Chapter 169: Going to the Airport

Chapter 169: Chapter 169: Going to the Airport

Vivian Lowell took the elevator up to the upper floors of Faulkner Group.

As soon as she arrived, she saw Julian Faulkner and Vance Wyatt walking toward her. It looked like they were also heading for the elevator. Were they... leaving Faulkner Group?

"Julian, Vance?"

Vivian called out to them. Before she could ask any questions, Julian, who had already guessed her purpose for coming, grabbed her hand and pulled her right back into the elevator she had just stepped out of.

After stepping inside, Vance pressed the button for the second basement level. He then checked his phone and said to Julian, "Felix Faulkner’s flight will arrive at Aethelburg Capital Airport in three hours."

"If we head over now, we’ll make it in time."

Felix’s flight had not yet arrived.

After all, even a private jet couldn’t just take off on a whim. They still needed to communicate with the aviation authority to ensure the flight path was clear of any potential collisions.

The flight back from Arcland would take over ten hours; it was a long journey. The news about Felix had been released while he was still in the air.

It seemed Felix was incredibly confident about his return to the country.

"Is he really coming back? Julian, I saw a push notification on the news today. He said he’s going to sell his shares in Faulkner Group.

"But didn’t you two have an agreement? Even if Felix wanted to sell in the future, you have the right of first refusal. He can only sell to others if you say you don’t want them!"

Vivian remembered Julian mentioning this to her.

Since he had the right of first refusal, the shares in Felix’s hands were essentially Julian’s anyway. For years, Felix had been living off Julian’s financial support.

As long as Felix held onto the shares and Julian eventually bought them, the father and son could remain at peace, and the rest of Felix’s life would be financially secure.

Although... Vivian also knew that once Felix sold his remaining shares, his future would be secure regardless.

But, if he didn’t sell them to Julian and instead gave them to outsiders, relying on their money to live, it was truly...

Vivian couldn’t fathom what Felix was thinking. Wasn’t he doing this purely out of spite?

Julian remained silent for a moment.

His mood was clearly less than stellar. Hearing Vivian bring it up, he let out a long sigh before finally speaking. "Yes.

"We do have an agreement, but it’s only verbal. When he made that mistake back then, Grandma had to ally with the former shareholders and invoke Grandpa’s authority to force him out of Faulkner Group.

"However, the shareholders thought I was too young at the time, so they advocated leaving a portion of the shares in his hands. It was meant to be a minor check and balance.

"The right of first refusal you mentioned—we did agree on that, and the shareholders present served as witnesses. But we never put it in writing. It entirely relied on the integrity of the parties involved.

"We shareholders always had a good relationship, but a few of them have grown old and been replaced by other members of their families. Human hearts, after all, are prone to change.

"Without written proof, relying solely on integrity is obviously no longer enough. This President Zane is Mr. Zane’s son. Mr. Zane passed away last year, so his shares fell into his son’s hands.

"He’s an ambitious man. When other shareholders sold their stakes last year, he acquired a bit of them. Now, he holds eight percent of Faulkner Group.

"If he adds Felix’s two percent to that, he’ll have ten percent in total. That’s not a small amount."

Hearing this, Vivian nodded.

Julian was the president of Faulkner Group, holding fifty percent of the shares himself, while Grandma Faulkner held thirty percent. Among the company’s shareholders, it was an unspoken rule that this eighty percent effectively belonged to Julian.

After all, everyone knew Grandma Faulkner would only leave her shares to Julian. There was no one else she would give them to.

Now, this President Zane had eight percent, and none of the remaining shareholders held a larger stake than him. Technically, that made him the third-largest shareholder.

In any business, especially a joint-stock company, shareholders naturally wanted to amass as much equity as possible to seize control.

With Faulkner Group’s booming development over the years, who knew how much Felix’s two percent was truly worth by now!

It was entirely understandable that this Zane guy wanted to buy it to gamble on Faulkner Group’s future growth!

Vivian had never heard of the Mr. Zane that Julian mentioned, nor did she know what kind of person he had been. But clearly, his son’s character left much to be desired.

President Zane must have hoodwinked the other shareholders or bribed them with benefits, prompting them all to conveniently "forget" the agreement from back then.

Then he instigated Felix to sell his shares, likely promising to protect him or something similar in order to give him the courage to act.

What an absolute headache.

Even Vivian felt a throbbing in her temples just thinking about it.

At this time in her past life, Grandma Faulkner must have already been hospitalized. With a woman like Rachel Faulkner causing chaos, who knew what the situation was like on Grandma Faulkner’s end.

Coupled with Felix taking advantage of the turmoil to return to the country, it definitely had a negative impact on Grandma’s health. It truly couldn’t have been easy for Julian to handle so many crises all by himself.

No wonder. When Vivian had later heard news about Grandma Faulkner in her past life, the elderly woman had already gone abroad for treatment, and her condition had been extremely critical.

She wondered if the Julian from back then had managed to resolve all these problems.

His own family—his father, his older sister—and the company’s shareholders had all been scheming to use him and wring benefits out of him.

And the only person who treated him well, Grandma Faulkner, had fallen ill, with no guarantee of a cure. Julian’s days in the past must have been incredibly difficult, right?

Vivian had always felt that her own life was hard, but now she realized Julian had it just as tough.

Thankfully, in this life, everything was different.

In the car, Vivian and Julian had a brief discussion about Faulkner Group, President Zane, and Felix. Before long, they arrived at Aethelburg Capital Airport.

Only an hour had passed.

Using their connections, they went straight into the arrivals hall and took a seat in the area right outside the VIP channel where Felix and President Zane would emerge after disembarking. They waited there.

They were playing the waiting game.

Since the two men were returning to the country, there was no way they wouldn’t eventually walk through those doors, right?

However, over two hours later, Vivian realized they genuinely weren’t coming out.

Julian’s expression grew solemn. He signaled Vance to check the satellite maps to see why the plane hadn’t landed yet—whether it had hit turbulence or been delayed for some other reason.

Vance immediately looked into it and soon had an update. Looking equally grim, he reported, "President Faulkner, the plane... it circled around and headed for Valeria.

"They’ve released a statement announcing that the share auction will be held tonight at The Solstice Hotel in Valeria."