I Deserve A Second Chance

Helen was staring at Risa. Unmoving. Her anger was reflected on her face; and if looks could kill, Risa would have died multiple times from the thousands of imaginary daggers that Helen sent over.

The air was cold around her.

Helen was pouted and her fingers were clenched deep into her skin; making her knuckles turned white.

The few people who sat next to her were oblivious of the change in the young lady.

A young man clad in dark blue suits who sat next to her, suddenly placed his palm over her hand, and gave a light squeeze. The light blue square handkerchief in his jacket pocket left a little creases as he leaned closer.

He brought his face down and then whispered to her ear, "Don't get riled up easily. We are here to negotiate, my dear wifey," he kept whispering more words to her, and Risa could see gradually Helen regained her self-control.

Helen slowly relaxed her tensed face. Her fist unclenched, and then she tilted her head to the side to look at the man. A slow, seductive smile curved on her lips.

Risa then started to pay more attention to the guy.

Around thirties, perfectly stylized hair and custom made suit.

But Risa was surrounded by a lot of outstanding, handsome men around her; this man and his look was decent at best.

Just now, when he was introduced around the room, Risa caught his name to be 'Charles'. Most of the time, he would just sit back and calmly stare at everyone around the room.

Only when Risa had finished talking, and Helen was trembling with anger, then this guy finally showed some reactions and started to pacify the hyena to hide her fangs.

Unbeknownst to Risa, Karl who was sitting next to her, had been paying close attention to Charles ever since he walked into the room.

.....

The real reason why Karl was here, was to be a spy for sure.

After Li Xiqing's late night call to Axel, he had scheduled an early meeting the next day.

Axel, Karl and Martin were sitting in Li Xiqing's office. Each person occupied the plush grey sofa. In their hands were their own beverage of choice. Axel and Martin had a cup of coffee each, while Karl and Li Xiqing were holding a cup of tea.

The sun was shining brightly that day, but the glowing charm of these four beauties in the room was unchallenged.

"The real driver of Kanagawa Industries is indeed Ido Kanagawa. However, he has been rejecting our buy-out offers too many times now," Li Xiqing opened the discussion, "so we have to find a way on how to negotiate with them."

"All of his sons have no interest in the company so rumor has it, he will not hand the company over to any of them," Martin added his comment, "and so the guess is, Helen Kanagawa is the person next in line to succession."

Axel slowly crossed his legs, and hummed, "Hm, and now that she is here, and not in her father's company to work. Something must be going on."

Li Xiqing just calmly sipped on his tea, and said, "Not really. After I called you last night, I called my contacts in New York. They told me that Helen is focusing on a company named 'CH Corporation' lately. And guess what I found when I dug deeper?" He scanned the faces in the room one by one.

To his right, Axel was giving Li Xiqing a solemn, knowing look. Next to Axel, was Martin who was smiling mysteriously into his cup. And finally, Karl, who was just looking back at Li Xiqing without any expression.

Li Xiqing cleared his throat and continued, "Charles, the son in law, built a company two years ago, and Helen had thrown in billions of dollars to support him," Li Xiqing jabbed his index fingers into the arm sofa, "and this caused a rift in the family because Ido Kanagawa had never like this foreigner since the beginning."

"Right now, all Ido Kanagawa knows is that Charles has good investors behind him, and Helen still has her inheritance intact," he paused for a while to let that information sink in to everyone's mind, "but what he doesn't know is that, Helen is broke, CH corporation is not growing as expected, and now both of them are desperate to get the power of media to boost their presence and reel in big whales to invest."

Li Xiqing squinted his eyes, and stared at his tea cup, "This is why they are here. To remove Risa Yamaguchi from the picture, and take over the Project Executive role for Gold Crane Publications. Control the media, control the people."

.....

Karl nodded slowly as he was thinking of the best possible scenario.

Daniel had sent him on a task to collect as much information as possible from this meeting. His eyes scanned the room again as he recalled what Daniel had told him that day.

"Who else came with Helen? What were their names and job titles? What did they say or do in the meeting? We need all of those information to build our own troops," Li Xiqing looked at Karl, "collect as many small details as possible. Don't miss anything."

Axel Chen, who had been sitting quietly the whole time, finally opened his mouth to say, "And most importantly, while Helen was focusing on taking back her old job, what would Charles be doing?"

He paused, and then continued, "To get Helen Kanagawa to invest billions of dollars, this guy is not to be treated lightly."

.....

Karl was biting his inner cheek, and with his head slightly tilted to the side, he started to recall the names of her Entourage, and write them down in his notebook.

Risa was calculating her next moves, when Helen suddenly stood up from her seat.

"I respect what you just said. It is your version of the story anyway. The people here deserve to know my version, too, so they can judge what should be the most proper solution. Don't you think so, Yamaguchi-san?"