It was truly unexpected. This was something very few dared to display openly in 2107, as the kind of social backlash one would face was severe beyond measure.
Yet, Darius showed this openly with no such fear. Even more astoundingly, he had never been punished for it socially or legally after all these years, even able to start a promising start-up despite the fact.
Like Anne, most women who encountered his behavior were stunned by this fact. They had thought this kind of disgusting practice had stopped in the first half of the 21st century after many political revolutions, yet it still thrived in this man.
How?
Anne made her question known in a very scathing manner. "It seems the rumors were true. The young man taking the business private sector by storm really is a woman-hater."
Darius smiled at this taunt and folded his arms slowly. "So? I never made any secret about it. I dislike women near me in any capacity without my explicit consent. You, unfortunately, qualify in this regard, as I made it clear I wouldn't deal with female representatives."
Darius then gestured to her lazily. "And yet, here you are. So either my secretary made an error when sending out that memo, or your reading capabilities are below standard."
Anne was further irritated by such rudeness. "What rubbish. This is business in the real world, not your little private school. When deals are being made, the importance remains in where the most benefits lie, not petty disagreements over gender. Grow up!"
Darius idly scratched his cheek. "I can't understand it. I'm sure I made it very clear that I would not deal with any female reps. I sent this to all three of your organizations that wanted to seed fund my company at the same time."
Darius pointed to his left, where the elderly man sat. "Look, the gentleman from the Rothschild Family came alone."
Darius then gestured to the right. "And the two fellows from Microsoft also came bearing my memo in mind."
Darius tilted his head as he gazed at the woman and her group opposite him.
"So what on earth made you think that you are better than them that you can ignore this very simple condition and still get what you want? How did your company even make it this far with such behavior?"
Darius was genuinely puzzled. He knew about industry giants like Microsoft and everyone knew the almighty Rothschild family, but this Feilsburg company was a newbie in the industry that had been relatively lowkey so far.
He had initially believed them to pretty sharp for having insight on the level of the Rothschild's and Microsoft, but their director was apparently a complete idiot. How did she succeed in business so far?
The man with the stubble from Microsoft coughed out some words with a laugh. "Daddy's money."
The man with the afro glared at his partner, while the old man from the Rothschild Family chuckled lightly. Darius looked like he had been hit by a eureka moment while Jason Bergham sighed.
This time, even Kevin lost his smile and his face darkened. His sister Anne was beyond livid at this point, and had to audibly breathe in and out a few times to calm herself.
Before she could say anything on that matter, Jason pushed up his glasses and finally engaged in the conversation. "Madame, if I may, allow me to shed some light on why Mr. Stone is so hostile towards women."
Anne was aware that Jason was a fresh graduate who had graduated from the same college as Darius and that this was an important reason why her brother had brought him alongside the sibling, so she nodded.
She would be lying if she said she wasn't at least curious to know why this fellow dared to think he had to right to hate a woman and treat her like this, especially one he had never even met before.
Darius' gazed at Jason calmly, but did not stop him. It was better to hear it from the mouth of another rather than from himself, so he merely poured himself another glass of the tea.
Jason started. "As you might already be aware, Mr. Stone comes from a very influential family that is known for dealing with oil and land titles. They own many plots of land in the city center of our hometown from almost three centuries ago."
"Naturally, at the time they bought it, our city had been but a dusty, undeveloped area, so the land had been bought cheap. After passing down the title for generations, it finally appreciated into what it is now, worth millions."
"The Stone Corp was well-known, even I often saw Mr. Dalvin Stone on TV often during my childhood, and there used to be calls for him to become the mayor as his power was deeply rooted into our city."
"That is just to give you some background information that is common where I come from. Now what comes next is the actual content."
"15 years ago, Mr. Dalvin was accused of adultery and date rape on a young 20-year old woman from his company. Luckily, he was able to settle matters out of court, but his wife - Noellie Stone - divorced him."
"She also took his eldest child, Felicity Stone who had been 9 at the time, yet left her lastborn, Darius Stone with his father. Of course, she also took half of all his properties and estates."
Jason put his glasses back on. "10 years ago, Mr. Dalvin had managed to salvage what he could and rebuild after rebranding, which was quite impressive given the political climate today."
"Unfortunately, his new enterprise quickly switched hands to that of his daughter, Felicity Stone, after she deceived him into signing it away by manipulating his remorse and affection for her."
"At this point, the young Darius Stone was 10 years old, and in quite a bad place. However, it was soon proven that he was quite clever, which lead to the events that occurred 5 years ago."
Jason pushed here to take a sip of water while the room remained deathly quiet. Seeing that he had everyone's full attention, and they were giving him strange looks, he smiled thinly and stopped wasting time.
"Five years ago, a scandal was released to the public. 15-year-old Darius Stone had somehow procured evidence, video, audio, and pictures unveiling how Noellie Stone had plotted everything leading to the fall of the Stone family."
