Exposing the Charade of Deep Affection (PDF)
Chapter 42

Chapter 42 Striving for a Month's Time

I held my forehead, feeling a bit of a headache. I wanted to ask about the current operation of Bright Media, but a secretary rushed out of the meeting room, saying, "Cory, you need to go in quickly, it's becoming a mess in there."

Upon hearing, Cory and I didn't have time to say much, we entered the conference room.

In the conference room, there were five people seated. In the middle of the room sat a rather thin, elderly white man, presumably the Loredge investor Jack that Cory had mentioned. Beside him sat a middle- aged woman, Sofia, the domestic CEO of the investment company. Among the others, two were lawyers and one was Benjamin, the angel investor from the Conner Group. In the Conner Group, apart from my father, he was the person with the most shares.

Seeing Cory and me enter, a few people looked over at me. Upon seeing me, Sofia slightly furrowed her brows and directly asked, "Are you Rudolf's little daughter, Tabatha?"

I nodded, looked around at the few people, and said to Jack and Benjamin, "I'm sorry, something happened to my father, so I had to come to today's meeting alone."

Benjamin nodded slightly and said calmly, “Tabatha, we just heard about your father's situation. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are inevitable. We are deeply saddened. We shouldn't have asked you to come at this time, but the matter is indeed significant. After all, we are all investors and we need to live, so we had to call you in to give us an explanation."

I nodded, opening my mouth to say, "I can understand, Benjamin, I

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don't know much about Bright Media. What exactly happened? What alarmed all of you?"

Hearing me speak, a few people exchanged glances. Sofia pushed a document in front of me, her tone somewhat harsh, "Young lady, something happened in your family. We shouldn't be troubling you, but what your father did before he died was really too much. You should see for yourself.".

picked up the documents with some confusion and started reading. They were financial statements from Bright Media and a series of documents signed for the financing that year.

After roughly going through it, my heart skipped a beat, and I couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. Putting down the documents, I looked at the few people and said, "Elders, I absolutely believe that my father would not do such a thing. When he invited you to invest in Bright Media years ago, it was because he truly believed that Bright Media could bring benefits to both you and him."

"Hmph!" Sofia sneered, "Save your words, what we need now is an explanation. Why is it that the 30 million US dollars we invested a few months ago, now there's only 800 thousand dollars left in the company's account? Where did such a large sum of money go? What about the company's profits? A company with a market value of 10 million was acquired by your father at four times the price, and now the profits of such a company are actually negative. Ms. Conner, your father treating us investors like fools?"

I hadn't expected this situation either. Jack, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. He looked at me and said, "Ms. Conner, we don't intend to make things difficult for you. Now that your father hast passed away, we have no way to verify anything. So, we just had a discussion among ourselves. Since we can't trace where that money > went, we decided to implement the gambling agreement we signed initially to minimize the loss of our investors as much as possible. I

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have already arranged for senior management to enter the Conner Group to plan for the future of the Conner Group in a more scientific and effective way. Of course, your father's shares will be diluted by us investors according to the agreement, and the remaining shares will still be managed by you. You can stay in the Conner Group and continue to be an employee, but you will no longer have decision-making and management rights in the Conner Group."

My mind buzzed for a moment, and I immediately understood his words. Without decision-making and management rights, it meant that the future of the Conner Group was entirely up to them. Once the Conner Group could no longer operate, they would pass it on with the least loss. This also meant that the Conner Group was about to go bankrupt and cease to exist.

Thinking of my father's words before his death, I quickly stopped Jack, who was about to sign the appointment contract, and said, "Wait a minute, I will bear the loss of Bright Media. As for the funds in the account that have gone missing, I will replace them and give you all an explanation."

Several people looked at me, their brows slightly furrowed. Benjamin paused for a moment, his tone heavy with seriousness, "Tabatha, it's good that you think this way, but this is not just talk. That's thirty million dollars, not just thirty million. We are all aware of the current financial and operational status of the Conner Group. Moreover, considering the rumors about you in the news media, I'm not trying to kick you when you're down, just analyzing rationally. Even if we give you the opportunity to investigate, I'm afraid you won't be able to become the chairman of the Conner Group like your father. After all, sometimes, the image of a corporate manager has more influence than his ability."

"Let's not discuss the position of Chairman of the Conner Group for now, Benjamin. What we are discussing now is about the whereabouts of the thirty million dollars in the Bright Media account. I hope you

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can give me a chance to investigate this. I don't believe my father would do such a thing, and I also believe that I can give you a satisfactory explanation."

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