Chapter 228: Concession

Chapter 228: Chapter 228: Concession

The heavy frosted glass doors of Jake’s executive suite slid shut with a pneumatic click, sealing off the room from the frantic buzz outside in the corridor.

Jake stayed seated behind his mahogany desk, his eyes fixed on the city below Apex Plaza. His face was unreadable, but his mind was already mapping out the fallout. Four billion marks in equity wasn’t just a fine; it was a leash around the Newman family’s neck.

"Mr. Rivers," Alice said, stepping forward with her tablet. "I’ve already notified our legal team at Blackwell & Carter to stand by. Samuel Carter is ready to oversee the transfer contracts the moment they agree. Should I also have compliance prepare the formal board notification regarding the five percent stake you already hold?"

"Do that," Jake said, leaning back into his leather chair and lacing his fingers together. "The second Finn gets back to their tower, he’s going to call an emergency session with their executive team. His father won’t take this sitting down. Richard Newman built that company with an iron fist over forty years. Handing a fifteen percent voting block to an outsider—especially a Rivers—is going to feel like a blade pressed against his throat."

"And if Richard refuses to sign by five o’clock tomorrow?" Alice asked, her tone crisp, though a sharp glint flashed in her eyes.

Jake’s lips curved into a faint smile. "Then he’ll figure out real fast that an ego costs a lot more than four billion marks. Elias."

Elias stepped up from near the doorway, hands clasped behind his back. "Yes, Boss?"

"Keep our team on Sam Newman. A panicked idiot makes stupid mistakes when he’s cornered. I want to know the second he tries to reach out to anyone outside his immediate family."

"Understood, Boss. Kovacs is tracking his GPS, and Sarah secured the parking footage from the Galleria," Elias reported smoothly. "If they try to spin this, we have clear video of Sam initiating the harassment."

"Good. You’re dismissed."

As Elias and Alice stepped out, Jake grabbed his phone and dialed a private line.

It rang twice before a deep, rough voice came through the speaker. "Jake. I heard Finn Newman was spotted heading into Apex Plaza early this morning. I take it he wasn’t there to buy you coffee?"

"News travels fast, Uncle Darius," Jake said, leaning his elbow on the armrest.

Darius Rivers let out a dry laugh over the line. "When an Executive VP skips his morning briefs to sit in a lobby at seven in the morning, people talk. So, what did Sam do? My security mentioned an incident in the Galleria garage yesterday."

"Sam Newman thought he could corner Mom, Catharine, and Aliya," Jake said, his voice instantly losing all warmth. "He brought two hired thugs to block their car."

The line went dead silent. When Darius spoke again, the humor was entirely gone, replaced by a dangerous, heavy tone.

"He targeted Martha and the girls?" Darius asked quietly. "Is everyone alright?"

"They’re fine. Kovacs and Sarah handled it before Sam could even take three steps toward them," Jake said. "But Sam didn’t stop there. He had their division run the G-Wagon’s tags through a logistics server."

"Insolent little parasite," Darius spat, the sound of a heavy ring clicking hard against a glass top echoing over the receiver. "The Newmans have gotten comfortable. They think running the freight networks means they own the city. What did you demand from Finn?"

"A ten percent equity transfer to Golden Investments by five p.m. tomorrow," Jake stated plainly.

Darius whistled softly. "Ten percent... Plus the five percent you inherited from your grandfather, that gives you fifteen percent total. That’s more than enough to demand a seat on their risk committee and dig through their books whenever you want."

"Exactly," Jake said. "They rely on our raw steel to run seventy percent of their structural manufacturing lines. If they refuse to sign, I want the Meridian Group to cut all primary supply contracts to Newman Enterprise Group by midnight Wednesday."

"Consider it done," Darius said without missing a beat. "I’ll have our logistics director draft the suspension notices now. If Richard Newman wants to let his youngest son run wild and threaten our family, he can watch his factories grind to a halt. Keep me posted, Jake."

"Will do, Uncle. Thanks."

Jake hung up, set the phone on his desk, and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over the city grid.

---

Inside a black Mercedes Maybach speeding down the central avenue toward the Newman Enterprise tower, the air in the back seat was suffocating.

Sam sat huddled against the door, deathly pale, staring wide-eyed at his hands as they shook uncontrollably. Beside him, Finn had yanked off his silk tie and thrown it onto the floorboard, furiously rubbing his temples.

"F-Finn..." Sam stammered, his voice cracking. "Four billion marks?! Fifteen percent total control?! We can’t... we can’t just give him that! Dad will destroy me! He’ll strip my name off the family trust!"

Finn turned his head, his bloodshot eyes locking onto his brother with pure fury.

