A Billionaire In Disguise
Chapter Twenty One

Early Monday morning, Catherine walked into the office, and the moment she took a seat behind her desk, the room door opened.

Staring at her secretary walking inside, Catherine waited for her to close the door before asking, "What is it?"

"You have guests." Her secretary calmly uttered with a look of nervousness on her face.

"Who are they?"

"Mr. Earl and his father, Chairman Herman."

A frown settled on Catherine's face as she spaced out for a moment, focusing on her thoughts about if she should meet Earl or not.

Finally, she let out a soft breath and said, "Escort them to the conference room and tell them that I will be with them shortly."

"Okay, boss." Her secretary replied before turning away.

After she left the room, Catherine groaned out her frustration, wondering if she had made the right choice.

Then she abruptly muttered, "Should I call Rome?"

It took her a while to think her thoughts through. Then she grabbed her phone, stood to her feet, and mumbled, "I don't want to get him involved in more trouble. After all, I can handle this."

The conference room was silent as Mr. Earl waited on Catherine with his father, but there was tension between both men.

A few minutes went by, then the door to the conference room opened, and Catherine walked inside with her secretary beside her.

The moment Mr. Earl laid his sight on her, he hastily stood to his feet as his eyes lit up like a pervert.

"Good morning, Chairman Herman and Mr. Earl." Catherine half-heartedly greeted.

"You actually came. I was a bit doubtful that Miss Catherine would want to see me!" Mr. Earl said, taking a step towards her.

"I came to show respect to Chairman Herman, not because of you. So don't get it twisted."

"If that's the case, then, Catherine, you should know that I have proposed the idea to my father about Dream Team cooperating with Technology And Co. by taking on our major millions of dollars projects, and he's on board with it!"

Frowning at Mr. Earl, Catherine gave him an icy stare as she said, "There's no closeness between us, so please call me, 'Mrs. Ford.' Also, the fact that you were the one who made this proposal to Chairman Herman, I am turning the offer down."

Then she swayed her gaze to Chairman Herman and stared at him for a second before turning around to leave.

"Mrs. Ford, please don't go just yet." Chairman Herman called out.

Stopping in her tracks, Catherine took a deep breath with her eyelids shut. Then she turned around and stared at him.

"You are a woman of business, and deep down, you know this is a good business opportunity for Dream Team. I honestly want Dream Team and Technology And Co. to cooperate." Chairman Herman calmly uttered.

Then he locked eyes with Catherine and said, "So how about we bury past hard feelings and stop being sensitive."

"I am far from being sensitive," Catherine said with a frown. "As you said, I'm a woman of business. So you should know that I'm not going to look at how good the offer is and forget about who's offering it."

Swaying her icy gaze to Mr. Earl, Catherine scowled and coldly uttered, "Ignoring such detail can later be sabotaging for my company, and I don't want that."

Then she turned around and walked out of the conference room with her secretary.

"Mrs. Ford," Chairman Herman called out as the door slammed closed.

Afterward, he glared at his son before standing up from his seat and storming out of the conference room.

A few minutes later, Mr. Earl joined his father in the backseat of his car and shut the door.

Without looking at his son, Chairman Herman scowled and firmly intoned, "Do you have to be so problematic and create issues with the Fords. Now, do you think that only Dream Team would not want to do business with us!"

"Stop talking like the Fords are any better than us. I know that Catherine

accepting this deal will help ease the fear of some of our partners stopping business with us. But there are other ways to smooth things out." Mr. Earl said in annoyance.

"Okay. Although Rome's wife cooperating with us will smooth the tension you created, I'm all ears to this so-called other ways because from the look of things, cooperating with Catherine is impossible!"

"Her family. Although Catherine's in control of Dream Team, her family members still have a major influence in decisions about the company. I just need to replace the right person to work through."

"Okay! So why the hell did you drag me out here to meet her, especially when you already knew the outcome of things!"

Smirking, Mr. Earl stared at the tinted window and mumbled, "I want her to enjoy the pride of turning me down. Now, imagine if my plan succeeds and she gets forced to work with me. What do you think that would do to her?"

When Chairman Herman didn't answer, Mr. Earl continued, "It will crush her pride and humble her. To deal with a woman like Catherine, you need to break her down little by little."

Feeling disgusted by his boss's words, the driver started the car engine as he listened to Mr. Earl say, "Just the thought of it is making me excited."

"I don't care about your excitement. Just fix this mess that you have created one way or another!" Chairman Herman lashed out in annoyance.

The board room was quiet as Rome reviewed the document before him while the others waited on his feedback.

However, his phone suddenly rang, disrupting the silence and distracting him from the words on the paper.

Raising his head, Rome stared at the name on his screen, and then he reached for his phone.

The moment he answered, Blaze's voice echoed into his ear, "well, Boss, James Earl, and Chairman Herman just drove out of Dream Team parking lot."

Every muscle in Rome's body became tense as he clenched his jaw. Then he hastily stood to his feet and walked out of the board room without uttering a word to anyone.

"Boss, are you leaving?" K asked in shock, knowing that the meeting wasn't supposed to be over since it was just starting.

Then he increased his pace as he tried to catch up with Rome.

When K finally was a foot behind him, he tried again and asked, "Boss, where are we going?"

"Dream Team. Apparently, Earl was daring enough to visit Catherine." Rome firmly uttered, tightening his grip on his phone.

Then he frowned and said, "Why didn't she call me. What is she thinking not telling me that that freak visited her."

"Boss, I don't think it's my place to say, but you confronting Miss about Earl will make her know that you are keeping tabs on her. Isn't that something you don't want?" K mumbled, hoping that he didn't overstep his boundary.

"I'm not stupid, K! I'm not going to confronting my wife about this. I'm simply going to visit her."

"Uh... Aaah, I understand."

A look of annoyance spiked in Rome's eyes as he suddenly stopped in his tracks, gazing at Amara walking towards him from the opposite direction.

When she reached him, she smiled and said, "It's good to see you again. I got told by your secretary that you were in a meeting. So I have been waiting out here for you. Are you going somewhere, or is the meeting over already?"

"Yes, I got a place that I need to get to right now. I'm sorry, but I have to leave." Rome said, unable to control the restlessness he felt.

"I see. Well, we talked at the party, but we really didn't talk. So I decided to come

to you today and be more honest with the questions you asked me. But it seems like us having such a conversation will be impossible today."

"Right. I don't think I am in the right mindset to partake in such a discussion with you. Let's do it tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow it is then. Morning hours?"

"Yes. Now, excuse me."

Watching Rome walk past her, Amara gazed down the hall as she thought, 'Hopefully, you don't give another excuse tomorrow. The sooner I have this talk with you, the sooner I can get that annoying human being to stop lecturing me.'