Margaret Nguyen—once my greatest ally—cut in, her pen tapping its familiar rhythm. “The same infusion you requested six months ago? What’s the return?”
The words stalled.
Then—
“It funded backend upgrades to support scale,” Jennifer said, stepping in. “Structural payoff, not immediate.”
Gregory Davidson—newest investor, fluent in inherited confidence—let out a humorless laugh. “Potential doesn’t pay dividends. Show us profit.”
“Then let’s start with engagement.” I advanced the slide. “Seventeen percent platform growth year-over-year. Churn below benchmarks with minimal incentives. The monetization layer is in progress. We’ve initiated vendor talks with—”
“More talks.” Davidson didn’t bother hiding his contempt.
I let the screen answer for me. “We’re negotiating a pilot with Calyx Industries. Implementation could increase enterprise revenue by forty percent.”
Jennifer leaned in. “Calyx could triple enterprise adoption—high ROI, low integration cost.”
Heads nodded. Automatic. Unmoved.
No spark. No belief.
They’d already reached their verdict.
Each slide advanced like a countdown.
Efficiency metrics.
Infrastructure upgrades.
Once triumphs. Now last rites.
By the time the future-vision slide appeared, my lungs forgot their rhythm. A bead of sweat traced my temple; I wiped it away with the back of my hand.
Margaret’s pen went still.
“None of this is impressive,” she said. “None of it justifies renewed investment.”
It landed clean.
Faces flickered through my mind—my team, my staff, their families—a ledger of promises I was about to break.
“Falkirk.”
The name left me before I could stop it.
Margaret leaned forward. “Falkirk?”
“It’s early,” I said carefully. “Exploratory only. No proposal.”
“Then escalate it,” Harrison said. “If Holt’s interested, that’s your opening.”
“We’ve just started—”
“Falkirk’s a giant,” Davidson cut in. “Big companies mean big money.”
Margaret straightened. “Do you think they’ll offer a buyout?”
“That would be great,” Davidson said, as if it were already decided.
