Even Alphas Bow to Her Chapter 05
I held his gaze.
I could feel it–the pull between us was gone. My wolf
looked at him and felt nothing but disgust.
The Moon Goddess had decided we weren’t meant to be.
Good.
“Mr. Hawthorne, have a seat.”
The table between us was barely six feet across.
But his eyes–eager, burning–locked onto me like I
was the only thing in the room.
Turns out, success and money really are the best
accessories a woman can wear.
In four years of secret dating, he’d never looked at me like that.
“You–how are you here? Do you work at this
company? Are you the CEO’s assistant? You’re going to
help me, right? That’s why you’re here to help me, isn’t it?”
Ethan stood at the edge of the desk, his mind racing through every possibility. The corners of his Pitch
Deck were crumpled where his fingers had gripped too tight.
I stayed seated in the main chair.
“I’m ten minutes late. I’ll give that time back to you.
You have thirty minutes to present. Please sit.”
He hesitated for a second, then pulled out the chair and sat.
“V–you’re… you’re Summit Capital…?”
How intimate.
“Founder. Call me Ms. Sterling. Or we can just get
straight to the project.”
He swallowed. His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Right. So… Apex Technologies‘ flagship product is
called NEXUS-
“I’ve read it.”
I flipped to page three of the materials.
“Two funding rounds total, just over a hundred
million. Series A was led by your father–in–law
Robert’s fund. Series B had three smaller firms tag
along. In the first year, you burned through
sixty–seven percent of the Series A capital.
Thirty–nine percent went to brand marketing. Only twenty–one percent to R&D. And your core product still hasn’t reached mass production.”
Funny thing–Robert’s money? The investment that
made him a lead investor? That came from selling the
little cottage my grandmother left me.
His mouth opened.
“We were still building-”
“If you’re going to tell me it was about building a foundation, your marketing spend was nearly double your R&D. You haven’t even launched a minimum viable product. Your brand is built on nothing. Where’s the groundwork?”
His face flickered.
“The industry needs visibility-”
“Your CAC Model uses traffic costs from 2020. You’re
off by at least three times the current market rate. Did
your operations team not flag that?”
No answer.
“How long can your cash flow hold?”
“……Maybe two months.”
“Forty–seven days. Factor in the payments you owe to
three suppliers, and your safety line is under thirty
days.”
The office went quiet.
His hands rested on the table. He didn’t know where to put them.
Back in the day–during our secret relationship, when
he’d ignore me I’d sit next to him with nowhere to
put my hands either.
Now it was his turn.
“That new thirty–million funding round–mostly to
cover the shortfall from the first two?”
He took a breath. “Not entirely. We have a clear product roadmap and market strategy-”
“I read the plan. Your channel budget is inflated. Based
on actual CAC, thirty million won’t last eight months.”
His fingers tapped the table once. Then stopped.
“Vivian.” He switched to my name. “Can I have five
minutes -no numbers?”
“No.” I’m a businesswoman. What else was he going to
talk about?
Feelings?
Right. We didn’t have those.
“This is a funding pitch. Not a catch–up session. You
booked time with an investor. I’m following the
standard process.”
He froze.
A few seconds of silence.
“You’ve changed a lot.”
“I haven’t changed.” I closed the materials. “You just
never actually looked at me before.”
Back then, I was probably just entertainment for him.
Physical attraction he used to get me into bed.
He never loved me. He never cared about who I really was.