Page 6 — Three Months Later: The Receipt He Didn’t Expect
The top floor of Vance Tower was quiet in the way powerful places often are—no noise, just outcomes.
Nebula Pay’s reports were strong. The River City acquisition had expanded credit services exactly as planned.
The door opened and Liam walked in.
He looked different. Not flashier. Just unburdened—like someone who’d finally stopped asking permission to exist.
He set a check on my desk.
“First installment,” he said, smiling. “Repayment. With interest.”
I picked it up.
Five million dollars.
Exactly one thousand times what Arthur tried to throw at me.
“You know I don’t need this,” I said.
“I know,” Liam replied. “But the company needs to pay its debts. And I need us to be equals.”
I looked at the check for a moment.
Then I tore it in half.
Liam’s eyes widened. “Sophia—”
“I invest in people,” I said, dropping the pieces into recycling. “Not bank accounts.”
Later, when he asked about Arthur, I laughed.
“He’s in Boca Raton,” I said. “He called to complain his golf club dues went up. I think he’s learning what a budget is.”
We stood by the window looking out at the city.
They called me a gold digger because they were guarding a small pile and assumed everyone else was hungry for scraps.
They never considered the possibility that I owned the mountain.
And the real power wasn’t the billions.
It was the ability to walk away from the table—because you already won the game before they even realized you were playing.
