Chapter 125: Chapter 125
Darien entered the office with a smile he could not hide.
He had been waiting for this since morning.
The moment he reached his desk, he did not even sit properly. He pulled the chair back and opened the banking page with quick hands.
The page loaded. Then the balance appeared.
For one second, Darien only stared at the screen.
Then both his hands went into the air.
"Yes!" he shouted.
He brought his hands down hard, almost hitting the desk.
"Finally. This finally happened!"
The sound made one of the employees outside look toward his cabin, but Darien did not care.
Money had come in.
A lot of money.
For the last few days, he had been pretending to work normally.
He had checked documents. He had signed papers. He had spoken to bank staff and land officers as if this was only a normal business plan.
But inside, he had been waiting for only one thing.
The transfer.
He leaned closer to the screen and checked the amount again. Nine hundred million dollars had already arrived.
Darien’s mouth opened a little.
Even after expecting a large transfer, the number still hit him like a slap.
"How does Walter do this?" he muttered.
The moment he said Walter’s name, his smile froze a little. The excitement in his chest became mixed with fear.
"No, no..." Darien whispered. "That man will kill me if he finds out what I did."
He looked toward the glass wall of his office as if Walter might appear there.
Walter had already noticed the car.
Darien had bought it with money that had come through Walter’s side. He had told himself it was a small personal reward, but Walter’s eyes had not looked like they believed that. If Walter checked deeper, he might ask where else Darien had used the money.
That thought made Darien’s back feel cold.
Then he waved his hand in the air as if pushing the fear away.
"No. Why am I worrying now?" he said. "No worry. No worry at all."
He looked back at the computer. Nine hundred million dollars. The land Walter had told him to buy had finally been sold.
The government had started buying the road-side pieces for the new project, and Darien had sold the land at a price that still felt unreal. The total deal was around one point two billion dollars. Nine hundred million had arrived now, and the rest would come over the next few days.
The bank loan papers had also helped.
His staff had prepared enough structure earlier that the purchase did not look like a random man suddenly throwing hidden cash into land. It looked like business. It looked like planning. It looked cleaner than it actually was.
That was the part Darien respected now.
Walter had not simply told him to buy land. He had made him build a reason around it. All the papers had been placed in a way that made the deal look like a risky but normal investment.
Darien had complained at the time. Now he understood why it mattered. That was why Darien was smiling.
The company that had not even existed properly a short time ago now held close to a billion dollars in assets and cash movement.
If he listed this company on the stock market today, the valuation would explode.
Darien leaned back in the chair and laughed under his breath.
"This is madness."
Then he looked at the screen again and smiled wider.
"No," he corrected himself. "This is profit."
Then another update appeared. More money started reflecting across the accounts.
Darien’s smile slowly faded. This money was not from the land sale.
This was from the stocks.
Walter had told him to hold positions in the companies that had been under pressure because of the chip situation. Darien had obeyed for some time. Those companies had been linked to the wider supply chain, and because Aster Core had started supplying chips to certain buyers, the panic had given Darien good entry points.
But then fresh news came.
Darien did not like the smell of it.
The market had started moving in a way that made his fingers itch. He had tried to contact Walter, but there was no proper answer at the right time. For a while, he kept waiting.
Then his instinct screamed at him.
He had to sell. So he sold hard. He exited almost everything. Now the results were coming in.
The liquid money under his control was moving toward five billion dollars.
Darien stared at the screen again.
Joy rose inside him so strongly that he almost laughed again.
Then fear rose right behind it.
"He is going to kill me," Darien whispered.
Walter had told him to hold.
Darien had sold without permission.
What if Walter was right again? What if the stocks were about to rise even more? What if Darien had cut the profit too early?
The thought made his stomach twist.
He rubbed his face with both hands.
"No," he told himself. "No, no, no. Too much greed is not good."
He looked at the numbers again.
"Five billion in liquid assets," he muttered. "Who cries over more after this?"
His heart was still beating fast.
He was happy. He was scared. He wanted to celebrate. He also wanted to hide from Walter for a few days.
Darien looked toward the door of his cabin.
For one moment, he imagined Walter walking in with that calm face.
That was the worst part.
Walter never needed to shout to make him afraid.
Darien had dealt with angry men before. Angry men were easy to read. Walter was different. He spoke softly, and somehow that made him worse.
"If he asks, I will explain," Darien whispered. "I will say the news was bad. I will say I protected the money."
He nodded to himself.
"Yes, I protected the money," he said. "That sounds better than saying I disobeyed."
Darien finally leaned back and forced himself to breathe.
"I made the right call," he said softly. "I had to."
But even as he said that, his eyes stayed on the screen.
And somewhere in the back of his mind, Walter’s calm voice kept returning.
