Chapter 6 - The Great Exodus
Before Nicholas could stammer out another plea, a sharp, authoritative voice cut through the room from the front entrance.
“Well, if she’s leaving, I suppose I have no reason to stay either.”
Everyone turned. Standing at the double doors of the ballroom was Arthur Pendelton, the senior managing partner of Pendelton Capital, holding a massive, expensive gift box. Beside him stood three other major venture capitalists and board members who had flown in on private jets just for this wedding.
Nicholas’s face lit up with desperate hope. “Mr. Pendelton! Please, come in! The ceremony is over, but the reception is just—"
“We didn't come for the reception, son,” Arthur interrupted, walking past Nicholas without a second glance. His silver hair gleamed under the chandeliers as he strode purposefully toward Table Nineteen. He stopped in front of me, offering a warm, respectful nod. “Jenna. We’ve been trying to get ahold of you all morning. The board meeting in New York was moved up. We need your sign-off on the European expansion deck before noon tomorrow, or the acquisition falls through.”
Nicholas clutched his head in his hands. “European acquisition? What... what are you talking about? You’re invested in my father’s logistics company!”
“Not anymore,” Arthur said bluntly, turning to look at my bewildered father. “Frank, your son is an incompetent narcissist who treats his own family like trash while begging us for table scraps. If this is how he treats the actual genius behind his firm's success, I shudder to think how he handles his corporate accounts. Pendelton Capital is formally withdrawing our funding effective immediately.”
The room erupted into absolute chaos.
My father stumbled out of his chair, his face purple with rage and panic. “Arthur, wait! You can’t do that! We have contracts! We have years of partnership!”
“Sue me,” Arthur replied coldly.
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One by one, the other executives and investors who had crowded around Nicholas’s power table began to murmur among themselves. They looked at Nicholas with sheer disgust. In the cutthroat world of high finance, a man who couldn't even manage his own family dynamics—let alone recognize a billionaire-tier asset sitting right under his nose—was a liability.
Within three minutes, half the room was packing up their belongings. The glittering, elite social paradise Nicholas had spent a fortune building was collapsing like a house of cards.
