Chapter 7

A week later.

StellarTech started falling apart even faster than I thought.

Henry still had friends in the tech group chat, and the news kept pouring in.

"The security module's totally crashed. Michael brought in an outsourced team, but the more they try to fix it, the worse it gets," Henry said.

"Clients are starting to complain. Two of our biggest clients have had their data interfaces throwing errors for three days straight," he added.

"I heard Ms. Carter's been freaking out—she's already called three emergency meetings in a row," Henry said.

When Susan quit StellarTech, HR tried to talk her out of it for a whole hour.

"What did they say?" I asked.

"They told me to think it over, said the company would improve my compensation, and told me not to do anything rash," Susan said, slapping her employee badge onto the table. "I told them, 'If you want to know whether you can keep your talent, don't ask me—go ask your new CTO.'"

I let out a small laugh.

"By the way," Susan said, her expression turning serious, "Emily had someone reach out to me."

"What did she want?" I asked.

"She wants to meet with you. Says she wants to talk," Susan said.

"There's nothing to talk about. I sent her the divorce papers. She just needs to sign them," I replied.

"She won't sign," Susan said.

"Then we'll go through the courts," I said.

Susan looked at me.

"Are you really planning to cut her out of your life for good?" she asked.

"She told everyone I was only good for building walls," I said. "Well, now she'll see what happens when those walls come down."

Susan didn't say anything else.

That evening, I got a call from an unknown number while I was at my apartment.

"Mr. Carter?" a middle-aged man's voice came through, polite and professional. "This is Mr. Evans, an investment manager at PrimeEdge Capital. We noticed you recently registered Skyline Data"

"How did you know about that?" I asked.

"Registration info is public," he chuckled. "Besides, the whole industry's got their eyes on StellarTech lately. We've already reviewed your 32 patents."

"And the valuation?" I asked.

"Each patent is valued between three and three million dollars. All 32 together? Conservatively, we're looking at over hundred million dollars," he replied.

I paused for a moment.

"So, what do you want to talk about, Mr. Evans?" I asked.

"Investment," he said. "PrimeEdge Capital is willing to be your angel investor."

"How much?" I asked.

"Ten million dollars for 10%," he replied.

Ten million dollars.

I'd spent five years as StellarTech's CTO, and my total compensation—salary and bonuses—never even hit one million dollars. And now, someone wanted to throw ten million at me for just 10% of my company.

"I'll think about it," I said.

"Alright. But I'd recommend you decide soon," Mr. Evans said after a pause. "From what I hear, StellarTech might take legal action and try to contest your patents. You'll need funds to handle that."

"Thanks for the heads-up," I said.

I hung up.

I opened my laptop and typed out PrimeEdge Capital's terms in a document: ten million dollars for 10%, no say in how I run things, and a two-year lock-up period.

Pretty fair terms, honestly.

Still, I wasn't about to jump at it.