The bank president did not rush to speak. Actually, the bank president was not rendered speechless by Alex’s “rude” actions, but he was thinking about how he could salvage the bad impression the skinny man left on Alex Cohen.
The skinny man was angry and went over to vent his emotions.
With the skinny man’s job level, he did not have the authority to know the deposit information of such a high-profile client like Alex. In his opinion, Alex was just a megalomaniac who did not know how to make good use of a few hundred million dollar deposits and was a fool who would do anything to get a girl.
In fact, Alex’s deposit was not a few hundred million or a few billion, but tens of billions of dollars.
Even though the skinny man was not aware, the bank president was very clear about this fact.
Moreover, Alex was named by the head office as someone he should be taking special care of, so how could he dare to neglect it?
The bank president did not give any explanation to the skinny man and said to Alex with a courteous smile, “Mr. Cohen, I’m very sorry…”
Alex raised his hand and interrupted the bank president. He then pointed to the skinny man and said, “Today’s matter has nothing to do with you and your bank. It’s entirely because of him, so there’s no need to apologize to me. I believe you’ll handle it properly, so I won’t make a big deal out of this.”
The bank president was a smart man and immediately understood Alex’s meaning. Whether or not he could defuse Alex’s anger depended on how he dealt with the skinny man. Since Alex had given him the opportunity, he naturally wanted to seize it. He had already thought of how to deal with it and turned to the skinny man.
“From what just happened, it shows that your personal qualities are low and your working capacity is also quite limited. Let’s not mention how many clients you can pull in, you’ve even lost the clients that Manager Liedl had already made a deal with. This isn’t a one-sided story because everyone in the room bared witness to it. Thus, I won’t discuss with the management and will now announce that you’re fired! I’ll give you until the end of tomorrow to hand over all your work.”
“President, it’s not…”
The skinny man instantly became anxious.
He had just realized that in order to force Josie to give in, his words and actions were a little too much. Nonetheless, that was a small matter and it usually would not escalate to the bank president. Even if someone snitched on him, it would normally just be a warning, or at most, a fine. It absolutely would not spiral to dismissal.
In the end, the bank president actually did not even allow him to explain and he was directly fired!
After the bank president finished dealing with the matter, he still did not give the skinny man the opportunity to explain himself. With a wave of the hand, he ordered some people to pull the skinny man out of the office. He then smiled and walked over to Josie.
“Manager Liedl, I’m sorry. I was negligent on this matter. Last time, Mr. Cohen has already explained about the photo, so the financial products you were originally responsible for should also be returned to you as soon as possible. Since all your colleagues in your department are here, then I’ll just announce it now. All the financial products that you were responsible for before will continue to be your responsibility in the future!”
Josie nodded in a daze and said, “Oh…Thank you, President!”
“It’s not me you have to thank. It’s Mr. Cohen!”
The bank president waved his hand and walked to Alex again, then asked inquisitively, “Mr. Cohen, do you think it’s appropriate for me to handle it this way?”
Alex shook his head and said, “This is an internal matter of your bank, so it’s inappropriate for me as an outsider to interfere. Just do as you see fit. President, since you just mentioned the tampered photos, I’ve actually come here today specifically to put a stop to the rumors…President, if you have time, let’s have dinner together after work.”
“Yes, sure!”
“That’s fine. I’ll talk to Manager Liedl first, so we’ll go to dinner after work.”
“Okay, okay. Then you can go ahead.”
The bank president nodded repeatedly and after he finished talking, he dispersed the crowd.
The office was instantly quiet.
Alex showed Josie the video of Zachary Ewing admitting his mistake, then signed a check for $200,000 on the spot and said truthfully, “Manager Liedl, I’m sorry that I didn’t discuss with you nor did I consult a lawyer. I just assumed the compensation for your defamation was $100,000 according to my judgment. Zachary has also transferred the money to me. Since this started mainly because of me, it’s fair to say that you’ve been implicated by this, so I’ll have to take half of the responsibility. Here’s $200,000. Please accept it.”
“Huh?”
Josie did not understand what was happening and said, “Mr. Cohen, you’re also a victim of those tampered photos. So by right, we should share the money Zachary gave! No…I’m just an unimportant person, so it’ll be enough if Zachary apologized to me. You’re a big shot with a reputation, so the negative impact on you is probably much bigger than me. Since this was also handled by you, the compensation should be given to you! As for your money, there’s all the more reason not to accept it.”
“Manager Liedl, I’ve clearly explained the tampered photos to people on my side who saw them, so I didn’t suffer much of an impact. You, on the other hand, suffered criticism and almost lost your job, so this is your compensation. If you don’t accept it, my guilt for you will never dissipate…”
Alex did not say anything more and stuffed the check into Josie’s hand. When the bank president was off duty, he invited Josie, the bank president, and several other management to have a meal together. During the meal, he explained the situation to the management. As to how they would explain it to those staff who saw the tampered photos, Alex left it to them to handle.
The bank president agreed and swore to “definitely clear Josie’s name”. He had also politely expressed the idea that the bank would train Josie as one of their core staff. This was not only because of Josie’s outstanding work aptitude, but also because the management was showing their goodwill to Alex and Josie.
This was because the bank president could see that Alex and Josie had a very close relationship.
In the long run, if they wanted to keep Alex Cohen, a big client who had attracted a lot of attention from the head office, they had to start with Josie Liedl.
After the meal, Alex sent Josie back to the lobby of her residence.
Josie, accompanied by Alex, walked from the curb towards the entrance of the neighborhood. While walking, she said to Alex, “Mr. Cohen, you’ve helped me so much. I…I don’t know how to thank you.”
