Javier shook his head, took out a cigarette, and lit it up. He moved the packet toward Jonah, but the older man waved dismissively.“Samuel didn’t remove his hands or my head. No. He simply killed my best friend.”Jonah’s voice broke as he wiped his wrinkled face and sobbed like a schoolboy. It took him a long time before he finally gained a hold of his tumultuous emotions. His mind seemed to have traveled back in time to when it had happened…Samuel was on his knees, trembling. Brilliant red blood dyed his hands.“I swear, Dad, he egged me on! He told me there was no point in school and education and told me…He told me I’d just end up working for him anyway. He told me to join him to make so much money our heads would spin and…surprise you.“I was sold. Age is catching up to you, Dad. You’re growing weaker and you can’t meet the challenges in this society. If I stuck to the well-beaten path of education just to become useful to you…how long would that take? So I thought I should
Javier got out of the car, wondering. He quickly noticed the grogginess in Jade’s half-open eyes—proof that she had just woken up.When asked why she had not gone to sleep yet, she replied, “I was going to the loo, then I heard your car, looked out of the window, and there you were! I knew you would stay here instead of coming back home because you wouldn’t want to wake me up, so…here I am, formally welcoming you home!”Javier felt warmth in his heart. Then, his eyes drifted to the glimpse of the masses peeking out of her décolletage, and his crotch felt even stronger warmth. “Well, well, well. Am I wrong to assume your urgency hides a naughty motive?”When she noticed Javier’s burning gaze lingering on her neckline, Jade flushed a little. “Urgh! Excuse you!”Despite being 27, Jade was acting like a 17-year-old ingenue with a huge, bashful crush on the boy next door. Strangely, it fit her vibe perfectly.Javier’s eyes followed the young woman as she sheepishly disappeared into the
Jade had lied.She had said she had heard Javier’s car while going to the bathroom and reacted by looking out of the window. That was not true at all.Javier woke up in the afternoon, long after Jade was gone. While passing by her study, he noticed that the table lamp was on, illuminating a heap of documents and files that were all related to Sammy-Blue Inc.He perused the information for a bit and discovered that Sammy-Blue Inc. was a relatively nascent company. Although it had been founded only five years ago, the company’s rise was meteoric, and its growth was manifesting into a smorgasbord of industries ranging from advertising, fitness, health, medicine, and even automobiles. If one looked at the trend of their expansion, one would conclude that the company was trying to kill itself by overextending. That was no way to sustain a company.And yet, Sammy-Blue Inc. managed to net an insane profit. By this point, its yearly profit had reached a staggering 348 million dollars.The
Late in the afternoon, at three, Javier and Chad arrived at Sammy-Blue Inc’s headquarters in the state capital.Chad had not stopped shaking his head since entering their office building. “What in the name of all things holy is this? It’s godd*mn chaos in here! Does the saying ‘too many cooks spoil the food’ mean anything to them while they organize their financial department? This entire building is made up of floors filled with ‘finance’ people! Why does an organization even need these many financial departments anyway? I swear to god, nobody here knows what they’re doing!”A leader as illustrious as Chad could, of course, easily spot the problems in the company’s management and organization. What was a mystery to him, though, was why Sammy-Blue needed such a preposterous number of people working on their finances.Javier sniggered to himself wordlessly. His suspicion that Sammy-Blue Inc. was a money-laundering scheme just kept growing stronger.A beautiful secretary led them to
Edna skidded toward the office like a fired bullet, her speed causing one of her heels to be kicked away in the dust. Unfortunately for her, even her arrival did not stop Javier from entering. In fact, he took this chance to spite her! That b*stard tossed her an irreverent wink, as though he was a…a flirt!Edna was infuriated. What kind of savage had she just met?! What a pr*ck!The chairman was going to fire her for sure, right?Javier’s attention moved on from her and into the chairman’s office. There was another man inside the room—a foreigner with a rather severe mien whose left cheek was marred by a long scar. Terror seemed to ooze out of it like miasma.In stark comparison, Samuel Lambert looked like a soft-spoken gentleman. With a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, he actually looked like a news anchorman more than anything else.The moment Javier kicked the door open, the foreigner shut his customized laptop. Samuel also got to his feet and leveled a frigid glare at
Javier’s phone rang just as he left Mary Jane’s office.“Old MacDonald had a farm…”The familiar ringtone had not rung for years, but now that it played so suddenly, it felt familiar and tender. Despite that, the old fox’s tone contained no fondness when Javier answered the call.“You brat, well done! Do you think your family money comes from a windfall? You spent 10 billion dollars just like that. You don’t feel a pinch because it’s not your money you’re spending, is it?”Javier was speechless. He knew that the old fox would not call him for no reason, so he retorted, “It’s just 10 billion dollars, isn’t it? You don’t even know how much you’ve made, yet you care about this 10 billion dollars? Did you only understand the real meaning of being a miser at this age?”The old man went quiet upon hearing his retort, taking a few seconds before he replied, “Indulge me. What kind of grand plan are you plotting now?”Javier explained halfheartedly, “Someone mocked me for being poor and I
It had been more than an hour since the iridescent passion drew to a close after reaching its exhilarating peak.Cleaning up in a haste, Jade quickly pulled her clothes back on. She recalled the moment when the two of them had signed the agreement in the office several months ago.Back then, she had even thought that Javier was a lecherous thug, that she would not let such a man have the chance to get close to her this whole time. She had added an additional clause in the contract to mock him too.Who could have thought that the two of them would be so deeply in love with each other today that they had even done something like this in the office in broad daylight? It was embarrassing.Unable to help herself, Jade turned to gaze at Javier with love brimming in her eyes.“Darling, you’re amazing. I really wish I could stay with you and never have to part like just now for the rest of our lives.”Like just now? Like how? While the two of them had been doing that?Going back to the
After asking someone to keep an eye on Samuel, Javier saved the evidence he currently had. He wanted it all in detail, though. Since terrorism was involved, he might as well go all the way and find out everything.He uploaded a new task on the black market to find evidence of all the people and acquaintances who had worked and partnered up with Samuel, including proof of Samuel’s own crimes, as well as clues and evidence about the terrorist organization related to him. After all, terrorism was a global enemy right now.Prior to this, his fight against Samuel had been on a personal level, but it had quickly escalated to national security now.The Kerseys stayed abroad, but the first line of the vow that each family head had to recite before taking over the position was “The Kerseys are forever and always Chineans”.Now that terrorists were involved, Samuel was the enemy of the nation. There was no way Javier would allow him to keep existing.After saving all the evidence he had for