Chapter 200 - Not My Decision

Once this rather large decision had been made. Lena felt rather happy. The one thing that she had been dreading to deal with had been taken care of and the final decision hadn't fallen on to her to make. 

Now, she could have the board write up the report, critiques and send out the request for more information to Marcus and then she wouldn't have to defend her decision. One of the times that the board came in handy. 

The rest of the meeting went by smoothly. Most of the updates were from the rest of the board and all the princess had to do was approve, disapprove, or quest further inquiry about something. There were a few things she even put off until the next board meeting because of how long the current one had already been running. 

Samuel remained quiet the whole meeting, but the princess could see that he was paying close attention to everything that was being said and was even taking notes on his phone in order to make sure that he kept track of things he thought was important. 

Once everything was finished with, there were a few people who stayed behind once Lena had ended the meeting and made sure that the general shell of the agenda for the next meeting. She already knew what they wanted to talk about and decided to humor them even though she really wasn't that interested in whatever complaints that they had for.. 

"Can I help you with anything?" She asked when she saw that they seemed hesitant to approach her. She made sure that Samuel stayed sitting next to her as she was certain that was what they wanted to talk about. 

"We noticed that you brought your fiancé with you. Which is fine since your the CEO." One of the men started carefully, looking rather nervous over what he was trying to say. 

"We just didn't know if he was going to be included on the board, and if so, whether anyone would be retired because of this?" Was this really what they had been worried about? That she would get rid of someone in favor of her fiancé. 

Rather an answering right after finding out what their issue was, she couldn't stop the extended pause that she allowed to follow. A heavy silence that one could hear a pin dropping in the other room as the other's held their breath wanting for the answer. 

"There's only one person that I would consider retiring for such a thing, but they're not here. Sadly, they're also too good at their job for me to retire them for so such a reason." She finally replied, a small smirk on her face when she saw that the other's visible relaxed after hearing this. 

"Sam will be attending meetings with me because there will be a few shifts taking place in the future, but that won't affect anyone as much as it will affect the structure moving forward." She explained as she stood up from the chair. 

"That will be something to worry about at a later point in time however, for now just focus on the current tasks that you need to complete and I will send out a memo in the future explaining the changes." She explained as she waived them off to leave ahead of her. She wanted them to leave first so that she didn't have to take the elevator with anyone aside from James and Samuel. 

"I told you that there really wasn't that much to be worried about. Most of them are harmless even if they seem critical." The princess told Samuel once they were the only ones left in the room. 

"Are meetings always this packed with arguments and things that need to be discussed?" He asked, pocketing his phone so that he could stand up. 

"Every meeting is like that. I think that they just enjoying have a time carved out where they can argue and debate just for the hell of it." The princess replied in a sour tone of voice. 

She had been doing these meetings for months and the one thing that she had learned was that she just had to let the arguments play out and wait for everyone to be appeased that their points had been heard or made before moving on. 

"You'll get used to tuning the most of it out and only paying attention to the things that are important. It just takes a while to learn that skill. Having a secretary helps also." She explained as they left the room. Most everyone had left the floor beyond a few members who had other meetings on the floor to attend to. 

"It might not seem like the best course of action, but if you want to save your brain cells for other things, it is an imperative skill to learn." She continued as they got on the elevator. Now that that was finished with, there were other things that she could focus on. 

She only had the next day and a half to be in the office before she had been 'bullied' so to speak in taking time off to be ready for the engagement. 

She didn't think that it was something that she needed, but everyone else aside from her agreed that that the time off wouldn't hurt to take just to make sure the rest of the small matters had been resolved. 

"I'm not sure that that is something that I will easily be able to do. Some of the arguments are interesting to listen to, especially when they no real justification for their objection and simply repeat their same point over again." The princess gave him a look like he was perhaps a bit crazy but shrugged her shoulders. 

"Do what you enjoy then, don't blame if you end up getting a head from it after the first few meetings." She warned as they stepped off the elevator. 

"I don't think that is something that I will need to worry about, I have you with me after all. That will help remind me to not get too invested when I see the look on your face." Samuel teased once they were back in the office. 

"My face probably won't tell you enough in those meetings because I always have the same expression on my face regardless of what is being discussed." The princess replied as she got ready to go back to her desk. 

James had come in with them because he had to drop off the folders. He glanced over at Samuel after the comment the other had made. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of the relationship between him and the princess as he only got to see small snippets of it. 

"The princess tends in such meetings not to let others know what she's thinking regardless of anything as it keeps the board speaking more freely if she doesn't interject or give too much away." James explained to the other. It took him a while to understand how Lena worked as she was very different from her father who took a more authoritative role in his position within the business. 

The princess knew though that wouldn't work with this board as most of them didn't believe she deserved the position and thought that she was too young to know anything. They wouldn't openly admit that they thought it was the only bad decision Zane had made in all the years he had been working in the cooperate world, but it was how a majority felt. 

"So they can be as harsh as they come across to deal with." Samuel surmised. 

"No, they're still cowards who don't let to argue or go against the tide. They're just the type of cowards who would come together to do things behind the scenes if I tried too hard to control things." The princess replied. She was already working up typing a quick email to Marcus to let the other know that a response would be coming soon, but that whatever the decision was it had been made by the board and not work with them and not her moving forward. 

"Instead, I have to drop small hints or vague ideas that they then mull over and come back with the right result based upon what I was looking for, or they have to try again." She replied. 

"The only reason why the deal with your uncle went so well was because the data that I brought forward as the reason behind why I wanted to make the deal proved that it would be stupid to not invest, thus there was no way they could argue with what I wanted to do even if they don't think I have the experience to lead." There was one person in particular who regardless of anything, she knew would be obstinately against anything she did simply because she was younger and they thought that if the business was going to be handed off to anyone, it should've been them and not a younger, less experienced family member. No one would argue with Zane however. 

"Now though, with their decision at the board meeting, I no longer have to deal with whatever the outcome with Marcus, they can deal with him since the decision was theirs and not mine." The princess remarked as she prepared to send the email. That was at least one less thing that she had to worry about. 

By the time the engagement came, she might actually have everything in the order that she wanted it to be with just a few loose ends she would have to deal with after the fact.