"Dad won’t just take your trust away, Sam," Finn said through grit teeth. "If Jake Rivers cuts off our steel supply on Wednesday, our plants shut down in forty-eight hours. Our stock plummets fifty percent in one session. Creditors start calling in loans, and the board votes Dad out before Friday! Do you get it now, you idiot?! You didn’t just pick a fight in a parking lot! You put a gun to the head of this entire company and handed Jake Rivers the trigger!"

"I didn’t know!" Sam whimpered, tears spilling over. "He was wearing plain clothes! How was I supposed to know he was a Rivers?!"

"Because you’re an arrogant idiot who thinks a watch and a last name make you untouchable!" Finn barked, shoving him back against the door. "Shut up. Don’t say another word. You’re walking into Dad’s office behind me, getting on your knees, and telling him every single thing you did."

Ten minutes later, the Maybach pulled into the private underground parking garage of the Newman building.

They took the private elevator straight to the top floor—Floor 50. Unlike Jake’s modern office at Apex Plaza, the Chairman’s suite was lined with dark mahogany paneling, thick rugs, and heavy oil paintings, dripping with old-money authority.

Finn pushed open the heavy double doors without knocking.

Behind a massive oak desk sat Richard Newman. At sixty-two, the patriarch was a broad-shouldered man with graying hair and sharp blue eyes. He was going through a stack of quarterly freight ledgers with a gold pen when his sons walked in.

Richard looked up, his brow furrowing as he noticed Finn’s disheveled suit and Sam’s shaking frame.

"What is this?" Richard asked, his voice low and commanding. "Finn, why weren’t you at the eight o’clock briefing? And why does your brother look like he’s going to throw up?"

Finn shut the doors behind them and took a heavy breath. "Father, we have a massive problem. It involves Golden Investments... and the Rivers family."

Richard set his pen down slowly, his eyes narrowing into slits. "Talk."

As Finn explained what happened—Sam’s actions at the Galleria, the garage incident, the Tier-Zero alert, and their morning meeting with Jake Rivers at Apex Plaza—the air in the room turned ice-cold.

Richard’s expression grew darker with every word, a vein bulging on the side of his forehead.

When Finn finally mentioned the demand—a ten percent equity transfer worth four billion marks, backed by the threat of an immediate steel embargo—Richard stood up from his leather chair.

He didn’t yell. He didn’t slam his desk. He simply walked around the oak table, stepping slowly toward Sam.

Sam couldn’t hold himself up anymore. His legs buckled, and he hit his knees on the rug, sobbing. "Dad... Dad, please! I swear I didn’t know who they were!"

*SLAP!*

The heavy crack of a palm hitting face rang out across the room.

Sam fell sideways onto the floor, clutching his swollen cheek, hyperventilating.

"You absolute embarrassment," Richard said, his voice shaking with rage as he looked down at him. "I gave you an executive title, an allowance, and every door open in this city, and you use it to corner the women of the Rivers family in a public garage?!"

"Father..." Finn interrupted cautiously. "We have less than thirty hours. If we don’t give him a signed agreement by five tomorrow, Jake Rivers freezes our steel supply."

Richard turned his back, pacing over to the large windows overlooking the avenue. He crossed his arms, his jaw working as he ran through every angle.

"Four billion marks..." Richard muttered, his teeth grinding. "Ten percent of our voting shares... If I give him ten percent, he sits on fifteen. With his leverage over our minority board members, he can block any expansion vote he wants."

"Can we fight it?" Finn asked weakly. "Can we go to the Ministry of Commerce? Or get the other conglomerates to step in?"

Richard let out a harsh laugh. "The Ministry of Commerce?Afther the mess that Jake left them in over the trading signals, I doubt they’d even sit to plan against him. And the other families won’t help us, Finn! They’ll sit back, drink their whiskey, and watch us bleed so they can buy up our routes for cheap!"

Richard turned back, suddenly looking years older. "Jake didn’t just make a demand. He set a trap. The second Sam touched that registration database, we walked right into it."

"So what do we do?" Finn asked, his heart sinking.

Richard looked down at Sam on the floor, then back at Finn, his eyes going cold.

"Call an emergency board meeting for two o’clock," Richard ordered flatly. "Draft the transfer agreement for ten percent of Newman Enterprise Group shares to Golden Investments."

Finn blinked. "You’re actually going to give it to him?"

"We don’t have a choice!" Richard snapped, his voice booming. "If we fight, we lose half our valuation and go bankrupt by the end of the month! If we give him the shares, we survive—even if it means letting a wolf sit at our boardroom table!"

He walked to his desk, grabbed a memo pad, and tossed it at Finn’s chest.

"And as for your brother," Richard added coldly, "he’s done. Strip his access to the trust accounts, seize his cars, and have security pack his stuff. Put him on a flight to our northern manufacturing outpost tomorrow morning. If he steps foot back in this city without my permission, I’m disowning him entirely."

