Ruin My IPO? I'll Pull Your Funding

Ten minutes before the IPO, my lower body started burning with intense pain. The pain was so bad that my knees buckled and I fell from the stairs on the third floor. I hit my forehead, which started bleeding, and fresh blood dripped into my eyes. As I convulsed on the ground, my hands covered my crotch as my skin felt like it was being fried in boiling oil. My fiancée, Yvette James, came over in her high heels and kicked me in the thigh. "What's with all the pretense? It's just half a bottle of ointment poured down your pants." Her bestie, Henry Curtis, had his phone held toward me as he livestreamed the situation. He was bent over from laughing too hard. "Check this out, fam! This penniless loser is burning from the waist down! It's too funny!" I could hardly breathe from the pain, and I begged Yvette to get me an ambulance. Yvette rolled her eyes and pushed the camera into my face. "Henry is targeting 100,000 viewers for this live stream! Can you scream louder? Don't be a buzzkill! That thing between your legs is just like a toothpick. That ointment might give you a growth spurt, so you should thank me for it." My lower body had gone numb from the pain, and I saw the comments section ridiculing me. I stopped begging for help as I stared coldly at Yvette while giving the orders to pull her funds. "The wedding is off. Be prepared for your company's bankruptcy." Chapter 1 "Stop playing dead and get up!" Yvette James' shrill voice echoed in the empty corridor. She was wearing a red, haute couture gown and kicking my thigh mercilessly with her sharp heels. The intense pain made me curl up in a ball as my lower body felt like hot iron burning on me. The ointment, which contained highly concentrated mint and camphor, started to burn the most fragile soft tissue lining in my body. I was like a fish thrown onto land as I convulsed violently on the floor. A small cut on my forehead was bleeding, and the warm blood flowed from my brow and into my eye, causing my sight to be blurred by red. "Get me an ambulance, Yvette," I managed to blurt the words with great difficulty. All Yvette did was look down at me without any concern for her fiancé on the ground. She looked at me with disgust. "Ambulance? Are you trying to ruin my IPO? This is an important day for my company, and the media is all over this place! Are you trying to make me a laughingstock in the industry by calling you an ambulance right now?" Yvette leaned over suddenly to grab my hair, forcing me to look up. "That was only half a bottle of ointment. Why are you acting like you're hurt badly when those people in the comedy clips feel nothing after using the ointment? What kind of a man are you when you can't take a little pain?" Henry Curtis was laughing hard by her side while holding a selfie stick equipped with proper lighting. He was wearing a flamboyantly shiny suit and had on thick makeup while speaking out loud to his phone's camera in an annoying, high-pitched tone. "Check out this loser, fam! Yvette is on the verge of being worth billions, and this gigolo is pretending to be sick to garner her sympathy. What a schemer! Any of you who think that he deserves this, just type 'He deserves this' in the comments section!" Henry spoke as he pushed the camera into my face. The comments flowed in instantly without stopping. [Isn't that man disgusting? He'll do anything just to get some attention.] [I feel bad for Yvette. How did she end up with such a fiancé?] [Henry is right. Useless men like him with no money will always be jealous of a powerful woman.] [What's wrong with a little ointment? He should be honored that Yvette put ointment on him. That thing between his legs deserves to be bathed in that ointment.] The pain in my lower body became numb as I read those malicious words. I bit hard on my lip, tasting the blood from the wound of my bite. Yvette released my hair and flung her hand in disgust, as if she had just touched something dirty. "Did you hear that? Even the netizens find you disgusting. Henry's live stream is about to hit 100,000 viewers. This is going to be a turning point in his career. So, scream louder and roll about on the ground more. You can't disappoint his audience!" Yveette took a wet tissue from her assistant and started wiping her fingers carefully. "That little thing between your legs needed some ointment to help with blood circulation. You should thank me for rubbing it on you to induce a growth spurt." Henry said sarcastically, "You shouldn't say that about him, Yvette. He might not be able to perform well, but he does have his pride." Chapter 2 "You won't be mad at Yvette, right, Callum? If you are mad, I'll apologize on behalf of her." Despite his offer of an apology, Henry came up to me and stepped hard on the back of my hand instead, grinding my fingers under his leather shoes. The pain was intense, and I quickly pulled my hand away, and I fell back hard, leaning against the cold wall while still reeling from the pain. I stopped asking for help or calling out in pain. All I did was reach my bloody hand slowly into my pocket to pull out a phone. Yvette's expression changed when she saw what I was doing. "What are you trying to do? Call the police? Or call an ambulance?" She rushed over to me, trying to grab my phone. "I'm warning you, Callum. I won't let you off if you dare blow this