Chapter 386
Chapter 386:
Isolde did not answer immediately. She walked away from her chair and moved toward the large white dry-erase board mounted on the side wall of the boardroom.
She picked up a thick red marker, pulled the cap off with her teeth, and spat it into her hand.
“If I miss the five billion dollar target, you get fifty-one percent of Carson Dynamics,” she said, her voice carrying clearly through the quiet room.
She pressed the marker to the board. The squeak of the felt tip was loud and abrasive.
She wrote in large block letters: CARSON DYNAMICS → LANCASTER.
“But,” Isolde continued, turning to look directly at Belle, “if the proprietary composite materials provided by InnoTech cause a single production delay p>
She turned back to the board and wrote: INNOTECH → CARSON DYNAMICS.
“If your factory fails a single quality assurance audit, or if a shipment is delayed by even twenty-four hours —” She paused, letting the tension build until it was suffocating. “I am awarded ten percent equity in InnoTech. And that penalty compounds. Ten percent for every single violation p>
Belle let out a high, hysterical shriek and shot up from her chair, both hands slamming the table. “You can’t touch InnoTech! It is a completely separate corporate entity — it has nothing to do with this p>
Isolde looked at her with absolute pity. “Grayson holds the controlling stake in InnoTech. He is legally permitted to collateralize his shares for this venture.” She shifted her dead gaze back to Grayson. “Well, Grayson? Are you confident in your new partner’s abilities p>
Grayson stared at the red ink on the whiteboard. The math was brutal. A ten percent compounding penalty meant that a handful of minor manufacturing errors would strip him of his crown jewel entirely. It was a lethal poison pill.
𝗟𝖺𝘁e𝗌𝘵 с𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘵еrs 𝗼𝗇 ѕ.co𝗺
But Grayson’s hubris was a physical armor. He had built Lancaster Manufacturing from the ground up. His machines did not fail.
“My factory operates on Six Sigma standards,” he said, his voice radiating absolute, unyielding confidence. “We have a perfection rate of 99.99966 percent. We do not make errors p>
“Then you have absolutely nothing to worry about,” Isolde said smoothly.
Daron McKnight leaned in close, his face pale and slick. “Don’t do it, Gray,” he whispered urgently. “It’s too much exposure. You are risking the primary asset p>
Grayson looked at Isolde. He saw the defiant, challenging spark in her eyes. His pride — his desperate need to crush her independence and draw her back under his control — overrode his business sense. He could not back down in front of Caldwell.
“Fine,” Grayson said, his voice hard. “But the quality assurance audits cannot be conducted by your team. They must be performed by a neutral, third-party agency p>
Isolde capped the marker. “Agreed. We will use The Institute as the auditing body p>
Belle’s face drained of all color. She looked as though she might be sick. The Institute was Professor Nelson’s domain — the man who had publicly humiliated her and called her a fraud.
“Draft the addendum,” Isolde ordered, turning to Liam. “We sign it today p>