And then, with the cameras live and the pen in the air and every important person in the industry watching, I turned the lights on and let them all see that the two titans about to merge into an unstoppable empire had, between them, not one legitimate claim to the engine that made either of them run.

It was not luck.

It was patience — the load-bearing virtue of every quiet person the loud ones underestimate.

Chapter 23 — The Implosion

A house built on rot does not lean gently.

It comes down all at once, and it takes everyone standing inside it.