out of proportion!" I leaned slightly to the side to dodge her reaching hand. My thumbs moved quickly to unlock my phone and click the button to the secret backup known only to me. It was a basic control system for Yvette's company's core funding. Three years ago, Yvette's company was on the brink of bankruptcy. I was the one who sold my parents' old house and took out all of my savings, in addition to my independently researched core AI patent, to help rebuild her company. To give Yvette a stronger sense of security, I let her become the CEO and legal representative of the company, but I did give myself a safety net. It was a command that could freeze her funding and patent rights, and something that I thought I would never use. It felt like such a joke when I saw the fury on Yvette's face. This was the woman I had loved for five years, the fiancée I had given everything to and placed on a pedestal. I took a deep breath as I pressed hard on the red button to pull her funding with my bloodied finger, and my phone screen turned bright red. A huge pop-up window appeared with the words: [Funding has ceased. The core patent rights have been terminated.] My eyes met Yvette's when I looked up, and I said to her slowly, "The wedding is off. You can start preparing for your company's bankruptcy." There was silence in the corridor. Yvette was taken aback but quickly snapped out of it as she noticed the screen of my phone. She burst out in shrill laughter when she saw the bright, red warning on it. "Bankruptcy?" She was laughing so hard that she was crying. She pointed at my nose, acting as if she had just heard the biggest joke in the world. "Are you hallucinating from the pain, Callum? Do you think you can scare me with a fake app that triggers a red pop-up? Who do you think you are? My company is about to get an IPO on Nasdaq, and is estimated to be worth a billion!" Yvette walked up to me, showing off her bright, red, polished nails by poking me on the shoulder. "You're just a man who is leeching off me by loitering in my company. How do you plan to bankrupt me?" Henry leaned in close to me to point his phone's camera right into my face. "Look at him, fam! This poor bastard even came up with a pointless app to pretend he's the big man! Did you see what that app said? 'Funding has ceased'? That's a pretty impressive effect. Did you buy the source code online for ten bucks?" The comments section exploded once more. [What a joke! That man must be delusional.] [Well, I learned something new today. This must be the first person to get others bankrupt via cyberspace.] Chapter 3 [Yvette should send that basket case to the mental hospital and stop him from going crazy on everyone out here.] I leaned against the wall as I looked coldly at the man and woman in front of me, acting like the clowns they were. The command to freeze the funding and patent rights had to go through an overseas server first, which would render a delay of about 24 hours. They might be on top of the world right now, but they were in for a quick descent the next day. "Think what you want." I put my phone away and tried to stand, but the burning in my lower body was intense, and my legs shook like jelly. When Yvette saw me about to leave, her face fell. "Stop! Who said you could leave? Our company's IPO is about to happen soon. Go to the washroom and clean the blood off your face. Change into something better and come with me to the hall!" she ordered without holding back. "There will be many huge potential investors present today. Stay by my side like a good boy and play your part as my loving fiancé. If you dare show your temper at me, I'll stop your monthly allowance!" I paused in my steps and turned to look at her. "Didn't you just hear what I said, Yvette? I said the wedding is off!" Yvette looked at me in disbelief. She was used to having me wrapped around her little finger. No matter how much she hit me or yelled at me, I would go running to her like a good dog whenever she waved me over to her. "Are you trying to be funny, Callum?" Yvette was enraged. She turned and shouted into the corridor. "Security! Where's security?!" Four muscular men in security uniforms came running over right away. "Yes, Ms. James?" Yvette pointed at me with a venomous look in her eye. "Throw this troublemaker out of here! I don't want him dirtying the company's carpet!" The security guards looked at each other as they recognized me and knew I was Yvette's fiancé. "Ms. James, it looks like Mr. Lyon is hurt," the head of security said hesitantly. "Just throw him out as I told you to! Whoever says another word will be fired!" They no longer hesitated and lunged at me right away, grabbing me by each arm. The intense struggle tugged on my wound, and I almost passed out from the pain. They dragged me out of the building like a ragged doll and threw me onto the cold, cement ground outside the door. It had started raining heavily, and I was drenched in the icy rain. The rainwater ran down my face, mixed with the blood from my forehead, and continued flowing down my body and into the drain. I lay in the rain, watching the bright lights of the building and listening to the cheering and champagne-popping inside. Yvette was celebrating her 'success' while passersby were pointing and staring at me as I tried to stand with great difficulty and hail a cab. "Get me to First