At Al Timberlake Group, Gareth had been humiliated by Bowen. As an elder, he hadn't expected Bowen to show him such blatant disrespect. The slight stung his pride, and there was no way he was going to let this slide.
The secretary eyed the file on Aubree sitting on the desk and smirked. "Mr. Timberlake, since Mr. Turner cares so much about her, we can't go after her directly–but we can certainly make life difficult for Aubree."
"Go ahead," said Gareth.
"Aubree had a falling out with the Wilson family, and it's Mr. Wilson who's been behind the recent troubles targeting her company, Brae Technology. We can't go up against the Turner family, but that doesn't mean the Wilson family is off-limits," he said.
Gareth stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Contact Mr. Wilson for me. I'd like to invite him to dinner tonight."
He had already gathered quite a few allies. With Jacob still recovering from his injuries, he had ample time to orchestrate his plans.
Bowen wouldn't budge–he didn't care about the ties between the two families, but he definitely cared about Aubree. Could getting leverage over her serve the same purpose? Gareth wondered.
Aubree remained blissfully unaware of the Timberlake family’s schemes against her. The USB drive Bowen gave her worked like a charm, instantly resolving the club’s troubles. As for who was really behind it, she had a pretty good idea–it could only be one of those few suspects.
Aubree saw no point in digging any deeper; it would just be a waste of time and energy.
Her company was thriving. Ronald had tried to crush her with the underage spending scandal, but Aubree turned the tables and leveraged it to her advantage, further enhancing her public image.
Perhaps stung by this setback, the Wilson family abruptly fell silent.
With the Wilson family no longer causing trouble, Aubree was glad for the reprieve. She was now fully focused on expanding her company’s gaming division and frequently attended key matches of her esports team in person. Life kept her busier than ever.
As usual, Aubree was there in person for God’s Fury’s decisive Stier qualifier match.
However, the previous match was Apex Squad’s. When Aubree arrived, she saw them getting steamrolled, the other team already destroying their Nexus. She hadn’t been following the matches much lately, but she knew her boys had been killing it, only dropping a single game.
"'Killian is actually on the bench,' she wondered." Aubree was taken aback. She might not like him, but she had to admit he was one of the top mid-laners right now, and Apex Squad’s heavy investment in him said it all.
But now, Killian wasn’t even in the game.
"What are you looking at?" Alvin leaned over in his team jersey to ask.
Aubree asked, "Why did Apex Squad change their mid-laner?"
Alvin shrugged, "They switched him out back in Game 3. Apex Squad hasn’t won a single series since the regular season started–at this rate, they’re probably getting knocked out in Round Two."
Aubree was genuinely shocked this time–even in her old life, Apex Squad had never performed this poorly.
"No wonder Emery looks so grim on the sidelines. But with things going this badly, why isn’t he pulling Killian back in?" Aubree wondered.
"Rumor has it Emery found out Killian was involved in some shady dealings. But since it’s mid-tournament and he can’t take official action, he just benched him," Alvin explained.
Aubree had some answers now. "That audio clip online accusing us of bribing Apex Squad to throw the match is almost certainly Killian doing."
Chapter 156
Alvin replied. "Figured as much. Apex Squad lost. Time for us to get ready to go on."
As the commentator’s final congratulations rang out, the Apex Squad players filed off the stage one by one, their faces ashen with defeat.
"Who cares about them? We just need to win today’s match," Aubree thought. Apex Squad’s future was none of her concern now, and neither was Emery’s.
Backstage, the two teams crossed paths–one, God’s Fury, poised for glory; the other, Apex Squad, utterly defeated.