From Betrayal to Billions

CHAPTER 19

The Montgomery Medical boardroom was like a war zone. The long, polished table was like a battlefield, and Ethan and his father, Charles, were surrounded on all sides.

“Sign over our remaining shares for a dollar?” Mr Albright roared, his face purple with fury. “It is not a negotiation, it is a execution! You have led us to our own s*******r, Charles!”

“We had no choice!” Charles Montgomery shot back with hands trembling on the table. “The clinical trial data…if that gets out—”

“You were the ones who buried it!” A mousy faced woman, Director Ivey, shouted and slammed her hands down on the table. “Your negligence, your secret, and now we are all paying the price with our livelihoods? The company has been brought to its knees by your family’s incompetence!”

Ethan tried to regain control and raised his voice through the chatter. “We are not here to reminisce the past! We are here to decide on a path forward. This offer, however insulting, is the only one on the table.”

“The only one from a man who refuses to show his face!” Another director scoffed. “Who is he, Ethan? This ghost who destroys companies for sport? You met with him. What is his name?”

Ethan looked at the floor with fresh humiliation. “I didn’t meet him.”

A stunned silence fell over the room.

“What do you mean, you didn’t meet him?” Albright asked, quietly.

“He sent his assistant,” Ethan muttered, “The Santos woman. He deemed us…unworthy of a direst meeting.”

The uproar that followed was loud. “Unworthy?!” “He sends a secretary to deliver a death sentence?”

Director Ivey stood suddenly and pointed at him, her eyes cold with realization. “This is not Buisness. This is personal. A targeted attack.” She laughed shrilly. “A hostile takeover? It happens. But this…this systematic dismantling, this humiliation… He is not just targeting our company. He is targeting you. The Montgomery name. What did you do?”

“That is enough!” Charles shouted, but it was already too late, the damage was done. The board’s suspicion was now aimed directly at Ethan.

“We cannot accept this offer,” Albright declared and a murmur of agreement swept the hall. “We will find another way. We will fight him in the courts, we will—”

The opened suddenly and Ethan’s young assistant, Gregory, slipped in nervously. “Mr Montgomery? Sir? I am sorry to interrupt, but…Ms. Withman is waiting for you in your office. She says it is urgent.”

Ethan seized the opportunity to escape the fight. Without a word, he stood and left the room, as the shouts of his board member echoed behind him.

Stella wasn’t waiting. She was in charge. She sat in his high backed curved leather chair, behind his desk, swirling slowly to face him as he entered. Her expression was not sympathetic, but calculating.

“Well?” She asked, going straight to the point. “How did it go? What did the great Mr Parkinson have to say?”

Ethan poured himself a glass of wine with shaky fingers and shook his head. “It wasn’t him.”

Stella’s perfect composure cracked. “What?”

“He did not come. He sent Mila.” He downed the drink in one gulp. “He had her deliver his terms. Recorded, for his review.”

“That little traitor,” Stella hissed, and grabbed to the arms of the chair. “What are the terms?”

Ethan let out a hollow croaky laugh. “Our remaining shares. All of them. For one dollar. Or he releases the clinical trial data and we all go to prison.”

“And the board?” She asked.

“They are in open revolt. They called it personal. They are right, aren’t they? But I don’t know why.”

Stella waved her hand dismissively. “The ‘why’ doesn’t matter anymore. Only the ‘what now.’” She stood and began to pace. “The board is right about one thing. We cannot accept this. Surrender is not an option.”

“What other choice do we have?” Ethan cried in despair. “No bank will touch us. No investor in this country will go against Parkinson now. He is too powerful!”

“Exactly,” Stella said, and stopped her pace with a dangerous spark in her eyes. “No investor in this country.”

Ethan stared at her confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Then we look outside the box, Ethan. We look abroad.” She leaned forward on his desk and whispered excitedly, “If the playing field here is poisoned, we find a new one. We find a player that big enough and far enough, that they aren’t afraid of the Parkinson family.”

“A foreign investor?” Ethan whispered, trying to wrap his head around it.

“Not just any investor,” Stella replied, with a sly smile playing on her lips. “A major one. A conglomerate. Someone with deep enough pockets to not only bail out Montgomery Medical but to arm us for a war. We give them a massive equity stake. In return, they give us the capital to fight back. To launch a counter attack. To buy back our own shares and tell Parkinson to go to hell.”

Ethan was too stunned to speak. The scale of the idea was breathtaking. “Who? Who would do that?”

“That is your job to find out,” Stella said flatly. “Leverage every contact you have left. Your father’s old friends at the international conferences. Anyone. This isn’t about pride anymore, Ethan. This is about survival. And to survive a shark, you need a bigger shark.”

She walked around the desk and placed a gloved hand on his cheek. “This is how we win. Not by groveling, but by fighting back. So stop feeling sorry for yourself. Your future, and mine, depends on you finding us a monster to fight our monster.”

Then she left him standing alone in his office. Though the heavy weight of despair was still there, but now it was mixed with….hope. Stella was right. Surrender was not an option. It was time to go to war.