Supreme Mars

The venue suddenly quieted down. Jesse, who was standing behind Rachel, nodded covertly at Martin. "With Jesse's help, I'll definitely become a partner," he thought with a sigh of relief.

With an expectant attitude, Martin straightened his clothes, adjusted his tie, and readied himself for what was about to happen.

William was so nervous that his hands were sweating; if they lost this bid today, the Ford family would be finished for sure.

But after what Leo did yesterday, their success rate had most likely plummeted to zero.

Rachel announced with a professional smile on her face, "After heavy consideration, Ms. Henderson finally chose one company as our future partner. It is..."

Everyone waited for the decision with bated breath. Martin was already getting out of his seat leisurely.

"Virgil Corporation representing the Ford family!" Rachel said after a pause. "Let's give them all a warm round of applause."

"..."

There were no voices, no whispers, and no certainly rounds of applause; only a baffling silence filled the room.

Like pretty much everyone else in attendance, Martin was frozen in place like a statue.

How the hell did they manage to pull this off?

William was shocked as well, though his surprise was offset by growing relief.

Caroline and Rebecca looked like they'd both just seen a ghost.

Leo, on the other hand, was smiling confidently, as if everything had gone according to plan.

"Time to take the stage, Dad," Leo said, patting William's hand.

William snapped out of his daze. "We… We did it," he stammered.

and shook hands with Rachel, suddenly

shot to his feet, his face flushed in anger. "This is

prepared a candidate list and handed it over to Ms. Henderson yesterday," he thought. "I even strongly recommended Vesper Corporation for

her tone was firm. "This is Ms. Henderson's final decision. Are

I..."

because you failed to meet the criteria, of course. What's so mystifying about that decision? If you

Martin broke

Corporation was itself a large company,

open, and in marched a group of

a feisty female officer with

eyes scanning the room. "I'm Sandra Johnson from the Emerdale Police

officers put everyone on edge. Not even Rachel, who was in charge with today's

up on shaky feet. "That's… That's

fraud. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court

kind of

I said, you have the right to remain silent. Please escort Mr. Bailey

shocked when the Ford's won the bid; now a veil of shadows engulfed them as

the bid and got arrested on the same day. Someone

that in mind, many attendees no longer had any desire to linger around. They each

looked back at Jesse and said,

heart skipped a beat. He asked nervously, "May

like Vesper Corporation very much, but you've been

Jesse's face paled immediately.

around and handed some documents to William. "This is the contract outlining our collaboration. Please give it a thorough review. If you agree with everything, please

sure." William took the contract gratefully and studied it.

to Rachel and said, "Miss Ward, thank you so much. Will you please ask Ms. Henderson if it's okay to have dinner tonight,

smile. Then, she looked at Leo who had been sitting calmly under the