#10: who?!
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In the meeting room, everyone was already seated around the table. There were only two empty seats left.

Albert sat at the head of the table, leaving space for another beside him. His co-head wasn’t here yet.

“Why do you think Claude called for a longer lunch break?”

“I’m not sure, you think he went to meet a date or something?”

“Claude? A date? That doesn’t seem likely, does it?”

“But you know, kids his age…”

The old men sitting around the table started gossiping in hushed voices. Albert sighed, massaging his temples with his fingers. It wasn’t a big deal for the meeting to be delayed on Claude’s request, but that doesn’t mean people won’t start talking behind his back.

Even though Claude’s abilities in managing corporate affairs was well recognized, there were still many who thought he was too young to take over his family company. Albert couldn’t understand why these old men thought they were superior to Claude just because they were older than him… wisdom doesn't come with age.

After Claude’s parents passed away in a freak accident, it was thought that one of the branch families would take over temporarily as the head of the company, until Claude is older. It was a tough battle for Claude to regain his rightful seat.

Albert has always supported Claude though. Aside from the fact that he had a good relationship with Claude’s parents, Albert knew that the young man had a good corporate sense, much better than those from his branch families. The cooperation between their family firms was only possible because Claude was the head – Albert wouldn’t trust anyone else’s abilities in such a large-scale expansion.

As the gossiping voices started getting louder, Albert rapped his knuckles on the table.

The voices immediately quieted down. They all had the utmost respect for Albert.

As if on cue, the meeting door room swung open.

“Pardon us,” Felix smiled as he opened the door for his superior.

Claude walked into the meeting room. The room suddenly felt a little colder, as the expressionless young man walked towards the head of the table.

“Albert,” Claude greeted his co-head before sitting down. Felix took a seat next to Claude, laying down the documents in his hand.

“Here you are,” Albert gave Claude a warm smile, “Shall we start the meeting?”

“Of course. Felix,” Claude gestured to his secretary.

Felix immediately started turning on the projector to show the documents at hand.

“Before we go into the details for this meeting, I’d like to show everyone what Albert’s team came up with. It’s likely to affect our expansion plan,” Claude started the presentation with his newfound information.

--

At the same time, Lilia was trapped in Luke’s office.

I totally underestimated his brotherly love for me. Who would have thought even with my disguise, he would perfectly recognize me from afar?

Thank god I brought the lunchboxes as an excuse.

So now, we were slowly eating their lunch together in Luke’s office.

“Dad would be sad that he can’t have the lunch Lilia brought!” Luke munched on the food happily.

I flashed him a bright smile. I was genuinely happy – mostly because Luke didn’t suspect a thing, so I’m safe!

“But Lilia, you don’t have to do this, you know,” Luke ruffled my light-blue hair, “You don’t have to come all the way here for lunch. If you want to have lunch with me or dad, just let us know and we’ll arrange the time to go home!”

“No, no” I quickly shook my head, waving my hands to reject Luke’s suggestion, “I wanted to surprise the both of you so I brought lunch all the way here!”

Luke smiled at me, his eyes crinkled up into a half-moon slit, “My little sister is the best!”

I felt a pang of guilt, but only for a moment.

If only he was this accepting when I gave him business advice?! Hmph.

--

After having lunch, Luke wanted to give me a tour of the office. I thought this might be useful for me in the future, so I agreed.

We spent around half an hour going around the office, with Luke’s secretary in tow. Luke’s secretary looked really antsy the whole time, glancing at me and then at his watch.

“Brother, do you have some work to do?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Well…” Luke gave his secretary a glance, “No, of course not, I can spend as much time with Lilia as you want.”

He leaned over and patted me on the head.

The secretary’s hopeful face immediately collapsed. I couldn’t help but laugh at his crestfallen expression.

“Brother, I’m rather tired, shall we go back to your office? You can do some work while I take a short break,” I proposed.

“Yes, yes, if that’s what you want,” Luke gave me a gentle smile.

When we returned to Luke’s office, his secretary shot me a grateful look. I gave him a small smile and an understanding nod.

Before I could settle down and take a proper break, the office door opened.

“Lilia!!” dad cried out as he rushed over to give me a hug, “You came to bring me lunch!”

Well, not really, but okay.

I returned dad’s hug, “Yes dad, I brought lunch for both you and brother!”

“I’m sorry,” dad let me go and looked at me apologetically, “It’s the first time you’ve brought us lunch but I already ate!”

I shook my head, “It’s okay, dad, I didn’t let you know beforehand. How was work?”

I deliberately mentioned work, hoping dad would talk about the expansion plan. I needed to know if the blond man passed on my information.

“Oh yes, work went well,” dad nodded, but the look in his eyes dimmed.

“Dad, I just took a tour around the office and I’m rather tired, so I’ll just sit here and rest for a while,” I quickly replied, “If you have anything to discuss with Luke, you can go ahead!”

Dad hesitated for a moment, “Well, if you’re tired… then I’ll talk to Luke for a bit, okay?”

I gave him a bright smile and nodded.

My smart brother sensed something was up, and gave his full attention to dad.

“Luke, about the expansion plan from country B to country C, we may have to reconsider,” dad got straight to the point.

My ears perked up – that was exactly what I wanted to hear!

“Well, Claude’s team looked into the politics of Country C, so we decided it may be better for us to postpone the decision. I’ll hand you the information later… we’ll have to make arrangements so I might need you to help out on the project,” dad quickly listed out the main points.

Luke nodded in understanding.

I hid the huge smile on my face. Seems like my plan was a success!

“Ah, right, we owe Claude a favour too,” dad continued, “His team came up with the information and he presented it in the meeting earlier, but he said the information came from our side.”

“He probably didn’t want you to lose face,” Luke nodded, “He’s a good business partner.”

“Yeah, Claude’s good,” dad said with a satisfied smile on his face.

Claude!?

Who the hell is Claude??

I’m the one you should be thanking!

I rolled my eyes. Ugh. I should just be satisfied that they’ve gotten the information they need… yeah, I can’t be picky about all my work being credited to some other dude.

Damnit.

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