"The Gardner family approached us directly," Henley exined. "They not only offered to cover our penalty for breaking the contract, but they also promised us the mining rights to one of their mineral veins for five years."


    Five years of mining rights to a mineral vein! Few families could resist such an offer. The only reason most avoided associating with the Gardners was because the benefits weren''tpelling enough. Once the stakes were high enough, they would walk through fire, or even stab each other in the back.


    Of course, the Gardners weren''t fools; they didn''t usually offer such extravagant terms just to secure a partnership. But this time was different. They were willing to offer five years of mining rights aspensation for long-term partners like the Holloway family to backstab The Burton Group. Otherwise, a family like the Holloways, with years of partnership with The Burton Group, would never abandon them for a minor gain. This was tantamount to betrayal. However, the offer from the Gardner family was simply too tempting.


    The Holloway family had held an internal meeting and, remarkably, the vote was unanimous. This showed just how irresistible the Gardner family''s conditions were.


    Sellers listened in silence. After a long pause, he said, "Henley, thank you for telling me this."


    After he hung up, Sherman couldn''t help but ask, "Uncle, what''s going on?"


    Sellers exined the situation to him. Upon hearing it, Sherman eximed angrily, "The Gardner family is really willing to bleed themselves dry just to steal our contracts!"


    "To us, it might seem like a huge expense," Sellers said, his face impassive. "But to the Gardner family, it''s probably just another business deal."


    Sherman''s breath caught in his throat. After a moment, he said, "Joshua is incredibly patient. He was nearly framed as a traitorst time, and he didn''t even y this trump card!"


    "You y a trump card at the most critical moment," Sellers said coldly. "Last time, he used himself as bait. After he seeded, there was no need to use this card. If they had failed, he might have yed it sooner."


    "Joshua was always plotting in the shadows before. What happened this time? Whye out andpete so openly? Isn''t he afraid of his identity being exposed?" Sherman asked.


    "I''m not Leonard, who has an


    obvious weakness like Aurora,"


    Sellers said: "I knew he woulde


    after me, so I''ve been extra cautious, giving him no opportunity. Singe covert methods failed, he had to resort to overt ones. If I''m not mistaken, he''s been quietly


    gathering leverage on me ever since the incident with Leonard."


    Setting up a family head like himself


    was no simple task. Joshua surely had multiple ns, not just one. Finding a weakness and taking care off


    quietly without much cost


    would have been ideal. When that failed, a direct assault was the only option left.


    Sellers went on, "Taking contracts and getting my partners to walk away sounds simple. But pulling it off this smoothly? Only the Gardner family could do that. Even when I was going after Ste''s deals, I couldn''t keep it up for long."


    After all, that required a massive infusion of real money.


    Sellers'' main goal in targeting Ste''s contracts hadn''t been to cause her financial loss, but to undermine her position within The Williams Group. He wanted to make the shareholders doubt her, forcing rto deal with Joshua or step down.


    her