2025-11-12 20:28:48The room went dead silent.
Everyone stared at Declan with their mouths hanging open. The server stood frozen, clearly caught off guard.
“Did he just say premium?” Someone whispered from the back, “Is he actually serious right now?”
Carlos recovered first. He let out a laugh but it sounded forced, “Premium? You? Do you know how much that costs?”
“Does it matter?” Declan replied, his voice completely calm.
Laura shifted in her seat, her eyes wide, “There’s no way you have that kind of money. What did you do? Rob a bank or something?”
“Or did you max out credit cards?” Louis added.
Everyone began talking over each other, demanding answers.
Declan just stood in the hallway, looking completely unbothered by all the noise.
The server cleared his throat loudly, “Sir, I should inform you that the premium tier for a party of your size would be approximately twenty thousand dollars. That's before tax and gratuity,”
More gasps came from the fraternity members. Someone actually choked on their own spit.
Carlos' face had gone slightly pale but he forced his confident smile back, “Twenty thousand dollars. That's ten thousand each,”
He locked eyes with Declan, “You're absolutely sure you can afford that?”
“Of course I can,” Declan said without hesitation, “The real question is, can you?”
Carlos' smile faltered for just a second. Ten thousand dollars in one night. His parents gave him a generous monthly allowance, sure, but ten grand in a single evening? That would hurt.
But now everyone was watching now, waiting to see if he would back down.
He gritted his teeth hard, “Of course I can afford it. Let's do premium service,”
The server gave a professional nod, “Very well,
then, gentlemen. I'll need payment verification from both of you first,”
Carlos pulled out his wallet and extracted his black card. He handed it over. The server swiped it.
Beep. Approved.
Then all eyes turned to Declan. He reached into his pocket slowly and pulled out an understated card. He handed it to the server.
The server took it and swiped. Beep. Approved.
The server's whole demeanour shifted immediately. He bowed slightly, “Thank you very much sirs. Please, have a seat. Our staff will begin your premium service immediately,”
Everyone moved to sit around the long table. The slightly tense and chaotic atmosphere gradually settled down.
No one had expected that Declan, this penniless loser, would dare to go all in just to stand up against his wealthy brother, but that only made things more entertaining.
They were all looking forward to seeing things develop in an even worse, more intense direction.
Declan took a seat near the middle of the table, while Carlos directly sat at the head of the table, his jaw clenched tight.
"You want to humiliate me in public?" he said viciously, a cruel smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "You'll learn the price of that."
When the server returned carrying an expensive-looking leather wine menu, Carlos grabbed it immediately. He scanned through the pages quickly.
“We'll have the Château Margaux 2015," Carlos announced loudly. "Bring enough for everyone.”
The server's eyebrow rose slightly, “An excellent choice sir. That particular wine is tow thousand dollars per bottle. For a party of your size, we'll need approximately six bottles,”
"That's right, six bottles of two-thousand-dollar wine," Carlos said mockingly, staring into Declan's eyes. "Bring them out now."
Declan raised a brow. He reached over, took the wine menu from Carlos’ hands and flipped through it for a moment.
“Actually, cancel that order. Bring us the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti instead.”
Laura gripped Carlos’s arm in surprise but he didn't even spare her a glance as he shook her off.
The server's eyes went wide, “Sir, I must inform you this particular wine cost five thousand dollars per bottle,”
“I'm aware of the price,” Declan said without hesitation.
Carlos stared at him. “Are you being serious right now?”
“Of course I am”
Carlos's hands gripped the edge of the table. His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "What the hell? Did you really get this kind of money? Be honest. What did you do? Did you take out loans?”
“You can think whatever makes you feel better,” Declan replied calmly.
“So you're actually going into debt just to oppose me?” Carlos’ voice rose slightly, “Just to prove some stupid point?”
Declan looked him straight in the eye. "I have absolutely no reason not to oppose you.”
Carlos let out a bitter laugh, "Fine then. We'll see whose money runs out first. Your borrowing power or my actual cash.”
He stood up abruptly and pulled out his phone, stepping away from the table. His fingers moved quickly across the screen as he called his mother.
"Mom? Yeah, it's me. Listen, I need you to transfer some money to my account right now... Yeah, immediately... Because I'm in the middle of teaching that ungrateful bastard Declan a lesson... Yes, we're at Marconi's... He's trying to embarrass me in front of everyone.”
There was a pause. Then Carlos's face lit up with relief and triumph. "Perfect. Thank you so much, Mom. Love you."
He hung up and immediately checked his banking app. The transfer notification appeared within seconds. His confidence surged back through his body.