Alex shook his head and said, “It’s nothing really. Don’t mention it.”
“I don’t think it’s as simple as you say…From the video, Zachary had obviously been beaten up. If he didn’t suffer a little, he definitely wouldn’t admit his mistakes. This also means that he must hate you even more now. I know that you’re not afraid of him and you have the strength to not be afraid of him. But if he’s determined to retaliate against you, it’ll be troublesome…”
“Don’t worry. Since I dare to beat him up, I’m not afraid that he’ll come looking for trouble.”
“Okay…”
Josie walked very slowly so that they could talk more.
However, the total distance was just a few dozen meters, so it eventually came to an end. Josie stopped in her steps and spoke curiously.
“Mr. Cohen, would you like to go upstairs and have a cup of tea?”
As soon as Josie said these words, she instantly regretted it. According to the plots in TV shows, inviting a man to her apartment at night was generally a very euphemistic hint that something would happen next. Since she had already extended the invite, if Alex agreed, she had no choice but to bring Alex back to her rented apartment where she was living alone.
Then, if Alex made some shameful requests or did something “out of character”, what should she do?
Should she firmly refuse him or reluctantly accept it?
Fortunately, Alex also realized that if he had accepted Josie’s invitation to go to her apartment, they would be alone in a room together. Even if nothing happened, there would be gossip and it would not be good for their reputations. Thus, he waved his hand and replied, “No thanks, Manager Liedl. It’s late, so you should get some rest. I should head back too. If you need any help in the future, just ask. As long as it’s something I can handle, I’ll definitely help you out.”
“Alright then…Thank you, Mr. Cohen.”
Josie felt a little strange.
Logically speaking, she should feel relieved that Alex had declined her invitation and avoided the awkward situation.
In actuality, she was not delighted. Instead, she was a little disappointed…
Alex watched Josie walk into the neighborhood, then turned around and returned to the car.
Big Ken started the car, turned to look at Alex, and asked with a suggestive smile, “Young Master, Manager Liedl didn’t invite you up for a cup of tea?”
Alex smiled and responded, “She did, but I declined.”
“Well…Young Master, you just missed another good opportunity to hook up with someone. Only you would’ve refused that kind of invitation from Manager Liedl. If it were any other man, even if Manager Liedl had not taken the initiative to extend an invitation, he would’ve tried every possible way to get into her house. As for after they’re in her apartment…more than half will also ‘get in’.”
“Bro, I didn’t expect you can not only drive well, but you also have a pretty strong drive, huh? You’ve got quite the dirty mind!”
“Haha! Well, we’re men. Whether we like it or not, these things come naturally.”
“Honestly, how many girls have you wrecked?”
“Nah…I just know the theory, never practiced.”
“Who’d believe you?”
Alex knew what he had just missed after being reminded by Big Ken, but he did not regret it.
Back at the villa, Alex looked up Yannick Solomon’s information online and finally got some understanding of him.
It turned out that Yannick’s father was Kevin Lindstrom’s uncle and Lenox Lindstrom’s brother-in-law. Yannick was also one of the shareholders of Helse Pharmaceuticals holding 1% of the shares. However, he was only a nominal shareholder because the 1% share was in his father’s name. That was because his father wanted to retire and asked Yannick to hold on to his shares on his behalf.
This meant that Yannick was only a salaryman and all the dividends from the shares were paid directly to his father.
This was also the reason why Yannick was so easily bought out by Zachary Ewing with millions of dollars even though his family was very rich.
The money was all his family’s, or rather his dad’s, and he had nothing…
The next morning, Alex was still asleep when he was awakened by his phone ringing. At a glance, he saw that the caller was Kevin Lindstrom. He felt that something bad had happened and instantly became alert. He rolled over, sat up, then picked up the call.
“Hey Cousin, is something wrong?”
“Someone on the city’s forum posted something related to you and Helse Pharmaceuticals. I sent you a link on WhatsApp. Read it first and call me back when you’re done.”
Kevin sounded very urgent, spoke quickly, and hung up as soon as he finished talking.
Alex had thought that Yannick had snitched on him to the management of Helse Pharmaceuticals, but that was not the case.
However, judging from Kevin’s tone, something even more urgent should have happened. Alex did not delay further and immediately opened WhatsApp to click on the link Kevin sent. He found that it was a viral post with more than 100,000 views and more than 3,000 comments. It was also the most recent viral post. The number of views and comments had far exceeded other viral posts of the same time.
The title of that post read: Think Helse Pharmaceuticals is the pride of Quill City? No, Helse Pharmaceuticals is just a joke!
The content of the post was very long. It was not just a large text description, but also came with more than ten photos.
Those photos were of all variety, but the main thing was that Alex Cohen was featured in most of them.
Alex patiently read the post in its entirety and finally understood why Kevin was so anxious. This post was dedicated to “expose” the scandal of Helse Pharmaceuticals, and all the events listed were related to Alex. The post had also mentioned another subject, Hash Lucas, multiple times.
The person who wrote the post believed that to prevent Zentrum Pharmaceuticals from entering the Quill City market, Helse Pharmaceuticals had arranged for Alex to obstruct Zentrum’s project and even snatched it over in a domineering manner. In addition to the official business, Alex had also repeatedly sought trouble with Zachary Ewing, who was beaten and hospitalized.
Throughout this post, there was strong aggression. The person who posted this stated that this was meant to give the public a more comprehensive understanding of Helse Pharmaceuticals and that the post was not targeting a particular individual. However, this was a poor excuse and it was obvious that this post was meant to target Alex Cohen…
