《Keeping The Balance》Chapter Three - The CEO Reborn Step Brother - Task World One (3)
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After the long and hard drive with Terrance, they finally got to his house. Hol quickly left after telling Terrance that he had to deal with stuff at his flower shop. When Hol arrived at the surprisingly small and comfy looking flower shop Hol went to the office that was in the back of the shop.
Sitting down at the desk in the office Hol took out his phone to get Starie out. “My handsome Host, what can this system do for you?” Starie was in a maid outfit on the phone giving off a mature air which caused Hol to raise an eyebrow in confusion at this.
“I want to know how Caleb manages to get control of the company. He couldn’t have done it by himself. I want to know the people who are supporting him.” Hol thought about how Terrance despite having a quirky personality was good at his job. So to be able to take the company away from him then Caleb must have gotten outside help.
On the phone a picture of a woman with fair skin and sharp looking brown eyes with long straight brown hair. She gave me a bad feeling especially with that unnaturally white smile of her. ‘Okay, it is impossible to have perfectly white teeth unless you pay for it or just really care about your teeth.’
“This is Racheal Gaddis the daughter of a rich businessman. She is technically a child from a mistress but that is a fact known only to her father and her. She is a spoiled child who if they can’t get what they want then no one can have it. She helped out Caleb when Terrance rejected dating her. She helped Caleb by hiring a hacker to steal many important pieces of information from the company and spreading false rumors that Terrance forced himself on her. She was also the one who helped with pushing along Terrance's death.” A chibi form of Racheal as a devil poking at a running Terrance while laughing appeared on the phone causing Hol to frown at the system's weird way of showing stuff to him.
“So what can I do to stop them from messing with Terrance and destroying the whole world? I am still pretty lost here.” A message appeared on his phone from Starie that had a title with “Task” on it. Clicking on it Hol saw that the task wanted him to expose Caleb ill intention to Terrance and his family.
Seeing that Hol went through his memories to see if the relationship between Caleb and his family is good. From what Karson could remember Caleb was always closed off to his family and never bothered to interact with them unless he needed something from them. Even though he had a cold attitude towards them his family still cared for him. ‘So Caleb is someone who wants more and more from everyone because he feels like he deserves it. His life is pretty good and the reason he died the first time was due to his greed, not the protagonist.’
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Hol finally understood what he needed to do and he was about to check out the flowers that came to the store when he got a message on his phone. When he went to check who texted him Hol was surprised that it was Caleb.
‘Can we meet up? I am at a cafe near your flower shop’ Hol looked at the message for a while and looked to see if Karson and Caleb were even close to each other. He felt his eyebrow twitch when he realized that Caleb knew that Karson liked his brother.
Hol decided to play it safe and reply yes to Caleb then call for Starie to ask them something. “Hey, did Caleb text Karson originally in the plot? I need to be ready for what he is trying to do to me.”
“Host so smart! Caleb asked to meet up with the original Karson in the plot before asking him to help him in taking over the company but Karson rejected that which caused him to get on Caleb shit list. What does the Host plan to do?” Hol thought for a while before coming up with a plan.
“How about we help out Caleb. I can help him out so well that he will be begging me to stop helping him. That is how helpful I am going to be. Hey, you can record people right? I want you to record the conversation I and Caleb are going to have then sent it to Terrance.” After Starie gave him two thumbs up with a smile they disappeared from his phone. Hol got up from the desk and called in one of the people who were currently working at the moment to tell them to handle the new batch of flowers for him.
Then Hol left the shop to meet up with Caleb in the cafe. He was pretty calm and wasn’t worried about getting flustered by Caleb's appearance since he was pretty average in his eyes compared to Terrance. From the memories of Caleb, he was tall with fair skin but wasn’t as muscular as Terrance. He had gray eyes with a beauty mark under his left eye with short curly red hair. He usually wore expensive fashionable clothing that made him stand out but he just gave off an average feel about him.
