Chapter 145
Everyone in the conference room drew a sharp breath.
Was a startup company worth all this? No one dared ask, but they saw the answer in Richard's eyes.
Yes, it was.
"Meeting adjourned." Richard stood and left the room.
His assistant hurried after him. "Mr. Neville, doing this is essentially declaring war on Europe's entire new energy sector. And Ms. Kennedy—"
Richard never broke stride, an strange anticipation playing across his face. "If she can't handle this level of pressure, she's not worth my effort."
He knew her too well—the proud, stubborn core hidden beneath Margaret's seemingly gentle exterior. The more he pushed, the harder she would push back.
He wanted to see just how far the new Margaret would go.
Suddenly, he didn't want to let go.
---
Meanwhile, at Aethel headquarters, Margaret's top-floor office reflected her personality—cool and minimalist.
Emily methodically briefed her on the morning's developments. "The Neville Group's European division and their partner investment banks called emergency meetings starting at 2 AM last night. Our inside sources confirm we're their target."
Margaret was reviewing a technical report and didn't even look up, simply turning a page calmly.
"At nine this morning," Emily continued evenly, "we received a formal 'non-binding acquisition offer' from the Neville Group. The price is... extraordinary."
She placed a document before Margaret.
Margaret's eyes swept over the astronomical figure, a faint smile touching her lips. "He hasn't changed—arrogant and heavy-handed, thinking everything in the world has a price tag."
"Should I draft a rejection letter?" Emily asked.
"No." Margaret closed her report. "He doesn't want Aethel. He wants me to submit."
She spoke softly, "A rejection letter would only escalate his tactics."
Emily gave her a questioning look.
"He wants to talk business? Let's make business more interesting."
She picked up the internal phone and dialed a number. "It's me. Inform everyone that the Aethel board has decided to officially launch our Series B funding round."
Emily's eyes immediately brightened.
Aethel seeking funding! This news would drive Europe's capital markets into a frenzy. Top-tier VCs and PEs that had been eyeing Aethel would swarm like sharks scenting blood.
Richard wanted to use money to force open the door? Margaret was opening it herself—but to the entire world.
Want to buy? Fine. Compete openly with everyone else.
"Also," Margaret added, "send a response to the Neville Group."
"What should it say?"
Margaret's mocking smile deepened.
"Tell them, 'Aethel welcomes all sincere investors. If Mr. Neville is interested, he may follow standard procedures and participate in our Series B roadshow. We look forward to seeing the Neville Group's sincerity there.'"
She was transforming him from a towering buyer into an ordinary bidder.
This wasn't just a countermove. It was humiliation.
---
When the assistant delivered this politely worded yet utterly humiliating response to Richard, the air in the conference room froze.
The assembled executives looked worse than mourners at a funeral.
Klaus's forehead beaded with sweat; he didn't dare look at Richard's face.
Before the battle had even begun, their commander had been kicked off his horse and invited to compete for entry.
Everyone expected a thunderous rage.
Instead, Richard simply stared at those few lines for a long time.
Then he smiled.
The people around the table exchanged glances, chilled to the bone.
Their boss had lost his mind.
"Interesting," Richard tapped the response with his fingertip.
He looked up, his dark eyes burning with focus.
"She wins," Richard declared calmly.
Klaus and the others stared in disbelief.
Richard stood, casually sweeping the proposal into the trash. "You may all leave."
Everyone fled the pressure center as if granted a reprieve.
The assistant remained, barely breathing.
"Mr. Neville, what about... the acquisition?"
"We're not pursuing it. She's opened the door—if I still try to break it down, I'd lack grace."
He had declared war in the most brutal way, and she had countered by pulling the rug from under him with perfect civility.
She hadn't treated him as an equal opponent at all, but as an... ordinary bidder.
This realization, rather than angering him, filled him with trembling exhilaration.
He'd thought he was recovering a broken-winged songbird. Instead, a phoenix had returned from the ashes.
His Margaret could be this powerful, this radiant.
"Cancel all of the Neville Group's business engagements in Europe."
The assistant started. "All of them? Mr. Neville, next week we have a meeting with the Rothschild family—"
"Cancel it," Richard cut him off, brooking no argument.
"Then what are we going to—"
"We're attending a roadshow," he said, "as ordinary investors."
The assistant nearly dropped his jaw.
The highest authority of the Neville Group, attending a startup's Series B funding roadshow?
If word got out, people would think Richard was under some kind of spell.
The next day, outside Aethel headquarters.
A black Maybach silently waited across the street.
Richard sat in the back seat, not getting out.
His assistant in the passenger seat felt he might suffocate.
He had already declined more than twenty important meeting invitations with increasingly absurd excuses, ranging from "my boss has traveler's sickness" to "Brookford's weather affects his thinking."
He felt his career would soon end because of these fabrications.
Just then, a deep gray Audi stopped at Aethel's entrance.
Emily got out first and opened the rear door.
Margaret emerged from the car.
Today she wore a sharply tailored white suit with a skirt, her long hair twisted into a simple chignon that revealed her slender, lustrous neck.
Tablet in hand, she walked while quietly discussing something with Emily, her expression focused, her gaze straight ahead.
From Richard's angle, he could only see her cool profile and straight-backed figure.
Though her face was familiar, she seemed completely different.
The former Margaret had been gentle, quiet, tinged with a hint of melancholy.
This Margaret had contained brilliance and cutting-edge sharpness.
Richard watched, entranced, until she disappeared through the revolving doors. Only then did he look away.