Hollywood Zenith

" What?"

" Sami? She seems much closer to you than I expected. Is she your hidden daughter?" Delphina asked with a smile but under which she was a little annoyed. She had to admit that Alexis was extremely beautiful with elegant posture but she wanted to be looked up by little girl as a princess too!

" Are you crazy? I am twenty years old how can I have a daughter so big?"

" It's nothing unusual. From what I know, there was a long line of little maids serving you, who knows if one of them caught your eye? Beside from her doll like appearance, it not hard to imagine her mother is a beauty!" Delphina said with a smirk. She wasn't afraid to make joked with Samuel because she already had a broad understanding of Samuel's personality.

" That's might be true...but..forget it. Aren't we here on business? Don't ask me such stupid question." He shook his head and didn't say anything. They might be partners but Elise's history was something he didn't want people to know.

" Prince-"

" Just call me Samuel." He cut Alexis off before she could flatter him with words. It was tiring to deal with such grandiose titles. Continue your journey with empire

" Mr Samuel, I am Alexis Hermes, it's an honor to meet you. I will talk to my father, we are willing to cooperate and ceade but I only hope that you will not hold any grudge against our family." She stood up and lifted the helms of her dress to give a formal greeting.

" So fast? I never thought that you will give up so easily." Delphina didn't know why Alexis was so scared.

" It's fine. I am not here to bully anyone but it must be something to do with my father." Samuel only smiled. Hearing him mention Robert made Alexis shudder.

" Yes."

" Fine, just sit down. There is no need to bring him up when we are just talking." He didn't want to scare her, he could feel it due to his abilities just mentioning his father was enough to scare her. He knew few things but nothing concrete. He was curious but didn't want to bring it up right now.

Alexis glanced at Samuel seeing his expression staying consistent, she breathed a sigh of relief. She sat down with straight back carefully observing him. What kind of person the son of that man was? She was very eager to know.

" Delphina?"

" Right, before saying anything. I want to know, how did you get in touch with my father and why did you chose my brother? To put it bluntly, he is not a good person in my eye he was akin to waste!" Delphina spoke with a bit of resentment toward her family, she wasn't happy with her father arrangement to bring a wolf to their den!

Without Samuel's reminder, she wouldn't think too deeply about it after all she was busy defending her position and thinking of ways to get the nomination for the heir of the family.

" Oh? There is nothing special about it. It's sort of like a family tradition for our Hermes family. A test to see how capable newer generation is, how much money they could earn in a short amount of time to get support of family by virtue of their own ability." She paused and looked at Samuel for a second like she was thinking about past before continuing.

" The greater their success, the higher their position would be in the family. It is one of the reason why our family never stagnate and always have fresh blood to carry on the family name." She was a little proud when talking about it.

She was never a direct descendant of the current head of the family but by her own ability she was able to rise up in rank finally acknowledged for her ability. If she did better in the future it was not hard for her to get the position of the heir!

But she also knew that this mission should have regarded as a failure. Hermes were not the top family in Europe they were far from it, they would never go against a behemoth like Rothschild especially considering the past events. She hated her choice of Alan even more at this point, if not for making him a puppet she would surely chose Delphina!

It's just she didn't know who was behind her, she wanted to eat bigger slice of the pie. It's just that her luck is not good at all!

" So, you are eyeing the LVHM Group?" Delphina frowned hearing it from the horse's mouth was much more convincing than some letters on report.

" It's not that cut and dry. It was when I was wandering across Europe, frequently attending various parties to find goals. You know that sometimes, just knowing that I am from the Hermes family ordinary businessmen would look at you differently, even some noble class will take the initiative to make friends." Alexis leaned to take a sip slowly as if she was reminiscing.

" Until one day when I met your father at a dance held by the Jockey Club. That day we had a very good chat, I have to say that your father is very knowledgeable person and surprisingly funny too."

