All Chapters of THE BILLIONAIRE'S FORGOTTEN NIGHT: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

70 Chapters

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Arthur’s POVI dropped a message in the Beaumont’s family WhatsApp group calling for an urgent meeting immediately after I ended the call with Xavier. The best movement to make as the patriarch of the family in order to regain the public confidence is to officially accept Bryan into the family and I’ll do just that.No one would be able to separate Bryan from his root then. My phone beeped at an incoming notification. It was Kyle, my nephew.[“Where’s the meeting happening and when?]I typed back. [This week Saturday, by two in the afternoon.]I dropped my phone on the counter and called one of the house staff for water.My mind was clouded with his the meeting will survive, I know quite well that it won’t be easy. Since the DNA breakout, I had not received any call or message from any of my extended family. Even though I was the family patriarch and has the largest share percentage of Beaumont Group, almost all my nieces and nephews are shareholders in the company.So, seeing them

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO Ivanna’s POVXavier thinks he can ridicule me in front of the whole world with his dirty secrets, I’ll show him what I’m capable of, together with his poverty stricken baby mama and their little devil.I need to activate Plan B, with or without my father’s support this time around.Aria would think she’s now the most talked about billionaire CEO wife, especially when the CEO was publicly defending them with legal threats attached.Jokes on her.She may had thought she had overcame the DNA scandal, now that the public opinion has being splitted into two after Xavier’s announcement, with more people weighing to her side every second. But this is going to hit her harder.I’ve made my research, and I’ve finally gotten my hands on that one thing Aria Ashford could not afford to lose. Her job.Aria Ashford dropped out of university six years ago, two ears into a business administration degree. She never returned to school and she never graduated. She had no degree, no pr

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

Ivanna’s POVThe verification result was faster than I anticipated. Alex sent it through an encrypted file transfer. citing the university’s official records. Aria Ashford had enrolled in September, six years ago. She had completed her first year with reasonable grades and begun her second year. But she withdrew in March of the following year.Meaning, no degree conferred, no qualification issued. Exactly as my first investigation has stated.The second document was the Beaumont Group’s internal HR policy, extracted from a part of the company’s handbook. It states: All accounts department positions at associate level and above require a minimum qualification of a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional certification recognized by the national accounting standards body.Unfortunately for Aria Ashford and fortunately for me, this result came back exactly as my first investigation stated. Meaning, no error, I can proceed.This was going to make more news than

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

Aria’s POVToday is the third day after the DNA reveal and there has been a lot of back and forth, both in the office and publicly. I was already getting used to the side looks and gossip.At this point, Xavier’s words of assurance were the only pillar of hope I was holding onto.I got another message from Marcus to come see him at his desk. I obeyed him.His countenance already told me this meeting is not of good faith, but I waited to hear from his own mouth.I sat on the chair opposite his desk and watched him open a document on his laptop and turn the screen slightly toward me with extra carefulness, like he was scared of making any mistake.My face went through a series of expressions as I read through the document staring back at me on the screen.“A formal complaint was submitted to the HR department yesterday evening through the external portal and it has been submitted for review,” Marcus stated carefully, even though I could clearly read the detailed information on the scree

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

Aria’s POVI got a message again from Xavier a few hours later, on my phone this time around. He asked me to see him in his office.I stared at the screen for a moment, my mind racing through what the meeting could be about, even though I have a hint already.I finished the line I was working on, saved it and stood up to go see him.Priya looked at me as I passed her desk. Her expression said everything she wasn’t saying. I gave her the small nod that meant I know and I’m handling it and went to the elevator.Xavier was standing behind his large desk with his hands dropped on the desk when I walked into his office. He raised his head when I came in.“Sit down,” he said, and I took my seat.He sat down too.He looked at me intensively for a few seconds which somehow seemed uncomfortable for me. Then he spoke.“There was a complaint from an external portal last night,” he started. “It copied both the internal and external standards body.” He held my gaze. “It was a complaint on your aca

