Both POVs alternating
LUCIEN
The boardroom felt different with me at the head of the table at Carter Group.
No one there was foolish enough to make it obvious. But I noticed it anyway. The silence lasted a little longer when I spoke. Eyes followed me more carefully. The room understood that power had changed, and nobody was completely sure what came next.
I had requested the meeting properly. Forty-eight hours' notice. Full agenda circulated in advance. Everything is formal, clean, and impossible to criticize.
The proposal in front of them was thirty-one pages long, prepared by three of my best analysts. On paper, it looked generous.
The Rhys Group would absorb Carter Group's infrastructure division. Not a takeover. Not hostile. An absorption under shared management, joint revenue distribution for the first three years, and full financial backing from Rhys capital to expand operations. Carter Group would still retain nominal ownership through a protected share structure.
