Chapter 10 - The Ultimate EmpireSix months later, the spring sun washed over the sprawling lawns of the Montgomery-Collins Estate in upstate New York.
The air was filled with the soft melodies of a string quartet, the laughter of old friends, and the clinking of crystal champagne flutes.
It was the wedding of the decade—though the financial press preferred to call it the most powerful corporate merger in modern history.
Maya Collins stood before the floral archway, wearing a stunning, custom-designed gown of white silk and lace that radiated timeless elegance. Her mother sat in the front row, wiping tears of pure joy from her eyes, while her younger brother beamed proudly from the groomsmen line.
Standing across from her, dressed in a sharp black tuxedo, was Arthur Montgomery.
The billionaire who had once mocked the world from a seventy-sixth-floor glass tower looked at his bride not with the cold calculation of an investor, but with the unconditional devotion of a man who had finally found something worth more than all the gold in the world.
The officiant smiled warmly. “Do you, Arthur, take Maya to be your lawful wife, to build an empire of love, partnership, and strength together?”
Arthur never took his eyes off Maya. “I do.”
“And do you, Maya, take Arthur to be your lawful husband, to conquer every storm and share every triumph side by side?”
Maya smiled, a radiant, triumphant expression that outshone the spring sun. “I do.”
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
As Arthur pulled her into a deep, passionate embrace, the applause of the crowd swelled around them like a roaring wave.
They had started as enemies across a white tablecloth—a billionaire drunk on arrogance and a waitress burning with righteous fury. But together, they hadn't just survived the cutthroat world of Wall Street; they had rewritten its rules entirely.
And as they danced their first dance under the starlit New York sky, holding each other like two people who had conquered the entire world, they knew that their greatest acquisition wasn't a company, an empire, or a patent.
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It was each other.
Happily ever after.
