The CEO’s Substitute Lover

In this life and death situation, that little friendship with Grimm Drye was nothing.

He ordered that all business with the Drye Family be ended within a week at all costs.

The crowd was shocked and there was much debate.

Floyd’s decision was a blow to Grimm Drye who was at rock bottom.

Even with the two families being joined by marriage, Floyd’s shameless attitude towards the Drye Family, and the fact that the other major conglomerates were either withdrawing their investment immediately or taking a wait-and-see approach while suspending their investment, quickly put the Drye Family in a difficult position.

Their relationship as in-laws was also a cause for concern for Floyd.

He locked himself away in his study and thought that he had to break off his relationship with the Drye Family for the time being because he had interrupted several partnerships with the Drye Family in the nick of time. Up to now, there had been no problems with Group Davi, which meant that Freeman Gellings, who was behind the scene, was happy with the situation. If Althena Cockey liked the marriage between the Davi and Drye families, she could have just given them her blessings? Why did he even ask?

So, it was time to cut the cord and be clean!

He had Tredan Davi summoned and told him that he wanted to withdraw from the marriage.

Tredan Davi was a bit surprised when Floyd called a halt to all the projects with the Drye Family, and when Woodrow had a little trouble, Tredan Davi took over from Woodrow with the new company and spent the last few days at his old house helping with the testing of the new game. He was not privy to the developments going on with the Davi and Drye families, as he has stepped down from most of his duties and was avoiding them.

“By the way, Tredan, Ottilie said you originally had a girl you liked, Papa had wronged you before, and this time, with your mother behind you, it made me think. I can’t trade my son’s happiness for profit, so Papa wants to decide to back out of your marriage with Miss Drye Family.”

Floyd’s words made sense. Although Tredan Davi was a little skeptical as to whether he had thought things through or whether he had another agenda, the matter was, after all, to his advantage and saved him a lot of trouble, so he nodded his head in acquiescence.

There were cash flow problems, 80 percent of the active projects were in trouble, and many of the minor glitches that had existed before were exposed and became major problems.

Grimm Drye had aged over ten years in a week.

When his staff reported to him that the Davi Family had been the first to pull the plug on their projects together, Grimm Drye gnashed his teeth in hatred.

He immediately took Floyd to the clubhouse to discuss the situation.

When confronted by Grimm Drye, Floyd was unashamed, “There are no friends when it comes to business, Grimm, you have your family to protect and I have mine to look after! If you were me, I’m sure you’d do the same thing. In the present situation, it is most important to be clear. I’ve spoken to Tredan and he’s made it clear that he doesn’t love Lilian, so let’s call it quits.”

Grimm Drye’s blood rushed to his head and he said angrily, “Where is he? Don’t think I can’t coerce him because his mother has run away.

“Wait, wait, what did you say? Who the fuck ran away?” Floyd’s face changed too.

Since Grimm Drye had already blurted it out, he didn’t stop there, “Floyd, don’t think no one knows you’re hiding your wife at Blue Mountains Psychiatric Hospital, I’ve had her watched. If Tredan Davi and Lilian get married, then so be it, otherwise, I’ll turn my back on you and make your family’s dirty laundry public, we’re all in this together, I’ll be upset, but so will you.”

Floyd was already furious, “Are you saying that you used Tredan’s mother as a threat to force him to agree to the marriage? You bastard!”

Floyd grabbed the teacup in his hand and threw it against Grimm Drye, he was really angry, how could he have gotten into this mess with Freeman Gellings? If the bastard hadn’t put Althena Cockey’s safety at risk, they would not be in this situation.

It’s true, you don’t have to be afraid of a godlike opponent, you have to be afraid of a pig-like teammate.

Floyd was so angry he almost spit blood.

The news of the fight between Floyd and Grimm Drye in the clubhouse spread, and everyone knew that the marriage between the two families had fallen through, and with both businesses being affected, the shares of both companies started dropping heavily.

An online gaming company called “Steam” quietly went public. Although low-profile, it quickly became a stock market sensation due to its previous good work and the backing of an American company.

Tredan Davi and Woodrow celebrated at the old Davi Family home.

It was five years of hard work for both of them starting from setting it up to the present-day IPO. In the early days, both of them had their jobs in their family and operated completely on a part-time basis, and the process was extremely difficult, but seeing today’s forecasted index, it was all worth it.

“Tredan, what’s next, what’s the plan?”

“I want to go and find Octavia Gills,” Tredan Davi said, swirling the glass of red wine in his hand and letting a little of the aroma breathe out. The thought of Octavia Gills’ previous visits to the cellar to drink his best bottle of red wine from her point of view of the army made him smile.

“Well, I’ll try and get the address from Domino, she’ll be easier to find then.”

Tredan Davi didn’t object.

He could find her even without an address. A Japanese anime film had recently been released, written by Octavia Chihiro, and with that lead, he was sure to find Octavia Gills, though he certainly didn’t mind if there was a quicker way.

