The Protector

“I’m a bit offended, Zoey.” Harry smiled ruefully, “How could you forget about your own family?”
“Grandpa, I...”
“You should have come to me instead. The Lopez Group could work out something for you. You know it’s well within our means
to take on that Ecological Park project of yours.”
“I could even provide the startup capital for your project!” said Harry seriously.
“I bet there’s going to be some conditions attached to it?” Levi drove straight to the point. “Or you wouldn’t be so kind as to
provide the funding.”
He had seen through the ulterior motive for Harry to fund the project.
“Good, I like to deal with smart people.” Harry grinned, “It’d save me a lot of my time.”
His words prompted Samuel Robertson, who was sitting next to Harry, to pass over the contract to Zoey.
“Take a look at this, Zoey.”
Zoey immediately studied the contract when they passed it to her.
The content was straightforward.
The contract stated that Lopez Group would get up to ninety percent of the profits for the Ecological Park project for providing the
funds to Imperial Meadows Limited.
It sent Aaron into a fit of rage after he read the contract.
The Lopez family are simply too cruel to ask for such a huge chunk of the profits.
Aaron was utterly pissed off. He felt that Harry had never regarded him as his own son, but just another prey he was targeting.
“Don’t be mad, Aaron and Zoey. Think about it, in three days’ time, the project would be automatically annulled if you can’t come
up with the funding.” Harry’s grin was sly and pernicious, as if he was trying to lure the bait to the hook, “You would end up
without a cent once the project was annulled. But if you accept our funding, you’d still get a ten percent cut out of the profits. That
would translate to quite a considerable sum of a hundred million. It’s up to you to decide...”

“Unless you’re confident to pull in the funds that you need before the stated deadline.”
Given the tight deadline of just three days, Harry was pretty sure it was nigh impossible for Zoey to secure the funds she needed
for the project. This would only leave her with no other options but to agree to his terms.
It would make the Lopez family the biggest winner with a whopping ninety percent of the profits. Even Mr. Jennings could do
nothing about it.
“That’s true, Aaron.” Henry chipped in, “We should work together since we’re family. Let’s share the profits instead of having the
cake all to yourself.”
“There’s no hurry to sign this. I’ll leave you guys alone to discuss it among yourselves.”
Harry and his company left Levi, Zoey and her parents to talk things out.
“Why don’t we just agree to their terms, Zoey?” Aaron and Caitlyn persuaded, “At least there’s still something left on the plate for
us. You should know better that your chances of getting the funds are almost as good as zero!”
Their words almost swayed Zoey to put her name down on the contract. But she held back and sought Levi’s opinion.
“Don’t sign it!” Levi was adamant.
“Trust me, Zoey! I’m sure that I can secure the funding you need before the deadline expires!”
A fuming Aaron intervened before Zoey could fumble out a reply, “Don’t give me that crap again! Do we hold you responsible if
we lose that hundred million? I firmly believe we should sign it.”
Zoey was in a dilemma as she eyed Levi skeptically. She did not have complete faith in Levi’s words.
“Alright, how about this?” Levi shrugged, “Since we have three days left to go, why don’t we hang on till the last day to see if we
could pull in some investments?” he suggested, “It’s still not too late to sign the contract by then.”
“Sounds like a plan!”
“I could work with that!”
Everybody gave their nods of approval.

The same goes for Harry and his men. They agreed to the suggestion readily.
They were certain that Zoey would never secure the investments that she badly needed in just three days’ time.
...
For the next three days, Zoey worked tirelessly from day to night to meet with potential investors for the project.
Yet, there was nothing to show for all her efforts.
Those who were interested demanded a ridiculous amount of return for their investments.
It would make more sense to work with Harry, since his offer was more or less the same than the rest.
Three days passed by without a trace. The deadline was set on tomorrow before ten o’clock to kick start the project, once over
the given time, the project would be automatically annulled.
“Come on, we’ve got to sign the contract with Harry now.” Aaron stood up and said.
“What’s the hurry? Why don’t we just wait a little longer?” Levi tried to dissuade them from signing, “We have all the time till next
morning eight o’clock to sign it.”
“Let’s wait until tomorrow morning, Zoey. Don’t sign the contract today.” Levi instructed.
“I need to step out for a while.” Levi left the house after he urged Zoey to stay patient for one more night.