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Samantha knew that it wouldn't be difficult to convince her father. What she had really been worried about was his capability to get anything out of their mother.
But of course, when she thought about it, her father really was quite capable. He had even decided on Emilia's future marriage without consulting anyone! For such a mighty man, it would be easy to make his wife cough up which ones she had instructed and which ones acted on their own.
This way, weeding out traitors should be much easier for them.
Thinking so, Samantha nodded. "He did say I would have full autonomy in the future, uhm, let's see… alright, I'll figure it out with him. Leave it to me!"
Emilia breathed a sigh of relief. That was one less thing she had to make Noelle look into. "Right… and about the things you agreed to with Mrs. Brown…"
Samantha froze, recalling how she had just agreed to every single thing Mrs. Brown asked while raging against Mr. Black's daring to directly attempt kidnapping Emilia. Of course, she hadn't mentioned this fine detail to her sister. "U-Uh, sorry, I was a bit too overworked, and ended up just…"
Emilia shook her head with a smile. "No no, it's fine. Dixie's mother does get a lot more out of this deal than anyone else, but let's just consider it a goodwill gesture from us. It's not like we're losing much."
Her tone turned serious. "What I'm more concerned about is the fact that Mr. Black doesn't seem to have any way to prevent this kind of betrayal at all, which makes no sense."
Samantha blinked in surprise. "Eh? But considering Mrs. Brown is just an ant in front of him, and he doesn't know we're going to be backing her up, he should think she's easy enough to crush, right? She would never dare to go against him without us, would she?"
Emilia nodded. "True, but don't forget that mine and Dixie's relationship is no secret. Even if Mr. Black doesn't know we'll back her up, he might have prepared just in case."
Not to mention the hero's father, Emilia wouldn't even underestimate the hero. Although he was somewhat impossible to underestimate, but that was beside the point.
Feeling Samantha's arms getting tight around herself again, Emilia patted her sister's hands in consolation, her lips twitching. "D-Don't worry. I might just be overthinking it, after all. But I think it's better than being caught off guard."
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Emilia didn't hesitate to call Mrs. Brown, even so late into the night. After all, not only was the matter urgent, she knew for sure that the woman was still awake.
What she didn't know was that she managed to do exactly what Mrs. Brown had been afraid to have done earlier.
"F-Fuck! Who the hell dares to disturb my—"
One look at the caller ID, however, cleared off all her anger as she stared at her screen in confusion. "D-Daughter-in-law?"
The frustrated lady could only count it as her own retribution, but then another thought struck her, filling her with dread. 'W-Wait a minute, don't tell me that she felt so frustrated that my simp of a daughter is just sleeping that she called me to vent out her feelings?!'
When she thought about it, Mrs. Brown couldn't help but have mixed feelings. 'Ah, I am to blame for being too charming. Not only is my daughter still so attractive despite being a simp, even when she's frustrated, daughter-in-law can only call me for help. Truly, it's a sin to be such a gigachad!'
"Um, Aunty, are you there?"
Mrs. Brown ran a hand through her hair, sighing wistfully. "Ah yes yes, I'm here... Oh no, you didn't disturb me at all…"
And as the reason Emilia called her became clear, however, she could only put the previous matter out of her mind to focus on more important tasks. She didn't even put on her clothes before rushing to her study to take a look at the documents again.
As Emilia had expected, a deeper look at the agreements did reveal something that both Mrs. Brown and Samantha had previously overlooked.
Mr. Black truly didn't shy away from giving tremendous benefits to Mrs. Brown. In fact, he gave way too much, and that was the problem.
In addition to funding and facilities, the deal also allowed guaranteed most of the 'talents' required to make sure the branches would run smoothly… which meant that Mr. Black might be 'supplying' the Brown's confectioneries with more than half of the employees required in each of the newly invested locations.
Focusing on making sure that the investment itself wasn't illegitimate, and whether or not the properties or the deal itself had any problems, they hadn't paid much attention to this point.
This alone was a huge red flag, since even a single malicious employee, given the right access, could wreak havoc in any such facility. This was especially true for the food industry, where a single mishap could lead to a huge, irreversible PR disaster.
And what made it much worse, was the fact that the sheer number of these new employees would allow Mr. Black to put in a lot of moles in Mrs. Brown's company, making the process of weeding them out later almost impossible.
The only truly reliable way she could do so, would be to fire them all en masse. But that would also be a disaster of its own, both legally and from a public relations perspective.
Of course, the difficulty of handling the situation now, before it had even happened, compared to dealing with it later… couldn't be compared at all.
Mrs. Brown's voice clearly conveyed her admiration. "Thank you. En, En. I understand. Now that I know, I'll definitely handle it properly. Don't worry."
She couldn't help but sigh. "To think that my daughter-in-law is so smart, ah, Dixie sure is a lucky girl!"
After all, even before marrying into their home, she was already bringing in so many benefits!
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~ To be continued ~
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Bonus chapter for 100 golden tickets! :>
Thank you for all your support!