Vengeful Desires

26-

Madame Wang sat primly, as she kept one meticulous fingertip tapping out an idle tune against the table's glossy surface.

"Mia Bancroft?" she murmured, eyes narrowing slightly as they scanned the embossed name on the thick parchment envelope before her.

Lifting her gaze, she pinned Mr. Yoon with a measured look from across the table. "Who precisely is this person?"

Adjusting his silk tie, Mr. Yoon waved a dismissive hand without looking up from the paperwork he was perusing. "Some new up-and-comer in the business world, from what I gather. Singaporean money, possibly - though the name suggests potential American roots as well."

He paused to take a sip of his coffee, finally deigning to meet Madame Wang's stare with an air of faintly bored indulgence. "A rising story in certain financial circles, one could say. Why do you ask?"

Rather than respond directly, Madame Wang simply turned the heavy parchment envelope to face him, smoothing one palm over the raised lettering announcing some impending shareholders' gala. Her fingertip traced the name 'Mia Bancroft' where it appeared beneath the embossed corporate logos, as she scoffed.

"Well?" she prompted at length, "Don't you find it rather odd that this...nobody is being formally announced on the annual circuit already?"

She let the implication dance in the pause, lips pursing ever so slightly as she studied him through shuttered eyes. "Especially given that she seems to be taking possession of a rather substantial number of Wang Group shares, if these materials are to be believed."

Mr. Yoon's expression remained disaffectedly bland throughout her pointed prodding, though the tips of his ears colored faintly as he processed her insinuation.

Setting down his coffee once more, he extracted a slim case from his breast pocket and flicked it open with a deft motion of his thumb - revealing a pair of wireframe reading glasses that he slid on with casual nonchalance.

"Mia Bancroft, as you've no doubt surmised, has purchased the majority shareholding interest that your late son Hyun-woo unwisely chose to rebuff me over all those years," he stated flatly. Subtly adjusting the folder of paperwork angled before him, his eyes remained resolutely fixed on the dense text rather than meeting her gaze directly. "To put it succinctly - what was once being groomed as your grandchild's inheritance has now been decisively ceded over to this...upstart's control."

A muscle ticked faintly along Madame Wang's jaw as she absorbed the bald acknowledgment, fingers curling against the cloth rested on the table. When she spoke again, her words emerged low and softly rounded - with the simmering umbrage radiating from every line of her elegant posture.

"You actually went through with selling my late son's shares? After everything?" She shook her head slowly in patent disbelief. "Why would you think it appropriate to make such a unilateral decision without even consulting me or Mi-ok first?"

The rhythmic tapping of Mr. Yoon's finger against the tabletop formed a percussive rejoinder as he continued ignoring her, gaze still trained on the sheaf of papers before him with studied focus.

"No offense intended, of course," he stated in a tone with polite indifference. "But the reality is, those particular assets had become...shall we say, a wasting resource given recent circumstances. It couldn't be helped - certain difficult decisions must be made for the continued prosperity of our enterprise."

The words rung, the weight of their callous finality causing Madame Wang's spine to stiffen further until she was ramrod straight in her seat. For several agonizing moments, she could only stare across the table at her erstwhile contemporary as her carefully maintained decorum warred with the churning vortex of rage and anguish roiling in her chest.