Jake remained in Box 14 for a long moment after the door clicked shut behind Alex and Anna. The room felt strangely empty, the scent of Anna’s expensive perfume lingering in the stagnant air like a reminder of a world he no longer belonged to. He looked down at his right hand; the knuckles were red and beginning to throb with a dull, rhythmic heat that matched the pulse in his jaw.

’Protecting me?’ Jake thought, a bitter scowl deepening the lines on his face. He replayed Alex’s frantic, desperate words in his head. ’From what? He’s just reaching for anything to stay above water. A classic Alex maneuver.’

To Jake, it was the same old story—masking a betrayal with the guise of a greater, hidden burden to avoid the consequences. He thought of Aliya, the way she had looked before everything fell apart, and his chest tightened with a cold, focused fury that pushed aside the confusion.

’You can’t talk your way out of this one, Alex,’ he whispered to the empty room. ’You’ll pay for what you did to her. Every cent, every drop of sweat.’

Suddenly, the speakers in the room crackled to life, and a crisp, authoritative voice cut through the silence.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please return to your seats," the auctioneer announced, his voice booming with renewed energy. "We now begin the third and final round of this historic evening. To start the Millionaire’s Round, we have a truly breathtaking lot: a collection of rare, uncut emeralds from the private estate of the late Duchess of Veridia. The bidding will start at five million marks."

Jake took a sharp breath, the voice snapping him back to the present. The third round had begun. He stood up, straightened his jacket, and walked out. Elias was waiting in the shadows of the hallway, his face as unreadable as granite. Neither of them spoke as they made their way toward Box 1.

---

Inside Box 1, the atmosphere was deceptively relaxed.

"I’m telling you, the clarity on that jade was subpar for the price it fetched," Leon said, leaning back with his legs crossed, a glass of vintage scotch in his hand.

"The market doesn’t care about your eye for detail, Leon," Noah replied, glancing up from a tablet. "They care about the provenance. That piece had history."

Marcus chuckled, swirled his drink, and looked over at Elizabeth. "And what about you, Elizabeth? Any of the upcoming lots catching your eye, or are you just enjoying the show?"

Elizabeth Roys sat slightly apart, her eyes fixed on the stage below where the emeralds were being displayed. "I find the human drama much more interesting than the stones, Marcus," she said softly.

The door opened, and Julian Sterling walked in, interrupting the flow. He had a mask of weary wisdom plastered on his face, though he couldn’t quite hide the way his eyes darted around the room. He realized immediately that Jake wasn’t there.

"Don’t mind me, gentlemen," Sterling said, his voice lacks its earlier projection. He looked tired, the weight of the evening finally showing in the slump of his shoulders. "I’ll wait for Mr. Rivers."

He sat across from them, looking like a man forced to wait for an audience with royalty. A few minutes later, the door opened again. Jake entered, and Elias took his position by the door like a silent sentinel.

"You sure took your time," Sterling said, his eyes flicking toward the door as if checking for an escape route.

Jake didn’t answer immediately. He walked over to the glass, watching the emeralds on the stage sell for nearly seventeen million marks. The gavel fell with a sharp, final crack. He eventually turned around, leaning against the railing.

Adrian Vale watched him closely, his eyes lingering on the redness and slight swelling around Jake’s knuckles. He didn’t say a word, but a subtle, knowing glint appeared in his gaze before he looked back at the whiskey in his hand.

"I had to clear some trash out of another box," Jake said flatly. He looked Sterling in the eye. "I assume you’ve spent the last twenty minutes realizing how much money you’re losing every second those seizures stay in place."

Sterling’s jaw tightened. He glanced at Marcus and Adrian, who were watching him with the detached interest of scientists observing a specimen. ’They aren’t even worried about the cost,’ Sterling thought, his stomach churning. ’To them, this is a game. To me, this is everything I’ve built.’

"I’ve been thinking about your proposal," Sterling began, his voice forced into a professional cadence. "The market is volatile. If I buy back the short positions I’ve taken against the Meridian Group, it will stabilize the ticker immediately. We can announce a joint venture, show the world that the transition is peaceful. That should be enough to satisfy your ego, Jake."

"It’s not about my ego," Jake replied, stepping closer to the table. "And it’s definitely not enough. Buying back the shorts is just you cleaning up your own mess, Julian. Plus, you’d be doing it using the very money you made from the shorting in the first place. I want your sixteen percent equity in the Meridian Group. All of it."

Sterling let out a sharp, jagged laugh that sounded more like a cough. "Sixteen percent? That’s my legacy in that company. You’re asking me to walk away from a chair I’ve sat in for two decades."

"You lost the right to that chair when you tried to burn down the house my grandfather built," Jake said, his voice dropping to a dangerous level. "And you were doing it while my family was still inside it."

