Chapter 246: September

Chapter 246: Chapter 246: September

The three-hour board meeting of Newman Enterprise Group concluded with an unsettling, disciplined efficiency.

Where past sessions had devolved into shouting matches between Troy’s aggressive bloc and Richard’s staunch supporters, this morning moved in absolute silence. Every director spoke in muted, measured tones, meticulously double-checking their quarterly figures before making a single motion. No one dared to bring up internal feuds, personal grievances, or capital reallocation.

Jake sat at Richard’s right hand the entire time, his demeanor completely unreadable. He flipped through the operational binders with casual detachment, occasionally leaning over to whisper a brief instruction to Alice, who logged the data onto her tablet.

When Richard finally tapped his pen against the mahogany table to declare the session adjourned, the tension in the room snapped like a taut wire.

Jake stood up smoothly, buttoning his charcoal suit jacket. "A productive session, Chairman."

Richard rose from his chair, extending a firm hand across the table. "Your presence added a welcome degree of focus to the board, Mr. Rivers."

"I aim for efficiency," Jake replied with a subtle smile, shaking the Chairman’s hand before turning toward the exit. Samuel and Alice fell in half a step behind him as the heavy double doors were held open by security.

Troy Newman didn’t move from his seat until Jake’s coat vanished past the threshold. His hands gripped the armrests of his chair so tightly his knuckles turned white. As soon as the doors clicked shut, Troy snapped his head toward Richard, his voice tight with suppressed fury.

"You’re actually going to let him sit there like an emperor presiding over our ledger?" Troy spat, standing up so fast his leather chair rolled back into the paneling. "He didn’t make a single proposal! He didn’t even cast a single dissent vote! He sat there making us look like mid-level managers reporting to a child!"

Finn stepped forward, resting a hand flat on the table, his tone sharp. "Troy, quiet down. The legal transfer is finalized. Making a scene in front of the board only proves to Rivers that you can’t control your temper."

"I don’t care about his temper, Finn!" Troy snarled, sweeping his file folder into his briefcase. "He’s sitting on fifteen percent of our voting power! You two think he’s ’just observing’? He’s waiting for us to slip up so he can host a fire-sale of our logistics network!"

Richard slowly closed his fountain pen, sliding it into his breast pocket without looking at his brother. "Then make sure you don’t give him a reason to. Meeting is over."

---

Down on the executive subterranean level, the Maybach pulled away from the Newman tower, merging smoothly into the dense morning traffic of Aurelia’s financial district.

Inside the quiet, leather-lined cabin, Samuel adjusted his cuffs, looking across at Jake. "Richard handled that exceptionally well. He used your presence to completely silence Troy’s faction. The entire board was too afraid of provoking you to raise a single objection to the quarterly logistics budget."

"Richard is an old fox," Jake said smoothly, leaning back against the headrest as he watched the glass skyscrapers glide past the tinted window. "He knows how to leverage an external threat to maintain internal order. He let Troy think I was the devil at the door so everyone would line up behind his leadership."

"And Troy?" Alice asked, her tablet resting on her lap. "He looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel during the steel allocation vote."

"Troy is desperate," Jake noted coldly. "Desperate men make sloppy moves. Let him scheme. The moment he tries to touch Golden Investments’ fifteen percent, Samuel will tie him up in court until his personal assets freeze."

"It would be my absolute pleasure," Samuel grinned sharply.

Jake rested his elbow against the door panel, rubbing his temples as he looked over at Alice. "Alice, what does my schedule look like for the rest of this month?"

Alice tapped her screen, pulling up his master calendar and swiping through the color-coded entries. "It’s fairly packed, Jake. We have the exclusive private art auction at the Meridian Gallery next week, followed by the private track day invitation at the Aurelia International Circuit. Then there’s the international classic and hypercar auction in Geneva, Aliya’s upcoming visit during her semester break later this month, and finally, the President’s private rally dinner for his political party’s core donors."

Jake let out a long, quiet sigh, leaning his head back against the leather seat. "September is going to be exhausting... Add a company acquisition to that list."

Samuel’s eyes lit up instantly at the mention of an acquisition. His legal firm stood to pocket millions in advisory fees, due diligence retainers, and closing commissions. "An acquisition?" Samuel asked eagerly, leaning forward. "Are you thinking of acquiring a company already, Jake? Which one do you have in mind?"

