Chapter 14
The auditorium emptied rapidly as university administrators, journalists, and elite guests fled the scene of the historic corporate massacre before federal investigators arrived. Julian remained anchored to the floorboards, his expensive suit feeling heavy and abrasive against his sweat-slicked skin as he stared at the empty exit doors. His phone buzzed incessantly in his breast pocket, displaying consecutive emergency alerts from his board of directors announcing the immediate liquidation of all company assets. He pulled the device out with trembling fingers, watching his corporate bank accounts drain to zero in real-time as Holloway Holdings executed the final takeover.
There was no court battle left to fight, no legal loophole to exploit, and no wealthy family left to bail him out of his self-made purgatory. He was a penniless ghost standing in a glittering auditorium, stripped of his wealth, his prestige, his family, and his borrowed identity. The brilliant future he had thrown away thirteen years ago for a gilded cage had returned to collect its ultimate interest payment in full. He dropped his head into his hands, finally breaking down into dry, racking sobs as the overhead tournament lights clicked off one by one, plunging him into total darkness.