Hospital's emergency room." When I arrived at the hospital, the emergency room doctor took a sharp breath when he saw the condition I was in. "How did you end up this way? Your lower body has suffered a horrible chemical burn, and most of your soft tissue is damaged!" The doctor cleaned up my wound quickly while shaking his head in anger. "This is horrible. You would've been permanently damaged if you were just 30 minutes later." The cleaning process hurt even worse than when I was injured. I bit hard on the gauze as my bedsheet got drenched in cold sweat. I was given an IV drip as I lay weakly on a hospital bed. Chapter 4 My phone suddenly rang. It was Yvette calling. I put her on speaker phone, only to hear her high-pitched, frustrated voice coming through. "Where are you, Callum? The IPO event is about to end! Henry accidentally spilled champagne on his suit. You need to get back here right away and let Henry change into the bespoke suit you're wearing." My hospital room was very quiet, with only a faint beeping audible. Yvette's screaming sounded particularly ridiculous in the empty room. "Did you hear what I said? Henry has an interview with the finance media later. He can't appear on screen in a dirty suit. I was the one who paid for your suit, and you need to bring it over right now!" I stared at the bright light on the ceiling and replied in a hoarse voice, "I'm in the emergency room, Yvette. The doctor said my lower body is badly burnt, and was almost damaged permanently." There was a second of silence, followed by Yvette clicking her tongue impatiently. "Are you done, Callum? Can you stop with your act? Why would you need to go to the emergency room when it's just some ointment? Are you trying to trick me into visiting you by acting all pitiful? I can tell you right now that it isn't working!" Henry's voice could be heard in the background. "Forget about it, Yvette. If Callum isn't willing to loan me his suit, I'm fine with my dirty one. I just hope I won't end up embarrassing you…" His little scheme of playing victim fueled Yvette's rage. "He won't refuse you his suit!" Yvette raised her voice. "Bring that suit over within 30 minutes, Callum! Otherwise, don't even dream of stepping through the office door again!" I hung up right away and blocked her number. I closed my eyes to force myself to calm down. It still required some time for the funding to be stopped, and before that happened, I had to take back everything that belonged to me. There was a copy of my core code and an emerald pendant that my mother left to me before she died. They were all kept in the safe at my office. I tore off the IV tube from the back of my hand and forced myself to get out of bed despite the nurse trying her best to stop me. I hailed a cab and returned to the office. The office was in a mess as the party for the IPO event had just ended. The employees gathered in different groups as they talked about the celebration. I avoided the crowd and headed straight to my personal office on the top floor. I was furious at what I saw when I pushed the door open. Someone had rummaged through my office table, leaving it in a mess. Henry was seated in my office chair, acting like a boss with his feet on my redwood table. He was wearing the bespoke suit I had carefully put away because of its high value while playing carelessly with my emerald pendant. "Well, look who it is. The man who declared our CEO's bankruptcy via cyberspace." Henry looked at me and laughed wildly instead of feeling guilty about what he did. "What are you doing here? Did you come back to the office to play with your simple app because the hospital has lousy Wifi?" I stared at the emerald pendant in his hand, looking like my eyes could spout fire at any time. "Put it down." My tone was icy as I walked over to Henry. Henry's lips curled as he waved the pendant under the lights. "What are you so mad about? Isn't this just an ordinary piece of stone?" Chapter 5 "Yvette said I could take anything I wanted because she paid for everything in your office. A fan from my streaming channel told me this stone has a retro look to it, and I was planning to use it as a lucky draw prize for my stream tonight," he said as he made a show of slamming the emerald pendant onto the table to crack it. "Don't you dare!" I no longer held back as I lunged at Henry to grab him by the collar and dragged him out of the chair. The pendant fell from his hand. I managed to catch it midair, holding it tightly against my chest. Henry squealed out loud like a pig when I dragged him to the ground. "Help! He's trying to beat me up! Murder!" The office door was pushed open, and Yvette entered with several members of top management. When Yvette saw Henry on the ground, the look on her face changed, and she dashed toward me in her heels to push me off Henry. "Henry! Are you alright?" Yvette helped Henry up with a worried look on her face before she turned to glare viciously at me. "Are you crazy, Callum?! How dare you hit Henry?!" I looked at her coldly while holding my pendant protectively. "He touched the emerald pendant my mother left for me." Yvette was taken aback, but quickly sneered with indifference. "I thought it was some sort of treasure, but that's just a worthless piece of stone. You should feel honored that Henry has eyes for anything you own. You're a big man, aren't you? Why are