Chapter 481 - Huge Blow
At the Parkers…
Ray"s actions were swift, and he soon gathered all the direct descendants of the family in Damon"s villa. There were more than ten of them, and they were all standing together, waiting for Damon"s instructions.
But when Damon officially gave the orders, many of them were astounded.
Damon said, "I declare that the Parkers and the Owens are mortal enemies from now on! Everyone, immediately come up with a plan to deal with the Owens!"
After a brief moment of astonishment, everyone was puzzled.
"Damon, we"ve always been close to the Owens, and we have several cooperation projects with them. There has always been mutual support between us and them, so why are we suddenly going against them?"
"Yeah, Grandpa, what exactly is going on?"
"Could the Owens have done something to harm us behind our backs? But we don"t seem to have suffered any losses lately! Is there a misunderstanding or something?"
"Dad, could this matter have something to do with Lucas Gray, who just came over? Did he sow discord between us and the Owens? Why are we suddenly going against them?"
"Even if we want to make an enemy of the Owens, it seems… too hasty to implement this plan all of a sudden.. We should at least spend some time preparing…"
The Parkers began discussing incessantly and voicing their opinions, but most of them seemed puzzled. There were also some who absolutely resented Lucas and thus thought right away that Lucas must have fooled Damon.
Smack!
Damon"s face was solemn as he slammed his hand against the table with all his might. He hollered furiously, "All of you, shut up!"
When he lost his temper, everyone immediately fell silent, not daring to make a single sound.
"I called you all here to inform you of my decision, not to discuss it with you! I have already made up my mind to go against the Owens, and I won"t change it! All you have to do now is to follow my instructions and come up with an effective and feasible plan to strike them immediately!
"When the Owens are destroyed, you will naturally find out why I want to deal with them!"
With a stern and domineering att.i.tude, Damon adamantly made his decision.
He glanced at his family members and said indifferently, "I know that some of you have dealings with the Owens, but if anyone dares to spread a single word about this matter, I will immediately expel them from the family! Have you all understood?"
"Yes!" Everyone chorused in unison.
Although they were all surprised and in disapproval of Damon"s decision, Damon was the head of the family and held the highest authority after all. No one dared to oppose his decision.
Soon, the crowd began to plan to strike the Owens and decide which aspects to target first.
After the people came up with a preliminary plan of attack, Damon went to his study alone, took a deep breath, and made a call to Flynn.
"I"ve already made up my mind, and the Parkers are ready too. We can start taking action against the Owens at any time!"
Flynn immediately relayed Damon"s words to Lucas. Although Damon didn"t state so explicitly, he had indeed already chosen to pledge allegiance to Lucas.
Lucas smiled faintly. "You will cooperate with the Parkers and carry out the plan together with them!"
——
Inside the garden of the Owens residence in LA…
Joseph Owen, the helmsman of the family, was standing in a corner of the garden and focusing all his attention on tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the branches and leaves of some potted chrysanthemums carefully with a pair of silver scissors.
In high spirits, he hummed an unknown tune while tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the branches.
At this moment, the Owens" butler dashed in. As soon as he saw Joseph in the corner of the garden, he exclaimed with a look of panic, "Mr. Owen, bad news. Something terrible has happened!"
Joseph was so shocked that he accidentally snipped a precious chrysanthemum bud to pieces with the scissors in his hand.
Heartbroken, he picked up the half flower bud and roared in exasperation, "Why are you being so fl.u.s.tered? You"ve ruined a good pot of precious flowers!"
The butler touched the cold sweat on his forehead and didn"t have time to apologize at all. He said, "Mr. Owen, something terrible has really happened! I received a report just now that many of our mainstays and pillar businesses have been notified of issues with our products, so we have to cease operations at the factories for inspections. If it"s serious, the factories will be shut down immediately, and legal action will be taken against us!
"The bank also called to say that there are issues with our a.s.set evaluation and that they"re going to withdraw all our loans. We are also given a time limit of one week to pay off all our existing loans from the bank!
"There are also several companies that have made major financial mistakes. We are now being suspected of serious tax evasion, and people from the IRS will be coming over to investigate!
"And…"
The butler revealed a series of shocking news.
Every single one of these pieces of news was enough to make the Owens overwrought, what more so many serious issues at once. It was like a nuclear weapon-level disaster to them!
The silver scissors in Joseph"s hand had long since fallen to the ground.
At this moment, he could no longer care about tr.i.m.m.i.n.g his potted flowers and plants. His expression changed drastically, and he grabbed the butler by his collar. "Why is this happening? Why did these problems suddenly break out at once? Or is someone deliberately trying to harm us?"
The butler was being strangled so hard that he could hardly breathe. His face deathly pale, he exclaimed, "I-I don"t know either, Mr. Owen! All these pieces of news have just been urgently relayed to us, and we"re waiting for you to make a decision! If any of these issues are mishandled, the Owens will be doomed!"
The butler had worked for the Owens for decades. In the past, he used to work as Joseph"s secretary, so he had a clear idea of how detrimental the impact of all this bad news would be on the Owens. The slightest mistake would result in extremely serious consequences to the family!
"Summon everyone immediately and get them to come over. I want to know the details of everything!"
The matter happened so urgently that Joseph was completely caught off guard. Regardless of how capable he was, he would first have to get a clear idea of what exactly had happened and who he had offended so that he would be able to resolve these disasters.
While the Owens were in chaos, Damon, who was in the Parker villa several kilometers away, had also learned of the disastrous issues that the Owens were facing through various channels.
When Damon heard his subordinate"s report, his heart started beating rapidly.
Each of the crucial issues was enough to deal a ma.s.sive blow to the Owens, and the sudden onslaught of so many left the Owens with no room to breathe at all. They were simply forced into desperation.
None of these things were part of the Parkers" plan but were actually done by Lucas and Flynn.
Compared to their menacing means, the Parkers" plan, which they had spent an hour on devising, was completely ineffective!
Even if it was slightly effective, the time it would require to take effect was exceptionally long. There was no way they would be able to render the Owens powerless within such a short period of time.
Only then did Damon finally believe that Lucas was really powerful enough to destroy the Owens!
What would the Parkers, who were on par with the Owens, do if they faced such a brutal strike from Lucas?
At this moment, Damon finally felt a sense of fear as he thought about it in hindsight.
If he had chosen to go against Lucas an hour ago, the Parkers would probably be the ones to suffer from these terrifying blows now.
Fortunately, he had chosen to stand on Lucas"s side instead of making an enemy of him!
Damon wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, feeling extremely thankful for the decision he had made.