Jake glanced at him with a calm, amused smirk. "I haven’t made my final choice yet. But don’t worry, Samuel—you’ll be the first to know when I do."

"I’ll have my team on standby twenty-four hours a day," Samuel promised with a sharp smile.

The Maybach made a smooth right turn, pulling into the private underground garage of Aurelia Capitals’ glass spire ten minutes later.

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The 60th-floor executive penthouse of Aurelia Capitals’ temporary headquarters was humming with activity when Jake walked through the glass double doors.

In the central lounge, Marcus Sheele stood before a massive interactive floor plan projected onto the main wall, pointing out concrete poured ratios to Daniel, who sat on the leather sofa with a rugged tablet covered in construction site dust. Leon was stretched out on an adjacent armchair, tossing a metal stress ball into the air, while Adrian and Noah reviewed logistics contracts at the glass conference table.

"Look who decided to grace us with his presence," Leon called out, catching the ball and grinning. "The man, the myth, the Tuscan vacationer. How’s the wine, Jake?"

"Better than the coffee in this office," Jake replied with a faint smirk, stepping toward the main projection wall. He looked around the sleek, open-plan space, taking in the rented furniture and temporary server racks. "You know, Aurelia Capitals really ought to have its own permanent headquarters instead of renting high-rise floor space. If you guys are willing, Golden Investments can easily lend you the capital to outright purchase this entire building."

Marcus turned around with a quiet, ironic smile, taking a sip from his coffee mug. "Aurelia Capitals is already in so much debt that we practically can’t afford to take on another single mark. If it wasn’t for you, or should I say Golden Investments injecting that ten billion marks for the Mult airport project in exchange for a profit-share, we wouldn’t have been able to manage the balance sheet at all."

"Come on, Marcus, what’s just another loan on top of all the others?" Jake joked effortlessly, folding his arms.

Leon snorted from his armchair, tossing the stress ball again. "Don’t fall for it, Marcus! Jake just wants to indirectly own Aurelia Capitals through a mountain of unpayable debt. He’s trying to become our landlord and our master creditor at the same time!"

"Hey, I’m not the only one Aurelia Capitals owes money to," Jake said with a light laugh, gesturing toward the conference table. "There’s Adrian too."

Adrian didn’t even look up from his legal files, sliding a document into a folder. "My loans come with strict interest rates and zero mercy, Leon. At least Jake lets you drink his coffee while he buys up your debt."

"See? I’m practically a philanthropist," Jake grinned, before shifting the topic back to business. "Anyway—how’s Mult looking?"

Daniel wiped his forehead, tapping his tablet to shift the holographic display to a 3D structural model of the airfield terminal. "Phase one foundation trenches are completely carved out. Marcus had us run a double-shift through Sunday night to clear the bedrock ahead of the rain forecast. We’re twelve hours ahead of schedule."

"The Ministry of Trade tried to send two site inspectors this morning to verify our environmental permits," Marcus added smoothly. "Leon met them at the outer gates."

Noah chuckled without looking up from his laptop. "Leon gave them hard hats, assigned them to audit forty thousand cubic yards of raw gravel, and told them Minister Timber expects a full hand-written report by midnight."

"They lasted twenty minutes before the heat got to them," Leon said proudly. "They left their clipboards on a cement mixer and drove back to the city."

Jake let out a low laugh, walking over to the conference table and leaning his hands against the glass surface. "Keep the pressure on the site. Timber is going to use every regulatory technicality he has left to slow down our concrete deliveries once he realizes he can’t block the land titles."

"We’ve already bypassed the state distribution channels," Adrian interjected, turning a document toward Jake. "Golden Investments’ newly secured steel allocations through Newman Group are being routed directly through private rail corridors. Meridian cleared the first freight train two hours ago."

Jake looked around the room—at Marcus’s ruthless operational precision, Adrian’s legal ironclad contracts, Noah’s quantitative oversight, Leon’s chaotic efficiency, and Daniel’s ground execution. The entire machine was running with flawless, terrifying momentum.

Marcus walked over, standing beside Jake as they both looked out over the sweeping panorama of Aurelia’s skyline.

"So," Marcus said softly, his deep voice carrying a quiet, lethal confidence. "How was your seat at Newman Group?"

Jake adjusted his cuffs, a cold, sharp glint settling into his dark eyes. "It’s a very comfortable seat. And every single person in that room knows who really holds the knife."

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