Chapter 401

Remus replied, “Their engagement is something that our families have agreed on long ago. If Nicholas’

attitude bothers you, you may rest assured. I’ll give him a lecture so that he won’t hurt Hayley.” When he heard Remus’ words, Maxwell pretended to think about it for a moment. Then, he feigned reluctant acceptance. After Maxwell left afterward, Remus immediately called Tobias with a scowl. “Give the orders for our company to sever all business dealings with Timothy Reinhart’s company at once.”

Tobias hesitated for a moment on the other end. Then, he asked, “Dad, isn’t that a bad thing to do?

And besides, Nicholas will probably be angry if he learns about this.” “If he’s angry about it, tell him to come to me!” Remus ordered before hanging up the phone right away. Tobias had no choice but to order his assistant to do as Remus had said. Since he was the company’s chairman, he could give orders without notifying Nicholas, the company’s president. That afternoon, Tobias’ assistant went to Timothy’s company. “President Reinhart, I’m here on behalf of our company to express our interest in buying out the patent for the tracking system from you. We’ll buy it at triple the amount of our previous investment, so I guarantee you that your company won’t be getting the short end of the stick.” He handed to Timothy the patent transfer agreement prepared by the company.

“As long as you sign the agreement, this check will be yours,” he said while producing a check with many zeros on it and putting it onto the table. However, Timothy wasn’t tempted by the offer. The tracking system was his and Henry’s brainchild. Naturally, they had to keep hold of the patent in order to make more money. As for their previous collaboration with Nicholas, it was firstly because they didn’t have enough starting capital and secondly because doing so would be a win-win situation for both sides. But now, he was being asked to give up the patent, which he would never do. He refused almost without hesitation, saying, “Sorry, but we’re not going to sell the patent.” With that, he had someone show the assistant out on the excuse that he still had work to attend to. After returning to his office, Timothy thought about what had just happened, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. He took out his phone and called Nicholas, asking, “Nicholas, isn’t our collaboration going well? Why did you have someone buy out the patent for the tracking system?”

Nicholas was dumbfounded by the question on the other end of the line. After a moment, he said with a frown, “I didn’t order anyone to buy out the patent for your system.” “But your father’s assistant just came to me, saying that you guys want to buy the patent,” Timothy replied before giving a brief account of the conversation just now. Nicholas’ good-looking face was extremely sullen when he finished listening to Timothy’s story. Obviously, this has to be Grandpa’s doing. “I got it. Don’t worry; the patent is still yours, and nothing will happen to our collaboration. I’ve got something else to do, so I gotta go,”

he said. With that, he hung up and stood up from his executive chair all of a sudden before storming out of his office in a huff. Edward was just about to report on his work, only to be startled when he bumped head-on into a fierce-looking Nicholas in the hallway. “President Sawyer…” he said gingerly, but Nicholas left with big strides, as if he hadn’t heard Edward. Then, Nicholas barged straight into the chairman’s office with a loud bang. With a frosty expression, he stood furiously in front of Tobias’ desk and questioned, “Why do you want to buy out the patent for Timothy’s company’s project?” Standing behind him was Tobias’ secretary, who looked at a loss for what to do. Tobias’ expression remained unchanged or rather, he had predicted long ago that Nicholas would come over to question him. After motioning his secretary to leave with a wave of his hand, he slowly replied, “This is your grandpa’s order.” “Why?” Nicholas’ voice turned even chillier. Tobias raised an eyebrow slightly while looking up at his tall son before him. “Do I have to tell you why? Your grandpa said that your ties with the Reinharts must be severed, even if it means that the project will be shelved.” Unsurprisingly, Nicholas’ expression looked as black as thunder upon hearing this. Seeing his response, Tobias stood up and came out from behind his desk. Standing before Nicholas, he patted him on the shoulder and persuaded in a grave tone, “Stop opposing your grandpa, okay? He’s too frail to bear it, and besides, no matter which of you wins, in the end, the Reinhart siblings will be the ones who lose and get hurt. You have to understand that a project isn’t as valuable as the Stone Family to him.”