Vance raised his head and looked at Maria, who also stared at him intently.
Vance watched Maria grow up. Maria was only 4 years old when she was taken in by Locke.
Regarding Maria's origin, it is actually a very common thing. She was a single mother in the community. When she was trying to refresh herself, she took a high dose, and then she disappeared.
In the two or three days after her mother's death, Maria was very sensible and did not disturb her. She even ran to the host's house with the ingredients to exchange for food, and then ran back home quickly with the food.
Since Maria's mother often whipped herself, the neighbors were not surprised.
It wasn't until the fourth day that Maria's mother's body was discovered by neighbors who were already suspicious.
People die, but things are not over.
After Maria's mother passed away, the credit institution liquidated her property. In the final settlement, she still owed the bank several thousand dollars.
As a child, Maria can choose not to inherit the inheritance (the inheritance is not only money, but also debts), but no matter what, Maria's family is gone.
Whether it is a physical home or a real home.
At that time, Locke had just arrived in the gospel community. After paying off the money for the construction of the chapel, he still had some money left.
So Father Locke took out a sum of his own money, plus a small amount of church fundraising, and buried Maria's mother. Then he went to the relevant departments to fill out a bunch of forms, and finally successfully
Adopted Maria.
Locke married twice in his life, the first time for a year and three months, and the second time for three months, without any children. In order to take good care of Maria, Locke reduced many of his expenses. In order to save money, he even married
I gave up the habit of smoking cigars.
Of course, it was drawn again later. After all, there were still many enthusiastic church members who provided it for free.
Vance was also in dire straits at that time, with divorce, property division, and his wife even demanding a huge amount of alimony.
This is also a strange part of American marriage law.
After getting married, the man works around outside to make money to support the family, while the wife stays at home and takes care of the children as a full-time housewife.
If two people get divorced due to various reasons, the wife can ask the husband to pay alimony to her after the divorce on the grounds that "she has no income or less income and is unable to maintain the standard of living under the marriage."
Vance's marriage to his wife only lasted 8 years, so he was relatively lucky and only had to pay alimony to his wife for 4 years.
If the couple has been married for more than 10 years, even if it is a long-term marriage, alimony needs to be paid for a lifetime until they retire or die.
Therefore, Americans are extremely decisive and resolute when it comes to divorce. If you continue to make decisions, you will suffer chaos.
Because he had to work in the forest area, Vance was very worried about Lily's care. Because the law stipulates that minor children are not allowed to leave the custody of adults. There is also a law that states that minors are not allowed to enter high-risk workplaces.
It was illegal anyway. In desperation, Vance thought of the Evangelical Church.
Unexpectedly, Vance took Lily shyly to the Evangelical Church to ask for shelter, and Father Locke readily agreed.
So when Vance went to work in the forest area, he would leave Lily at the Gospel Church. Whenever he returned from the forest area, in addition to picking up Lily, he would also bring some small things to Maria.
In this small evangelical community, two single men with children naturally have a lot of common topics. In addition, the two girls are of the same age and can play together. Over time, the two men gradually became close friends from acquaintances.
.
Vance has watched Maria grow up, and his feelings for Maria are the same as for Lily.
So Vance knew that Maria rarely told others about her demands, but once she made a decision, no one could change her mind unless she failed.
Only after hearing Maria's loud rebuttal to Vance did everyone present connect this woman with the image in their minds.
In addition to her voice, Maria's appearance changed greatly, to the extent that even Lily felt strange.
Vance and Maria were looking at each other, neither willing to give in.
The current situation is indeed a dilemma.
Vance was quite right to propose an election postponement.
Everyone knows that the key problem is that Iger is not here.
No matter what Iger's opinions are in this election, his opinions are extremely important. It can be said that they are so important that they affect the life and death of the team.
Even new directors know that there is a mismatch in strength between the gospel team and the sub-team development team. In this case, the biggest reason why the sub-team is still closely united around the gospel team is Iger’s personal factors.
What the gospel team did to Iger is not a secret, everyone knows it. If you say Iger wasn't angry before, it's because he didn't have the strength he has now, but no one can say whether he holds grudges or not.
Whether it is Jixi Town or other places, there is always one topic in the gossip and rumors, that is Father Locke and Egg Lee.
This rumor mentioned intentionally or unintentionally that Father Locke originally intended to give up the position of chairman to Iger, but due to the accidental death of Father Locke, Iger took the initiative to withdraw from the competition with Andy for the sake of the stability of the team.
Andy knew about this rumor, and he was also very annoyed, but as the "conspirator" in the rumor, Andy had to pretend not to know. At this time, trying to clarify it would only make the story darker.
Now, in terms of qualifications, ability, and strength, Ige is a popular candidate for chairman. Excluding him at this time will open up the general election. Who can guarantee that he will not go crazy when he comes back?
The key is that Vance, the only one who can suppress Iger now, took the initiative to say that he would wait a moment. Doesn't it mean that Vance feels that he can no longer suppress Iger?
But from another aspect, a country cannot live without a king for a day.
It doesn't matter whether this king is a powerful ruler or a mascot who has been waiting for 96 years. The key is that there must be a supreme ruler that everyone openly agrees with.
Only in this way can the unrealistic ambitions in the minds of most people be dispelled, only in this way can many unnecessary internal conflicts be reduced, and only in this way can everyone's strength be integrated as much as possible.
Without a chairman, nothing can be accomplished by relying solely on the board of directors.
The gospel team will fall into cliques and endless bickering.
Iger didn't know when he would be able to come back, or even if he could come back. Although Bella said it lightly, no matter who listened to it, they felt that this was not a simple and easy thing.
