Chapter 248
That afternoon, right after school let out, Vice President Vince Walker from EcoRide called Mira to report that a competitor was aggressively headhunting him with a massive salary offer.
Shortly after, the CFO and several other key executives called in with the exact
same story.
Someone was trying to poach her entire C-suite. A hostile copycat was gearing up for launch.
If they were calling Mira, they had undoubtedly already briefed Owen.
But Owen hadn’t even bothered to call her, which meant he considered the threat completely beneath his notice.
Mira wasn’t losing any sleep over it, either.
EcoRide was a rocket ship, and she was already paying her executives top-of-the- market salaries. Not to mention, she had just guided all of them into making a fortune on the stock market.
Unless someone was severely brain-damaged, they weren’t going to jump ship.
EcoRide possessed absolute first-mover advantage. They controlled seventy percent of the major urban hubs in Mavaria and had stockpiled a terrifying war chest from user deposits.
Even if a rival offered double the salary, it was a moot point if their company burned out in six months. It was a short-term cash grab with zero long-term stability.
By the time the copycat collapsed, the defectors would be begging for their old jobs back.
Harvey Rivers had picked up on the poaching attempts as well. Ever since dropping fifty million into Solflare, he had been monitoring the market like a hawk.
He briefly compared notes with Mira but shared her absolute lack of concern.
A few days later, internal reports indicated that since the competitor couldn’t breach the executive level, they were now targeting middle management and entry-level staff.
Both Mira and Owen agreed on a strategy of total non-interference. If employees wanted to leave, they could. It was the perfect opportunity to naturally purge the unloyal dead weight from their ranks.
The only downside to this corporate warfare was that Mira’s identity as the mastermind was finally leaking to the broader industry.
Still, very few people actually bought the rumors. A teenage girl commanding a tech empire? It was far more likely that Owen or Master Ellis were using her as a puppet.
A week before finals, right in the
middle of lunch, Elara took a phone call. She rushed over to Mira’s table, tears streaming down her face. “My dad was in a car crash What do do p>
“Take a breath. Slow down,” Mira said, her voice steady and commanding. “Who just called you p>
She locked eyes with her terrified friend.
“The traffic police p>
Liora Bennett and Celine Ward were eating with them. Mira immediately instructed Elara to show the caller ID to Liora, who texted it to her brother for verification.
Liora’s brother was a detective. Running a trace on a precinct number would take him seconds.
Moments later, Liora’s brother called back. The number belonged to a legitimate traffic division, but it wasn’t from Elara’s hometown. It was from a neighboring county.
“Elara, call the police back and explain your entire situation,” Mira ordered.
“Tell them exactly what your biological mother is trying to do. Tell them she’s trying
to kidnap you and that your life might be in danger. Lay it all out p>
“The police will protect you p>
Mira guided her through the steps with clinical precision.
It wasn’t that Mira refused to handle it for her, it was that Elara needed to learn how to fight her own battles
Couldn’t rely on Mira to save her every time the world got vicious.
Finals were days away, the corporate war was escalating, and Mira simply didn’t have the bandwidth to play bodyguard for everyone in her inner circle.
“The worst has already happened. Panic helps no one. Focus on your next move p>
“Don’t stress over the hospital bills, Celine added softly. “If your dad wasn’t at fault, the driver’s insurance
or the state victim’s fund willcover
the medical costs content
“Exactly. Expose your mother’s viciousness on the record so the police can establish a perimeter around you,” Liora advised.
The girls rallied around Elara, feeding her strategies to handle the crisis.