10x Cashback: Your Wealth Is Mine

Chapter 108: Tying Up Loose Ends

I paced on the balcony of my suite, a glass of wine in hand.

The billionaire lifestyle was exactly as I’d pictured it. With the money came freedom. Freedom to do whatever the fuck I wanted.

If I liked, I could’ve just put someone in charge of Imperium Holdings but I couldn’t. Because I had a war coming.

I needed someone I trusted in charge of my most prized possession. The number of people that fit the bill can be counted on one hand.

Me, Matt and recently added, Jenny.

I didn’t know when but after the partnership with Ward Impact Ventures, I realized that somehow, I had begun considering her my family.

I now... trusted her.

It was weird and at the same time, okay. And that was a good thing.

If I could trust Jenny, it meant that I now had an ally in my war to sit on the throne together.

With Apex and Imperium fighting together, a lot of things are possible.

As for Matt, he was finishing up his degree. When he was done, he’d join me as my right hand man at Imperium Holdings.

Matt on the right and Tom on the left. A deadly combo.

I smiled to myself and took a sip of my wine, watching the morning sun shine down on New York City.

What a time to be alive.

I downed the rest of my wine and walked back inside the suite.

The time for dilly-dallying was over. It was time to clean up some loose ends.

First, I called Elsa. After a few rings, she picked up the call.

"Nico?"

"Hey, Elsa." I greeted. "How are things going with NovaGen?"

"Smooth." She answered. "At this point, we don’t need to push things so much anymore. Both NovaGen and the public are doing the rest of the work."

That was what it had been all along.

Jasmine was smart. The moment the competition was announced, she’d made a move to begin negotiations with Harrison & Co.

When your opponent is moving that fast towards a gold mine, the best thing you can do is stop them.

Jasmine had made the move, knowing Jenny’s first thought would be to steal the deal from right under her. And that’s what we’d given her.

But even as we negotiated with them, we’d made sure to drag things out so that we could cancel it when the time came. Which is now.

We’d made sure Jasmine saw us negotiating with Harrison & Co while we worked on our actual partnership with Ward Impact Ventures.

The whole thing had been a wild goose chase meant to slow us down. In fact, I’d ended up owing Nancy Draconi a favor in order to make this work. And it worked.

Now, with the date fast approaching, we’d use this opportunity to pull the rug out from under Jasmine.

For now, Jenny had Amelia Ward, the partnership resulting in Apex’s new division and the injection of funds from my $8 billion war chest working in her favor.

From the moment the interim vote was cast, our PR machine would begin its work and spin the public perception in our favor.

Before long, Jenny would be seen as the new force needed to guide Apex.

On second thought, Jasmine wasn’t as powerful as I’d thought. Yes, she had the Apex board members on her side and that was important but that was the only thing she had.

If the board members were yanked from her, she had nothing else.

She had a lot to lose and we? We had a lot to gain.

Jasmine had influence among the board but the board members wanted one thing only. Profit.

Blinking out of my thoughts as my tablet buzzed, I picked it up to see that it was an email notification.

I opened the email and just from the subject line, I knew what it was about. My ticket to the show, given to me by the gamemaster herself.

I read through it, a smirk growing on my face. Jenny had been right.

Clarisse Newton didn’t just invite me to her office but to also attend the upcoming interim board vote meeting at the Apex Investments headquarters where both candidates will present their vision.

I replied to the email, confirming my attendance. I’ll get to see for myself where we would be starting from.

Sweet.