A Warm Marriage After Rebirth

Chapter 331: Chapter 331: Entering the Company for Training (3)

”Dad, I know you favor Seraphina out of everyone in the family! But even favoritism has its limits! You can’t just spoil her without any bounds! You can’t just treat everything she says as gospel! I believe I’ve run The Sterling Group to the best of my ability and have done nothing wrong!”

”Fine! Fine!” Walter Sterling was past the point of anger. ”Seraphina, why don’t you tell us what your uncle has done wrong?”

”It’s not that Uncle did anything wrong, per se. After all, he was trying to do what was best for the company. I would only say his plan is somewhat... inappropriate.” Seraphina chose her words with care. As a junior member of the family, she couldn’t afford to sound too arrogant, or she would risk alienating them.

”Hmph! Stop beating around the bush! Spit it out! Or is it that you can’t come up with a single coherent reason, so you’re just stalling?” Owen Sterling’s tone was harsh. After being repeatedly rebuked by a junior, any pretense of tolerance or an elder’s magnanimity was completely gone.

”Then I’ll get straight to the point! The Sterling Group’s operations were perfectly fine before this. The current problem is solely due to the Quinn Family targeting us. If the company can just ride out this period, the crisis will be over! Furthermore, all the major, reputable banks have denied The Sterling Group’s loan applications. The Fenton’s is just a private bank, so why would they dare defy the Quinn Family’s will and grant us a loan? Is the Fenton Family more powerful than the Quinn Family? Would they really dare to openly oppose the Quinns?”

Seraphina’s soft voice echoed, clear and powerful, in the living room. Her brilliant eyes were bold and uninhibited. Though she was only eighteen, she was already beginning to emanate a dazzling brilliance.

”And Uncle, don’t you dare tell me it’s because you and Leo Fenton are such good friends that the Fentons agreed to help The Sterling Group weather this storm out of personal goodwill! You’ve been in business for far longer than I have; you should know better than anyone what businessmen are like! When profit is on the line, personal connections are bullshit! I refuse to believe your friendship with the Fenton family runs so deep that they’d act against their own family’s interests!”

Owen Sterling remained defiant, his stance as rigid as ever. Of course, he knew everything Seraphina was saying. But Leo Fenton was a degenerate; he’d do anything for a woman! ’If I hadn’t promised to marry Seraphina to him, why else would he have even considered the loan!’ But that was a reason he could never say out loud.

Seeing Owen Sterling’s rigid attitude, Seraphina didn’t even have to guess his thoughts. She gave a faint smile and walked up to him. ”Even if the Fenton Family really went out on a limb and agreed to loan money to The Sterling Group, they would absolutely have another, more important motive! Uncle, you never should have agreed to use the Sterling family villa as collateral! The crisis facing The Sterling Group was only supposed to be temporary, and news of it hasn’t spread widely. The moment the Quinn Family backs down, the company can go right back to normal!”

”But the moment news gets out that The Sterling Group mortgaged the family estate for a loan, what will the outside world think? They’ll speculate. Is the Sterling Family at the end of its rope, so desperate that they’ve resorted to mortgaging their own home? Is The Sterling Group about to go bankrupt? How much longer can it last? I guarantee you, if The Sterling Group borrows from Fenton Bank using our home as collateral one minute, the very next minute that news will be all over the place! And tomorrow’s stock market will be a real spectacle!”

”What should have been a short-term crisis has been turned into a potentially devastating one by your actions, Uncle! Even if Fenton Bank genuinely wants to help, they’re bound to have a powerful ulterior motive! For all we know, the Fenton Family has been waiting for this exact chance—a chance to grievously wound the Sterling Family! Once The Sterling Group’s stock price plummets, if a few other powerful families decide to team up, The Sterling Group could very well end up belonging to someone else!”

This time, Owen Sterling was truly panicked. The conviction in his eyes wavered. It was obvious he had never considered such a possibility. He had assumed Fenton Bank was entertaining the loan only because Leo Fenton was blinded by lust, and because he had promised Seraphina to him! In his eyes, Leo Fenton was nothing more than a worthless degenerate, utterly incapable of such cunning schemes.