He walked back to the table with a smug grin. He looked directly at the server. “Change of plans. Bring us the Pétrus 2010 instead. And make it ten bottles.”
The server's jaw nearly dropped. “Sir, that particular wine is ten thousand dollars per bottle.”
“I know exactly what it costs. Just bring it.”
He turned to Declan with the cruelest smile he could form, “I really want to see you d******d every single loan app that exists today.”
All eyes were on Declan now, waiting for him to finally give up and beg. There was no way he could afford this.
Declan didn't even blink. He turned to the server calmly. “Actually, bring the Pétrus for everyone just like he said. Ten bottles.”
He paused for just a moment. “And add ten more bottles on top of that."
The server's face went completely white. "Twenty bottles total, sir?"
"Yes. Twenty.”
“I also want to see something tonight," Declan said, his voice calm but cold. "I want to see you spend every last cent of your adoptive parents' money today.”
Carlos's confident expression shattered completely. His eyes went wide. “Are you absolutely insane?”
“No. Are you?”
“Cancel the order!” Carlos practically shouted at the server. “Cancel all those wines right this second!”
“Don't cancel them,” Declan said sternly.
The server looked back and forth between them, unsure of how to proceed.
“Who the hell do you think you are? You don't get to tell me what to do!” Carlos' voice thundered.
The slap came fast and hard. Declan's hand connected with Carlos's face, the sound of it echoing through the entire private room.
Everyone froze where they sat.
Carlos stumbled backward, his hand flying up to his cheek as his eyes went wide with shock.
“Shut up,” Declan said coldly. “I'm the one hosting today. So sit down at that table and shut your mouth.”
Carlos just stood there, absolutely stunned. No one had ever hit him like this before – not in front of so many people.
Laura jumped to her feet and tried to hold him but he moved back slightly, too humiliated to accept any form of sympathy.
The other fraternity members exchanged glances. Then Louis started laughing loudly.
“Holy shit, did that just happen?”
Wait, wait," another guy said, grinning. "Don't cancel any of the wine. Let these two fight it out."
“This is the most entertaining thing I've seen all year. Besides," Louis added with a smirk, "we're not the ones paying for any of this. Let them burn through their money.”
Other members laughed – they were really eating this up.
One guy looked at Carlos mockingly. “Dude, you're really going to let some broke guy outspend you? That's genuinely embarrassing.”
“Seriously though,” another added. “What happened to all that famous Reyes family wealth?”
Carlos's face burned with humiliation and rage. But what could he do? If he backed down now, he'd look like a coward. Worse, he'd look poor.
He sat down heavily in his chair, his whole body tense.
The food began arriving in waves. Course after course of incredibly expensive dishes.
The fraternity members dug in eagerly, enjoying both the free meal and the ongoing spectacle.
But Carlos barely touched any of his food. He just sat there, breaking into a cold sweat as he watched everyone around him eat and drink.
He watched his money disappear as the expensive wine bottles emptied one after the other while Laura kept glancing at him nervously.
Declan, on his part, ate slowly like he didn't have a care in the world.
Hours passed slowly. The meal seemed endless. The fraternity members were getting progressively drunk and rowdy, cheering and laughing loudly.
Finally, after what felt like forever, the server approached their table with a tablet in his hand. He looked slightly nervous, even though still trying to be professional.
“Gentlemen, here is your final bill for the evening.”
He turned the tablet screen toward them. Seven hundred thousand dollars.
Someone let out a low whistle.
“That comes to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for each of you,” the server said.
Carlos's face had gone completely white. His hands were shaking slightly on the table. He looked at Declan with desperation and pure anger mixed together.
“I don't believe it," Carlos said through gritted teeth. “There's absolutely no way you can borrow three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. No bank in the world would give you that kind of loan.”
"I admit you embarrassed me today, but do you know what the consequences are for owing this much money at this restaurant?" He stared intently at Declan. "You'll be beaten half to death by the restaurant's security."
Declan just ignored his word, reached into his pocket and pulled out his card. He handed it to the server without saying a single word.
"Do you really still pretend that you have the money? Drop the act!" Laura said loudly from her seat.
Louis laughed. "This is going to be beautiful. I can't wait to see his card get declined."
"He's probably sweating bullets right now," another guy added. "Realizing he's about to get humiliated in front of everyone."
"Just admit you can't pay, Declan. Save yourself the embarrassment." Carlos said.
"He won't," Laura said with a smirk. "His pride won't let him.
They all watched eagerly as the server took the card over to his payment device.
Swipe.
Everyone held their breath.
Beep.
The server looked down at the screen. His eyes widened noticeably. He looked back up at Declan with awe.
