Chapter 24 Chapter 24
At that moment, Vincent stared at Oliver as if he had just spoken in a language that made no sense.
“I don’t understand,” he said, his voice sharpening instantly. “What the hell is going on? What do you mean, if I want to tell the world about the contract getting canceled?”
His eyes widened with disbelief.
“What contract getting canceled?” he snapped. “What the hell is this? Is this some kind of joke or what?”
He gave a short, humorless laugh, but there was no amusement in it.
“The contract is already confirmed, so what exactly are you talking about?”
Oliver did not react to the outburst.
Instead, he calmly cleared his throat and folded his hands on the table.
“Let me be frank with you,” he said. “Your contract the one worth one hundred billion dollars has been canceled.”
The words struck the room with the weight of a hammer.
But Oliver was not done.
“And not just that,” he continued. “The previous one you received before this, which was one billion dollars has also been canceled.”
Vincent went still.
For a moment, it looked as though his mind refused to process the information.
Oliver’s expression remained composed as he went on.
“If not for the fact that you had already begun part of the earlier contracts we gave you particularly the one from about a year ago I would have canceled that as well. But that is no longer practical, because most of the work there is already nearly ninety percent completed.”
He paused briefly, then continued in the same controlled tone.
“So as for the remaining contracts, especially this one, they have been terminated.”
His eyes held Vincent’s without pity.
“I chose not to publish the cancellation immediately. I did not want the public to find out before now, which is why I even allowed you to come here in the first place.”
The statement only made it worse.
Because now the truth was clear.
Vincent had not walked into a signing ceremony.
He had walked into a private collapse.
Oliver continued, “But now that you are here and have been informed directly, the next step will be the official publication announcing to the world that the contract has been canceled.”
That was when Vincent shot up from his seat so quickly that the chair jerked backward.
“What kind of nonsense is this?” he shouted.
His face had completely changed now.
The confidence was gone.
The smugness had cracked.
And in its place was raw disbelief, rage, and panic.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded. “Canceled? How? Why? What the hell is going on?”
He stared wildly at Oliver, as though trying to force reality to reverse itself.
“Is this some kind of joke or what?” he snapped. “If it is, then you’d better stop it right now. We are not in April, and I’m not the kind of person you make this kind of joke with.”
Immediately, Mr. Oliver looked at him and said, “Do you think I’m joking? Do you think this is some kind of game?”
His voice was calm, but there was no softness in it now.
Then, without another word, he reached for a document he had been holding, pulled it out clearly, and raised it just enough for Vincent to see.
“This,” Oliver said, waving the paper lightly in his direction, “is the official document from Global Investments terminating your contract.”
He gave a small, cold pause.
“Ordinarily, you do not even need to sign it. I simply wanted you to see it for yourself.”
Then he let the document fall toward Vincent.
The paper landed close enough for Vincent to lunge for it almost immediately.
Without wasting even a second, he rushed forward, grabbed it, and began reading with trembling urgency.
And the moment his eyes moved across the page, the reality hit him.
The signatures were there.
The approval was complete.
The management of Global Investments had already signed off on it.
The CEO’s signature was there.
Mr. Oliver’s signature was there.
The termination was real, Final, Official.
For a second, Vincent just stood there staring at the document as though the words might rearrange themselves if he looked long enough.
But they did not, his contract had been terminated.
Not only the one worth one hundred billion dollars.
Even the one before it had been terminated too.
The paper in his hand suddenly felt heavier than it should have.
His legs began to shake, his breathing shifted.
And for the first time since he had arrived, the full weight of what this meant began to crush him.
In a matter of seconds, everything had changed.
The deal, the image.
The future he had already begun celebrating in his mind.
Gone.
He had gone from standing on the edge of becoming untouchable to staring directly at collapse.
How was that even possible? What would people say if they found out?
What would those outside think?
The journalists, the cameras.
The people who looked up to him.
The ones already calling him a symbol of young success.
How were they going to see him now if they learned that the contract had been terminated before it was even signed?
And worse if they found out the earlier one had also been pulled back?
His thoughts spiraled, none of it made sense to him.
This could not have happened for no reason.
Someone had done this, Someone had pulled a string somewhere.
Someone had moved against him.
But who? He had done nothing at least nothing he believed deserved this kind of blow.
Nothing that should result in something so brutal, so humiliating, so sudden.
To him, this felt barbaric, a calculated attempt to ruin him.
To destroy him without warning.
At that moment, his voice lost all its former arrogance as he looked up and said, “What… what did I do? Who did I offend? What the hell is going on? Can you please talk to me, Mr. Oliver?”
Immediately, Mr. Oliver’s expression turned even colder.
“I have absolutely nothing to discuss with you,” he said.
His tone was flat, final, and completely unmoved.
“What exactly am I supposed to talk to you about when the decision has already been made?”
Then he looked directly at Vincent and added, “You may take your leave now. Leave immediately.”
Those words struck Vincent harder than the termination letter itself.
Because in that instant, he understood something terrifying.
If he walked out of that room now, everything would fall apart.
The media was still outside.
The cameras were still waiting, the reporters were still eager.
The same people who had been prepared to celebrate him would be the first to tear him apart once they learned what had happened.
He could already imagine the headlines.
The whispers, the ridicule.
The mockery.
How was he supposed to explain this? How was he supposed to face the world after walking into what was meant to be the biggest day of his career, only to leave with nothing?
"No."
Something was wrong.
This had gone far beyond a simple business decision.
He could feel it.
There was something deeper here, something he still did not know, and until he understood it, he could not afford to walk away.
At that moment Panic took over.
Without warning, Vincent dropped to his knees.