Meeting the Mayor

This was the longest she had ever heard the CEO talk, and Liz found herself mesmerized by the even timbre in his tone.

Yet, the contents of what he said actually scared her quite a bit.

The Cayman Islands were notorious as the location where rich people around the world stashed the money they wanted to hide.

His father had actually multiple accounts and made transactions?

Wouldn't that mean that he had actually spent millions of dollars in order to set this off? How could it be called free, then?

It seemed that the CEO had a knack of picking up what she wanted to ask by just looking into her eyes, as he accurately managed to guess what was going through her mind again.

"It's free because that money can be taken out at any time. Now that it's going to be reported, the money will be extracted, landing those two in even more soup as they will have to explain where they put it."

So it was free, after all.

Just the idea that his father had set into motion such a plan years ago really did mean that the Bradshaws were, indeed, monsters.

Feeling impressed at such incredible foresight, Liz looked up to see that the CEO was still looking at her.

Clearly, he was waiting to see if she had any more questions.

Going through it all again, Liz realized one worrying thing.

What about the families of the two who would go to jail? Would their children have to grow up without a father, just like her?

From the last statement said by the CEO, it was clear that they really had committed the crime of money laundering but there was no proof of that as they had apparently done it carefully.

Still, if it weren't for her boss, they wouldn't be going to jail right now.

Should she even feel sorry for these two?

Such deep aspects of morality weren't something that Liz had ever had to think about.

At the moment, she simply felt overwhelmed.

Deciding to think more about the matter later, she put it aside in her mind after a struggle and took out the tablet to check their next appointment.

This made the CEO turn to the side again, seeing that she had no more questions to ask.

His expression was enigmatic, and there was no way anyone would be able to guess his thoughts based on it.

Even as Liz opened the app, she sneaked a peek at the CEO remembering the scenes she had just witnessed.

The confident poise with which he had said each thing and his respectful but arrogant attitude with which he had delivered the last statement stuck to her mind, making a single thought swirl inside it:

Damn, he was so cool!

...

An hour later, the limousine parked outside a white building which had the words "Office of the Mayor" in bold lettering.

The car had been paused and checked by security as per protocol, meaning that they were now inside a government establishment in the state of California.

Getting out, Liz finally experienced some of the California heat that she had heard so much about.

New York was generally cold all year round, so the warmth she felt now as she soaked in the sunlight felt really good.

Beside her, the CEO had also gotten off but paused while buttoning his suit to see Liz raise her head and close her eyes as an expression of pure happiness came on her face.

Almost like he was seeing something for the first time, his eyes shone with admiration and even, faintly, jealousy.

As Liz looked down after a second, she spotted the CEO hastily looking away and buttoning up his suit before walking towards the door.

Of course, as her eyes had been closed, she hadn't seen this unique expression that had come on his face.

Finding nothing amiss, she followed behind him while remembering what she had read in the app.

Happle wanted to establish a new store in California, but the location they had chosen needed the approval of the Mayor to be demolished. The architects had given the opinion that it was the best location for business, as it was the intersection of 4 very busy roads.

The Mayor had been delaying the approval for a month now, but he had finally called the CEO over for lunch to discuss exactly why he was doing so.

According to what Mr. Will had told her on the way, although Happle had power in the government, they did not wish to use it unless absolutely necessary as they did not want to draw undue attention towards themselves.

Hence, the goal was to resolve this issue in a different way.

Still thinking how cool it was to see someone dominate a meeting, Liz looked forward to this next one to see her boss in action again.