The Fifty-Million-Dollar Contract

Chapter 4 The Queen's Arrival

Chloe laughed loudly enough to turn heads. “A driver? Darling, she can call a taxi. You can afford one, right, Ivy? Or has your *freelance* work dried up?”

Liam winced at the attention she had drawn, then put a hand on my shoulder.

“Chloe’s right,” he said. “Leave quietly. I’ll pay for the cab. Go, Ivy. It’s for your own good.”

I looked at his hand until he mistook my silence for surrender.

Arthur Blackwood stopped beside us. He passed Liam without a greeting and smiled at me with the ease of an old business partner. Liam removed his hand from my shoulder before Arthur could look at it.

“Ivy, my dear. I was hoping to find you. We’re ready.” Arthur’s voice carried across the terrace.

The nearby conversations stopped. Chloe looked from Arthur to me. Liam said nothing.

Arthur offered me his arm, then raised the microphone toward the crowd gathering at the doors.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Our keynote speaker founded the most successful acquisition fund on Wall Street.”

Arthur turned toward me. “She has changed how every person in this room values a distressed company.”

Arthur paused. Liam’s color had gone, and his fingers closed around his whiskey glass.

Arthur turned to me. “Please welcome the founder of Vulture Equity, I.S., Ms. Ivy Stewart.”

For one beat, no one moved. Then the terrace broke into applause. Several investors who had ignored Liam all evening came forward to greet me.

A glass shattered.

Liam’s whiskey tumbler lay broken at his feet, amber liquor running between the pieces. His empty hand shook.

Beside him, Chloe stared at the investors lining up for me and tried to slide the Nelson Star out of sight against her dress.

Arthur held out his arm again.

I handed my empty water glass to a waiter and nodded to Arthur. The crowd opened a path to the podium, except for Liam.

He stood directly in front of me.

I stopped.

“Mr. Nelson, you’re in my way.”

He stepped back. I walked past him as the applause started again.

From the stage, I caught him watching me. The shock had already hardened into certainty.

He mouthed two words: *For me.*

His gaze moved from the investors to the Vulture Equity logo behind the podium, then back to me. He tapped his chest with one finger.

He was still nodding to himself when Arthur handed me the microphone.

I turned to the microphone and began my speech.