Ruin My IPO? I'll Pull Your Funding

Henry appeared partially from the door with a glass of red wine in his hand. He turned back to glance at the surveillance camera in the corridor to confirm that he had turned it off. After that, the kind look on his face vanished.

"Don't you feel like a total loser now, Callum?" He swirled the wine in his glass as he walked slowly toward me. "Don't you feel upset? You've sacrificed so much only to let me reap all of your benefits in the end."

I did not even blink as I sat on the ground. "Did you come here just to tell me this?"

Henry sneered as he crouched and lowered his voice. "I'm here to tell you that I swapped that bottle of ointment. That's not the only thing I did. I'm also taking everything of yours little by little. Your fiancée, your company, and your dignity! Why does a penniless nerd like you deserve to be a CEO while I have to keep making those losers in my streaming channel happy?"

Henry got increasingly agitated. His eyes were filled with mad jealousy as he continued.

"Yvette listens to me now. It'll only take one word from me, and she will sweep you out the door like garbage!"

I looked at the glee on his face as I quietly clicked on the recording button on my phone.

"So what if you do?" I retorted calmly.

"That means you'd better be obedient!" Henry stood up and poured the red wine on my head. The wine dripped from my hair, looking like bloodstains. "I'll get Yvette to announce that your wedding is off during tonight's party, and make her propose to me instead. You'll just need to be a good boy and stay in this rat hole while listening to us celebrating upstairs!"

Henry turned to leave happily as he locked the door behind him. I wiped away the wine on my face and made sure I saved the audio file of the recording on my phone, sneering as I got the job done.

In the outside world, bright lights were flashing with glamorous figures in the grand hall on the top floor. Yvette was in a haute couture gown and holding a glass of champagne as she chatted with every investor and member of the media attending the party, enjoying being the center of attention.

That was when the finance director appeared from behind the stage and came running toward Yvette, grabbing her arm. "Bad news, Ms. James. Something horrible happened!"

Yvette flung his hand off unhappily. "Can't you see I'm busy talking to Mr. Werner about a potential investment? What are you making a big fuss about?"

The finance director's voice was trembling. "It's an emergency, Ms. James. The bank just called to inform us that the money in our public account is empty!"

Yvette frowned. "Empty? How is that possible? Could it be a delay from the system? We have had major transactions today. It's only normal for some buffering time."

"But—"

"There are no buts!" Yvette interrupted him impatiently. "This is a big day for me, so don't jinx it! Get back there and find out if there is something wrong with the network!" With that, she turned away with a perfect smile on her face as she walked toward the center of the stage.

I looked at the countdown timer on my phone screen, which had reached the count of zero. "This is the start of your end."