Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 498

“Every single bonus on the table is strictly tied to hitting your targets,” Mira concluded.

“Understood,” Soren Tate replied immediately, setting the tone.

The rest of the room straightened up, eyes sharp and practically buzzing with adrenaline, ready to outwork everyone else. With such a fiercely driven team and a boss who was this generous with the profits, they knew the company was destined for the stratosphere. Soren knew he had to seize this opportunity with everything he had; it was his ticket to completely rewriting his future.

“Additionally, given the immense workload and the tight deadline, I've decided to bring in Vertex Social's gaming division and a few other top-tier domestic studios to co-develop the project.”

“But if we do that, our creative control and equity will get diluted,” Soren pointed out, clearly reluctant to share their masterpiece.

“Don't worry about that. No matter who we bring on to help, we will retain a minimum of sixty percent of the IP. If we don't scale up, we risk letting a foreign studio beat us to the punch, and that would be a disaster.”

Mira wrapped up the logistical planning, satisfied to see the room's energy and morale practically vibrating through the roof. Once the meeting adjourned, she didn't linger. She still needed to inspect the mobile OS division before catching a flight back to Zion City.

“Hold on a second,” Owen and Dominic called out, catching up to her in the hallway.

“I thought you two were fully committed to playing the silent observers,” Mira said dryly.

The two men exchanged a look and burst out laughing. It had been years since anyone had spoken to Dominic with such casual, unfiltered honesty.

“Hey, Dominic, I heard one of the devs whispering that you looked exactly like Dominic West. So, what is it that you actually do?” Mira asked with a smirk.

The men laughed even harder.

“And what did the other guy say?” Dominic asked, highly amused.

“He said you just had a similar face.”

“See? I told you,” Owen chuckled. “You can walk around completely casually, and people will just assume you're a lookalike.”

“He's completely out of options and on the verge of a total breakdown. When a man is that desperate, he doesn't care about dignity anymore. He's capable of anything.” Ethan's tone held no trace of his usual mockery; it was heavy with exhaustion.

“On the verge of a breakdown?” Mira raised an eyebrow. Was Adrian really that fragile?

“It's not that he's fragile. It's just that his wealth is literally his entire life. To secure those assets in the first place, he ruthlessly dumped his childhood sweetheart—a woman he'd grown up with and loved for years—just so he could marry our mother.”

“Childhood sweetheart? I thought Fiona was his one true love?” Mira asked. In two lifetimes, she had never heard this piece of history.

“Fiona doesn't even rank. Honestly, he only got involved with Fiona to get his hands on the assets too.”

“How so? And who exactly was this childhood sweetheart?”

Ethan had clearly been digging deep lately. He had uncovered quite a few buried skeletons.