Theodore forced a smile and said, “Iv, your achievements are beyond my expectations. I’m genuinely happy for you.”He implicitly agreed to the collaboration as well.Seeing him agree to it, his supporters naturally followed suit. Soon, it became a unanimous vote.Ivanka felt ironic about it.Thomas chuckled. “Yes, I’m happy for Iv too.”Ivanka truly surpassed expectations. He felt proud of Fernando for having such an outstanding daughter.Thomas continued, “Well, since everyone agrees unanimously on this point, let’s discuss the previous question: Iv, do you have anyone in mind to collaborate with?”All eyes turned to Ivanka once again.This time, they were not as dismissive as before.Although Ivanka had been impressive before, with identities like Iris and Black-eyed Susan, it did not directly affect how everyone viewed her. They did not show her much respect.But this time was different.She was Papaver!Papaver was a renowned jewelry and fashion designer. She would brin
But it was a huge joke. Ivanka may well be laughing on the inside. They were cousins, but there was a huge difference in their abilities. Even though they grew up together and received the same levels of education, Ivanka was amazingly talented. Meanwhile, Chiara was just mediocre. Chiara was so angry that she was about to lose her mind. Theodore inhaled sharply. He kept his composure and smiled. “Iv, well done. I’m so proud of you. You’ve kept your abilities so well hidden that no one knows about it. I also have to learn this from others.” Although Theodore made it sound like he was joking, Ivanka clearly got the hint through his sentence. He was implying that she was cruel for not treating them as her family. Ivanka said calmly, “I didn’t want to reveal it because I don’t want others to stab me in the back.” The audience instantly understood her. A lady from Thomas’s group said in agreement, “That’s right. Regardless of which identities you have, be it Iris, Black-eyed
Ivanka shook her head. “We’re working in the same company. I won’t hinder Lane’s Group from progressing to a higher level because of my own interests. To be honest, based on the current situation, Lane’s Group is in decline. If we don’t increase the number of projects, Lane’s Group will eventually fall to ruin.” Ivanka told the truth. Everyone was aware of it. They clearly sensed that from the significant reduction in profits. But they did not dare to offend the chairman. They had to find a way on their own. However, the fact of the matter was that their company was in decline, and they could not bring it up to the chairman, even if they wanted to. If Ivanka started the jewelry and apparel project, once her reputation as Papaver spread, Lane’s Group could easily be elevated. Everyone looked forward to that day. They had expectations of Ivanka and her ability. Theodore’s expression darkened. Ivanka put him on the spot by openly saying that Lane’s Group was in decline. This
Both Jillian and Thomas looked at Ivanka with amazement. Truthfully, they were even a little excited. Ivanka had her father’s style. She outperformed him. They really looked forward to Ivanka leading the company. Even if she lacked experience, she still got them. Besides, based on Ivanka’s current performance, she did not look like a greenhorn. If she was inexperienced, she would not have prepared such an impressive proposal that both Sadler’s Group and Barkworth’s Group fought for it. It was absolutely not because both Michael and Jonah liked her, but because both men had read the proposal, and Ivanka had explained it in detail to them. Moreover, she did the project without seeking their help and even let them earn the profits for free. Everyone knew this well. The project was the cream of the crop. On top of that, the few projects she had amended were once difficult to find a collaborator. But she completed all of them. Those feats were worthy of being known as legend
The audience instantly understood what she was saying. Indeed, Ivanka had plenty of identities, and all of them were famous. She also earned plenty of money using those identities. With the multiple identities she owned and the money she earned from them, was she even short of money? She could be richer than Theodore. The audience somewhat found it comical when they saw Ivanka completely overwhelm Theodore. Meanwhile, Chiara seethed in anger. She instantly helped Theodore out. “That being said, Dad didn’t know about those identities of yours at that time. He didn’t know you had so much wealth and could manage your own finances. Iv, you cannot blame him for that.” Chiara blurted out the words. Ivanka nodded calmly. “You’re right. I didn’t mean to blame Uncle Theodore. I understood the kindness he showed to me. To repay his kindness, I won’t take back the dividends earned previously as a token of appreciation for his kindness. Now, I only want him to return my father and my shar
The audience’s jaws dropped. They thought. “Seriously?! She’s giving each of us two billion dollars! That’s a lot of money!” They were just minor shareholders. It would usually take a very long time to earn two billion dollars. Ivanka was making it explicitly clear that she certainly could make the business flourish. At that moment, the crowd felt conflicted. Even if Ivanka was not good at managing the company, she had Barkworth’s Group and Sadler’s Group’s support. Moreover, she owned plenty of famous identities. Many people would want to collaborate with Lane’s Group because of her abilities and talents. Moreover, with Thomas and Jillian as the major shareholders, it was almost certain that the company would flourish in the future. The crowd began to look forward to the future with Ivanka taking over the company. Meanwhile, Theodore frowned. “Iv, the company is in turmoil. If you want to take back the shares now, the company will fall to ruin. This is not a good idea.
