CHAPTER 6
By midnight, the emergency board of directors meeting at Sterling Global Enterprises was already underway via a secure, encrypted video conference link. Arthur sat at the head of his boardroom table in his penthouse, refusing the wheelchair and standing upright on his own two feet for the first time in twelve years.
His legs trembled violently beneath the tailored navy blue trousers, his knees shaking like brittle glass under the sudden weight of his torso. The assembled board members stared at the monitor in stunned silence, their jaws hanging open as they watched their paralyzed CEO stand tall.
"Arthur... is this some kind of deepfake technology?" stammered Marcus Vance, the senior vice chairman whose ambition had long outpaced his loyalty to the firm. "You haven't stood up since the night of the crash in 2014; medical science says this is completely impossible."
Arthur gripped the mahogany edge of the table to steady his swaying frame, his breathing deep and controlled as he stared down the treacherous executive through the lens. "Science didn't heal me, Marcus, and neither did your overpriced team of corporate physicians who told me I'd die in this chair."
"Then who did?" Marcus demanded, his voice tightening with a mixture of fear and calculated greed as he calculated the stock market implications. "The morning papers are already calling it a hoax orchestrated to drive up our biotech subsidiary's stock value before the merger."
"Let them talk," Arthur replied coldly, his eyes narrowing as he remembered the boy's soot-stained face and calm demeanor. "I want every security camera in Manhattan scoured from the moment that child walked into the restaurant until he entered my penthouse."
"A child?" Marcus scoffed, leaning forward into his microphone with a patronizing smirk. "You're risking a multi-billion-dollar corporate empire on the fairy tale of a dirty street urchin you met while eating dinner?"
Arthur took a slow, deliberate step forward, planting his left foot firmly onto the hardwood floor with a heavy, echoing thud. "That child did what your medical board couldn't do with a billion dollars and ten years of research, Marcus. Watch your tone when you speak of him."
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The board members exchanged nervous glances, realizing that the old, ruthless Arthur Sterling was not only back, but he was more dangerous than ever before. Marcus leaned back in his leather chair, his eyes dark with resentment as he quietly muted his microphone to scheme with his allies.
Arthur cut the video feed without warning, plunging the massive screen into blackness as exhaustion finally threatened to buckle his trembling knees. He lowered himself carefully back into the leather seat behind his desk, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm against his ribs.
