05: A New Start

Three years later.

Three years was a short time for many things to change. But for a person like Damien that was born to shine, three years was a long time.

“President, you have an interview with StarSpot. We would leave in thirty minutes.”

Damien nodded and then raised a finger up, a sign that allowed his assistant, Simon to know that he was in a meeting.

After what seemed like five minutes, he finally looked up again.

“Tell Cedric that the deal with Arnold Group is sealed…”

Before he could finish his words, the door burst open and Cedric rushed in.

“Damn man, why didn’t you tell me you were meeting with Arnold? I already told you I needed to score some points with him so he would let me be with…”

“And you know that I don’t miss business and pleasure” Damien interjected, cutting him off.

Tactfully, Simon withdrew from the room.

“You haven’t even tried to get his daughter to like you, yet you want to impress her father.”

“Set your priorities straight.”

Although his words were stern, he had a teasing look on his face that enraged Cedric.

“Just wait. I’m sure the moment she meets me, she would fall in love with me.”

Damien responded with a scoff and then broke the news.

“Allen and Arnold Group now work together. They went for a ten year contract.”

In three years, Allen had stunned the world. Very quickly, many startups had jumped on the artificial intelligence and then the both of them had convinced the bigger companies that Allen wasn’t a temporary thing.

They were here for the long haul.

“As if they would refuse it,” Cedric replied with a smug smile.

In the cut throat business world, no one wanted to be the last. They had six out of the biggest groups in the country already, it would be hard for Arnold to reject their offer.

Damien nodded, agreeing with his words as he

“Going from a startup to a billion dollar company in three year is just crazy,” Cedric said after a while with a deep sigh.

Damien reclined in his seat, his blue eyes darkening as he remembered the day Allen was born again.

Very quickly, he pushed his thoughts away.

“I have an interview in less than twenty.”

“Also, for the top three giants. I know they want us to bring the offer to them, one of them probed me at a ball a week ago but I wanted us to be done with Arnold before moving forward.”

On hearing him, Cedric jumped up.

“Are you serious?”

“Tell the legal team and the acquisition team to work hand in hand to tailor an arrangement that would suit each of them. It’s best to take them on all at once.”

This time, Cedric’s excited as a dog look was gone and he had a solemn expression.

“Can we take them on at the same time? Their users are massive.”

“Hmmm, that’s exactly why they need us. Most of their users are already directly linked with our free version. They would want to bring them back. On paper, it may seem like they have billions of users that we are onboarding but it’s less than half a billion from each of them right now.”

In truth, the three biggest tech companies could not agree that they wanted their users back, which meant that Damien could get the upper hand by constantly reminding them that the number of users they have would not be easy for their software to take on.

By doing this, they would have more negotiating power.

It was really simple in his mind but he had to break it down for Cedric. After they discussed for five more minutes. Cedric finally had a more reassured look on his face and Damien left.

Watching his friend’s back, Cedric couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

“Perhaps, I would never know what happened that night.”

Damien had always been a genius but he had also been a more mild mannered person.

At first, their plan was to create Allen and then charge everyone a small f*e to use it. Even the medical research breakthrough was meant to be a gift to the world.

For Damien, it was his way of giving back to the world before he chased his dream--acting.

Being born with an insane mind like him, he has always felt that while acting was also a great path, he could do more.

However, that night three years ago, Damien had canceled all their plans and drafted a new one.

The both of them have been following that plan in the last three years and have gone from a company that had less than a hundred thousand dollars to having a billion dollar.

Eventually, Cedric sighed. Either way, the both of them were having fun. Besides, they get to help the world and also enjoy the fruit of their labour.

On Damien’s side, their car rolled up to a stop in front of StarSpot and he got down, his eyes beaming.

Back in high school, the both of them would talk about getting a page here and when Nadia finally did it, he had gone ahead to use his savings to get her an exclusive dress for the photoshoot.

As his thoughts went there, Damien’s brows tightened a little before easing up immediately after.

“Follow up on the research institute, once it has passed the approval test, set up a meeting with Emily.” After giving him some more instructions, Damien headed inside StarSpot.

Just as he entered, he saw a familiar back walking into a room and his lips curled up. How could he not know who it was?

That was after all, a person that he had watched grow up.

What a small world it is.

“It’s been three years, Nadia Sparks.”