Chapter 465
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Chapter 465:
Two minutes later, the heavy glass doors opened. Chloe walked in wearing a fitted white designer suit, a smug, self-important smile fixed across her face — clearly under the impression that her medical pass conferred some form of special privilege.
Gaston didn’t stand. He didn’t gesture to a chair. He simply stared at her with eyes as flat and cold as a frozen lake.
“Speak,” he said.
Chloe’s smile slipped for a fraction of a second before she recovered. She moved closer to his desk and rested one manicured hand on the polished wood. “I heard a very interesting rumor at the country club yesterday, Gaston,” she said, affecting an intimate, purring tone. “I heard Isabelle Sterling taught your little wife a harsh lesson during her Series B financing round.” She tilted her head, arranging her expression into something resembling sympathy. “I just wanted to check on you. I know how much you used to rely on my psychological grounding. It must be so stressful, having a PR wife who constantly causes embarrassing scenes in the corporate world p>
𝖩oi𝗇 𝗼u𝗋 𝗰𝗈𝗆𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 on
The temperature in the room dropped to absolute zero.
Gaston’s hands, resting flat on the desk, slowly curled into fists. His knuckles turned white.
Isabelle Sterling had touched Jocelyn’s financing.
A terrifying, homicidal rage detonated in his chest. He rose from his chair, his massive frame casting a long shadow across the desk and over Chloe entirely.
“You came into my building,” Gaston said, his voice a low, vibrating growl that seemed to make the glass walls contract, “to gossip about my wife p>
The color left Chloe’s face. She stumbled backward, her heels catching on the thick carpet. “Gaston, I p>
“Get out,” he said, his eyes burning with lethal precision. “If you ever use that medical pass to enter this building again, I will personally ensure your medical license is shredded. You will never practice medicine in the state of New York again p>
He slammed his hand down on the security panic button.
Within five seconds, two large security guards burst through the doors, took Chloe by the arms, and dragged her from the room over her indignant shrieks, as though removing something unpleasant from a carpet. The doors swung shut behind them.
Silence reclaimed the office.
Gaston didn’t sit. He snatched the receiver from his desk phone and punched in the direct line to his Chief Financial Officer. “Find Sterling Capital’s largest, most vulnerable liquidity exposure,” he said. “I want it on my desk in five minutes p>
Four minutes later, the CFO arrived at a near-run, visibly sweating through his silk shirt. He dropped a red folder onto Gaston’s desk.
“Mr. Collins — Sterling Capital is currently the lead underwriter on a three-billion-dollar syndicated loan to acquire a European energy grid. Collins Bank is providing forty percent of the backing capital p>
Gaston studied the numbers. A slow, merciless smile touched the corner of his mouth.
“Pull our capital,” he said. “Immediately. Unconditionally p>
The CFO’s jaw dropped. “Sir, if we pull out without warning, it will trigger a significant market panic. Sterling’s entire funding chain could collapse within twenty-four hours p>
“That is exactly the point,” Gaston said, his voice entirely devoid of mercy. “Execute the order p>