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Vincent took a deep breath as he exited the elevator and entered his office. 

The secretary's seat was empty, which was weird for Vincent. Usually, Maria would sit there, working on something or greeting him in the morning. 

She was truly a hard worker, loyal, and dedicated. Maria never skipped work, even when she was really ill. 

She got hospitalized for her old body once or twice, but after she recovered, she would return to work. She was a remnant that his father left as well. 

Vaughn told him before that Maria was their dog. She was obedient, loyal, defensive, and suspicious of people around her. She was the perfect secretary that had been helping Vincent for so long.

So Vincent was visibly distraught when Maria was absent without any notification like this.

"What if something happened to her?" Vincent wondered. "Last time I heard from her, she was trying to find and catch Chloe. What if Chloe's benefactor is actually that powerful? Maybe that man sniffed through Maria's plan and had her killed before she could do anything.

Vincent shuddered as he began to theorize the identity of Chloe's benefactor. He knew that man was really powerful because no poor or weak man would be able to forge Mackie's document from the previous school, so she would enroll in another school without notice. 

He also knew that the man must've been well connected because he was able to hide Chloe in a very private place that Vincent couldn't reach.

Lastly, he also knew that man must've treated Chloe quite well because she became fatter, and her skin was glowing in the video where she fought with Chelsea in public. 

Vincent's lips thinned as he was trying to hold his rage, "That man is an idiot. How could he allow Chloe to be happy like that? Does he not know that a woman like Chloe deserved to live in misery, or else she would leave him once she got bored?"

Vincent still vividly remembered how Chloe was so talkative and cheery, talking with so many men whenever they had a party. Even on their wedding day, Chloe was the source of attention for almost all the men in the venue, married or single.

"Tsk, I don't know how that bitch is able to hook this powerful man. I thought I suppress her enough, but she has always been a slut in her life, that's why she can seduce any man she wants."

Vincent was convinced that a powerful man must've done something to Maria. He hoped that Maria was still in hiding rather than dead, but he had to be prepared for the worst. 

Thus, he called the head of the HR department and told them to interview some candidates for a female secretary. 

He didn't have that many requirements, but he told them one thing, "She has to be beautiful. No matter how smart she is, if she's not a beauty with a nice body, then reject her."

"Understood, Sir. But it will take at least a month for us to get a replacement, because Christmas and New Year are near," the head of the HR department said. 

"Then assign someone to be a secretary immediately."

"But Sir, how about Mrs. Maria Orien? I don't think she'll be happy if you find another assistant."

"She's not around," Vincent replied curtly, not wanting to talk about Maria because he had a bad feeling about her fate. "Just do what I say, I need a secretary to replace her. Now."

"Yes, Sir. I will assign someone as temporary secretary until we hire a new one."

Beep.

"Damn it, why is everything not going my way? What went wrong with all of my plans? Vincent got frustrated knowing that Chloe must be enjoying her day with that bastard while he was suffering right now. "Is this what you want, Chloe? Do you want to see me suffering? You ungrateful bitch!" 

**

Vincent went to the meeting room an hour later. He had an emergency meeting with five major shareholders of the Gray company. 

Two of them were part of the Gray family's branch family, while the rest were fellow billionaires with more than seven percent of the company's share.

In total, they had at least forty-five percent of the share, while Vincent had the rest, so he was technically still the De Facto owner of this company. 

But that didn't mean he could ignore these people. 

Forty-five percent was huge, and they had the strength to influence the company's internal decisions.

Usually, they were very tame. They would obey whatever Vincent had in mind for the company because the Gray company was really powerful and always generated massive profits.

Now that Vincent's scandal had smeared his clean public image, the company's stock dropped drastically, and these hungry wolves were ready to eat him for his failure. 

Vincent ignored their eyes as he walked to his chair in the meeting room. He sat and put his hands on the desk as he opened the meeting. 

"Since everyone is already here, then we should start with this meeting," Vincent said. "I know that everyone is worried about the news, but everything is under control, and I will fix it."

"And how would you do that, Mr. Gray?" One of the shareholders asked. "We saw the news this morning. You've been implicated with murder. That's not something you could fix easily." 

"And don't forget about the scandal of that crazy joker lady that was trending in social media a week ago."

"And the failed launch for our cosmetics, because everyone on the internet laughed at you for it. This series of failures is not something you can fix easily, Sir." 

Vincent was annoyed by these people who had zero faith in him. 

Of course, he knew it wasn't an easy mistake. Without Maria, he had nobody to help him micromanage this stuff.

But it was a way to calm these wolves down

"I will take measures by deleting all kinds of posts in social media about me, and about the murder case, I will make a statement in public. I will do a press conference to clear my name, and things will go back to normal," Vincent said. 

Well, he said that things would go back to normal, but he doubted he'd ever recover from this. 

He knew things were spiraling out of control because Chloe wasn't here. Vincent wasn't in control of himself without Chloe around because she needed to take the blame. 

The major shareholders were looking at each other, seemingly discussing with their eyes. They really thought they could force Vincent Gray to step down from his position as CEO.

But seeing how calm he was at handling this, they realized it wouldn't be easy. 

Thus, they finally drew a decision after a long silence.

"We will give you a chance, Mr. Gray. You should make a press conference to address the rumor about your involvement with the murder. That is the only way to clear your name," one of the shareholders said. "But if we find that you are lacking, then please forgive us, but we will have to force you to step down from the CEO's position and let someone else handle the work."

"Yeah, we don't want to lose even more money, Mr. Gray. Your scandal is really dangerous. Surely, you don't want your company to be destroyed because of this stupid rumor, right?"

Vincent clenched his jaw silently. He was so angry at these people who dared to dictate whether he should step down or not. 

He felt humiliated because the ever-powerful Vincent Gray shouldn't be dictated to by someone else other than himself. 

But he had a bit of clarity after destroying everything in his master bedroom, including smashing the frame of his wedding picture with Chloe. 

He ought to rip the picture, but he hesitated and then decided to keep the picture, though the frame was already broken. 

Thus, Vincent nodded calmly and assured, "This press conference will clear everything, and our stock will go up again. Don't worry about it."

"We hope so, Mr. Gray. But I'm wondering whether this is all just a slander, or if you're actually involved with that crime. No offense, Mr. Gray, we just want to make sure that things will be okay for our business."

Vincent scoffed, "Do you really think that I will settle with that crazy woman? She's indeed my sister-in-law. She has always been obsessed with me and has always been insane. That's why she used me as her reason to do something as nefarious as killing her own family."

"Do you really think that I'm as crazy as her? Why would I kill my own in-laws when I'm still happily married to my wife?" Vincent said confidently. 

But the others in the room weren't convinced, "But, Mr. Gray, the news said that your wife left you."

Vincent's grin vanished instantly. He looked at the shareholders with eyes that could kill, then replied, "My wife is in my house. She's a shy woman, that's why she never shows up in public."