that she is not one of you anymore, but suddenly, she's good enough now because she managed to achieve what none of you could do?" Alrik laughed as he asked that question.
"You've never run or owned a company before, so how could you possibly understand what it means to make sacrifices for the greater good? How could you possibly understand the complications that come with managing a successful family business, and…"
"Save your sorry speech. I'm not buying it, and neither is my wife. We know what this is really about. Right now, those ten percent of shares may not be worth so much, but after the partnership with Crestview Group is officially signed, and then announced, the stock prices would definitely skyrocket. And then the value of that ten percent of shares would be at least four times its current price. You all want Eliza to forget about the shares, so when the value of it increases, you can divide the profits among yourselves, right?"
"That's ridiculous!" Henry snapped. "How dare you accuse me of trying to steal from my own company? I've run this company for over forty years, and I've been Chairman of the board for nearly two decades."
"All of this under your belt, and you can't even keep your word. So of what worth are you? You have no integrity, and no honour. You put pride before family, and raise your shoulders so high like you're on top of the world, which is far from the truth. On a scale of one to ten of people or companies that actually have power, you're not even a four. That's why you choose to remain here, among other families lower in status so you will seem bigger than you actually are. In all your years running the company you're bragging so much about, you've barely progressed. You're just floating a little bit above bankruptcy most years, because of poor management, and living your life above your means." Alrik said, and Henry's face got red with anger.
"From the reports I've seen, the only time your company managed to actually be prosperous was when Eliza was still working here. Yet you cast her out, refusing to acknowledge her achievements because it hurts your ego that she's the one with more business prowess and potential. It pains you that she runs the company better than you, which is why you took away her original shares left by her grandmother, your late wife. You hate the fact that she's better than your own son, and his sons. You spent more time, effort, and money on them, hoping they will keep your legacy alive, but got mediocrity in return. But what do you expect? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all." Alrik finished speaking, just as Francis, Eliza's older brother, tried to hit him.
But none of them knew of Alrik's military experience, so it was easy for Alrik to overpower Francis, and lay him out on his ass.
"Ow! I will sue you for assault. How dare you lay your filthy hand on me?"
"Take this to court if you're so confident you'll win. I assure you that it will only be a waste of your money and time, because you will lose. It was clearly self defense. You tried to attack me." Alrik shrugged and wiped his hands off after that brief touch with Francis.
"Get out of my company, now, before I have you both arrested for trespassing." Henry snapped, and Eliza spoke up.
"Think about what you're doing very carefully, grandfather. If you don't sign those shares over to me, I will take this matter to court. I have several witnesses who will attest to the fact that you gave a challenge on your birthday, and used ten percent of the shares as a prize. Imagine all the bad publicity this will cause, and how your reputation would be affected. Crestview group will also back out of the agreement before it's even signed, because you went against their clause that I must be involved with all their projects."
"And you really think they will side with you over me? The so-called witnesses you speak of. Everyone who was in attendance that day were all acquaintances of mine, most of whom owe me favours. The rest I can easily blackmail to make sure they testify that I never made such a statement. And before you speak of CCTV evidence, I can have it erased in mere seconds. What proof will you have to sue me with then, grand-daughter?" He asked smugly.
Eliza's face fell as she realised she was backed into a corner. She turned to Alrik, and tried to pull him towards the door.
"Let's just leave."
"No, Eliza. I have one more thing to say. I knew they wouldn't easily hand over the ten percent shares to you. So I made my own plans behind teh scene. You don't need to worry about the ten percent shares, because from today, the company now belongs to you." Alrik said with a smile, and handed her the file he had been holding since the beginning of the meeting.
He had pretended like they were just documents needed for the partnership, and had been waiting for the right time to speak about them. Eliza took the file from him, and her eyes widened as she began to read it.
"Alrik… How…"
"What nonsense are you speaking of now? Has your brain degraded again like before, retard?" Marco sneered, but Alrik just laughed.
"Eliza now owns fifty one percent of the Pratt company shares, which makes her the major shareholder. That means, as of this moment, you're all the ones tresspassing, because this company now belongs to my wife."