The Art Of Revenge
Brandon’s Pov
She stared at me puzzled; certainly, I was perplexing her and doing everything I could to hide my delight. I felt my life was over the instant I slammed into my own vomit. I feared I’d never see her beautiful face or hear her sweet voice again.
To be honest, I’d been awake since Nestor had stepped in and had been listening in on their conversation.
It was a bummer that I’d wasted five days, five days that I’d never get back. The man on the other end was adamant about my case. He wanted my torment to start on earth before I even reached hell.
I clenched my teeth and told her to get ready for the meeting the next day.
“So, we’re back to plotting? Just like that and we are not going to talk about what happened to you? ” she inquired.
“What exactly do you want us to do? Reunion sex?” I inquired, further enraging her. We didn’t have enough time, we’d missed too many days, and there was nothing on the ground for revenge.
I focused my attention on my tablet, as I checked all my missed emails. My private investigator had delivered all of Gentex’s secret documents that I needed. I sighed when I found what I was looking for.
Even though he had stated that the company was clean, I needed to go through them myself to be sure. I looked up as Thalia moved up to the bed and placed her hands over my tablet.
“Brandon, you were so close to dying, I believed you were dead, I thought I was never going to see you,” she said, avoiding eye contact.
“We lost time, Thalia, and I’m dying regardless; nothing has changed,” I responded, but she demanded that I consult a doctor. She stood up and reached for her phone, requesting one of my doctor’s lines.
“Thalia, I lose consciousness frequently; it wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last,” I stated in a solemn tone.
“ But Brandon…”
“Go and make something to eat,” I requested. Whatever it took to get her off my back. I needed to go through all of the paperwork and look for flaws.
She locked her gaze on me for a brief moment before disappearing into the kitchen. I promptly forwarded the files to all of my directors; the fact that they took over five days to respond indicated that they were interested in Gentex; I couldn’t do the work by myself because my head was a little foggy.
They began responding in seconds, asking for the percentage shares. Unlike other boards of directors, mine was made up of co-operating crooks whose primary mission was to discover tiny businesses and corporations that dealt with transportation and force them to be devoured by Mandel.
We bought them off, legally or illegally, if they refused. We anonymized the shares and went on to the next target.
Gentex was the new target, a company that was highly distinct and tough to corner, we saw it as a new challenge. We liked difficulties and were willing to take them on. I offered them 40%, but they declined, they wanted the company’s majority shares.
Which irritated me forcing me to put a bounty on Thalia’s company since she required complete control. They’d collect their sixty percent if they could find a solution faster than I could. It was a risk, but I didn’t have time to debate.
I scanned the company files for thirty minutes, looking for any abnormalities in how he stole the company from Thalia, but it was all clean. I looked through the court records and judgments for any loopholes or holes that the judge might have missed, but I couldn’t find any. The corporation was legitimately acquired.
Plan B was activated in place. I started looking for any shady or illegal dealings Josh Nelson may have had or been involved in. But, according to my private investigator, he was spotless. He only ever committed one crime, which was betraying Thalia.
I noted that none of my directors had contacted me, implying that they, too, were stuck. My head was whirling with the word failure as I hurled the iPad and roared in rage. Thalia was holding a plate of food when I brushed my hand in my hair and looked up. She slid it onto the table, moved across to the bed, and grabbed up the tablet, which she put aside.
She climbed into bed and asked for me to lie on her thighs, much to my astonishment. To be honest, lying on her chest seemed more appealing to me.
While messing with my hair, she said, “Take it easy, Brandon.”
“I’m running out of time, Thalia.”
She murmured, “Come here,” and snuggled me into her chest, as if she had read my mind. I’m not sure if she was attempting to motivate me or not, but it was enjoyable. Maybe I should have been slumping into a coma often.
“Brandon,” she exclaimed.
“Yes?”
“Why haven’t you lost your hair like most cancer patients?”
“All my tests never showed any recognized cancers, but for my pubic hair…”
“Hey, I was merely inquiring about your head hair!” She quickly blocked me.
I laughed out loud.
“On a more serious note, if Magie and Nestor genuinely care about you, why did you lie and claim that no one cares about you?” she inquired.
I shifted my head away from her chest and onto her thighs, suggesting that she had just spoiled my mood.
“Aren’t we all suicide buddies, Brandon? We are expected to be truthful to one another,” she stated.
I turned to face her, telling her that I was truthful and that Nestor and his mother were simply my employees.
“Brandon please, they are more than that.”
“So he told you how generously I helped his mother pay for her heart surgery?” She offered a slight smile when I asked her. “I was drunk and wasted on some drug on the day he came pleading, and if he had come to ask for my company, I would have signed it over.,” I stated, “He was just lucky,” I added and then begged her to shift the topic.
“Brandon, but they looked like they genuinely loved you because I saw it in their eyes.”
“Would he have been here if I hadn’t helped his mother?” I inquired, but she remained deafeningly silent. “Thalia, whatever love you witnessed, was conditional. Everyone you’ll meet or have met feels they owe me something.
I once performed something good for which they believe I should be compensated, even though I never requested any retainer,” I coldly stated.
“Is that how you perceive me?” she questioned as she jumped out of bed.
“Thalia, no. You stand out from the crowd.”
“How am I different?” she inquired.
“Let’s not go overboard, what have you prepared?” Even though I had no appetite and had no intention of eating, I inquired.
