Chapter 12 - The Rival’s Countermove
Word of my refusal spread through the upper echelons of the Vermont business community faster than wildfire. To old-school family dynasties who valued bloodlines over actual merit, my rejection of the family trust was seen as a scandal. But to the tech and venture capital titans of Manhattan, it was the ultimate power move.
By Friday afternoon, my inbox was flooded with congratulatory messages from board members and CEOs. Among them was a sleek, encrypted email from Marcus Vance, the ruthless senior partner of Vance & Sterling’s surviving remnants—the very firm Nicholas had tried and failed to partner with.
Marcus hadn't attended the wedding, but he had read the post-mortems in The Wall Street Journal. He knew precisely who had written the algorithms and structural frameworks that made Stewart Technologies billions.
His email was short, direct, and dripping with corporate arrogance: “Jenna, your former family’s archaic business model is dead, but your talent is wasted playing second fiddle at a tech monopoly. Name your price. Come lead the strategic advisory board at Vance & Sterling. Let’s show the world what happens when you’re actually valued.”
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I stared at the screen, a slow, cold smile spreading across my face. Marcus thought I was a mercenary. He thought my loyalty could be bought with a higher title and a bigger paycheck, completely missing the fact that I didn't care about titles—I cared about vision, integrity, and absolute control.
I forwarded the email directly to Emmett with a single line of text: “Look what the cat dragged in.”
