The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 13

Chapter 14 The Transfer 2

+25 Points

Chapter 14: The Transfer-2

“Bella, you’ve transformed this division.” She pulled up financial reports on her screen. “Forty-five million pounds in profit in eighteen months. That’s unprecedented.”

“The opportunities were there,” I said. “I just found them.”

“You created them.” She leaned forward. “I’m promoting you to division head. You’ll have your own team, full autonomy over acquisition decisions, and equity in the deals you close.”

“Thank you,” I said, keeping my voice steady even as my heart raced. “I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t.” She smiled slightly. “Robert told me you’d be special and he was right.”

That night, I video called Maya from my small London flat. Tom was asleep in the next room, and I was still in my work clothes at midnight, exhausted but exhilarated.

“Division head,” Maya breathed when I told her. “Bella, that’s incredible.”

“It’s not enough.” I looked at the business plan I’d been working on, the one I kept hidden in an encrypted folder on my laptop. “Gregory Company is good, but I’m building something bigger. My own company. Hart Worldwide.”

“You’re starting your own firm?” Maya’s eyes widened. “While working for Gregory?”

“Not yet. I’m learning everything I can first-their methods, their contacts, their strategies.” I pulled up my business plan on screen. “But in a year, maybe two, I’m going to break away. Build an empire that’s completely mine.”

“And then?”

“And then I’m going to expand it until I’m powerful enough to walk back into Silverton and make everyone who hurt me realize exactly what they threw away.”

Maya was quiet for a moment. “Just don’t lose yourself in the revenge, Bella. Don’t let it consume you.”

“It won’t.” I glanced toward Tom’s room. “I have too much to protect now. But they will pay for what they did. I’ll make sure of it.”

Over the next year, I worked myself to the bone. By day, I ran Gregory Company’s acquisition division, closing deals across Europe and Asia. By night, I built Hart Worldwide’s foundation-business plans, investor presentations, client lists I’d cultivate once I broke away.

Tom turned three, growing from a baby into a little boy with his father’s grey eyes and his mother’s determination. He asked questions constantly, wanted to understand everything, and demanded stories about “when Mommy was little.” I never told him the truth. Instead, I said I grew up far away, that his grandparents lived somewhere we couldn’t visit, that his daddy was… complicated.

“Will I meet him someday?” Tom asked one night as I tucked him into bed.

The question hit me. “Yes, baby. Someday you’ll meet him.”

“Will he like me?”

1/3

* Chapter 14 The Transfer 2

+25 Points

Ismoothed his dark hair back, fighting tears. “He’s going to love you. Because you’re perfect and anyone who doesn’t see that is a fool.”

Tom smiled sleepily. “You’re the best mommy in the whole world.”

“And you’re the best son,” I whispered, kissing his forehead. “Never forget that. No matter what anyone says, you are wanted. You are loved, you are everything.”

Few weeks later I walked into Catherine’s office and resigned.

“You’re making a mistake,” she said, genuinely shocked. “We were about to make you a partner, Bella with full equity stake.”

“I appreciate everything Gregory Company has done for me,” said honestly. “But I need to build something that’s truly mine. Something no one can ever take away.”

She studied me for a long moment. “You’re starting your own firm.”

“Hart Worldwide. Acquisitions and investment consulting.” I met her eyes steadily. “I’m not going to compete directly with Gregory in Europe. My focus is Asia-Pacific and eventually, North America.”

“Silverton?” she asked shrewdly.

“Eventually.”

Catherine leaned back, a smile playing at her lips. “I suppose I can’t be too angry, you learned from the best.”

“I did.” I stood. “And I’ll always be grateful for the chance you gave me.”

“Just promise me something,” she said as I reached the door. “When you’re running your empire and someone asks where you learned to be ruthless, tell them it was at Gregory Company.”

I smiled. “I’ll tell them I learned from the best.”

Hart Worldwide officially launched from a small office in London with a staff of four-me, two analysts I’d poached from Gregory, and an assistant who believed in my vision. We specialized in what I knew best: identifying struggling companies in emerging markets, buying them for pennies, and transforming them into profitable assets.

The first few months was brutal. I worked twenty-hour days, lived on coffee and determination, and nearly bankrupted myself twice. But slowly, deal by deal, we grew.

Our first major acquisition was a failing manufacturing company in Mumbai. Everyone said it was worthless, but I saw the contracts buried in their assets, the supply chains that could be optimized. We bought it for almost nothing, restructured it, and sold it later for ten times what we’d paid. The business press started paying attention, in a short while Hart Worldwide had offices in five countries and a valuation that made me wealthy on paper. We’d acquired twenty companies, restructured fifteen, dissolved five for their valuable assets. The industry started calling me the “Iron Empress” ruthless, calculating, brilliant.

I never corrected them. Let them think I was cold hearted, let them forget I’d once been a broken girl crying on a bus to nowhere. That girl was gone. In her place stood a woman who’d built an international empire, who commanded respect in boardrooms across three continents. A woman who was finally ready to go

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Chapter 14 The Transfer 2

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