Chương 6 - Rebuilding the Foundation
Two weeks later, the seventh-floor corner office of Cole Innovations—now officially renamed Vance Global Technologies—smelled of fresh paint and expensive Italian leather.
I sat behind the sprawling mahogany desk that Ethan used to claim was his “throne.” The nameplate bearing his title had been tossed into the recycling bin on my very first day. In its place sat a clean glass plaque reading: Claire Vance, Managing Director & CEO.
The restructuring process had been swift and merciless. Under Harrison Vance’s guidance, we audited every department, trimmed the dead weight, and restructured the company’s enterprise contracts. Thomas Sterling and the other institutional investors had quickly realized that keeping me at the helm was the only way to salvage their capital. They had voted unanimously to grant me full voting shares, effectively locking Ethan out of the tech industry permanently.
As for Ethan, reality had hit him like a freight train. Without his corporate salary, his luxury condo, or his status as Silicon Valley’s golden boy, his sparkling social circle had vanished overnight. Savannah had lasted exactly four days in his cramped, overdue rental apartment before packing her bags and moving in with a software engineer she had met on a dating app. When Ethan called her to complain, she had blocked his number.
A soft knock interrupted my review of the quarterly projections.
"Come in," I said without looking up.
The door swung open, and my father walked in holding two cups of artisanal dark roast coffee from the cafe downstairs. He placed one on the corner of my desk and pulled up the visitor chair, looking around the expansive office with an approving smile.
"You know, kiddo," my father said, taking a sip of his coffee. "I was slightly worried when you told me you were going to let him go through with the wedding preparations before pulling the rug out. That was a remarkably cold strategy."
I looked up from my tablet, a faint smile touching the corners of my lips. "It wasn't cold, Dad. It was efficient. If I had broken up with him six months ago, he would have played the victim, rallied his investor buddies, and painted me out to be the jealous, controlling ex-girlfriend who couldn't handle his success."
"And instead?"
"Instead, he gave a hundred and sixty high-profile witnesses a front-row seat to his own catastrophic incompetence," I replied, leaning back in my leather chair. "He made his own bed. I just made sure the sheets were fireproof."
My father chuckled, raising his coffee cup in a silent toast. "Well, your mother would have been proud. You handled that takeover better than most seasoned executives twice your age."
"Speaking of takeovers," I said, tapping the screen of my tablet to pull up a new file. "Sterling wants to expand our European market division by the third quarter. I’m thinking of acquiring that boutique logistics firm out of London—the one with the proprietary automated shipping software."
May you like
My father’s eyes lit up with professional respect. "Ah, the Kensington Group. They’ve been looking for a buyer for six months. If you can secure their IP before their Series B round closes, you’ll completely monopolize the cross-border logistics sector."
"Already on it," I said smoothly. "Harrison is drafting the terms as we speak."
