Love In Crimson

Chapter Three - Peace Treaty

".................because Benedetto has a niece". Scott said to Ace like he had won a lottery.

"Phew", Ace breathed a breath of relief. He had actually been worried that their plan was going to the bin. Now that there was a way out, they needed to start acting fast. No time to waste time, he said.

Ace held a meeting with a few number of notable share holders and few of the board members of the Da Silva Corps. They weren't willing at first, but when profits and immense stock benefits were presented to them, they agreed. Investing their resources in something as lucrative as latex production and distribution was a great deal to them.

Ace was grateful that majority of the board members on seat as at the time his father was the chairman were all retired and handed over to their offsprings,who didn't think beyond benefits and increase, else this plan would have been a disaster.

Although he faced questions and uncertainties from them regarding the fact that it was not just any corporation they were talking about,but Orchid Group that has a bad history with their own company, with Ace's reputation of ruthless, stoic, dominant and profit focused, he was able to talk them into it.

Days passed by in the twinkle of an eye. Scott was able to obtain an appointment with Benedetto. He secretly tipped off the secretary and made sure that she didn't disclose Ace's identity as the chairman of Da Silva Corps, but as a delegate from the business moguls association from Houston, Texas.

Days later, it was finally time for Ace's appointment with Benedetto. Ace journeyed down to New York City to meet Ben. He hated this. It made him look like he was grovelling at Benedetto's feet. But this is one of his best, no violent approach plan.

Benedetto walked into a high end hotel in the heart of New York City in casual strides. With uniformed protocols trailing behind him, he had the luxurious aura that he had always longed for. Finally, in the end, it became his. He gave out a subtle cackle at his own thoughts.

Benedetto's secretary led the way to a reserved , serene spot in the hotel where Ace was already seated. Benedetto presumed that it was the business delegate he was meeting with, so he approached the table.

On getting there , Benedetto was taken aback. After staring at Ace for a few seconds, he finally turned to his secretary and demanded for an explanation,since this was not who he was supposed to meet. "Do you care to explain", he said to his secretary.

Ace stood up and greeted him with a good afternoon. "I am the delegate from the business moguls association of Houston, Texas that you were indeed going to meet, after all, I'm one". He said to Benedetto.

With a scoff and silent understanding of Ace's actions, Benedetto waved to his protocols and secretary,who gave a safe distance to the table. Scott did the same as well.

Benedetto's eyes scanned the environment for any abnormalities and found none. The only thing abnormal was that he was sitting with the chairman of a rival group. He told Ace that he wouldn't have granted him a meeting if he knew he was the one. "Cut down to the chase, why are we here" , he said to Ace.

Ace started talking about his plan. He told Benedetto how he saw that their latex production and distribution sector was highly lucrative and he would like to invest in it . Ace opened a spiral bound file and turned it to be Benedetto, saying how that was his proposal plan .

"Hahahahahaha", Benedetto gave a hearty but demeaning laugh. "If a shaman told me this day would come, I will label him or her as a fake. Seriously?"He said to Ace again.

"Dear Ace Damon, I have more than enough investors in my company. Yours will not be an added advantage. I am not interested, thank you". Benedetto finally spoke his mind.

Ace was gritting his teeth together, furrowing his brows while barely trying to contain his displeasure.

"Mr Benedetto, you will be back, wanting this partnership,I promise you". Ace finally said with a tone laced with an ulterior motive known only to him and Scott. Not wanting to be embarrassed further, Ace stood up from the spot and headed out of the hotel with Scott and his men trailing behind him.

Benedetto looked at the table and his eyes glanced over the proposal that Ace had brought. Was the young lad finally willing to accept that he is the upper one in the game, Benedetto thought to himself silently. He asked his secretary to pick up the proposal, planning to talk to his board members and hear their debates.

Ace got into his car , with his palms balled into fists, turning his knuckles white. That old hag had just humiliated him. He felt embarrassed. "I knew this was a bad idea to start with", he looked at Scott in the rearview mirror.

"Give the order to launch plan B, boss". Scott said.

"Alright, just make sure it doesn't flop and those people act according to plan". "Alright sir", Scott replied.

Scott made a few calls giving instructions to various people, telling them that they had three weeks ultimatum to complete the task. This is to avoid suspicions.

Four weeks later, it was a tense and gloomy atmosphere in the conference room of the Orchid Group. Benedetto was throwing fists at tables and chairs, just whatever he could find.

Just in , early that morning, destructive news about the baby products sector of the company has been flying around. Not just the baby sector, but also the wine sector as well, has been flying around.

Some consumers of their wine had made reports to quality control about the unusual taste and the discovery of harmful organisms like dead centipede and ants in their wine.

Baby diapers customers also complained of strong, chemical smell in the diapers. Baby feeders customers said the bottles colored the water like dye after being washed.

Benedetto was going crazy. In just few hours, quality control services had locked down the baby products sector from operations temporarily. Over $100 billion dollars worth of wine has been confiscated by the consumer food protection agencies.

He is literally running into debt and bankruptcy in just less than half a day. What went wrong exactly, he couldn't figure it out. Now, further testings had proved that his wine contains certain ingredients that exceeded the rightful amount that ought to be used.

In the midst of all these, investors were pulling out of the company. Debts were now sitting huge and smiling at him.

"Oh my goodness"! He exclaimed. He turned his attention to his board members. "What do we do. We were supposed to claim our profits over these products and pay back our debts . Some of them are due in two weeks, they were short term loans". Benedetto exclaimed, with frustration visible on his face.

A few of the board members, Biden, victor and Collins exchanged meaningful glances with each other.

Biden spoke first. "Since we have a lot of investors pulling out , and a huge debt accumulated, instead of substituting the profit from one sector to another, why not allow Ace Damon to follow through with his previous proposal".

Collins added by saying, "we can work around it,and instead of him investing solely in our latex production, let's divert a bit of his attention to the wine sector as well. Because at this point, we're literally going to start paying debts with debts. Or what do you see to it", he threw a general question to the rest of the board members.

Victor added fire by saying that two times investment from Ace Damon is worth fifty investors’ investments put together. This fueled the survival instincts of the board members. After all, everyone was looking to save their ass.

After much pressure and deliberation, Benedetto decided to allow Ace become an investor. He asked his personal assistant to get the proposal that Ace had left days before.

Benedetto asked his secretary to make an appointment with Ace Damon. This was seeming like the only way out. After all, most industries will not co-operate with him except they were looking to gain more than they input. Since Ace purely wants profit, then he's good to go.

What Benedetto did not expect was that Ace would ask for something unexpected in return. For now, he was drowning in the relief that he has found a solution.