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.

up to the stage and shook hands with Rachel,

shot to his feet, his face flushed in anger. "This is unfair! How could they possibly be

kind of mistake?" Jesse asked as sweat trickled down his forehead. "I prepared a candidate list and handed it over to Ms. Henderson yesterday," he thought. "I even strongly recommended Vesper Corporation for the bid. The Ford family was not even on my

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

I..."

cold glance at Martin and said, "She didn't select Vesper Corporation because you failed to meet the criteria, of course. What's so mystifying about that decision? If you spout nonsense like that again, you'll be

lawyer's letter?!" Martin broke out in

Even though Vesper Corporation was itself a large company,

open, and in marched a

a feisty female officer with

Sandra Johnson from the Emerdale Police Department. Which individual

arrival of the officers put everyone on edge. Not even Rachel, who was in charge with today's event, had expected the authorities to

Martin stood up on shaky feet.

and handcuffed him instantly. "Martin Bailey, you're under arrest on suspicion of money laundering and fraud. You have the right to remain

Martin panicked. "Surely this is some kind of misunderstanding, Officer. I

remain silent. Please escort Mr. Bailey out of the

now a veil of shadows engulfed them as Martin was

lost the bid and got arrested on the same day.

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

said,

beat. He asked nervously, "May I

much, but you've been assisting them, whether it was

Jesse's face paled immediately.

around and handed some documents to William. "This is the contract outlining our

sure." William took the contract gratefully and studied it. After he confirmed the

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

Ford. Ms. Henderson is very busy these days." Rachel declined with an apologetic smile. Then, she looked at Leo who had been sitting calmly under the stage, and said, "You may thank Mr. Cohen