’It’s not my fault your dumb uncle didn’t sell earlier,’ Sterling thought bitterly, his pulse drumming in his ears. ’If he had, I’d be the majority owner and you wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it, even with your so-called seizures.’

He looked around the room. Noah was checking something on a tablet, Leon was sipping his scotch with a mocking grin, and Elizabeth was watching him with a terrifying, silent neutrality. He felt the weight of Aurelia Capitals pressing down on him. His investors were already panicking. If he didn’t get those seizures lifted by Monday, he’d lose more than just the Meridian; he’d lose Sterling Infrastructure.

’I can’t fight them all at once,’ Sterling realized. ’Not when they’re this coordinated.’

"Fine," Sterling hissed, the word sounding like it was being pulled out of his chest with pliers. "I’ll sell you the sixteen percent. At their real worth—the pre-crash valuation. I won’t let you rob me of the value I created."

Jake looked at Marcus, who gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

"Funny how you suddenly care about a price you personally caused to drop," Jake said, his voice dry. "But agreed. We’ll discuss the final paperwork on Monday. Ten o’clock."

Sterling exhaled a long, shaky breath. He felt a moment of relief, thinking the nightmare was finally ending. He stood up, adjusting his cuffs, his posture regaining a sliver of its former stiffness. "Then we’re done. Lift the seizures, and I’ll have my lawyers contact yours."

He turned to leave, his heart already racing toward the exit.

"Julian," Marcus said.

The voice was smooth, quiet, and stopped Sterling in his tracks. He slowly turned around. "What now? I gave him the company."

"You gave Jake your sixteen percent of the Meridian," Marcus said, leaning forward. "But Aurelia Capitals hasn’t received anything yet. You see, we didn’t just initiate those seizures to help a friend. We did it because Sterling Infrastructure is an inefficient, bloated mess that’s holding back the market."

Sterling’s eyes went wide. ’They aren’t stopping,’ he thought, a surge of pure terror hitting him.

"Aurelia has no business with me," Sterling stammered. "We have no contracts, no debts—"

"Julian, those seizures are bleeding us, too," Noah interrupted, finally looking up from his tablet. He looked bored, which was far more terrifying than if he had been angry. "We’ve spent a lot of capital and time on this operation. We can’t just go back empty-handed. That would make this entire endeavor a nuisance, and we don’t do nuisances for free. If you want to keep Sterling Infrastructure safe, you should think very carefully about what you have to offer us."

"You... you vultures!" Sterling exploded, his face turning a deep, sickly purple. He slammed his hand onto the back of a chair. "This is illegal! You have no right to do this! I’ll sue every one of you into the ground!"

Adrian Vale stood up, walking toward him with a slow, predatory grace. He stopped just outside Sterling’s personal space.

"With what money?" Adrian asked softly. "By the time you get a court date, you won’t even be able to afford the filing fees. You’re overleveraged, you’re bleeding, and you’re standing in a room full of people who have the patience of glaciers."

Sterling trembled, his hands shaking so violently he had to tuck them into his pockets. He looked at the faces of the young men before him and realized he wasn’t looking at "youthful aggression." He was looking at a new world order that had no place for him. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"What do you want?" Sterling whispered, his voice broken.

"A seat on your board," Marcus said. "And the divestment of your logistics arm to an Aurelia subsidiary."

"Never," Sterling breathed. "I’ll see you in hell first."

"A person who has lost a war has to lose an arm or two if he wants to keep his life, Julian," Adrian said. "You can walk out of here with your head, or you can stay and watch us take everything else."

Sterling stared at them for a long, agonizing minute. His chest heaved as he fought the urge to scream. Finally, unable to find a single word that didn’t taste like ash, he spun on his heel and stormed out of the box.

He nearly crashed into Elias at the door, but the bodyguard didn’t move an inch. Sterling had to swerve around him, his footsteps echoing frantically down the hallway as he fled.

Inside the box, the silence was absolute.

’He’s going to try to liquidate something over the weekend,’ Noah thought, his fingers moving across his screen. ’He’ll try to find a white knight.’

Elizabeth finally looked away from the stage, her gaze sweeping over the men in the room. "That was... efficient," she said, her voice thoughtful. "But you’ve backed him into a very dark corner. A man like Julian doesn’t just disappear. He’ll look for a way to burn the bridge while he’s still on it."

"Let him try," Leon said, leaning back and finishing his drink. "The bridge is already ours."

"She’s right though," Adrian said, looking at Jake. "He’s desperate. And desperate men are the only ones unpredictable enough to be dangerous."

Jake sat down, his eyes fixed on the empty stage below as the lights began to shift to gold for the final lot. "Then we just have to make sure he doesn’t have enough breath left to strike a match."

---