Ridiculed into Wealth

Chapter 7 : The Art of Steel

Liam Hawthorne didn’t celebrate Charles Langston’s fall. He didn’t need champagne or press conferences. Real power didn’t announce itself — it moved silently, taking piece after piece until the throne stood empty.

Montgomery Group was next.

Liam wasn’t interested in pressuring them publicly. No lawsuits. No boardroom drama. He preferred the quiet war — asset by asset, ally by ally. Bleed them until they begged to be bought.

His first target: Evermark Pharmaceuticals.

It was one of Montgomery’s oldest suppliers — an institution in biotech with deep roots in East Coast trade circles. For years, it had been a quiet but loyal cog in the Montgomery machine. But Liam had done his homework.

Wallace Greer, Evermark’s aging CEO, had never liked Harold Montgomery.

They had clashed over acquisition strategy. Greer preferred longevity. Harold wanted fire-sale numbers and Wall Street claps. Greer had tolerated him — out of respect for the legacy.

Liam’s opening shot was delivered with a single folder.

Inside: leaked internal memos showing Montgomery Group had quietly shifted away from Evermark, opening talks with a cheaper Chinese supplier. Wallace’s name was mentioned — not kindly.

When Liam entered his office two days later, Wallace barely looked up.

“You’re the poor boy Montgomery laughed out of the ballroom,” Wallace said.

Liam gave a cool smile. “And now you’re the man he’s phasing out of a ten-year agreement.”

Greer looked at the file. “I suppose you think dangling a few memos gets you a seat at this table.”

“No,” Liam said, dropping another file. “But I think offering you a long-term exclusive partnership with Hawthorne Holdings does.”

Wallace raised an eyebrow.

“We’ll match your current terms, pay quarterly in advance, and lock you in as our only pharma supplier for all global expansions. No middlemen. No surprises.”

Greer scoffed. “You’re young. Too young for this game.”

Liam leaned in slightly, voice low.

“And they’re too old to survive it.”

Silence stretched.

Then Greer sat back and smiled — not kindly, but with a kind of bitter amusement.

“You’ve got teeth.”

“Better men have tried to bury me,” Liam said.

“And worse men will try when you rise too fast,” Wallace replied. “You’d better have more than teeth when that happens.”

“I’ll have you,” Liam said. “If you sign.”

Greer stared at the pen on his desk for a long moment. Then, with a sigh that seemed to shed a decade of Montgomery chains, he signed.

Within forty-eight hours, Hawthorne Holdings announced its new medical division — fully backed by Evermark Pharmaceuticals.

The press ran wild.

They ran with the story of Liam's ascendency.

Analysts called it the “quiet collapse.” Montgomery’s quarterly projections tanked. Their supply chain was gutted. The board demanded answers. Investors pulled.

And at the center of the storm stood Liam — tailored, calm, unreadable.

Harold Montgomery held an emergency executive meeting.

He arrived late. His shirt was wrinkled. His face, pale. For the first time in decades, his hands visibly trembled.

“What the hell is going on?” he barked.

No one answered.

Screens showed graphs in red, headlines flashing across the ticker:

“Hawthorne Holdings Poaches Legacy Montgomery Partner”

“Power Shift in Pharma”

Harold stared at the numbers.

And saw the one thing he feared most: irrelevance.

"What are we going to do about this?" he asked, no one in particular. He was living his worst nightmare and he didn't know how to go about getting out of it.

No one answered. They looked at him and at their hands.

"How can we stop this? Stop the media from going on and on about this?" he wondered aloud. "Any suggestions? Any ideas?"

"We were hoping you would have some answers for us", someone said. "He was your son in law and you should be able to keep him on leash, shouldn't you?"

Harold wished it was as easy as that. He couldn't admit it publicly, didn't have to, but he was frightened of the new person Liam had become.

The heir they had mocked — the one they’d tossed out like nothing — now controlled half their revenue pipeline.

He wasn’t begging for a seat at their table anymore.

He was building his own. And what a gigantic and impressive one at that.

And soon… they would be asking him for crumbs.

What he could not understand though was how he got his business acumen. He was ruthless and cool. Every quality that was required in their line of work.

"I never thought he had it in him", he thought to himself. "If I had known I'd known, I might have given him a chance to prove himself in one of our conclomerates.

And what a difference he would have made. He was seeing it now. Even his own son Charles was nowhere near Liam in terms of handling companies and people: Be they board members, potential customers, investors or even employees. The news of his style and principle had reached him and he could only gnash his teeth in fury and frustration.

He fumed inwardly. Why had he lied to them that he was an orphan? He was the one who misled them. If he had come out plain and told them who he really was, the story would have been different. They would have treated him differently and not made him into a laughing stock nor been ashamed of him.

On the contrary, they would have paraded him as their most beloved son - in - law, showing him so much love and affection, he would have choked on it!

The situation was so depressing and the emergency meeting he had called seemed a waste of timed since nothing was resolved that he felt like strangling someone. He stormed away from the venue of the meeting into a private office where he slumped into a chair a held his head in his hands, his thoughts in disarray.