Page 155 of Titus

We were greeted by the sounds of music drifting upward from the decks below. People in conversation, glasses clinking, laughter, and a string orchestra keeping the mood moving fantastically all evening long.

After we stepped onto the yacht where the main event was held, I heard the low hum of several hundred very wealthy people enjoying themselves.

Then I froze. The first thing I noticed wasn’t the lighting, the music, or the crowd. Not even the fact that Eterna looked nothing like the yacht I’d left a week ago.

The first thing I noticed was that nobody seemed eager to leave. I slowed my pace as I moved through the crowd, taking in the evening around me.

By this point in an investor event, guests had typically separated into predictable groups. Investors gathered with investors. Executives clustered around presentations. Everyone politely endured whatever program had been arranged while quietly calculating how much longer they needed to stay before it became socially acceptable to leave.

Tonight, nobody appeared keen to go anywhere. I saw conversations fill every deck, and guests moved from display to display without being directed.

People were lingering and asking questions. More surprisingly, they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

I stopped beside one of the displays and watched an older couple discuss which island they preferred. Not which villa or investment opportunity… which island. It was as if they were already imagining themselves living there.

I kept moving forward, and the deeper I got into the event, the more I understood what Catalina had done with her approach to planning it.

Most investor events focused on numbers, retention, growth projections, and square footage. Every executive I’d ever hired seemed determined to sell Crown Reserve as a luxury real estate development.

Catalina had not prioritized the real estate itself with everything she’d put on display. Instead, she focused on the experience and the lifestyle—my vision for the entire concept⁠—

highlighting why someone would want to be there in the first place.

Private sailing excursions, wellness retreats, private beaches, and experiences that couldn’t be replicated anywhere else… all things I’d envisioned at the outset, she had highlighted.

A smile found its way onto my face as the realization settled in.

The clever woman had completely bypassed the investment aspect of the evening. Rather than convincing guests to purchase a villa, she’d designed the event to convince them to imagine themselves living in one.

That was infinitely more powerful.

Hell, my own design teams would have never thought to serenade our investors like this, selling a feeling rather than a piece of property. It was brilliant.

I stopped beside one of the larger installations and studied it.

It was a model of the six Crown Reserve islands, displayed in a way I hadn’t considered. Each one represented something different. One focused on privacy. Another on adventure. Another on family. Another on wellness.

They weren’t marketed as developments; they were presented as choices, lifestyles, and futures.

As I stood there, looking at it, I realized something that genuinely surprised me. I couldn’t remember explaining any of this to her. Not directly, anyway. Not like this.

There certainly wasn’t enough detail for her to build an entire event around it. Yet somehow, she’d managed to pull the vision from my head and present it better than I ever had.

For years, I’d sat in boardrooms, trying to explain that Crown Reserve wasn’t just about villas, marinas, or private islands. Those were simply the setting. The real product had always been freedom, privacy, and time.

The opportunity to experience a life that very few people on Earth ever would. Somehow, Catalina understood that.

A voice interrupted my thoughts. “Mr. Hawk.”

I turned to find one of the investors approaching.

He glanced around the yacht, then looked back at me. “This is an extraordinary vision.”

My gaze swept across the deck once more, taking in the guests as they moved between the displays, visibly captivated by what surrounded them.

Under the carefully placed lighting, the installations seemed almost alive, each one telling a story and inviting people deeper into the experience.

Everything around me was a reflection of Catalina’s vision, which had somehow been transformed from an idea into something living and tangible.