The Grand Hyatt ballroom shone beneath a deluge of crystal chandeliers that cast their light bouncing off glass and silver until the entire room was bathed in champagne gold. The Global Innovation & Impact Summit was not for the weak. There was an electric tension in the air from the combined scent of expensive perfume, ancient money, and new ambition. Power was in evidence—dressed up in bespoke suits, draped in silk, and armed with elevator talks that could raise millions in minutes.
Ethan had walked into such spaces hundreds of times previously. Once, they had been his stage. He had been the main attraction—the billionaire entrepreneur whose aspirations coaxed forsaken factories into being brilliant tech campuses, who had a cover story on Fortune with a banner headline that bellowed: Th