Then, everyone has to face another extremely bad possibility: Egg died during this field mission.
If this happens after waiting for a long time, what should everyone do?
At that time, the board of directors would definitely not be like it is now, and everyone could still discuss it together calmly. Due to the long-term "co-governance", a lot of personal grievances must have accumulated. It would be too late to elect a chairman at that time.
Once Egger's death is confirmed, the team split is inevitable.
At present, for the gospel team, being able to push one person to sit on it first is also related to the life and death of the team.
Maria took the initiative to run for office this time. From all aspects, she is really the best candidate at the moment.
First of all, talking about qualifications, Maria is one of the founders of the gospel team. She is Father Locke’s assistant and the veteran director of the gospel team.
When it comes to personal ability, no matter who it is, Maria's ability evaluation is above average. Maria is indeed not as imaginative as Iger in doing things, nor is she as skillful as Andy, but her strength is that she is rigorous and the most picky.
People cannot accuse Maria of not doing things well.
Finally, let’s talk about personal feelings. No one else can sit in this position of chairman, but Maria can. Because Iger is a person who misses old friendships.
Now the team comes to an extremely important fork in the road.
If there is only one way, then you can only bite the bullet and go to the dark side, but now that you have a choice, everyone needs to weigh it.
After Vance stared at Maria for a while, he turned to the others and said: "Dismissed! Everyone will take a break first. In ten minutes, go to the conference room on the second floor to formally convene the full board of directors."
Originally, Vance wanted to handle important matters in the secretary's office, but in the end, the matter had to be a public showdown.
After everyone else left the door, only Vance and Maria were left in the room.
"This seat is not that easy to sit in." Vance looked at Maria and said to her distressedly: "Your personality is not suitable for this."
"Which character are you talking about? Cunning or cruel?" Maria said calmly to Vance: "I can learn it."
"Why is this happening?" Vance looked sadly at why Maria, a simple, kind and good girl, became like this.
Maria looked at Vance, and after a while, she said with some firmness: "Uncle Vance, the gospel team should originally belong to the gospel church."
"Evangelical Church?" Vance was stunned for a moment after hearing Maria's words. This was what the girl was thinking about.
In fact, from a certain perspective, this is correct. The gospel team was actually established by these people using the gospel church as a stronghold, but...
"Locke is dead and you are no longer a nun. Is the Evangelical Church still there?" Vance asked Maria anxiously and angrily.
"Here." Maria proudly said to Vance: "The Evangelical Church is now in Ross Town. We have a new Evangelical Cathedral and a nun who can be called a devout person. In the near future, the church will
Welcome its owner."
"The owner of the church? Who?" Vance asked Maria, and he suddenly shouted loudly: "Could it be that you are pregnant with Locke's child!"
Maria looked at Vance quietly and did not answer.
Vance felt like an idiot after blurting out these words. To put it nicely, it would be disrespectful to an old friend, but to say it more, it would be blasphemy.
child.
correct.
Vance had everything figured out now. He waved to Maria tiredly and said, "Since you want to do it, I'll give you 10 minutes.
There are 9 current directors. If you want to be the chairman, you must get more than half of the votes.
I will vote against it for you, and your only chance is to get the remaining 5 votes."
"Thank you for your support, Uncle Vance." Maria nodded politely to Vance and then left the room.
Watching Maria's leaving figure, Vance let out a long sigh. Alas, what kind of world is this.
Vance went out and walked to the corridor. He ordered the housekeeping staff waiting at the stairs to clean up Andy. There was nothing to keep secret now, and it would be made public later anyway.
Poor Andy, he already stinks.
…
22:00, 2nd floor, Morgan Building, Jixi Town.
The board meeting, which was originally scheduled to start in 10 minutes, was postponed for a while, and the radio in Jixi Town woke up all the people who were sleeping.
Since you have to play your cards clearly, you can't do it quietly.
The gospel team holds an enlarged meeting of all directors, and all shareholders and above can go to the conference room on the second floor to listen.
The meeting began, with Avila presiding over it. The recording task was handed over to other record-keepers. Bella was also invited to participate in the meeting and observe the meeting.
Avila had little experience in speaking in meetings, so she wrote an outline in advance and just read it from there.
First, Avila informed everyone about the unfortunate death of Chairman Andy. After the report, everyone observed a three-minute silence for Chairman Andy.
The second thing is the absence of Egger and others.
Fran didn't say anything. He was either hunting and didn't hear the broadcast, or he heard the broadcast and never thought about coming back.
But Elvira caused a sensation when she told the reason for Iger and Joanna's absence.
"Now we don't know where they are or when they will come back. God bless us and hope they can come back smoothly." Avella said to everyone while looking at the notebook, "The last item on the agenda, now
When selecting the third chairman of the gospel team, you can nominate yourself or others."
After Avila finished speaking, the venue fell silent. This was a critical moment in determining the future development direction of the gospel team.
Subsequently, Maria volunteered to run for the position of chairman. Apart from her, no other person participated.
Elvira announced the election requirements. Whether the electors are equal or divided, they must obtain more than half of the director votes to successfully run.
Next came the voting session. Everyone was not in the mood for any ceremony and just spoke one by one to vote.
Vance took the lead and cast a negative vote.
This vote of disapproval caused everyone to gasp in surprise.
Because three people were absent, there were three fewer votes, and Vance voted against it. It seemed impossible for Maria to successfully run.
Later.
Elvira, I agree.
Lily, I agree.
Nicholas, I agree.
Gavin, agree.
When Gavin voted in favor, everyone in the audience stood up and applauded. Amidst the thunderous cheers, Maria raised her hand and said: "Maria, yes."