Eddison has come to see Domino about a project to follow up on, he has promoted Domino to Divisional Director because she is a real powerhouse, and not just because she is Octavia Gills’ best friend.

It was lunch break and his colleagues had gone to dinner. Domino’s office was closed and he didn’t know if she was there.

“Woodrow, Octavia doesn’t want to be disturbed again, she’s had a hard time calming down and I won’t give you the address until I’m sure she wants to see Tredan.”

Eddison’s hand stopped and continued to listen, there was no sound for a long time, probably Woodrow was doing some thinking.

“But Woodrow, though I admit you have a point, I can’t betray Octavia!”

…

“Fine, then swear that it was you who talked to Octavia’s anime studio about working together, not Tredan. It’s simply for work! If you let me down, I’ll…”

…

“You’re a man of your word, so keep it in mind.” Domino finally gave out Octavia’s address in Osaka.

Outside the door, Eddison turned and bolted out.

Back in his office, he quickly packed his things while instructing his secretary to book him a flight to Osaka immediately, as in, right away!

The secretary, baffled by the booking, saw her boss leaving and asked, “President Davi, you’re going to Osaka? Then, what about your next meeting? What will I say when the chairman calls for you?”

“Say I’m dead!” Eddison walked away without looking back.

Sitting in the car, Eddison suddenly thought of a problem and called Lilian Drye, “Lilian, you still want to be my sister-in-law, don’t you?”

“Eddison, if you have something to say, say it, don’t ask such crap.” Lilian Drye said angrily.

“Tredan now has Octavia’s address in Japan and is going to look for her, try to stall him, I’m going to go there before he does, if you’re good, we’ll both get what we want, if you’re not, don’t you dare shout at me anymore!” With that, he hung up the phone.

Lilian Drye put the phone down and smiled miserably, “Tredan, if I’m not happy, none of us will be happy.”

Woodrow got Octavia’s address and saw the long-lost smile on Tredan’s face.

“Tredan, you have more than just a personal business as an excuse this time, now, you have a real business to attend to. We are supposed to be working with Octavia’s studio on a new game, with them handling the anime part and us handling the story and production. Our marketing department had already been in contact with Octavia’s studio during the first phase of the contact, but we just didn’t know if Octavia knew about it.”

Tredan Davi was a little surprised.

Woodrow smiled and said, “Do you know who wrote our original story?”

“Who is it?”

“Gar.”

This surprised Tredan Davi “You recruited Gar to Steam?”

“I didn’t know about it before, I’m not hands-on enough to manage that kind of detailed recruitment. It was only when the game director showed me a synopsis of ‘Ten Lives of Love’, which he intended to turn into a game, that I found out about the author, and when I looked it up, it was Gar.”

It’s that big, funny, cute boy who likes to read books.

“How’s his health?” Tredan Davi asked.

“Recovering quite well, and when you go and talk to Octavia, you can also mention that if one of the siblings writes and the other one draws, and then creates a hugely popular game…, gee, look forward to it, Tredan, go on.”

Tredan Davi was happy too. Despite all the ups and downs, the future was bright.

Suddenly the doorbell rang and the two looked at each other, who could it be?

Tredan Davi walked to the door.

At the door was Lilian Drye.

Her lapels and hair were damp, she reeked of alcohol, her eyes were misty, and when she saw him, she smiled, “Tredan.”

Tredan Davi stood unmoved.

“Can’t you let me in?” Lilian Drye looked at him with pity.

Tredan Davi stepped aside and let her in.

Lilian Drye was a little taken aback, Tredan Davi had been guarding her like a thief and hadn’t let her set foot in the mansion since the time she brought him back from the bar, afraid that she might eat him.

It was only when she saw Woodrow that she realized that there was someone else present today.

Lilian Drye smiled sadly, “Tredan, I love you and I don’t want to break off the engagement.”

Tredan Davi walked back to the sofa and sat down, “Your father and my father made the engagement, your father and my father broke it off, not me, and you know that it was never you I loved.”

“But weren’t you happy with that some time ago? Didn’t you say you admired me when you sent me home from the bar that time?” Woodrow, say something, isn’t that what happened, you were there, you heard it all.”

Woodrow glanced at Tredan Davi and shrugged, “Treating me like I’m invisible.”

Lilian Drye sneered and looked at Tredan Davi, “Why? Why? How did we get to this point? Weren’t we good before I left the country? Tredan, tell me, what do I have to do for you to be like you were before?”

Tredan Davi said lightly, “You know in your heart that before you left the country, I took you for Octavia Gills, and the good way I treated you was actually for Octavia Gills. Your whole family lied to me. But, thank you for leaving the country so that I would know the truth later. We made that clear a long time ago, what more do you want to know?”

“What about the engagement? What about the engagement? Why would you be engaged to me if you didn’t like me?”

“Do you want to know?” Tredan Davi looked at her sarcastically.

Lilian Drye was silent.

“Because your father threatened me with my mother’s safety, I had to say yes.”

Lilian Drye shivered, “Your lying, your lying, my father would never do that, it’s just all your excuse.”

“You can ask your dad if I lied to you.”