Chapter 465 465

After the tension died down, Vernon signed the contract to advertise Vincent's new makeup product. He needed to make it go viral, so he'd have to hire many beauty gurus on Youtube for the first step.

Vernon called Diamond and told her to make copies of the new contract. Diamond bowed respectfully before leaving the CEO's office. She felt uncomfortable because she knew that she was being stared at by Vincent.

"Your secretary is very beautiful for a black woman. Are you sure you don't want to sell her to me?" Vincent asked.

Vernon's lips twitched out of annoyance. No matter how many times he talked with his Big bro, he could never fathom how much of a racist asshole he was.

Was it because his Big brother never stayed far from the Gray family?

It made him want to lecture his Big bro a bit.

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"Diamond was a highly paid model before she worked with me, and she is beautiful no matter her race. You don't get to be ugly or beautiful just because you're of a certain race, Big bro," Vernon lectured. "And no, she is not for sale or anything. She is a free woman of her own, and she has decided to work with me as my secretary, you don't get to buy people, this is not 1800s."

Vincent scoffed, "Fine, I guess living in Europe for ten years changed you. Now you think like those woke people on the internet. You can buy people, Vernon. Don't you see how our late father bought all those women and fucked the virgins out of them?"

…

Vernon decided to give up and allowed his Big bro to think whatever. It wasn't his problem that he had that kind of idea. In fact, he might slip off and say something incredibly racist in public as a part of his downfall, though Vernon doubted it, knowing how great his PR team was.

Diamond returned with copies of the newly-signed contract. Diamond put the original document inside the file and handed it to Maria.

"Alright—" Vincent got up and glanced at Maria. "We will leave now, make sure to sign the other contract. I expect good work from you, Little bro."

"Sure, I will, don't worry," Vernon nodded. Though he hated his Big brother, he still had to stay professional at work. Vincent gave him work to do, and he had to do it well.

He also had to build trust between them. He wanted Vincent to keep his guard off, allowing Vernon to keep building his empire without interruption.

'The only problem is that dying witch,' Vernon's eyes followed Secretary Maria's back as she followed Vincent out of Vernon's office. 'She's far more dangerous than my Big bro right now.'

Right after Vincent and Maria left the CEO's office, Diamond let out a relieved sigh, "That racist asshole is something else, seriously," Diamond commented. "I want to rip his mouth for speaking like he's in the 1800s."

"We will have to wait for that," Vernon muttered. He intertwined his fingers and rubbed his thumbs together. "That old bitch Maria, she is far more dangerous than my Big brother right now. She has no personal connection with me, unlike Vincent, so she can see stuff through a neutral lens."

"Who is she, really?" Diamond asked. "I don't understand why she's so fiercely loyal to Vincent."

"She's not fiercely loyal to Vincent, she's loyal to the Gray family— mostly to my late father, Vaughn."

"Was she a mistress or something?"

"No, based on some rumors that I got back then, My father and Maria are professional partners. But what made Maria become so loyal to him and to the Gray family was her family," Vernon replied. He tried to recall some of the rumors. "Well, I don't really have full information about her past, since to most people, Maria is just a normal secretary. She's not even beautiful. But my late father once said that Maria is loyal to him because he helped her to get a proper life. He was her benefactor."

"You can say that Maria is married to her job, she even got a divorce back then because she and her husband barely spend any time together."

"I see…" Diamond could relate a bit with Maria because she also held her job in high regard as the secretary here. But she couldn't fathom how blind Maria was to her loyalty. Maria obviously couldn't differentiate what was right or wrong because if Vernon had the same mindset as Vincent, Diamond might as well get the fuck out— after kidnapping Chloe to go with her, of course.

"Should we take care of her, Sir?" Diamond asked. "I mean, if she's a huge obstacle for your plan, it's fair to subdue her. She's an old woman as well, it won't be hard."

"I can't. I bet Vincent and Maria knew that they have many enemies, so they must've put on some preemptive measure somehow," Vernon said. "Unfortunately, we— the Gray family, have this kind of fear that someone out there will get us. I have that feeling, and I bet my Big bro have that too despite his careless and aloof persona."

"He may be able to replace a woman like Priscilla, because in the end, Priscilla and the other secretaries before her were just a condom he fucked daily."

"But someone like Maria is invaluable. She's so good at doing her job and has been working with our family for decades, she knows many secrets, and can easily take over and operate the whole company if she wants to. Vincent knows this, so he will do something to keep her safe."

"Even if he keeps threatening to fire her, both Vincent and Maria know that they are tied to each other to keep the whole Gray business running."

Diamond sighed after listening to Vernon's long explanation. The more she heard it, the more she found the situation difficult.

So, in the end, they had to focus on another thing first.

Diamond pointed at the document on the table, "So, what will you do with that one, Sir?"

Vernon gave his secretary a quick look, and a simple grin perked up, "I have an idea."