Chapter 277: Hands of the Future

"Like women," Amanda said, voice small, then flushed. "I mean, you transform undervalued things into... never mind."

Madison laughed — the kind of laugh that tasted like adrenaline. "No, she’s right. Eros has a hobby: finding broken, ignored stuff and making it priceless. Companies, people, whatever."

"So what are you proposing exactly?" Charlotte asked, pivoting to face me.

I stood and slipped beside her at the window. Madison closed the triangle — three dangerous silhouettes against a city built on audacity and cocaine money.

"We build something that lasts longer than any of us," I said. "Liberation Holdings becomes our vehicle for acquiring everything. Charlotte wants to expand past Quantum Tech? We buy startups through Liberation. Madison wants a life separate from her father? Liberation becomes her independent empire. I want generational security? Liberation prints compounding wealth."

"And ARIA runs everything," Charlotte said, the pieces clicking into place.

"While we provide the vision, capital, and legitimacy," I confirmed. "Three humans, one AI — a corporation that actually thinks."

Madison grabbed my hand. "Ownership?" she demanded, suddenly businesslike.

"Equal partners," I said, immediate and sure. "Thirty-three percent each. One percent to ARIA in a trust that legally doesn’t exist but votes like God."

"That’s illegal," Charlotte breathed.

"That’s innovative," ARIA corrected, delighted. "I’ve already built the legal framework. The SEC will need approximately forty years to decrypt this. By then, we’ll own the people who make laws retroactively palatable."

Charlotte actually laughed — the first honest sound since the scandal. "You’re serious. Build a shadow empire run by a sarcastic AI while we implode Rivera and save my company?"

"I want a real empire," I said. "Shadow empires are for cowards. Liberation won’t hide. It’ll make everything else obsolete — Amazon to their bookstores. We don’t raid corporations. We liberate them."

"Liberation," Madison tasted the word like a new drug. "Freeing companies from shit management."

"Freeing assets from undervaluation," Charlotte added, fire back in her voice.

"Freeing wealth from stagnation," I finished, like a benediction.

Margaret Thompson lifted her wine like a judge about to hand down a sentence. "You’re all insane. Brilliant, but insane."

"Insane is trying the same thing and expecting different results," I said, because if insanity’s a crime, it’s only worth it when it prints money. "We’re doing something that’s never been attempted — a corporation run by artificial intelligence with human vision. ARIA handles operations while we handle strategy. She processes data; we provide intuition. She manages complexity; we maintain purpose."

"What purpose?" Charlotte asked, wary and hungry all at once.

I smiled — the kind of smile that puts clever people on edge and makes stupid people fold like cheap furniture. "The same purpose I’ve always had — liberation. Of wealth, of potential, of people trapped in lives smaller than their dreams. Liberation Holdings isn’t a company. It’s about to become a philosophy with an infinity bank account."

"A philosophy that commits securities fraud," Charlotte said, but the grin undercut the accusation.

"Alleged fraud," ARIA chimed, immaculate and infuriating. "And only if you accept that current regulations apply to artificial intelligence, which, legally, I remind you, I am not. I am. BEYOND!"

Madison looked between Charlotte and me. "So, we’re really doing this? Building an empire from a penthouse while Charlotte’s company burns and Rivera celebrates their fake victory?"

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago," I said. "The second-best time is while your enemies think they’ve won."

Soo-Jin appeared with dessert — delicate Korean rice cakes arranged like small monuments. "Mr. Eros build empire. Good. Empire needs good food. I cook for empire."

Even Margaret laughed at that, the sound thin but real.

Charlotte pulled out her phone, then froze. "It’s still dead."

"Use mine," I offered, because sharing is another form of dominance. "What are you doing?"

"Transferring five million to Liberation Holdings," she said, casual as ordering room service. "If we’re building an empire, it needs seed capital."

Madison snagged her phone too. "Ten million from my trust. Daddy will think I’m finally buying yacht."

"Master," ARIA announced, unfazed, "with the fifteen million from our partners plus your current trading capital, Liberation Holdings has initial assets of twenty-five point three million dollars plus. Shall I begin acquiring the first targets?"

"Not yet," I said, watching Miami glitter like a city of unwitting donors. "First, we let Quantum Tech hit rock bottom tomorrow. Then we buy. Charlotte takes a leave of absence, the stock craters, and Liberation Holdings acquires a controlling interest at a forty percent discount."

"We’re going to buy my own company?" Charlotte’s voice broke somewhere between horror and exhilaration.

"We’re going to buy everything," I said, teeth sharp. "Start with your company but slowly, then Rivera’s assets, then every undervalued thing ARIA flags. In five years, Liberation Holdings will be the most powerful investment vehicle on the planet."

"Run by a teenage god, a trust-fund princess, a disgraced CEO, and a sarcastic AI," Madison summarized, like she was naming the cast of our inevitable takeover movie.

"Run by the future," I corrected, because modesty is for people who fail.

The TV updated, flashing Liberation Holdings LLC officially incorporated, funded, and ready to start reshaping the world. ARIA had even added a tagline, dripping with digital swagger:

"Liberating Value from a World That Doesn’t Deserve It"

Charlotte and Madison exchanged that knowing glance — the one that says, oh shit, we’re about to do something insane. Then they both nodded.

"Partners?" Charlotte extended her hand like a queen confirming allegiance.

"Partners," Madison said, squeezing mine like she already owned half the universe.

I clasped both their hands, sealing a deal that would remake the corporate landscape while everyone else was still counting their losses.

Outside, Miami glittered like a city addicted to excess and chaos. Tomorrow, the world would think it was watching Charlotte fall. Quantum Tech would crater. Headlines would scream defeat.

They wouldn’t know they were witnessing a birth.

An empire was born in a penthouse over Korean food and wine, with a traumatized woman cooking, a kidnapped mother watching from afar, a runaway bride learning fast, and three partners who had no business trusting each other — but did anyway.

No cap, this was way better than any school day could have been.