Page 26 of The Founder's Power

DAMIAN

Idon’t notice the first hit right away. It’s too quiet and subtle.

A partner pulls out of a renewable energy deal we’d spent months negotiating without any warning. Just a carefully worded email about “strategic redirection” and “internal restructuring.” I brush it off.

Then the supplier in London—one we’ve used for seven years—renegotiates terms so aggressively it might as well be a breakup.

And then two of my biggest clients pull their campaigns from our marketing platform without so much as a phone call.

One. After. Another.

There’s a pattern, one that can’t be denied anymore, and I know who’s behind it.

Vincent Grey doesn’t attack head-on. He erodes like a slow, methodical rot from the bottom up until you’re standing on top of something that isn’t solid anymore, and you don’t realize it until you’re already falling.

Despite my best efforts, despite all of the long hours and the lack of sleep, I’m losing. I’ve been bleeding where no one could see it, and now he’s tearing into the softest parts of the empire I swore would never fail me.

Meetings blur. I snap at people and cut them off mid-sentence. The same team that once looked at me with respect now watches me like they’re waiting for the first crack to splinter into collapse.

I stay late. Sleep less. Eat nothing.

But it’s not enough.

I’m no longer fighting from strength. I’m fighting from loss, and Vincent smells it.

He starts courting my second-tier investors—offering better buyouts, cleaner margins. I find out he’s been meeting with one of my oldest clients, someone I considered untouchable, someone I once called a friend.

Clara comes into my office late one evening—hair up, shoulders tight—and places a folder on my desk without saying a word.

I open it to find Vincent’s formal offer to acquire the media wing of Kincaid Global.

Complete. Aggressive. Signed by three former partners of mine who’ve turned.

I look up at her. “How long have you known?”

She hesitates. “Two weeks. I didn’t want to bring it to you until?—”

“Until you were sure I was losing.”

She looks away.

I close the folder. My hands are steady, but my heart isn’t. This empire used to be the thing that anchored me. Now, it’s dragging me under.

Was Isabelle right? Maybe I am more afraid of being vulnerable than I ever was of losing this.

But I’ve lost her, and I’m still losing everything else.

What the hell do I have left?

CHAPTER14

DAMIAN

It’s after midnight when I finally leave the office. Honestly, this has become early for me, and it’s not because I’m finished. I just can’t keep pretending it matters anymore.

The city is quiet. This kind of cold gets into your bones no matter how well you dress or how high your penthouse sits above it all.

I walk instead of calling the car. I need to feel something.

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