Chapter 23 - THE RIVAL'S PLOT
Far away in a sterile corporate skyscraper in Chicago, a rival hedge fund CEO watched the Ohio announcement with seething hatred.
Arthur Sterling, a ruthless corporate raider, slammed his fist onto his glass desk, shattering a ceramic coffee mug.
"She's giving away our leverage in the Rust Belt! If worker cooperatives catch on, our entire short-selling model collapses!" Sterling snarled.
He turned to his chief legal counsel, a slick man in a pinstripe suit who nodded slowly from the corner.
"We can't stop her through normal market channels, Arthur; she holds too much liquidity across prime banking sectors," the lawyer noted.
"Then we create an artificial scandal. Find every disgruntled former employee she ever fired and pay them off," Sterling ordered.
"And if that doesn't work?" the lawyer asked cautiously.
"Then we hit her where it hurts—her family foundation's tax-exempt status in Washington," Sterling smiled wickedly.
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He had no idea that poking the sleeping dragon of Valle-Host Enterprises was the absolute worst mistake of his professional life.
***