you acting so pettily?" She pointed at my nose and said in a charitable tone, "Apologize to Henry right now. I'll let this go if you kneel and apologize to him, and you can return to my side at the celebration party tonight." "Apologize?" I kept repeating those words as I looked at the confident look on Yvette's face, and I laughed in anger. "Did you inhale that ointment and let it mess with your brain, Yvette? He was the one who poured that ointment down my pants and took my bespoke suit, and you want me to kneel and apologize to him? He was also the one who wanted my mother's emerald pendant as a lucky draw prize for his streaming audience!" Yvette turned red from my retort as she felt she had been humiliated and disrespected in front of her top management. "You should know what's good for you, Callum! That thing with the ointment was just a harmless prank. That suit and the pendant are collecting dust here anyway. What's wrong with using them?" She took a deep breath as a malicious look flashed in her eye. "If you insist on doing this the hard way, don't blame me for what I'm about to do next! "Security! Throw this madman into the basement storage room! No one is allowed to let him out without my permission in case he causes a scene at the party tonight and embarrasses me!" The security guards came toward me, but I did not fight back. While everything had been going on, I had quietly grabbed the USB with the core code from under the table. Now that I had taken everything that belonged to me, I no longer cared what these people were saying because they would be ruined very soon. It was dark and damp in the basement, and it smelled heavily of mold. When the storage room's heavy metal door closed behind me, the sound of the door being locked echoed in the empty corridor. I leaned against a heap of abandoned cardboard boxes and carefully hid the emerald pendant on me. After that, I took out my phone to check the countdown timer on the screen. Less than three hours were left before the funding for Yvette's company was pulled. It coincided with the peak of tonight's celebration party. Footsteps were heard outside the metal door about 30 minutes later. The lock turned, and the door creaked as it opened. Chapter 6 Henry appeared partially from the door with a glass of red wine in his hand. He turned back to glance at the surveillance camera in the corridor to confirm that he had turned it off. After that, the kind look on his face vanished. "Don't you feel like a total loser now, Callum?" He swirled the wine in his glass as he walked slowly toward me. "Don't you feel upset? You've sacrificed so much only to let me reap all of your benefits in the end." I did not even blink as I sat on the ground. "Did you come here just to tell me this?" Henry sneered as he crouched and lowered his voice. "I'm here to tell you that I swapped that bottle of ointment. That's not the only thing I did. I'm also taking everything of yours little by little. Your fiancée, your company, and your dignity! Why does a penniless nerd like you deserve to be a CEO while I have to keep making those losers in my streaming channel happy?" Henry got increasingly agitated. His eyes were filled with mad jealousy as he continued. "Yvette listens to me now. It'll only take one word from me, and she will sweep you out the door like garbage!" I looked at the glee on his face as I quietly clicked on the recording button on my phone. "So what if you do?" I retorted calmly. "That means you'd better be obedient!" Henry stood up and poured the red wine on my head. The wine dripped from my hair, looking like bloodstains. "I'll get Yvette to announce that your wedding is off during tonight's party, and make her propose to me instead. You'll just need to be a good boy and stay in this rat hole while listening to us celebrating upstairs!" Henry turned to leave happily as he locked the door behind him. I wiped away the wine on my face and made sure I saved the audio file of the recording on my phone, sneering as I got the job done. In the outside world, bright lights were flashing with glamorous figures in the grand hall on the top floor. Yvette was in a haute couture gown and holding a glass of champagne as she chatted with every investor and member of the media attending the party, enjoying being the center of attention. That was when the finance director appeared from behind the stage and came running toward Yvette, grabbing her arm. "Bad news, Ms. James. Something horrible happened!" Yvette flung his hand off unhappily. "Can't you see I'm busy talking to Mr. Werner about a potential investment? What are you making a big fuss about?" The finance director's voice was trembling. "It's an emergency, Ms. James. The bank just called to inform us that the money in our public account is empty!" Yvette frowned. "Empty? How is that possible? Could it be a delay from the system? We have had major transactions today. It's only normal for some buffering time." "But—" "There are no buts!" Yvette interrupted him impatiently. "This is a big day for me, so don't jinx it! Get back there and find out if there is something wrong with the network!" With that, she turned away with a perfect smile on her face as she walked toward the center of the stage. I looked at the countdown timer on my phone screen, which had reached the count of zero. "This is the start of your end."