All Chapters of From Trash to Titan: Chapter 281 - Chapter 290

Although Maxwell was a Sterling, his identity hadn't been made public yet. That meant most people outside Sterling Industries didn't know who he was, and certainly didn't know his face.But Damon Lee knew that somehow. That fact alone was very telling.It meant that Damon Lee was looking into the Sterling family."I'll be honest, I wouldn't have recognized you," Maxwell said, taking the handshake.Damon said, "That's fair. I keep a lower profile than my PR team would like." At that moment, Driana's phone buzzed. She checked it, and her expression made it clear something serious happened."Gentlemen, you'll have to excuse me. Mr. Lee, enjoy the showcase. Maxwell." She gave him a look that lasted half a second longer than business required, then was gone, the coordinator with the headset falling in behind her.And then they were alone. Maxwell, and the first suspect on his list.Maxwell turned to Damon, and before he could say anything, Damon spoke. "I'll be honest with you, Mr. Sterl

"It was good to meet you, Mr. Lee," Maxwell said, his voice perfectly even, addressing Damon and not Dexter. "Both of you. I look forward to seeing how your family handles its own grudges going forward. It tells me a great deal about how the Lee Group will handle its business."It was not a threat. It was not raised in volume. It was just a sentence, said calmly, with everything underneath left for the Lees to figure out themselves.Damon's smile returned. But it was thinner now. Much thinner."Of course, Mr. Sterling. Enjoy the rest of the evening."Maxwell gave a small nod, turned, and walked away.As he walked, he could already picture the conversation Damon Lee was about to have with his brother. Somewhere off in a quiet corner of this floor. In a voice nobody else would ever hear. And it would not be a pleasant conversation. Not at all.Two things had become very clear in the last ten minutes.The first was that Damon Lee had been lying when he claimed the grudge was dead. The gr

When Maxwell sat down he didn't expect to be seated next to Camille Whitfield. Camille Whitfield said in a voice that suggested she wasn't exactly too pleased to see him, without turning her head. "Of course it's you."Maxwell turned.She was sitting with her arms crossed, eyes fixed straight ahead at the stage, wearing a dark blue dress and the expression of someone who had just been told her flight was delayed eight hours.He returned his gaze to the stage. "Hello, Camille." He said nonchalantly, and not bothered by her icyness towards him. "Really? Out of all the seats, you chose this one?"Maxwell looked at her for a few seconds. “What do you mean?”Camille met his eyes. "There are three hundred seats in this room, Maxwell."Maxwell knew what she meant now. But she was wrong. He didn't sit here out of all the seats simply because he chose to. Driana had picked this seat for him. "And we got two of them. Statistics," he said. "Statistics." She was still looking at him. "Out of t

Maxwell stood up from seat seven and adjusted the cuffs of his blue jacket. Every eye in the room followed him as he stepped into the aisle and walked toward the stage steps. The whispers didn't quiet. They grew louder as people tried to memorize the features of Marcus Sterling's son. A man who had been a ghost to the public until this very moment.He climbed the steps without rushing. He looked like a man who had spent his entire life walking onto stages of this size.On stage, Richard Garcia was beaming. Beside him, Driana stood with her CEO face firmly in place, though her eyes tracked Maxwell's approach carefully. With a wide sweep of his arm, Richard handed the microphone over.Maxwell took it and he waited exactly one second, letting the silence stretch over the auditorium until the entire room was waiting on him to say something. When he spoke, his voice came through the audio system calm, level, and certain."Sterling Industries only backs success and stability," Maxwell said.

On the screen, Maxwell was standing on the front plaza of the Vertex building.The shot had been taken from across the parking lot, low and from behind, as if the photographer had been crouched between the parked cars. Maxwell was in profile. His face was clear. His expression was calm.It was this evenings photograph. It was without a single doubt from the showcase.But how was this possible?Maxwell had taken every precaution to make sure he wasn't photographed and his identity isn't exposed yet. The press inside had been screened, watched, and corralled. The plaza had its own security perimeter. Not a single journalist or gala attendee should have been able to take this picture, let alone smuggle it past the checks.And yet here it was. Sitting on one of the popular business news channels in the country.Someone had taken it.Someone had walked it past two layers of security.Someone had delivered it to the broadcaster within the hour.Maxwell lowered the water bottle and set it do