บททั้งหมดของ I Own Twenty Percent of My Ex Husband’s Company: บทที่ 41 - บทที่ 50

Marcus laid it out clearly, without wasting words, something Elara had come to appreciate about him over the past several weeks of easy, professional conversation.“I want to propose a formal partnership,” he said, sitting across from her in his office, a folder open between them with terms he’d clearly spent real time preparing. “Not a small collaboration, a real structural partnership between my firm and Vale Capital, with shared capital access, and joint deal flow, my firm’s backing behind your idea at a scale that would let you move on opportunities you can’t currently touch on your own.”Elara scanned the terms slowly, taking her time, aware of exactly how significant an offer like this actually was. It would mean real capital behind Vale Capital, resources that would let her chase deals her current size just couldn’t reach yet.“This is generous,” she said, looking up. “More generous than I expected.”“It’s not charity,” Marcus said, direct as always. “I think your business idea

Kael sat with the report for the rest of the afternoon, and the longer he sat with it, the more the story in his head hardened into something he told himself made perfect sense.She wasn’t just building a business. She was aligning herself, deliberately, with the one man in the entire industry positioned to threaten his family’s company most directly. It couldn’t be a coincidence. He turned the timeline over in his mind, Marcus Chen showing up at industry events she’d started attending, a formal partnership now in advanced discussions, all of it happening in the months since she’d walked out with two boxes and a ring left on a hallway table.He convinced himself, sitting alone in his office as the evening light shifted across his desk, that this was calculated and planned. That she’d built Vale Capital not just as her own independent achievement, but as a weapon, patient and precise, aimed directly at him and everything he’d inherited.He found his father in the study that evening, th

She did not answer the call. Deep down, he knew she would not. Still, it hurt to have that confirmed. He sat in his car outside her office building. His phone was dark in his hand. He watched the entrance. He had been told, through contacts he was not proud of using, that she would arrive within the hour.He caught her walking toward the door, a bag over her shoulder, composed and unhurried, and something in him overrode every careful instinct his lawyer had laid out just the night before.“Elara.”She stopped, turning toward him with an expression that shifted quickly from surprise into something more guarded, more controlled.“Kael. What are you doing here?”“We need to talk,” he said, crossing the sidewalk toward her, aware even as he did it that his voice carried more heat than the moment probably warranted. “About the partnership. About Marcus Chen.”Something flickered across her face, as she understood quickly what he meant. “How do you know about that?”“Do you have any idea w

Serena had started asking questions weeks ago. At first, they were small and carefully chosen, casually brought up in conversations with the wives and daughters of Sterling family friends who had known Elara during her marriage and, in some cases, still kept in touch with her from a distance.At first, Serena told herself it was nothing more than harmless curiosity. It seemed natural to wonder about the woman who had come before her. But now, sitting through another charity luncheon surrounded by women who traded gossip as easily as other people traded stock tips, Serena had to admit the truth. It had become something much closer to an obsession.“Have you heard anything about the ex-wife’s new company?” she asked one of them, a woman named Diane who’d always had a talent for knowing things before anyone officially announced them.“Vale Capital?” Diane’s eyebrows lifted with interest, she was always delighted when someone brought up a topic she knew something about. “Oh, it’s the talk

The final acquisition documents stayed on Elara’s desk for two full days before she signed them. She wasn’t hesitant about the numbers. They were solid, carefully reviewed, and exactly the kind of opportunity her original idea had been built to identify.She simply wanted to take a little more time to think about the importance of the decision. She had learned to slow down and carefully consider major choices instead of rushing through them, as her old habits sometimes pushed her to do.The undervalued asset she had found months earlier, hidden deep within Sterling Group’s corporate structure, had turned out to be just as valuable as her initial analysis suggested. With Marcus’s capital supporting the move, Vale Capital had been able to acquire a significant stake in the company through several connected holding entities. The process was quiet and methodical, exactly the kind of strategic buying her original idea had been designed to carry out once she had the resources to act on oppo