Chapter 22
Chapter 22
“I’m a bit offended, Zoey.” Harry smiled ruefully, “How could you forget about your own family?”
“Grandpa, I…”
“You should have come to me instead. The Lopez Group could work out something for you. You know
it’s well within our means to take on that Ecological Park project of yours.”
“I could even provide the startup capital for your project!” said Harry seriously.
“I bet there’s going to be some conditions attached to it?” Levi drove straight to the point. “Or you
wouldn’t be so kind as to provide the funding.”
He had seen through the ulterior motive for Harry to fund the project.
“Good, I like to deal with smart people.” Harry grinned, “It’d save me a lot of my time.”
His words prompted Samuel Robertson, who was sitting next to Harry, to pass over the contract to
Zoey.
“Take a look at this, Zoey.”
Zoey immediately studied the contract when they passed it to her.
The content was straightforward.
The contract stated that Lopez Group would get up to ninety percent of the profits for the Ecological
Park project for providing the funds to Imperial Meadows Limited. Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.
It sent Aaron into a fit of rage after he read the contract.
The Lopez family are simply too cruel to ask for such a huge chunk of the profits.
Aaron was utterly pissed off. He felt that Harry had never regarded him as his own son, but just another
prey he was targeting.
“Don’t be mad, Aaron and Zoey. Think about it, in three days’ time, the project would be automatically
annulled if you can’t come up with the funding.” Harry’s grin was sly and pernicious, as if he was trying
to lure the bait to the hook, “You would end up without a cent once the project was annulled. But if you
accept our funding, you’d still get a ten percent cut out of the profits. That would translate to quite a
considerable sum of a hundred million. It’s up to you to decide…”
“Unless you’re confident to pull in the funds that you need before the stated deadline.”
Given the tight deadline of just three days, Harry was pretty sure it was nigh impossible for Zoey to
secure the funds she needed for the project. This would only leave her with no other options but to
agree to his terms.
It would make the Lopez family the biggest winner with a whopping ninety percent of the profits. Even
Mr. Jennings could do nothing about it.
“That’s true, Aaron.” Henry chipped in, “We should work together since we’re family. Let’s share the
profits instead of having the cake all to yourself.”
“There’s no hurry to sign this. I’ll leave you guys alone to discuss it among yourselves.”
Harry and his company left Levi, Zoey and her parents to talk things out.
“Why don’t we just agree to their terms, Zoey?” Aaron and Caitlyn persuaded, “At least there’s still
something left on the plate for us. You should know better that your chances of getting the funds are
almost as good as zero!”
Their words almost swayed Zoey to put her name down on the contract. But she held back and sought
Levi’s opinion.
“Don’t sign it!” Levi was adamant.
“Trust me, Zoey! I’m sure that I can secure the funding you need before the deadline expires!”
A fuming Aaron intervened before Zoey could fumble out a reply, “Don’t give me that crap again! Do we
hold you responsible if we lose that hundred million? I firmly believe we should sign it.”
Zoey was in a dilemma as she eyed Levi skeptically. She did not have complete faith in Levi’s words.
“Alright, how about this?” Levi shrugged, “Since we have three days left to go, why don’t we hang on till
the last day to see if we could pull in some investments?” he suggested, “It’s still not too late to sign the
contract by then.”
“Sounds like a plan!”
“I could work with that!”
Everybody gave their nods of approval.
The same goes for Harry and his men. They agreed to the suggestion readily.
They were certain that Zoey would never secure the investments that she badly needed in just three
days’ time.
…
For the next three days, Zoey worked tirelessly from day to night to meet with potential investors for the
project.
Yet, there was nothing to show for all her efforts.
Those who were interested demanded a ridiculous amount of return for their investments.
It would make more sense to work with Harry, since his offer was more or less the same than the rest.
Three days passed by without a trace. The deadline was set on tomorrow before ten o’clock to kick
start the project, once over the given time, the project would be automatically annulled.
“Come on, we’ve got to sign the contract with Harry now.” Aaron stood up and said.
“What’s the hurry? Why don’t we just wait a little longer?” Levi tried to dissuade them from signing, “We
have all the time till next morning eight o’clock to sign it.”
“Let’s wait until tomorrow morning, Zoey. Don’t sign the contract today.” Levi instructed.
“I need to step out for a while.” Levi left the house after he urged Zoey to stay patient for one more
night.