Meridian Ventures

CHAPTER THREE 

SOREN'S POV 

"Meridian Ventures," Dante read aloud, the words sounding like an absolute curse in the stifling quiet of our dorm room. 

The name of the defunct corporation sat on my laptop screen, glaring back at me in stark black text. 

Meridian Ventures was the original joint firm that fractured our families, the exact company my father accused the Valez patriarch of bankrupting through massive embezzlement. 

It was the epicenter of a twenty-year corporate war, and now, Blackridge International University was serving it to us as a casual academic exercise.

"The administration is openly mocking us," Dante stated, crossing the room and stopping right at the invisible boundary line dividing our spaces. "There is absolutely no way this is a random assignment."

"It is a psychological stress test," I replied, scrolling through the preliminary financial data attached to the email. "Blackridge knows our family history perfectly well. The Vanguard board wants to see if we will let a decades-old feud destroy our ability to generate profit."

"I am not playing their twisted game," Dante snapped, running a hand aggressively through his dark hair. "I will call my mother and have her contact the university chancellor before I let them use my family's disaster as a case study for a bunch of privileged college students."

"You cannot buy out an institution funded by sovereign wealth," I said, leaning back in my chair and studying him. "And throwing a tantrum will only prove my father right. He warned me that you were reckless, and walking away from the most prestigious incubator in the country because you cannot handle the pressure is exactly what your detractors expect you to do."

Dante crossed the boundary line without a second of hesitation, closing the distance between us until he invaded my personal space entirely. 

The sheer hostility radiating off him was undeniable, a volatile storm of anger and wounded pride, but I refused to step back or look away. 

"Do not analyze me, Kade," Dante warned.  "You sit there acting perfectly composed, but your family is the reason that company collapsed in the first place. You are the last person on earth I would ever collaborate heavy-handedly with, and I am not going to pretend otherwise just to win a plastic trophy."

"Then we will fail," I countered, keeping my posture completely rigid while maintaining eye contact. "And you can spend the rest of your life explaining to your investors how you let me intimidate you into quitting on your very first day."

He glared at me, searching my face for any sign of yielding or hesitation. 

Up close, the chaotic energy he carried was entirely distracting. 

He was taller than me, his shoulders were broad and imposing beneath his casual hoodie, and he used his physical presence like a weapon to force people into submission. 

I simply stared back, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a reaction. 

Dante let out a mocking laugh, planting both hands on the edge of my desk and leaning down so our faces were only inches apart. "You really think you can manipulate me into doing this?"

"I think you are too competitive to walk away," I answered calmly, refusing to lean away from him. "You hate losing just as much as I do."

"I hate your family," Dante corrected, his dark eyes entirely devoid of humor. "But I suppose watching you fail a corporate strategy project up close might actually be entertaining."

He pushed off the desk, breaking the proximity and walking back over to his side of the room. 

He grabbed his own laptop, flipping it open and aggressively typing in his credentials to access the Vanguard portal. 

"If we are doing this, we do it my way," Dante announced, staring at his screen. "Meridian Ventures failed because the executive board was too cowardly to risk capital on emerging foreign markets. We need to draft an aggressive expansion proposal, pitch a complete restructuring of their assets, and prove the original business model was flawed."

"That is the most absurd strategy I have ever heard," I said, turning back to my own computer and opening the initial financial ledgers. "Meridian was bleeding in cash. You do not expand a dying company. You liquidate the failing subsidiaries, cut the operating costs by forty percent, and stabilize the core assets before attempting to secure new investors."

"You cannot stabilize a company by gutting it," Dante argued, looking up from his screen and shooting me a look of absolute disdain. "That is classic Kade methodology. Strip the company down to the studs, sell off the valuable pieces, and leave the employees with nothing. It is uninspired and boring."

"It is profitable," I corrected, clicking through a spreadsheet detailing twenty-year-old losses. "Which is the entire point of business. Your strategy relies entirely on reckless gambling and sheer luck, hoping an aggressive expansion miraculously generates revenue before the creditors seize the remaining assets."

"It relies on vision," Dante fired back, abandoning his desk and walking back over to mine. "Something you clearly lack."

He leaned over my shoulder to look at my screen, his arm brushing casually against mine. 

The sudden contact sent an unexpected jolt of electricity straight up my spine, completely disrupting my train of thought. 

I froze for a minute, hyper-aware of his proximity, the warmth radiating from him, and the faint sound of his breathing. 

Dante didn't seem to notice the shift in atmosphere at all. He reached past me, his fingers tapping against my laptop screen to point out a specific column of numbers. 

"Look right there," Dante instructed, his face entirely too close to the side of my head. "The fourth-quarter projections show a slight increase in their tech division right before the crash. If they had funneled their remaining capital into that sector instead of hoarding it, they would have survived."

"They would have bankrupted themselves three months faster," I stated, forcing my voice to remain completely steady. 

I deliberately shifted my chair a few inches to the left, breaking the physical contact between us. "The tech division was completely unsustainable without a solid logistics network backing it."

Dante turned his head, finally noticing the distance I had just put between us. 

A slow, infuriating smirk formed across his face, replacing the anger from earlier with a brand-new kind of challenge. 

"Are you backing away from me, Kade?" Dante asked, his tone laced with arrogant amusement. 

"I am attempting to view my screen without you obstructing my line of sight," I replied coolly, refusing to acknowledge the sudden erratic rhythm of my own pulse. "Go and sit down. We have hundreds of pages to review before the first seminar."

"We don't need to review hundreds of pages to know your strategy is completely flawed," Dante said, though he finally stepped back from my desk. 

Before I could deliver a suitable response, both of our phones chimed in unison. 

The notification sounded loudly across the suite, signaling another update from the Vanguard administration. 

I picked up my device, swiping open the new message from Professor Thorne. 

"All Vanguard co-directors are required to submit a unified preliminary strategy document by midnight tonight," I read aloud, my eyes scanning the brief text. "Failure to submit a singular, agreed-upon direction will result in immediate disqualification from the program."

Dante checked his own phone, his arrogant smirk vanishing instantly. "A unified strategy? We cannot even agree on the basic fundamentals of the company."

"Then we have exactly nine hours to figure it out," I said, setting my phone down and looking across the room at him. "Because I am not failing this assignment."

Dante met my gaze, the competitive fire sparking right back to life in his dark eyes. "Neither am I. Which means you are going to have to admit my strategy is better."

"I would rather fail," I replied completely deadpan. 

"We will see about that," Dante promised, stepping fully back into my space.