When Hol made it to the cafe he spotted Caleb quickly and made his way over to his table. He just nodded at Caleb who smiled at him as he sat down across from him. Caleb pushed a coffee towards him which he just looked at and didn’t bother picking up. He could see a flash of anger appear in Caleb's eyes but it quickly disappeared. Hol wasn’t feeling any better since emotions from the original host were getting hard to hold back. He could feel bitter anger and hatred toward Caleb which he had to force down.
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“I’m so happy that you agreed to meet with me, Karson! How have you bee-.” Hol just held up a hand towards Caleb making him stop speaking and gave him a blank expression. ‘I don’t want to deal with his kiss ass at the moment so let's get to the good part.’
“You wanted to ask me for something, didn’t you? I know it isn’t for just talking about life. We aren’t that close at all for that. So tell me what you want.” The smile on his face disappeared as he stared at me with a hard look in his eyes.
“Okay let's get straight to the point, Karson. I want us to work together to help me take over the company Terrance runs. I feel like I could handle the company way better than him. You know his personality and how he just wanders off whenever he feels like. That isn’t a good personality for a CEO and you know that don’t you?” Hol looked at Caleb with an indifferent look in his eyes as he listened to him talk nonsense to him.
“You are right about that. His personality isn’t good at all for a CEO. He doesn’t seem to be the right choice at all.” Hol nodded his head at Caleb who smiled at him getting an excited look in his eyes.
“Yeah! That's why I shou-!” Hol raised a finger to his lip stopping Caleb from speaking again causing him to get an irritated look in his eyes. “What is so good about you? Terrance does have a personality that is quirky but he does take his work seriously. The company is doing well under the control of Terrance. I know him and he won’t just stop doing his work if he doesn’t like it. He does wander off but it is only when he is sure the company can run itself. He is a good CEO so I would appreciate it if you would stop bad-mouthing my best friend. If that is all I have to go back to work.” Hol got up from his seat and turned to leave but was quickly grabbed by Caleb who was glaring at him.
“You are just saying that because you like him! You are so lovesick for my brother that you would take his side no matter what. I thought you would agree to help me out since you know that Terrance will have to get married if he continues to be the CEO of the company. The company has been run by only family members for a long time so why would he give up having an heir to be with you.” Hol just slowly took Caleb's hand off of him and took a step away from him while giving Caleb a cold look.
“I do like him and I know we can’t be together but it doesn’t matter to me since if Terrance is happy then I am happy even if I can’t be with him. I love him and that enough for me. Now don’t do anything that will cause trouble for him or else you will suffer the consequences. Now goodbye Caleb and have a wonderful day.” Looking at the fuming Caleb one last time Hol walked out of the cafe ignoring the people who were whispering about what just happened between him and Caleb.
Hol took out his phone while he was walking and Starie appeared on the screen with stars in their eyes. “Wooow! The host was so cool! The protagonist will be so impressed by your loyalty. I sent the recording to him right away. Word for word.” Hol stopped walking his eyes growing wide as he heard this.
“U-Um. . . You didn’t leave in the confession of love I did for Terrance, did you? You must be joking right? Please tell me you are joking.” Starie just teehee before disappearing again leaving Hol screaming in his head as he walked back to his shop hoping that it was a dream.
As Hol was having an internal meltdown at the moment Terrance was listening to the recording sent by him in the office of his company with an unreadable expression on his face. Terrance had to replay the recording many times before he just replayed the part where Karson was confessing he liked Terrance.
Terrance's eyes were gentle as he heard Karson confess that he loved him. But his eyes grew hard as he thought about his brother. ‘He wants to take over the company, does he? He can try but I won’t make it easy for him at all.’
Terrance then went to Karson's contact and messaged him saying he wanted to meet with him later. He wonders how Karson will act around him later on. When he thought about that he couldn’t help but smile to himself happily.
His secretary looked at him with a surprised expression which caused him to quickly get rid of the smile on his face. He has to keep his emotion under control right now. ‘I can’t want to see Karson later.’ Thinking about the serious male Terrance felt that his heart was getting warmer.
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