“Mr. Ivanov came up with a new proposal. At first, they were only interested in just working with OC Textiles, but now they want to work with Valencian Corp as well. Changing the original plan of Mr. Balakin, the other partner, Mr. Ivanov now wishes to work on several projects at a time. He said he had his full trust in us. So, the more projects they could work on with us, the more they can expand their name in the US market.”

“So, what did you say?”

He thought for a second, before going back to flipping the pancake. “At first I didn’t like the idea of acknowledging the amount of money Valencian Corp has to invest. But Arthur has a belief it can bring us a huge Russian market if we go ahead with it. Their company has a good reputation in Russia. Even Caleb seems to like the idea. So, I agreed.” A shoulder of his lifted.

“How much does Valencian Corp have to invest?” I raised my brow.

He glanced at me. “Five hundred million.”

I gasped. My eyes widened. Five hundred?

“And as it’s a vast amount of money, they don’t want to bear any risk before the projects complete. So, they suggested signing a contract. A contract where it says that if there would be any hindrance or loss caused by a party between the certain time before the projects finish, they shall compensate the other party with the whole amount they invested in the project,” he added. “So that either party wouldn’t have any kind of hesitation regarding the deals.”

My mouth was on the floor, still absorbing his revelation. “And you agreed to go ahead with this? Five hundred million isn’t a joke for a company. I know you’re a freaking billionaire, but it can be a big issue for your company in the future if something goes wrong.”

He cupped my chin. “Our, it’s our company, baby. And don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. Our company handled deals like this before, though not with such contracts. But it’s not a big deal. They agreed to a lot of our conditions, we had to agree to this one of theirs. Normally I don’t work with others’ conditions, but Arthur seems to be adamant about working with them. He requested me several times to agree. So, I did.”

Something didn’t feel right. This contract didn’t sit well with me. Though people were working with contracts like that out there, with Arthur involved in this, seeing his desperation for this deal, I couldn’t help but worry.

He was definitely planning something.

“You said Arthur is going to handle this project?”

He nodded.

“Do you think you can trust him with it?” I asked carefully. “I mean, it’s quite a big project for him to handle all alone.”