Hearing her praise her father, Delphina was nonchalant about it. She knew what her father was, if not for his wits how would he able to erect such a large empire in decades? Beside, he was a thorn in her heart there was no way she was going to be happy about someone praising the sly old man.

" Later, when I saw that he didn't ask much about my personal identity I wove a different identity, a young girl seemingly coming into a huge inheritance. Of course it was something provided by my family. On our second meeting, your father found my and hoped that I could be with his younger son. Alan was also fine with it clamoring that he fell in love with me.

Your father asked me to help his son to obtain the inheritance right of your group." She finished making her case but Samuel on the other hand frowned slightly feeling that something was wrong with the whole story.

" So I chose to agree. First because of your father that I chose Alan. It was not my fault that you are in this state right now, it was your father choice to choose Alan. Of course I was happy with his decision, it was easier to control someone like him."

" So, you chose to help Alan first to get the position of the heir and ten when appropriate, further control the entire LVHM group?" Delphina said bluntly.

" Yes that's what I hoped for." Alexis knew there was no need to deny it further. Before Delphina could speak Samuel said.

" Well, Alexis, I think that you are fooled by that old man, oh Delphina I don't want to slander your father in front of you." Samuel stopped. It was just a theory so he didn't want to disrespect Delphina's father.

" I don't mind." She shrugged giving him full control to talk. She had no qualms about anything others say about her father especially someone like Samuel.

" To be honest Alexis, your family's methods are not a secret especially in upper circles." He was able to find out about it so easily even if Zero was capable, it wouldn't be that easy when he thought about it considering she was able to get the report in few hours. Hermes family was a strong force they could at least suppress such a thing for a period of time.

" After all, this allows your family to be in the grasp of most talented among the youth. It will al least don't allow your family to stagnate or ruined." He had similar thought as Alexis,

" But have you ever thought it deeply. There are many way to exploit such a scenario and a old fox like Bernard would surely think about such scenarios. It gives him a tactical advantage that you wouldn't be able to avoid even if your family is eyeing the Group in entirety." Samuel knew that people like Delphina father wouldn't be so stupid. He was definitely scheming something.

" So you are saying that I was used by that guy?" Alexis eyes were fiery. She considered herself capable enough to walk among giants like him, she never thought that her actions were seen from the start and she was carefully placed beside his son ready to be exploited. It was unacceptable!

In addition, she had to admit the old fox concealed himself too deeply. From their first encounter he always appeared pitiful and sincere!

" But...I really can't figure out why he did this. Is it really to help his son sit as heir? Isn't it the most stupid decision to hand over the reigns to someone so incapable?" Alexis was confused. Wouldn't it akin to ruining your legacy after few years? She was fully confident that someone like Alan was capable of doing such a thing, even if LVHM was strong it's foundation was still far from solid.

" No, I might have figured out his intentions but it's only a theory. Even if I have capable people there was no way for me to extract the thoughts in his mind without doing..." He was about to say torture but he stopped. These girls were strong but there was no way they would think about torturing people.

" If what I think is the case, then Delphina congratulation, you really have a great father." He said with a smile on his face. He even had a hint of respect for this old fellow.

" What are you talking about?" This time Delphina was confused. Why was he suddenly acting like this?

" Well, it will not make any sense even if I tell you right now. You have to believe me. Just wait for few days you will have all the answers." He said in a mysterious tone.

Delphina thought about it and wanted to ask again but she stopped. She was confused but also knew that Samuel wasn't someone that would betray him, she trusted him.

" Ah, by the way, Alexis, what are you going to do now?" he asked turning away from Delphina.

" What can I do? I will wait for right time to sell some stocks on hand when the market stabilizes. I might lose some money but I can't do anything about it. If I knew beforehand, I might not have landed in such a messy puddle!" She had some grievances most of it was directed at her family's intelligence people. She would surely make them pay the price for their negligence!

" I have another proposal for you. Why don't we level the playing field? Maybe we can give that old man a nice surprise." Both girls looked at him. What was this guy planning?