Chapter 5 - The Glass House Falls
By 7:00 PM, Prescott Global's main corporate headquarters in Midtown Manhattan was a ghost town.
The grand glass lobby, usually buzzing with hundreds of software engineers, analysts, and international clients, was lit only by emergency lights. Security guards hired by the Sterling Heritage Trust stood at every exit, overseeing the orderly evacuation of employees who had been handed immediate severance packages paid for by my private trust.
Inside Aaron's corner executive office on the 60th floor, the scene was one of pathetic, frantic chaos.
Aaron was stuffing high-end watches, personal documents, and hard drives into a leather duffel bag. His phone was ringing incessantly—calls from panicked board members, demanding bank managers, and furious investors echoing off the floor-to-ceiling glass walls.
The door swung open, and his mother, Evelyn, rushed in, wearing her mink coat, her diamond rings glittering under the dim light.
"Aaron!" she wailed, grabbing his arm. "The banks have frozen my personal credit cards! My country club membership was revoked an hour ago! The landlord of my condo said the lease was canceled because the corporate guarantor defaulted! What is happening?!"
"I know, Mother! I know!" Aaron yelled, tearing his hair in frustration. "Alyssa is systematically gutting everything! She owned the leases, the guarantees, the credit facilities—everything!"
"That wicked, treacherous snake!" Evelyn spat, tears of rage smudging her heavy mascara. "How could she do this to us after everything we did for her?! We welcomed her into our family! I gave her a position in society!"
Aaron stopped packing, turning to look at his mother with a sudden, sickening flash of clarity.
"We gave her a position?!" Aaron laughed bitterly, a sound filled with self-loathing. "Mother, she was a Sterling! She born into a family that owns half of Manhattan! She didn't need our 'position'! She played along because she loved me, and we treated her like a servant!"
"Are you defending her now?!" Evelyn shrieked.
"I'm realizing how blind I was!" Aaron shouted back, slamming his duffel bag shut. "I thought I was a genius, Mother! I thought I built this empire! But every time I succeeded, it was because she quietly cleared the path, paid the bills, or gave me the solution! And today, because I wanted to show off in front of my board and let Jasmine sit in her seat, I threw it all away!"
Evelyn gasped, stepping back. "Jasmine... but Jasmine loves you! She’s standing by you!"
"Yes," Aaron breathed, grabbing his bag and pulling his coat on. "Jasmine is the only thing I have left. She has the secondary code drives. We’re leaving for Singapore tonight. I’m going to sell the core software to Vanguard, get two hundred million in cash, and rebuild."
"Take me with you!" Evelyn pleaded, grabbing his coat. "You can't leave me here to face these vultures alone!"
Aaron looked at his mother—the woman who had constantly whispered in his ear that Alyssa wasn't good enough for him, that he deserved a younger, more submissive woman who would worship him.
"Stay at a hotel, Mother," Aaron said coldly, pulling his sleeve from her grip. "I'll send for you once the money clears in Singapore."
He turned and walked out of the office, leaving his mother weeping amidst the empty desks of the empire he had burned down for his own pride.
Ten minutes later, Aaron arrived at a luxury apartment building in Soho. He took the private elevator to the top floor, clutching his leather bag tightly against his chest.
He knocked on the door of Suite 8B.
Jasmine opened the door. She was dressed not in her usual professional attire, but in an elegant black silk dress, her luggage packed and standing neatly in the foyer.
"Aaron," she smiled, stepping back to let him in. "You made it. Do you have the master encryption keys?"
"Right here," Aaron said, pulling a glowing silver flash drive from his pocket. "This contains the root access codes to the entire architecture. Once we merge this with your backup drive, Vanguard can upload the framework to their servers in five minutes."
"Wonderful," Jasmine said, taking the silver drive from his hand with a strange, icy swiftness.
"Where is your backup drive?" Aaron asked, looking around the stylish apartment.
Before Jasmine could answer, the door to the inner bedroom opened.
A tall, heavy-set man in a bespoke navy suit stepped out, holding a glass of scotch in his hand.
Aaron froze, the blood draining from his face as he recognized the man standing in his secretary's apartment.
May you like
Arthur Pendelton—the CEO of Vanguard Technologies, and Aaron's fiercest corporate rival.
"Good evening, Aaron," Arthur said, a wide, predatory grin spreading across his face. "Thanks for delivering the keys in person. It really saves us a lot of trouble."