"Payment approved," the server announced clearly for everyone to hear. "Thank you very much, sir.”
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Chapter 0309 - The Compromise
Chapter Three Hundred and Two – The CompromiseHis wife said she needed three weeks to rebuild what the server attack had destroyed and to verify that the replacement systems hadn’t been compromised, said she needed that time to ensure that whoever had infiltrated her organization during the previous attack had not left backdoors or hidden access points that would allow ongoing monitoring of her organization’s work.Declan said three weeks was acceptable, said that operational timeline allowed for coordination with coalition resources and allowed time for his daughter to develop further positioning within Continuum’s recruitment systems, said that three weeks was strategically viable.His wife replied that three weeks wasn’t fine with her, but she would manage it.The distinction was important and he understood it immediately.She was not saying three weeks was an acceptable timeline, was not agreeing that the schedule worked for her personally or professionally, was saying that she w
Chapter 0308 - The Pressure
The executive who found the irregularity had done so by accident in ways that suggested either extraordinary luck or the kind of attention to detail that prevented people from becoming victims of sophisticated deception.He had cross-referenced a technical specification contained in the acquisition target’s documentation against a public research paper he had happened to read the week before the acquisition was scheduled to close, had noticed that the code comments in the paper matched the acquisition target’s internal documentation almost word for word, had recognized that such perfect correspondence could not be coincidental.No legitimate company would copy code comments directly from published research without modification.The match suggested that someone had taken publicly available code and embedded it inside proprietary systems, had created fake documentation designed to pass cursory review, had constructed an entire acquisition designed to appear legitimate while actually ser
Chapter 0307 - the infiltration
Meanwhile at D Corporation, which had rebuilt itself steadily over the decade following The Court’s collapse and which now operated again as one of the country’s more significant conglomerates under management that Declan had carefully selected but did not directly control, a senior executive requested an urgent meeting with the board.The executive’s name was Patricia Morrison, someone Declan had recruited years ago specifically because she possessed both the business acumen to run a major corporation and the moral clarity to resist pressure to compromise that acumen for short-term profit.She had discovered irregularities in a recent acquisition.The irregularities were subtle, were the kind of discrepancies that would be invisible to most executives reviewing acquisition due diligence, were carefully constructed to appear as normal variations in data collection and analysis methodology, were designed to survive cursory investigation while containing fundamental falsifications.When
Chapter 0306 - Enough
Nathan had been patient long enough.He sat in his office at Vanguard Corporation, looking at the latest reports from his team. Apex was still standing. Still operating. Still holding its ground despite everything he had thrown at them over the past week. The supplier acquisition hadn't been activated yet, the surveillance on the Harper girl hadn't produced anything useful, and the hacking attempt had been blocked clean.None of it had worked the way it was supposed to.He picked up his phone and made a call.Frank Chen answered on the second ring."I have a proposal for you," Nathan said.There was a short silence on the other end. "I'm listening.""You know Apex better than anyone. You spent twenty years inside that company. You know how it works, where it's vulnerable, who can be turned." Nathan leaned back in his chair. "I want you to use that knowledge.""In exchange for what?" Frank asked."A senior position at Vanguard. Compensation that makes what Apex was paying you look like
Chapter 0305 - The Deepening
Declan did not lose his temper.He had spent too many years learning what that cost, had learned during his years in The Court’s systems that anger was a luxury only people with power could afford, had learned that reacting emotionally to threat closed off the strategic options that required clear thinking and measured response.But his wife, watching his face from across the room where she had been reading, quietly set down her book and waited.She understood what that particular stillness in his expression meant, understood that he was processing information that changed the entire landscape of what they were facing, understood that rage was building behind careful control and that her role was simply to be present while he determined how to respond.He told his daughter to keep communicating with Adrian and not to pull back suddenly.The words came out with the precision of someone who had learned to give orders that could not be questioned, someone who understood that the instruct
Chapter 0304 - The Recognition
The Lin family woman called Declan on a Thursday morning before he had finished his first coffee, called with the kind of urgency that suggested she had discovered something that could not wait for formal meeting or secure channel or any of the standard protocols designed to protect sensitive information.She didn’t say hello.She said she had a name.The name wasn’t Adrian.It belonged to someone much older, someone who had been completely invisible in Declan’s understanding of what had survived The Court’s collapse, someone who had never been tried because they had never been found, someone who had disappeared so completely that everyone working with Declan had assumed either death or successful escape beyond the reach of any investigation.For ten years, Declan and everyone working with the Lin family woman and the coalition networks had operated under the assumption that this person was gone, was either dead in the chaos of The Court’s collapse or had escaped to some location wher
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