Henry knew Padgett was a man of unwavering integrity. There was no point in pressing him further, so he hung up. After some thought, he called his father. The Brooke family had deep roots and a widerwork of connections.


    At first, Sanford Brooke was reluctant to get involved. But when Henry mentioned that the person in question was likely rted to the benefactor who had once saved their family, Sanford immediately agreed to make some calls.


    As Henry waited anxiously for news, he found himself drawn back to the athletic field. The InnoCore roadshow was in full swing, the atmosphere electric. He stopped, watching from a distance.


    After Carman finished his technical presentation, the crowd was still buzzing with energy, eager to know more. They asked him how InnoCore began.


    Carman smiled and pulled up a slide showing his very first pitch deck. "When you look at this presentation," he asked the investors in the crowd, "what do you think?"


    Someone immediately called out, "It looks like something a college kid would make. It''s rough. No offense, but the interns at mypany could do better."


    A murmur of agreement went through the crowd. They were all wondering why he would show them something so amateurish.


    Carman didn''t answer right away. Instead, he asked, "Seeing a pitch like this, would any of you be inclined to invest?"


    "Honestly? No."


    "I agree," Carman said with a nod. "If someone brought me this deck today, I wouldn''t even give them the time of day. I''d think it was a joke."


    As the crowd chuckled, he


    continued. "When I first graduated, I had no experience, just a crazy idea. I took this crude, simple presentation and went all over the city, trying to find funding. As you can imagine, I was rejected more times than I can count. l''approached almost every firm in Rivercrest including many of yours. Of course, you wouldn''t remember me. I never even made it past the front desk."


    He paused, his gaze finding Noreen in the crowd. His voice softened. "Just when I was about to give up, to find a normal job and put this dream to rest I got a call from Ms. Gilmore. At the time, she was the chief secretary at Aurelion Group From a pile of multi-million dor proposals, she picked out my little


    fifty-thousand-dor project and scheduled a meeting.


    "I remember how nervous I was when I first met her. My palms were sweating, knew this was myst chance was so anxious that my pitch was... terrible. I thought it was over. But then, Ms. Gilmore asked to see my academic record. She asked me about my motivation, my vision for the product. My goals were so ambitious back then, they probably sounded like pure fantasy. But after careful consideration, she told me she was going to fund my project.


    "After that, she became my mentor. She provided me with case studies from all over the world, helped me define my market strategy... She gave me so much advice. Without Ms. Gilmore, there would be no InnoCore. And there would be no me."


    Hearing this, Henry''s expression darkened. InnoCore... wasn''t that the project Noreen had stolen from her senior colleague?