Chapter 8
Before the birthday party, I had made a deal with my parents.
If I could bring someone from the Remington Group to the party, they would hand over control of the company to me.
At the time, they had dismissed it as nothing more than a ploy to compete with Alicia for attention. They hadn’t taken it seriously.
But now, standing face to face with William himself, even my parents couldn’t quite believe it.
And as soon as Chester heard me mention taking over the company, his usual calm and collected facade shattered like glass. He leapt up like a cat whose tail had just been stomped.
“Eliza! What nonsense are you talking about?! You just got back, and now you want to take control of the company? Do you even
know how insane that sounds?!”
But William cast him a single, indifferent glance.
“So this is why the once-renowned Rodney Group has been in decline these past years-turns out it’s been helmed by someone
with such narrow vision.”
He turned to my parents.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rodney, you have such a capable biological daughter, yet you’ve chosen to hand the family business over to a foster
son? Forgive me, but I can’t make sense of it.”
Alicia, who had just scrambled up from the floor, quickly pushed her way forward.
“Mr. Remington, there must be some misunderstanding! Maybe you heard the Rodney family’s heiress is impressive, but my
sister was only just found and brought home. She’s barely literate! You must have been talking about me…”
But William didn’t even look at her. He took a document from his assistant and handed it to me directly.
“Eliza, your judgment was spot on. Just like you predicted, the risk to my investment has been neutralized. This is what I promised you ten percent of Remington Group’s shares. And…”
He swept his gaze slowly across the room, then said in a calm, forceful voice, “From this day forward, anything concerning Eliza
Rodney will not go ignored by the Remington family. Mr. Rodney, I suggest you think very carefully about whom you entrust with
the future of your family business.”
Gasps rolled through the crowd like thunder.
As I took the document from his hand, I caught sight of the stunned faces of Chester, Alicia, and Dominic-each one frozen in
disbelief.
While they had been scheming in their little corner of the world, plotting how to humiliate me and force me out, I had been
operating in a dimension above theirs-like a god watching ants scramble in the dirt.
1/2
+25 Bonus$25
Chapter 8
While they were busy designing traps for me, I was already standing in the offices of the Remington Group.
In both this life and the last, the Remington Group had always raced far ahead of the rest.
Funny how genetics work-despite coming from nothing in my past life, doing menial jobs and flipping cheap goods, I still managed to build a modest little trading company of my own.
It was Dominic who kept feeding me that nonsense about how a woman’s place was in the home. He blocked opportunity after opportunity until I died without ever realizing my full potential.
Back then, I loved reading the memoirs of William, the president of the Remington Group. He’d written at length about his one
and only failed investment.
And now, in this reborn life, I had arrived at the very eve of that failure.
Using the Rodney name as leverage, I barged my way into the Remington Group, shamelessly waited outside William’s office, and helped him avert disaster just in time.
I laid everything bare-my background, my intentions, my ambition.
“I won’t let what belongs to my family fall into someone else’s hands,” I told him.
William, who had weathered his own internal wars for succession, saw something in me. His initial wariness dissolved little by
little as I laid out my projections for various industries over the next few years.
After ten hours of intense conversation, he shook my hand with solemn weight.
“If I can’t help you reclaim what’s yours, the doors of the Remington Group will always be open to you.”
That’s why I didn’t care who my parents were favoring at the moment. I didn’t care whether the dress fit or not. I didn’t care what
Dominic said about me in front of the crowd. I didn’t even care what the people in this room thought of me.
Because I wasn’t looking for a tree to lean on-I wanted to grow my own roots, draw strength from the earth, and become a
shelter others could depend on.
When William publicly praised my business acumen, my father didn’t hesitate. He agreed on the spot to revoke Chester’s control
of the company and hand it back to me.
And just as the three of them-Chester, Alicia, and Dominic-were about to slink away in bitter silence, I called out to stop them.
“You just treated everyone to quite the performance,” I said with a cool smile. “Now that my guest has arrived, I’d like to return
the favor. Let’s all enjoy a few more acts, shall
we?”
