Chapter 20 — Love Awakens After Leaving

Family Meeting

The family meeting took place in the largest stateroom of the Doan family mansion, a place that was only used for the most important occasions in the family's history. High-ranking members of both families were present - Mr. Chi Kien sat in the chair, surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins of the Doan family, opposite Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem and Van Khanh and several key members of the Tong family. On the carved wooden table in front of Mr. Chi Kien, a calendar was lying open, the following Monday was circled in bold red - the official marriage registration date had been set in advance, and was also the day the share transfer clause installed in the appendix would automatically take legal effect, with no way back. Three days. The whole room, even though no one said it out loud, understood that this was no longer a regular meeting to announce the wedding date, but the last, perhaps the only, chance to stop a conspiracy before it became a fait accompli that no lawyer could undo.

The night before, Bach Vu stayed in his father's study for more than an hour, presenting to him everything he and Duc Long had collected during more than a month of silent investigation. And that same night, he placed the calendar circled in red on his father's desk, letting him manually calculate each remaining day. It was that conversation that made Mr. Chi Kien decide to completely change the content of the family meeting originally designated to announce the wedding date, turning it into an uncompromising questioning session with both families.

Ancient crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of the stateroom radiate warm golden light onto rows of exquisitely carved wooden tables and chairs, where many important decisions of the Doan family had been witnessed for many generations. On the wall, portraits of ancestors looked down on the room with majesty, as if quietly watching the proceedings of this landmark meeting. Tuyet Nhi stood in a corner of the room, near the door, not allowed to sit at the table because of her assistant position, but her eyes did not leave Bach Vu for a second, her heart tightened with nervousness. She knew better than anyone that the next three days were not only the deadline for a contract, but also the deadline for the future of the person she loves.

The atmosphere in the room was tense from the first minutes, when Mr. Chi Kien announced that the main purpose of the meeting was not only to announce the expected wedding date, but also to clarify some serious issues related to the transparency of the marriage contract, before any signatures were put down next Monday.

"Before we proceed to announce the wedding date," Mr. Chi Kien said, his stern voice filling the room, "I want my son to present some important findings he has recently gathered. I will give you thirty minutes to clarify everything. After that, I will make the final decision."

Bach Vu stood up, his eyes scanned the whole room, stopping for a moment at Van Khanh who was sitting with an expression trying to stay calm but unable to hide the anxiety flickering in his eyes. He signaled Duc Long to show on the big screen the documents that had been carefully prepared all night.

"Dear father, aunts and uncles, and Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem," Bach Vu began, his voice echoing throughout the room, without any hesitation, "it all started with a small line of text, even smaller than the rest of the document, on page thirty-seven of the marriage contract addendum. A clause that, frankly, most of the busiest eyes in this room, including mine, would have just glanced at without the slightest suspicion."

He paused for a moment, then turned his head toward the corner of the room. "Only one person stopped to read it carefully. Tuyet Nhi, can you come up here for a moment?"

The whole room suddenly turned to look at the corner of the door, where Tuyet Nhi was standing. She was stunned for a moment, not thinking that her name would be called in the middle of such a formal family meeting, but then she walked forward, her gait still retaining the familiar straightforwardness of her three years as an assistant, stopping at a polite enough distance from the chairman's desk.

"Sir," she said, her voice was neat, not as trembling as she thought, "more than a month ago, when reviewing the contract appendix to prepare for the signing ceremony, I noticed that the clause in the section 'joint financial management after marriage' had an unusual wording compared to the rest of the document - it allowed the transfer of a portion of Doan Gia Group's shares to an investment fund in the same name, but in fact operated by the Tong family. I reported it to you. Long that day, and from then on, the two sides and Mr. Vu began to investigate further."

She finished speaking, bowed her head slightly, took a step back, and stood next to Duc Long instead of returning to the corner of the room like before. It was a small detail, but for Tuyet Nhi, it was the first time in three years that she was able to stand up straight and speak her truth in front of the entire family, even though no one in the room knew she was anything other than a diligent assistant.

"This is evidence that this investment fund is actually a shell company, directly linked to a subsidiary of the Song group." Bach Vu continued, pointing to the company link diagram displayed on the screen. "And this isn't the first time it's been used this way."

Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem stood up, his face briefly showing panic before regaining his composure. "This is just a common financial structure in the business world, Mr. Bach Vu. Any lawyer can propose such a joint investment fund after a mutual marriage. You are deliberately interpreting it in the worst way just for some personal reason."

"If it's just a normal financial structure," Duc Long spoke up, his voice calm but sharp, "then how do you explain that four years ago, this same shell company — under a different name — was used to withdraw twenty percent of Kim Nguyen Group's shares, through a strategic cooperation agreement whose structure is almost identical to the terms in this addendum?"

The whole room was buzzing. Duc Long placed a thin file on the table. "Last night, I contacted the person who used to be the head of Kim Nguyen's legal department, who quit immediately after that incident because of disagreements with the board of directors about how to handle it smoothly, without making it public. He agreed to provide a signed report, confirming the entire transaction structure matches what we are presenting today." He turned to the last page, where there was a signature and a notary stamp that had not yet dried on the ink. "We only got it this morning, less than two hours before the meeting started."

Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem looked at the file, his face turned pale, his lips pursed tightly, unable to utter a word for a moment. Mr. Chi Kien, his face turned from shock to real anger, picked up the file, flipped through each page with his hands that began to tremble with anger.

"Kim Nguyen." He muttered, as if trying to remember. "I heard about that story a few years ago, but I didn't expect..." He looked up, looked straight at Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem, his voice was low, heavy like a verdict. "Are you planning to take advantage of my child's engagement to do exactly what you did with Kim Nguyen?"

"These are baseless allegations, based on the testimony of a disgruntled employee who has long since quit his job." Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem tried to salvage the situation, but his voice lost its initial confidence. "We can take this case to court to clarify, if Mr. Chi Kien wants to ruin the many-year cooperative relationship between the two families just because of these few pages."

"I'm ready to go to court, if you want." Bach Vu replied, his voice cold and strong as steel. "But I think you understand that once this report and all transaction data are presented to the law, the loss will not only be your reputation, but also Van Khanh's future."

Mentioning her name, Van Khanh clasped her hands in her lap, straightened her spine, and tried to keep a calm face in front of dozens of eyes focused on her family. She glanced at her father, saw that he was awkwardly trying to find a way to refute but could not, and in that moment, she understood that if she did not act immediately, this chess game would end completely unfavorably for the Song family, in just a few minutes.

She stood up, her voice higher and more urgent than usual. "Everyone, before my father is falsely accused, I think this whole room should know that the person who made these accusations against Mr. Vu is not as innocent as everyone thinks." She turned to look straight at Tuyet Nhi, her eyes cold. "That assistant over there secretly sold Doan Gia Group's internal information to a competitor. I have full evidence."

She signaled her personal assistant to stand up, holding a tablet in her hand, her finger on the slideshow button.

The whole room suddenly became silent. Mr. Chi Kien turned to look at his son, his eyes both searching and waiting. Bach Vu stood straight, unfazed, but in his heart, all his sensed were focused on the still dark screen in front of him, where Van Khanh was about to unleash the final blow that she had been preparing for the past week.