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

Xavier’s POVThe share price had dropped by four points already by the end of the day.I was watching it when it happened, live feed on the monitor on the left side of my desk. I kept one monitor running during trading hours specifically so I never had to be told what the market was doing. I watched it drop from the open. Slow at first, the kind of movement that could be attributed to general market noise if you weren’t paying attention. Then faster. The directional decline that told you it wasn’t noise.It was a response.To what I can discern from this. The market had read the week’s news cycle: the DNA scandal, the suspension, the voided suspension, the qualifications complaint and had decided collectively, that the Beaumont Group’s CEO had a judgment problem.Four points lost already in one day.I moved away from the live feed for my own mental cautiousness.One thing that I know with utmost certainty is that: this was planned, either precisely or not.The public narrative this c

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

Arthur’s POVThey had started coming in by one-thirty, Only two of them sent an excuse message in the morning, Ronald and Jason.Ronald said he had a prior engagement ceremony that couldn’t wait, while Jason said he was down with fever and had to visit the hospital. Of course, I knew both excuses were fabricated. I stood near the fireplace as they all gathered, each seated comfortably in the sitting room sofa. Margaret had arranged the seating in a broad semicircle facing the front of the room, enough for everyone, nothing about the arrangement suggested hierarchy beyond the single chair I would be using, which was positioned slightly forward of the rest.I had chosen the estate's main sitting room deliberately. Clifford sat in the third chair from the left.He was dressed in a black tuxedo which I know of course would cost a fortune, his countenance underneath it was stern and cold, like he always was. “Thank you all for honoring my invitation,” I started. “This meeting will be b

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

Xavier’s POVThe board meeting was set impromptu. I wanted them to arrive uncertain.I called the legal counsel to make sure the Beaumont Group’s board charter is available on my desk in the next thirty minutes. They had been careful enough with their choice of word that it could be framed as a reasonable request. Careful enough that if I refused, they could position my refusal as the problem rather than the letter itself.They were all seated when I walked in.Nine faces were seated around the conference table. Robert Fedson at the far end, his countenance composed like that of a man who had decided his position was defensible and was prepared to defend it. David Kingsley sat beside him, calm in the way that people were calm when they had been told what was coming and had time to properly arrange themselves. The others ranged from neutral to visibly uncomfortable.I sat at the head of the table.“The motive of the letter sent will not be honored,” I began without any further ado.

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

Xavier’s POVI couldn’t sleep a wink. The problem here was the name plate.I had earned that plate. Seven years of diligence hardwork. I had never once seen anyone question the position I was sitting in until now.This week was the first time.I came back home, tired. I couldn’t eat before slumping into sleep. It was my alarm that woke me up by five the next morning.The first thing that crossed my mind was my grandfather’s public statement. It had been registered in my subconscious. I couldn’t bring myself to do anything at all, I just lay in my bed staring at the ceiling.At around seven, I managed to stand up, brush my teeth and make a cup of hot chocolate. My eyes didn’t leave my phone for a second, all I looked forward to was the notification ping.Then, I heard it. I rushed toward it.I, Arthur Beaumont, patriarch of the Beaumont family and founder of Beaumont Group, wish to make the following formal announcement.My great-grandson, Bryan James Ashford, son of my grandson Xavier

CHAPTER SEVENTY

Ivanna’s POVA screenshot of Arthur’s statement with a voice note attached to it was sitting on my phone. I refuse to read or listen to it. I refuse to believe everything I see on social media. How could tables turn this much and so soon?Then I put my phone face down on the bed and sat there.The room was quieter than a cemetery. I had been awake since early hours of the morning, staring into nothing in particular. Sleep had suddenly become a negotiation I had been losing nightly. My thoughts were all crazy and messed up. This is not my reality. It will never be. I picked up my phone and summoned the courage I never had from wherever and read the statement I refused to read. Arthur defended and now accepted both Aria Ashford and her son into the family. Like the Beaumont family owes her a debt that cannot be paid no matter how they tried.I dropped the phone before it could slip from my hand.One thing about Arthur Beaumont was that he understood exactly what words could do when y

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