Eleanor gave a brief nod. "Alright, let's wait for him."

Two minutes later, the steady sound of approaching footsteps echoed from down the hall. Ian, impeccably dressed in a dark, tailored suit, rounded the corner. He was flanked by Gavin and two senior shareholders. The second his eyes landed on Eleanor, a flash of genuine surprise and warmth softened his sharp features.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" he asked, a hint of playful grievance lacing his low voice.

Eleanor quickly explained, "Ellington called me while I was on the road, so I came straight here."

It had been a while since Ellington had seen lan in person. Watching the fiercely devoted way the CEO looked at Eleanor, Ellington practically cheered internally. It was painfully obvious that their relationship had leveled up significantly.

lan shifted his gaze to the manager.

Ellington hurriedly clarified, "Mr. Goodwin, there's a critical proposal on the agenda today that urgently required Ms. Sutton's presence."

lan nodded in understanding, his attention immediately returning to Eleanor. His eyes were heavy with adoration. "Don't worry. Ellington's proposal will pass without a hitch."

"Thank you," Eleanor replied, deliberately maintaining a polite, professional distance since they were in public.

lan's eyes danced with amusement. "Let's go in."

When the boardroom doors swung open and lan walked in side-by-side with Eleanor, the entire room fell completely silent. Every eye locked onto them. A few shareholders discreetly exchanged heavily loaded glances.

Sitting near the center, Shaun Wallace looked incredibly sour.

lan guided Eleanor to the seat directly to the right of the head of the table. He pulled her chair out for her, waited until she was comfortably seated, and only then took his own place at the head.

The meeting commenced, and the agenda moved forward piece by piece.

lan sat at the head of the table, his expression unreadable and commanding. Occasionally, he would lean over to quietly explain a corporate nuance to Eleanor. Eleanor listened in silence. Soon, the floor opened for the hotel upgrade project. After a brief, heated debate among the board members, Shaun cleared his throat loudly. "I believe this proposal is fundamentally flawed. The required capital is astronomical, the return-on-investment timeline is far too sluggish, and the inherent risks are simply too massive to ignore."

He continued rattling off his rehearsed objections, shooting pointed glances at his allied shareholders, desperately trying to rally a united front against the project.

However, lan didn't so much as glance in his direction. He simply continued flipping through the project dossier.

When Shaun finally finished his grand speech, he waited for lan's reaction-only to find the CEO leaning in to whisper something to Eleanor, a faint smile playing on his lips.

Shaun's face turned an ugly shade of red. He coughed sharply. "Mr. Goodwin, did you hear a single word of my assessment?"

lan finally lifted his head, his gaze sweeping over Shaun with glacial indifference. "I heard you. Whether I choose to care about your opinion is entirely up to me."

The words dropped like an anvil. The entire boardroom went dead silent. Everyone stared at lan.

Shaun's face contorted in humiliation. Ian wasn't just ignoring him; he was actively and publicly degrading his authority.

Shaun slammed his hands on the table and stood up. "Mr. Goodwin, I am a senior shareholder in this company! Do you hold my input in such little regard?"

lan calmly set his pen down. When

he looked back up, his eyes

radiated

a suffocating, lethal pressure.

"Shaun, have you bothered to review

the financial reports for the

subsidiary under your controbover

the last three years?"

Shaun blanched. How had the crosshairs suddenly locked onto him?

"In thirty-six months, your subsidiary has hemorrhaged hundreds of millions of

dollars. As its executive director, when exactly were you planning to give this board an explanation?"

Shaun opened his mouth, stammering.

Gavin immediately stepped up to the projector and clicked a button on the remote.

A damning spreadsheet of catastrophic losses illuminated the screen.

A dangerous glint flashed in lan's eyes. "Did you really think I was blind to your little side hustles? Shell corporations, back-channel kickbacks, falsified budget reports... I know exactly where every single dime went."

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

Cold sweat broke out across Shaun's forehead. He had never expected lan to launch a full-scale execution in the middle of a routine meeting.

"lan, listen-this-I-"

lan's voice was absolute ice. "The only reason you even have a seat at this table is because you latched onto my family's coattails. I gave you a position out of respect for my mother. But as of right now.you don't belong in this room."

Shaun was dripping with sweat. He desperately wanted to defend himself, but his throat was completely paralyzed.

Suddenly, his eyes darted to Eleanor, and a twisted realization dawned on him.

lan stood up, planting both hands flat against the mahogany table, glaring down at Shaun like a predator sizing up a kill.

"Shaun Wallace, consider this your formal notice. I am initiating a board resolution to forcibly buy out your shares ou can accept the terms, of you can try to fight it. But let më make one thing perfectly clear-your time in my company is officially over."

The final sentence was a brutal, merciless eviction.

He stripped Shaun of his last shred of dignity.