The crowd subconsciously turned to Ivanka. She was more ambitious, unlike how she was in the past. Everyone knew how capable she was. They would listen to her and subconsciously respect her. The next moment, Ivanka said indifferently, “If the number of my votes is lower than Uncle Theodore, I’ll leave Lane’s Group and set up a new company. I’ll stop putting in effort for Lane’s Group because I’ll put all my energy into the new company. As for our collaboration with Barkworth’s Group, I’ll shift their collaboration with Lane’s Group to my new company. The same goes with the imminent jewelry collaboration with Sadler’s Group.” The crowd’s expressions changed drastically. A moment ago, they had not realized how important Ivanka was to the company. After she said that, they realized that without her, they would lose their collaboration with Michael on the project that had been based on the splendid proposal. Moreover, they would also lose their future collaboration with Sadler’s Grou
They did not expect the fuss that Ivanka had made would lead to so many people announcing that they would leave the company. Regardless of whether Ivanka was really threatening them, they did not dare to take the risk. Theodore let out a bark of laughter. “It looks like you all aren’t happy with me as the chairman.” Ivanka looked indifferent. She stared at him and said calmly, “The capable one wins.” She sounded both arrogant and domineering. Everyone looked at Ivanka with complicated gazes. They thought. “Isn’t she worried about being criticized for saying that?” Regardless of her arrogance and cockiness, everyone inexplicably had high expectations of her. That was because she had the ability to be that arrogant. Her multiple identities were equally famous in the world. This was especially so with Papaver. Never in their wildest dream would they ever believe they would be so lucky to sit together with Papaver. Papaver was a bigwig in the jewelry and fashion design
Ivanka frowned deeply. Michael was in a horrible state. He had been poisoned and suffered gunshots. He had a strong tolerance to medicine and pain. But it was his mental condition that caused him to fall into this state. Not being fully recovered also added to the burden. Ivanka gave him a white pill which she had formulated by herself. After that, she had the security guard carry Michael into her car. Then, she sent him to the hospital. They arrived at the emergency department. Xavier had finished attending to his patients. When he walked out of his office, he saw Michael being carried into the hospital. He then saw Ivanka beside Michael. Xavier frowned. His expression became tense, and he asked solemnly, “What’s happened to him?” “He’s weak and had previously been poisoned. Since you’re around, you can look after him.” Ivanka summarized Michael’s condition. After hearing Ivanka’s brief explanation, Xavier gave Michael a checklist and put him on a drip. After that,
Since Jonah had come to this and Ivanka was not an ungrateful person, she nodded and gave her word. “Jonah, I’ll give this my all. Don’t worry. As long as it’s within my ability, I’ll help you.” Jonah had to be bound to the wheelchair at the moment. Since Ivanka had shared a similar experience when she took over Lane’s Group back then, she naturally figured out how wolfish and greedy his adversaries would be. Jonah was injured because of her. She swore to give her all to save him from whatever crisis he was facing. Jonah took advantage of this and asked, “What time are you coming tomorrow? I’ll have my assistant get ready.” Ivanka thought for a moment. “Tomorrow afternoon.” She needed to manage her company affairs during the first half of the day. Jonah was content upon hearing her answer. “Good. I’ll wait for you tomorrow.” “Okay.” Ivanka nodded before hanging up. When she returned to her office, she did not expect to see Michael sitting on the couch. She nearly jum
There was only one possibility. Ivanka was calling somebody else. Michael wondered who could strike up such a long conversation with her. Sandy and Ivan had returned to the country. Ivanka’s besties were around her. Even if Ivanka deliberately approached Chiara, she could not possibly have so much to chat with Chiara. If Ivanka’s phone call was business related, there was no need to chat this long. Michael eliminated the possible reasons one by one. In the end, he thought of Jonah. Michael’s expression instantly turned as dark as thunderclouds. His gaze was dull and cold. Evan noticed it. He also saw the call record on Michael’s phone. Evan quickly persuaded Michael, “Mr. Barkworth, Ms. Lane could be tied up with her work, so she couldn’t answer your call. We could go to her workplace now.” Michael said nothing. He gave a cold glance at Evan. Evan got a shock. The next second, Michael turned around and left his office. Looking at Michael’s fading silhouette, Evan wi
It was why Ivanka still came for Jonah in spite of her unpleasant experience with Margaret in the hospital last time. Jonah had been injured because of Ivanka. She came for him only. The other people did not matter to her. Jonah’s heart sank upon hearing her words. His expression tensed up. He could imagine the indifferent look on Ivanka’s face right at that moment. She had that expression on her face simply because he was never really important to her. Jonah was upset precisely because of her indifference to him. He wanted to say something to her but did not know how to begin. He was also not in the position to say that. It did not take long before Ivanka’s gentle but rather indifferent voice rang in his ears, “Jonah, don’t worry. I’ll treat your legs until they recover. Don’t run into any conflicts with your mom because of me.” Her words pulled Jonah’s wandering mind back into the present moment. He felt a heavy weight on his heart. “Iv, I trust you. You don’t need to