“Brandon have you fallen in love with me?” she inquired, causing me to burst out laughing. My heart raced, but I ignored it, she was so forthright that I didn’t anticipate her to catch me off guard. My laughter was a means of masking my perplexed feelings. I had no idea what they were, and I had no desire to find out. I finished my laughter and requested water.
I was staring at her as I sipped it, while she was waiting for my response awkwardly. I removed the glass from my mouth, cleared my throat, and said, “What kind of question is that, exactly? Have you fallen in love with me?” I diverted the question.
“No, I see you as the protective brother I never had, the brother who would have slapped me in the face with reality,” she replied in a way that disappointed me. The way she said it without hesitation was the part that hurt the most. I quickly recovered and said “Well, then, little sister, have a seat and let’s eat, the food is getting hot,” I remarked.
She took a seat after a brief stare at me. It was awkward, as opposed to prior times.
where she was smiling, her legs crossed and making strange noises to persuade me to eat. She sat in the corner of the bed, sipping her juice, with a lot on her mind but fearful of finding out the answers.
When my tablet beeped, I urged her to hand it over; a message appeared from all of my directors, stating that they had failed to locate any loops on Gentex and that they needed resources and time that I lacked.
However, instead of my company, they had something to occupy their time and heads with which was good on my part. I gave them all the time in the world, I knew it was also a bonus to them, while they waited for my death and company, Gentex was the icing on their cake.
I set down the tablet and focused on Thalia, asking, “How far would you go to take Josh down?”
“Do you mean killing him?” she asked, her face lit up.
“Do I look like a killer to you, Thalia?” I asked.
“I’d kill him if you agreed to hide the body,” she said, shocking me to death. I waited for her to retract what she had just said, but she was dead serious. She wasn’t like the old Thalia I had half polished or left five days ago. Something happened as a result of my absence, but I had no idea what it was.
She cleared her throat and said, “During their vows, he only asked Jessica for a functioning brain in their marriage, Brandon, he was mocking me,” she continued, tears streaming down her face. I became silent and focused solely on her face.
“I apologize for ruining your dinner, and I apologize for the dumb question I asked before,” she remarked as she wiped her tears away.
“It’s just that he was so happy at their wedding that he talked about having ten children with her, children that he denied me having,” she sobbed.
I locked my gaze on her; the confident Thalia had vanished, and in her place stood the low-esteem stinky hair I met on the bridge earlier. She’d given up hope, knowing full well that I’d never been able to take back her company.
I was going to die, and she was either going to drink herself to death or kill herself. I simply sat there and watched her cry, saying nothing to console her. She stood up and walked to the restroom, most likely to continue sobbing.
I was left alone in the room, soaking in the humiliation of my defeat. I had made a commitment that I was unable to fulfill. After my diagnosis, I was finding it easy to give up without a fight which was not my usual lifestyle.
Never once did I give up hope. I took up the tablet and went over Josh’s papers, clause by clause, full stop by full stop. Something had clearly escaped my notice. In all of my years of dismantling businesses, I’d learned one thing: there was always one clause that was overlooked.
I had no idea how many hours had passed when it dawned on me, “a child.” Josh had gone to great lengths during his marriage to Thalia to ensure that she never became pregnant for him.
I returned to the shares and saw that more than half of them were inheritance shares, which he had set aside for his firstborn kid with his first spouse. I was stunned and had to read it again and again.
Inheritance shares were a new way or trend in big companies to make sure that companies were passed down to children. Some companies set aside as much as 60% or just 10% for shares that were not to be sold but inherited. The shares were kept in the company accumulating profits.
Different clauses applied to different companies, it was up to the owners of the company. It was a smart move and prevented companies like mine from taking over other companies or buying off shareholders.
According to Thalia’s story, those were her shares that her father set aside. Josh never changed them, not even a full stop; he only became the rightful owner of them and could pass them to his first child with his first spouse.
In theory, if he and Thalia had a child, that child would own half of the company. Whether he was divorced or not, Thalia was his first spouse while Jessica was his second spouse.
Her father must have placed a strong emphasis on the first spouse because he didn’t want whoever married her to pregnant another woman and flee with his business. It looked like Josh had forgotten to remove or overlooked the phrase, FIRST SPOUSE.
I continued reading and discovered that if the initial spouse who inherited the shares failed to have a child they were free to sign off on the shares.
When I understood how meticulously Josh arranged everything, I clenched my teeth. He made sure not to impregnate her and duped her into signing off the shares. I was impressed. I got up, scarcely able to stand because the room was becoming heated.
With more than half of the shares in the child’s control that could put Thalia back into the company as its mother and I would be able to quickly buy off or compel a sale of the remaining shares. My directors would complete the take over even if I died.
But would Thalia agree to have a child with the guy who had her sanity stripped in front of the entire world? Then I remembered she was ready to kill him only a few moments ago. Having a child with him, on the other hand, was another matter
Then there was me: was I going to allow her to have a child with someone else? But, to be fair, I was dying, and she would live, get married, and have a large family happily. On second thought, a baby was just what she needed to complete her and forget about suicide. She packed all of her degrees to bear children for an idiot who took advantage of her.
But how was Josh’s worthless sperm going to get into her? I was perplexed because sex was not an option. No way was that jerk putting his filthy hands on her. I was certain she wouldn’t agree to the s*x part.
