Chapter 43 The Caribbean
Nathan’s POV
“I thought you were the better grandson, but you are more despicable than your brother, Travis. You are not the Nathan I used to know, you are a poisonous viper a dangerous creature. Your brother was right, you should have died on that island, you should never have escaped. You think you have it all figured out, you think you can defeat Travis and lead the family, but you are so wrong, Nathan, you will die trying and you will die in a very painful way. That is my only desire, I wish to see you shoot yourself in the foot, I wish to see you burn. You disgraced me and our entire family, you brought my secret out in the open, you ruined my relationship with my childhood friends and you didn’t do it for the family, you did it for yourself, you only did it to get back at me for choosing to take side with Travis. You never bothered to ask yourself why I chose Travis over you, you never thought of the reasons why I decided to give you up and support your brother. For one thing, Travis is not as reckless and stupid as you are, he would never have disgraced our family in public and he would never have acted on impulse just to satisfy his anger. He is a better leader than you’ll ever be, he thinks like a businessman and he acts like one too. Even if you get accepted by the whole family, I would never accept you as leader Nathan, I would never forgive you.” Gramps yelled at me after his friends Conor and Elsa left the house.
I can see that he is simply trying to provoke me before the family elders, he is saying these hateful words to me because he wants to provoke a reaction out of me, he wants them to see me as a lunatic, and he wants me to lose my credibility before the elders, he wants them to hate me so they can reject me in his presence. He must think that I’m really stupid, I spent so much time tome on that island, and now that I’m back, I’m stronger and wiser, I won’t let myself to be outsmarted by an old angry man. Yes, he is angry because I just disgraced him before the whole family, but from what I can see, I think I just did him a huge favor because I could tell that some of the elders already knew about his secrets. When I told them about it, some were shocked as hell while some didn’t have any reaction to the news. These are the ones that side with Travis and I made a mental note to keep a close eye on them. Besides, I just freed him from a lifetime of guilt and penance, he should be grateful to me because I just saved him the stress of getting blackmailed by someone else, and I also just saved him from spending the rest of his life in jail for this heinous crime.
“Well said Grampa… Thanks for the clarification, but if you think for one second that I would feel guilty for doing the right thing, then you have to think again because I have no time to feel guilty or sorry for a selfish old man or his murderous grandson who tried to get me killed. I think you need to stop trying to look like a victim here because you are not the one that spent almost a year stranded on an island, fighting to stay alive. If anything I think you should pray that I find Elsa’s granddaughter because that is the only way you would stay out of jail and retain what is left of your dignity. And as for Travis, I’ll advise you to stay out of this way between us because when I return to New York, I will show no mercy because I was shown none.” I told him firmly, keeping a dangerous smile on my face, as a warning to him and anyone else that is planning to go against me.
After speaking to him, he walked out of my sight and I never laid eyes on him again. I spent eight months in training and all the while, I never laid eyes on my grandfather. I don’t know if he is still feeling angry or guilty, but I am glad that he never disrupted my training sessions and he did not instruct the elders to hide any information from me. They let me in on all the family secrets and all our foreign estates and companies were formally handed over to me along with the family seal that justified that I am the new head of the family. It has been two years and a few months since I got missing, which means Travis had led the company for more than two months now, I wonder why Travis didn’t make it his priority to get the family seal all these years, I guess he never thought that I would ever return and he never believed that I would be brave enough to go against him. The first three months I spent with the family elders were a bit peaceful, I did not get attacked and the training was going smoothly, I was given the link to every cartel that is loyal to our family, some had already been approached by Travis, but when the family elders addressed the situation and showed them that I have the family seal, they swore their allegiance to me and they followed my instructions. I got reconnected with Costello and he sent me even more guards after apologizing profusely for letting Travis to trick us all the last time. He was so happy to find out that I survived the plane crash and he promised to get his sister Rosie and my tech guy Fred to report to me as soon as possible. I think he was feeling guilty all these years for the plane crash, I had trusted him with my security and he had failed me, but he has to know that it wasn’t his damn fault, we got outsmarted by that asshole and that is simply because we underestimated the guy and he took advantage of our ignorance. Besides he did warn me to cancel that trip, but I just didn’t listen to him, I failed to listen to him and I brought this misery and pain upon myself and my family.
Somehow, during my fourth month in the Caribbean, the attacks started. I don’t know how Travis got to hear of my visit to the Caribbean, I guess his moles in the house must have found a means to send a message across to him and tell him that I have claimed the seat as the head of the family and I have the family seal. When I first got here, I put measures in place to make sure that the elders on his payroll don’t leak any information to him, but I guess I wasn’t careful enough. They must have found a way to sneak past my security and pass a message to him, or maybe they didn’t have to leak any information to him, maybe he had found out from the cartels that I took back from him. He must have tried to get them to work for him and they were forced to refuse to do his bidding because they are now working for me, that must have raised red flags for him and he realized that I am slowly taking control of everything, so he sent his boys to come down to the Caribbean and take me out. He would have succeeded in taking me out, but I outsmarted them this time, with the help of all the cartels and all the guards sent to me by Costello including my own boys, I was able to seal off every airport and seaport, I blocked off every entrance into this city, they had no way of coming in. Their only other option was to attack from the air, he sent some warplanes to fly over our residence in the Caribbean and drop some bombs on us. They succeeded in destroying a huge part of our building and these attacks went on for months until I gave the order for all unregistered aircraft to be shot right out of the air. That was when the attacks subsided a little. We did not see their planes hovering around us, but we sure as hell did not let our guard down, we kept our eyes open and my boys never gave him a chance to sneak past us.