Margaret became frustrated and grabbed Ivanka. She could not understand why Ivanka was fine while Jonah ended up in such a bad situation after the accident.Then, Jonah defended Ivanka. There was also all the talk about Ivanka’s treatment. Margaret was curious to see what kind of miracle medicine Ivanka could develop.In the end, Ivanka’s treatment did not work. Moreover, her relationship with Jonah, which had finally started to improve, was once again ruined because of Ivanka.Jonah scoffed. “Mom, I’m not an eight-year-old anymore. You’re saying all this because you want me to go along with your plans for an arranged date, right?”Margaret had not expected Jonah to guess her thoughts. She was about to insist on her point when Jonah spoke first. With a mocking smile, he said sarcastically, “Do you think anyone would date someone like me?”He had a point. But Laura might be one such person.However, Margaret did not like her. She would do anything to keep Laura from becoming her d
“That’s because you want him to fall in love with you!” Margaret snapped.Ivanka chuckled softly. Her tone was edged with sarcasm. “Love? Does it really matter that much?”Margaret felt humiliated and furious. She pointed a finger at Ivanka’s face with a hostile expression. “If it doesn’t matter, why are you doing all this? Stop pretending, Ivanka!”Ivanka let out a bitter laugh. “Pretending? What am I pretending for? Is being divorced a crime? Margaret, you’re a woman too. How would you feel if someone accused you like this?”She hoped Margaret would take a moment to reflect. After all, she was Jonah’s mother, and Ivanka did not want their conflict to escalate.But Margaret was unmoved. Her glare turned colder, sharper, and filled with hatred.“You think I’ll just let this go?” Margaret said sharply. “If it weren’t for you, Jonah wouldn’t be in this mess! I meant every word I said, and nothing will change that.”To her, Ivanka was nothing more than someone scheming to use Jonah
“Ivanka,” Margaret took a deep breath while trying to compose herself. When she looked at Ivanka again, her expression was calm. She said, “I don’t know how deep Jonah’s feelings for you run. What I fear most is that once he becomes fixated on you, that’s it. When he falls for someone, his heart won’t make room for anyone else. In that way, he’s just like his father.”Ivanka’s gaze wavered. She bit her lip and was unsure of what to say.“I beg you, don’t hurt Jonah anymore!” Margaret’s voice carried a note of desperation.Ivanka’s expression turned extremely complicated.There was a time when Jonah came to her only to use her. Back then, they were both using each other. It made things simple.But later, Jonah unexpectedly started talking about marriage. Perhaps it was to provoke Michael, or perhaps he simply wanted to keep her close because she was useful to him.At some point, though, it seemed Jonah had become serious about her. She could not pinpoint when it happened. Perhaps
Jonah frowned in clear disagreement, but he stayed silent. Ivanka’s confident smile reassured him and made him trust her.Eventually, he let go of her wrist.Ivanka noticed Margaret putting on her shoes. She quickly followed, stepping outside just as Margaret was about to get into her car“Margaret,” she called out.Margaret frowned slightly and stood still.Since Jonah had not come out with Ivanka, she decided she could spare a moment to speak with her.She turned and looked at Ivanka coldly.Ivanka softened her tone. “Let’s take a walk.”Margaret did not respond, but her silence was enough of an agreement.They walked slowly around the edge of the mansion. The surrounding area was all part of the Sadler family estate.Margaret suppressed her anger and glanced at Ivanka before speaking in a composed tone, “Alright. What do you want to say?”Ivanka met her gaze briefly before looking ahead and said, “Do you know what will happen if Jonah’s coughing continues?”Margaret’s he
Margaret glared at Ivanka and scoffed, “If there’s an issue, I’ll get another doctor to handle it. It’ll be anyone but you, Ivanka. Haven’t I made myself clear enough? I’ve told you this before.”She hated how Ivanka ignored her warnings and kept coming back to visit Jonah time and again. What if Jonah got too close to her and ended up ruining his reputation? If Jonah had not been here, Margaret would have been even harsher.Ivanka frowned as she met Margaret’s sharp gaze. “I’ve never tried to get close to Jonah like that. We’re just friends. I know I’m not good enough for him, so I’ve never even thought about it.”“You might not have, but he has!” Margaret snapped, raising her voice.“Mom!” Jonah’s expression darkened.Jonah was usually calm and polite. This was the first time Ivanka saw him looking so upset and was about to lose his temper.Ivanka’s eyes flickered with hesitation. She was unsure of what to say.Explaining Jonah’s coughing would do no good. Margaret would not