Chapter 9 - The Mask Falls
The ballroom went deathly quiet. You could hear a pin drop on the marble floor.
Tristan laughed, but it sounded hysterical. "Five million? You? You can't even afford a bus pass! Dean, kick him out! He's ruining the auction!"
The auctioneer looked nervously at the Dean. "Uh, sir, bids over one million require immediate proof of funds."
"Show them, Julian!" Tristan screamed, his face red. "Show them your empty wallet, you fraud!"
Julian reached into the inner pocket of his bespoke tuxedo. He didn't pull out a wallet. He pulled out a single, heavy card. It wasn't gold. It wasn't platinum. It was matte black, forged from anodized titanium, with no numbers on the front. Just a microchip and a single crest deeply engraved in the metal.
He handed it to the head of the gala committee, who brought over a mobile terminal.
The woman swiped the card. The terminal beeped, connected to the bank, and printed a receipt.
The woman looked at the receipt. Her eyes bugged out of her head. She dropped the terminal. It shattered on the floor.
"I... I..." she stammered, grabbing the microphone. Her voice shook uncontrollably. "The bid is... verified. Approved. For five million dollars."
The crowd gasped. Tristan staggered backward as if he’d been physically struck. "No! That's impossible! Who is he?!"
The woman looked at the name on the receipt, her hands trembling. "The account holder is... Vance Enterprises. The Vance Dynasty."
A shockwave ripped through the room. The Vance Dynasty. The invisible hand that controlled the stock market. The family that could buy and sell Kingston Academy ten times over before breakfast.
Julian slowly walked down the center aisle toward the stage, the crowd parting for him as if he were Moses parting the Red Sea. He stopped in front of Tristan.
"I told you," Julian whispered softly, so only Tristan could hear. "Power is an illusion. But wealth... wealth is very real. And yours is entirely gone. Check your phone."
May you like
Tristan frantically pulled out his phone. His screen was flooded with alerts. Sterling Holdings had just declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. They had been hostile-taken-over by an anonymous shell company. A shell company owned by Vance.
Tristan dropped to his knees, utterly destroyed.