Sam choked back a sob on the rug, but before anyone could say another word, the heavy double doors swung open again.

Ray Newman walked into the suite, holding an iced coffee in one hand and a tablet in the other.

At thirty, the middle sibling lacked Finn’s strict corporate discipline and Sam’s reckless stupidity. He managed the firm’s commercial real estate branch, keeping a comfortable distance from the main logistics drama. He took one look at Sam crying on the floor, holding his red cheek, and a slow, amused smirk spread across his face.

"Well, well," Ray drawled, taking a casual sip of his drink. "What did the golden child do this time? Smudged the leather in his Porsche?"

"Shut up, Ray," Finn snapped, rubbing his forehead. "This isn’t the time."

"Oh, come on, Finn. Look at him," Ray chuckled, walking past Sam without even glancing down. "I could hear Dad’s slap from the elevator. What happened, Sam? Did your allowance check bounce?"

"Ray, shut your mouth," Richard barked, his eyes flashing. "Your brother just handed ten percent of our company’s voting stock to Jake Rivers on a silver platter."

Ray stopped mid-stride. His smirk faltered for a fraction of a second before he caught himself. He set his coffee on a side table and looked between his father and Finn, processing the news.

"Ten percent?" Ray repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Wait... so Jake Rivers forced our hand over that garage mess yesterday?"

"Four billion marks in equity," Finn said coldly. "Or they cut off our raw steel allocations on Wednesday and freeze our assembly plants."

Ray stood there for a second, humming quietly to himself. Then, instead of panicking, his smirk came right back, wider than before.

"Honestly? That might not be the absolute disaster you’re making it out to be," Ray said, leaning back against the edge of the leather sofa.

Richard glared at him. "Are you insane? We are handing fifteen percent total board control to a Rivers!"

"Think about it for two seconds, Dad," Ray said, waving a hand casually. "What’s been our biggest headache for the last three years? The Vance Group and the Mercer family constantly trying to squeeze our shipping lanes and outbid us on city infrastructure contracts. Why? Because they thought we were isolated."

Ray straightened up, gesturing with his hands. "Now? Golden Investments—and by extension, the Rivers family—is tied directly into our bottom line. Jake Rivers holds fifteen percent of our equity. If our stock drops, ’his’ portfolio takes a hit. If the Mercers try to mess with our transport charters, they aren’t just pushing around Newman Enterprise anymore—they’re stepping on Jake Rivers’ money."

Finn stared at his brother, narrowing his eyes. "You think Jake Rivers is going to protect us?"

"He doesn’t have to like us to protect his own asset," Ray countered, grinning. "It’s leverage. The other four major conglomerates have been eyeing our logistics network for months. Now, the moment they try to back us into a corner, we’re backed by Golden Investments. We can literally use his name as a shield. It’s an upgrade from having Sam run around wrecking our reputation for free."

Sam let out a miserable groan from the floor.

Richard stared at Ray for a long moment, his harsh expression shifting into a thoughtful frown. He didn’t agree aloud, but he didn’t shoot it down either.

"Get out of my sight, Ray," Richard finally muttered, though the burning anger in his voice had cooled into calculated assessment. "Finn, get the legal team moving on those transfer documents. And get security up here to pick up Sam."

Ray smirked, picking up his iced coffee again. "Always a pleasure, Dad. Bon voyage, Sammy. Enjoy the snow up north."

---

By one o’clock that afternoon, bright sunlight washed over the glass facade of Apex Plaza.

Inside his penthouse suite, Jake sat at a side table, calmly eating lunch while scanning market reports on his tablet.

A soft knock sounded, and Alice pushed the door open, a crisp folder tucked under her arm.

"Mr. Rivers," Alice said smoothly. "We just got word from the Newman Group’s corporate secretary. Chairman Richard Newman called an emergency board meeting for two o’clock. Item one on the agenda is authorizing the ten percent equity transfer to Golden Investments."

Jake swallowed his food, dabbed his mouth with a napkin, and looked up. "Looks like Richard is practical when he needs to be. He knows when a fight is lost before it starts."

"Samuel Carter and our legal team at Blackwell & Carter have already finalized the acquisition terms and board clauses," Alice said, placing the thin leather folder on his table. "Once they sign tomorrow, you officially hold fifteen percent of Newman Enterprise Group, along with a permanent, non-dilutable board seat."

Jake opened the folder, eyeing the signature lines with a cold, satisfied gaze.

"Send the final drafts over to Finn’s office," Jake said quietly. "And let them know I’ll be attending their next board meeting in person."

Alice gave a slight nod. "Right away, Mr. Rivers."

As she walked out, Jake looked back out the window toward the city skyline. The Newmans thought paying four billion marks in equity was the end of their problem. In reality, they had just unlocked the front door and let the man who would take the whole thing right inside.

---