From Betrayal to Billions

CHAPTER 15

The Montgomery penthouse which was once a symbol of untouchable opulence, now felt like a bedazzled cage. The air was thick with the irritating advent of expensive whiskey and pure, undiluted panic.

Ethan Montgomery paced the length of the Persian rug, his movements jerky and uncoordinated. The financial news channel was on mute on the massive screen, but the words at the bottom screamed the story loud enough…PARKINSON GROUP - 18.5%…MONTGOMERY MED - 22%… WITHMAN GROUP - 15%….

“Eighteen percent!” Ethan roared as he finally snapped. He snatched the crystal flower pot from the wet bar and flung it into the fireplace and It exploded in a shower of glass shards. “In one hour! How is that even possible?”

Stella Withman sat stiffly on a cream silk sofa, her posture perfect, her face a mask of fury. She was still dressed in the silver gown from the party, the glittering engagement ring placed on her finger now feeling like a chain. “You said it was done, Ethan. You said you had handled it. You stood there with your champagne and your smug smile and you told us all it was a success.”

“It was signed!” Elliot Withman, Stella’s older brother and the family’s hot headed strategist jumped up angrily and jabbed a finger at a tablet. “The terms were extreme, but it was a deal! This…this is a bloodbath! Our stock is getting slaughtered in the pre market because we are tied to you.”

“Don’t you dare point that finger at me,” Ethan snarled and turned to him. “Your name is on that guarantee, Elliot! Your offshore accounts are the collateral Reynolds demanded! If I sink, I am taking you and your entire family down with me!”

“You insolent little…” Elliot took a step forward angrily with his fist clenched.

“ENOUGH!”

The single word shook the entire office and silenced the room. Finn Withman, the patriarch, stood in the doorway. He wasn’t a large man, but his presence filled the space. His usual clean suit was rumpled with a ashen look on his face. In his hand, he held a printed email.

“The board is coming together for an emergency meeting in one hour,” Finn said in a dangerously calm tone. “They are voting on whether to remove me as CEO and sue us for gross negligence for personally guaranteeing this…this huge failure.”

Elliot dropped his shoulders. “Brother, we can explain…”

“Explain what?” Finn interrupted contemptuously. “How my sister’s fiancé and my own brother handed over the keys to our kingdom to a ghost? How you signed a deal that gave a stranger twenty percent of our biggest partner and then used my money to back it, just. Fore that partner’s value evaporated into thin air?”

Stella finally spoke, with an edge in her voice. “It was a targeted leak. Parkinson’s internal data. Someone is trying to sabotage them.”

“And they have done a magnificent job!” Finn shouted, the calm shattering. He threw the printed email onto the coffee table. It was the leaked financial document, now in the public eye. “This didn’t just fall from the sky, Stella! This was done intentionally. Who did you people piss off?”

Ethan stopped pacing as cold sweat washed over him with a new, horrifying thought. “The clause…” he whispered.

“What clause?” Stella snapped.

“The Parkinson heir…Reynolds mentioned a clause in the old man’s will. He has to hold the shares for a year, or it all goes to the cousin, Marcus Foster.” Ethan’s eyes were wide with a fresh horror. “This…this crash….of the new CEO panics and sells to stop the shares fall…”

“….Then Marcus Foster gets everything and our deal is with him,” Finn finished, sinking into an armchair as if his bones had turned to water. “A man known for being significantly less….merciful than his predecessor.”

The room fell into a stunned silence. They had been outplayed so completely, they had not even realized they were on the board.

“This can not be a coincidence,” Elliot muttered and ran a hand through his hair. “The deal gets signed, and hours later, the leak happens? This was planned. We were set up.”

“By who?” Stella asked. “The cousin? Why would he sink his own company’s stock?”

“To get it all for himself, you i***t!” Ethan yelled. “Don’t you see? He doesn’t care about the short term loss! He is burning the village to rule the ashes!”

Just then, Stella’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it and her already pale face turned completely white. She held it up. It was a notification from a high society gossip blog.

The headline was created to hit home. Brutally.

FROM BOARDROOM TO BEGGAR? MONTGOMERY HEIR’S BOTCHED DEAL SENTS FAMILY FORTUNE PLUMMETING. WITHMAN WEDDING NOW OFF?

Ethan stared at the screen with his face pale as sheet. He was not just ruined, he was a laughing stock. The dumped groom had become the failed groom.

Stella slowly stood up and looked at Ethan, not with panic or solidarity, but with pure, solid revulsion.

“You,” she whispered angrily. “You did this. Your incompetence. Your desperation to prove you were more than just your father’s name. You have destroyed everything. My future. My family’s legacy.”

She pulled the huge diamond ring off her finger and threw it at his feet.

“The wedding,” she said calmly, “is postponed. Indefinitely.”

She didn’t look back as she walked out of the office, leaving the three men in the ruins of their greed.

Ethan stared at the ring on the floor. The writings on the TV continued to scroll…PARKINSON GROUP—19.3%….

Somewhere, Jace Parkinson was watching those same numbers…..and he was smiling.