Playtime's Over, CEO: She's Really Done With You-Chapter 374: The Origin of the Money
On the other side.
Serena Sterling looked at the figure over there, her heart surprisingly calm, as she methodically collected the checks one by one.
Entering the investment circle naturally requires some capital.
Initially, the actual funds Serena had were only sixty million.
After her divorce from Julian Lawson, she took the money she earned, the ten million Julian had paid for a song for Vera Hansen, and after splitting with the agency, she got half of that. The prize money from Heavenly Sound’s victory and subsequent contracts involving gemstone sales, endorsements, and such, as well as proceeds from a concert, all summed up just to that amount, with daily expenses still to consider.
So where did the remaining money come from?
The answer is leverage.
To put it simply, it’s borrowed money.
It’s just collateral loans with an institution.
Archie brought her a check from MKK along the way.
The collateral... was her secret overseas belongings, and some immovable items from her father. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
As long as Serena couldn’t repay the money by the agreed time, they had the right to take those things.
They had long wanted to get those things, but all along, Serena had never signed anything.
They couldn’t take them away.
So when MKK learned that Serena wanted a collateral loan, they agreed quickly.
Of course, Serena also didn’t plan to use all of this money on the Aether project.
She had other uses for this money.
Serena knew that if she asked Silas Hawthorne, he could wire money to her account in the next second.
But she didn’t want to.
She didn’t want to always be the chosen one, regarded by everyone as subordinate.
She wanted everyone to know that she was capable, and so was the Sheridan Family!
Moreover, Silas was still facing pressure from the Hawthorne Group, and she also needed to strive for their shared future.
With this in mind, Serena looked towards Brandon Huxley, who was pacing anxiously back and forth, and she stood up and walked over to him.
"Mr. Huxley, shall we talk?" Serena said.
Brandon wiped his sweat and nodded.
The two went to a small meeting room nearby. Serena glanced at Raine, who nodded and stood by the door to prevent anyone from overhearing.
"What does Mr. Sheridan want to talk to me about?" Brandon asked as Serena closed the door.
"Let’s discuss the departure of your core technical staff," Serena said directly.
Brandon was stunned.
What to do?
How does everyone know!
Seeing that he didn’t speak, Serena continued on her own.
"A few days ago at the conference, Aether suddenly showcased the latest technology without any prior notice, attracting everyone’s attention with its mystery."
"For the next three days, it was packed with people every day."
Serena smiled and said, "Mr. Huxley was clever to dismiss us with an intern’s mistake, but I had a backup plan and asked my assistant to keep an eye on that intern."
"Although the intern didn’t leak anything, there was one thing he couldn’t avoid."
"He was constantly crying and being scolded as if waiting for all the visitors to see that he made a mistake."
Serena looked at Brandon’s troubled face and continued, "Even if you wanted others to know about his mistake, what about the second and third day’s crowds? What was going on there?"
Serena sat in a chair, looking at Brandon beside her.
"The reason you prolonged it for three days was because you feared that without additional days, not many people would invest in your project."
"But these three days were also enough for others to check the company situation and investigate you."
"That’s why you didn’t dare approach top enterprises in Aeston, like The Lawson Corporation, the Hawthorne Group, or the Ford Group; they would have figured it out immediately, and with their risk assessments, they wouldn’t bother with you."
"But you really needed a large sum of money to persuade your core technical person not to leave."
"So you created a mystery, set thresholds, and even leaked news of overseas orders at 11 PM last night."
Serena laid out Brandon’s recent behavior pattern piece by piece.
After some investigation, Serena confirmed that the technology was indeed good; the current pitfall was the departure of the core technical personnel.
And why the person wanted to leave.
Serena had encountered Brandon at the hospital that day.
Wondering why Brandon was at the hospital during such a busy time, Serena followed him to take a look.
The two of them quarreled in the emergency exit, and Serena overheard from outside.
The other person was the core technical staff, forming a team with Brandon initially at Aether, managing various external affairs while the other handled the technical development.
Because the person’s mother was seriously ill, requiring a large sum for treatment, but they were out of money.
"Brandon, don’t blame me. I can’t just watch my mom die; I have to sell it. I can only promise you not to engage in similar work elsewhere for the next six months," the person said.
"But you know, without you, Aether has no future; it would stop right here!" Brandon said emotionally.
But the other person still shook their head.
"I’ll borrow some, okay? Don’t rush to sell. I’ll borrow money to treat Auntie. We must cure Auntie!" Brandon said, "Buddy, we’ve known each other for so many years and co-founded Aether. Please give me a chance, okay?"
"But where can you borrow it?" the other person said sadly, "All these years, haven’t we already mortgaged the company to the limit?"
The research costs were extremely high; they had only received angel funding before and later took loans for development.
In reality, there was no money left.
"I’ll get funding, and then discreetly divert some over. We’ll replenish it when we have money later," Brandon said. "Our technology is good, and we always intended to seek funding; it’s just a matter of timing, right?"
Eventually, the two temporarily deadlocked on this.
After returning, Serena asked Bianca Lynch to look into the patient’s condition.
The illness was severe, requiring continuous ICU stays and numerous costly medical procedures.
This was the reason the person intended to leave.
Selling the technical shares to fund his mother’s treatment and also to accompany her.
This essentially meant a temporary departure.
Whether and when he would return to Aether remained uncertain.
In the meeting room, Serena calmly laid all this out.
By now, Brandon was no longer tensely standing but had slumped into a chair beside him.
He looked utterly dejected.
"We’ve always had a good relationship. We met in college," Brandon said. "All these years, we’ve struggled but kept striving. But with Auntie’s situation... I really can’t blame him."
"I had everything well planned; I wasn’t really deceiving anyone. We do have good technology, and with him here, we had it all sorted out, but now with this problem..."
