Saturday morning at Zimmer Estate

NEWS HEADLINES:

- Zimmer-Yushkova's fake marriage

- UNFOLD: The fight between the two elite families or three for that matter. Who will win?

- Reality of the void marriage - revisited

- Arranged Marriage: Business world's cunning ways to maintain connections

- Adulterous acts 101

- National Registry Office bombarded with queries

Natalia was sitting down at the dining hall with Jake. They were reading newspapers, scanning social media and have someone watch the television for the news.

"Natalia, 'you okay?"

"Yes brother. I'm sorry to dragged our family into this. Are you mad?" Natalia replied with a guilt feeling.

"At you? No. But to them? Absolutely. This is unforgivable! All those years of using you for their reputation." Jake cannot help but clenched his fists.

"Will the company suffer because of this?" Natalia cannot help but ask.

"Do not worry. It may have an effect but the company won't bleed. Business is business after all. Personal matter is a separate thing. News will be replaced as time passes by. It's you whom I'm worried about." Jake told her.

Natalia held his hands. "I don't care about this. I'm just happy that the truth already came out. I cannot wait to formally cut ties with those people."

"Nat! Are you alright?" Luna suddenly appeared in front of them along with Ziv and Trish.

"I'm sorry you poor thing." Ziv uttered hugging the beautiful brunette woman. Trish also silently put her arms around Natalia.

"Thank you so much guys. I'm actually fine." The brunette woman replied.

"How did you do it? Every newspaper stands has different stories about your marriage. Even magazine companies issued an interim edition for this!" Luna raised a sample copy of three various magazines.

"Uhmm..I have a friend who has a connection to the media." Natalia simply told them.

"Can I have the contact number of that person? For future dealings, pretty please?" Luna urged her.

"Luna. Stop. That's not important now." Trish scolded the black-haired woman.

"Oh! Right. How about we have a girls-day out?" Luna Lee suggested already beaming at her excitement.

"Yass please!" Ziv agreed snapping his fingers. The group laughed at his ridiculous antics.

Natalia, smiling to herself, was grateful for her genuine friends.

#######

"Girl. Have you heard the latest?" A woman asked her co-worker.

"No. About what?" Her colleague replied.

"That the Zimmer princess had a fake marriage!"

"Oh my gosh.. that's so embarrassing!"

"I know. What's more, they said that the husband didn't ever love the woman. It's just that the good-for-nothing princess was arranged to the handsome Yushkova heir for business only. Another point was that the woman was the one who requested for the marriage. She's really in love with the guy but it was never reciprocated."

"Such a foolish thing to do. But I somehow pity the woman." The colleague said.

"I agree. Word says that she won't have a decent marriage anymore since she's already tainted."

"What do you mean?" The colleague was puzzled.

"You know. She was already used. No man can fully accept her now given her reputation." The woman who started the discussion explained.

The news about the Zimmer-Yushkova unreal marriage was the talked of the town. The big media companies didn't make any reports about it anymore but the small entertainment organizations were still actively fanning the flame.

Sergei was walking at the hallways of Zion Group when he heard the two women. He reprimanded them and gave them warning to do their tasks instead of gossiping.

Alexander leaved him behind as he was assigned to cater to Ms. Zimmer if the need arises.

His phone rang after the scene.

"Sir, I will be attending the emergency board meeting right now at the Zimmer Company."

"You know what to do."

"Yes, sir."

The call ended.

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Sergei interlaced his hands and supported his chin. He lazily looked at the other directors. For the second time, they were voting against Jake Zimmer. Some of them wanted to have a new president because some of the shareholders voiced out their sentiment again.

"Mr. Alexander Gates, the chairman, will use his two-voting rights to let Jake Zimmer remained on the position." Sergei declared.

The other directors sighed and didn't contradict the failed outcome.

#######

"That ungrateful woman!" Euro Yushkova punched his table inside the study room. Victoria and Devon were inside too. The family had been silent and let the scandalous news to tone down. The father and son has been busy answering their investors about the shocking information.

"How can she do this to us? All those years of taking care of her. We clothed her and gave her everything. The family's reputation...." Victoria blurted out with a shaking voice and tears in her eyes.

"Devon, what's your plan?" The patriarch asked his son.

The young man sighed. "Since the truth leaked out, we can just go along with it. I'm going to talk with our PR department. I will claim that the marriage ceremony was done in good faith and that I didn't have any idea about the license problem on the day of the wedding. As the PR gathered their thoughts, we can start our action on taking the Zimmer company as initially planned."

Euro were surprised at the idea of Devon. His son was right that while the majority of people are looking or distracted by the news, they must strike. He was thankful that Daniel is still bedridden and wasn't able to fully transfer his shares to the Zimmer siblings. He took a glanced on a piece of paper over his desk.

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Name of Shareholders and no. of shares in percentage:

1. Zimmer, Daniel - 30.39

2. Yushkova Holdings - 15.52

3. Gu Tradings, Inc. - 12.47

4. Zion Group - 11.23

5. Zimmer, Jake - 11.12

6. State County - 9.46

7. The Bell Shop - 5.0

8. Zimmer, Natalia - 3.54

9. Others - 1.27

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Going back to his son. Euro looked at him. "Then...."

"Yes, father. While we discreetly talked with other minority shareholders and convinced them to sell their shares, I'll appeal to the state court of having a 'voidable' marriage as my defense and claimed that our marriage is valid." Devon uttered.

'You're still mine, Natalia'.

#######