It is quite hilarious, you know. These thugs that Travis keeps using against me are supposed to be working for me, there Schwartz brothers are one of the organizations that work for the Trent’s, but for some unknown reason, they seem to be hell-bent on taking me down. When the elders invited the other leaders of the cartels and gang leaders, they all honored the invitation and when they were informed of the change in power, they fell in line and swore their allegiance to me. They all came to me, except for the leader of the Schwartz brothers, Robert Schwartz. He did not show up, he only sent a representative that came with a message telling me to kiss his ass. He made it clear to me that he would never swear his allegiance to me and he will not stop until he completes the job he could not complete on that mystery Island. I don’t know if he is doing this because of his bruised ego, it is rumored that nobody has ever escaped the Schwartz brothers because they are so mean and ruthless. But I got away unscathed, I survived for months on that island and I escaped. That must have been a huge slap to his face because he said that he would never stop until he takes me down. I don’t know how much he gets paid by Travis, but the guy is certainly not ready to give up on this cause, he is hell-bent on taking me down and he is getting more resources to aid his cause. I tried letting him know that we can still work together despite what transpired between us on the island, but he made it pretty clear to me that he ain’t ready to let go of the shame I caused him when I ran away from right under his nose. I extended a hand of friendship to him and he swatted it away, so right now, aside from Travis and my stupid uncle, I have to watch out for Robert Schwartz, not to mention that sneaky bitch Ariel.Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.
Costello created a secure connection between me and my spies in the company, Ray checked it out to make sure it cannot be hacked, then I started communicating with Rosie and Fred, and they told me everything that has been happening in my absence. When I heard everything that Travis has been doing, I was moved to tears because he has successfully destroyed our family’s business. He has been selling off our shares to the highest bidder, selling off the company in bits and pieces. Now I know why the Schwartz brothers called off their attacks for the last two weeks. From the information I got from Costello and Fred, it turns out that Travis has been putting together his own business in Paris, he owns his own marketing and construction firm in Paris. That is where he keeps siphoning the family’s wealth, he is using the family’s money to establish himself and his business. Apart from his thriving business, he also has a huge estate in Paris, not to mention his offshore accounts that he thinks I wouldn’t find out about. Fred was able to trace all the funds he stole and now I know exactly where he is hiding all the family’s money. Costello has been sending some of his pals to buy off the shares so it doesn’t fall into the hands of complete strangers whose ambitious attitude would never let them sell it back to me. I wonder why he had been buying off our shares when he had no idea that I was still alive. I guess he must have known that I am alive, he must have heard something from one of his numerous sources, I mean, he is a Mafia Lord, after all, nothing goes past his watchful eyes.
The reason he has come to me this time is because he doesn’t have the funds to purchase what Travis is selling off this time. He got the information from Rosie that Travis is selling off the entire company in two weeks, that is the news on the street, and that is his next course of action seeing as he could not get rid of me. He must have been told that my trip to the Caribbean ends in three weeks, that is why the sale is taking place in two weeks, he wants to sell it off and leave the country before I return to claim it back from him. I wonder if he would have done the same thing if he knew about the other companies in other countries, would he have sold off all the families business and run away with the money, or would he have abandoned my parents to fend for themselves while he takes off to have a much better life with his father and his numerous lovers?
I can’t believe that my grandfather had chosen this guy over me, I can’t believe that he would let all these things go unpunished simply because he want to keep his secrets. How selfish can he be, can’t he see that this would have affected our family’s name, or was he trying to get Travis and his father to leave with that one company so that the family would survive with the other companies. It would have been a good plan, except for the fact that it doesn’t sit well with me, I can’t sit by and let him ruin all the hard work that my father and grandfather have put into that company, they worked so hard to make this company so successful. I know we have other companies and subsidiaries around the world, but its nothing compared to our base in New York City and that is why I can’t let that happen, I can’t let him succeed in selling off the company and I refuse to but back my company from him or anyone else. What I’m going to do is to stop that sale from taking please and that means getting back to New York City before he sells it off. I have to find a way to finish whatever in doing here in one week, I can’t let him succeed in selling off the company, that would be a slap to my face, and that would mean that my sacrifice all these years had been in vain. I can’t let that happen, I won’t let him win. If he didn’t succeed in killing me all these years, then he won’t succeed in selling off my inheritance.
I called the elders together and told them what I just discovered. They were all shocked to realize that our major source of income is about to be taken away from us. My grandfather was not surprised by this news and so were some of the elders. It was safe to assume that they are the ones that know all about Travis’s plan, that is why they aren’t moved by it. I need my plans to be kept a secret and I can’t trust these few elders and my grandfather to keep my plans a secret so I did what I had to do, even if it seems like an insult to the. I called them out on their treachery and I gave them a chance to defend themselves and when they couldn’t deny it, I had them locked away in an apartment with no phone or computers, there is no way they are getting any information to Travis, I placed some guards at the door to make sure they don’t try anything funny. After getting them out of the way, I asked the others to round up my training in one week because I’m getting back to New York in one week, I’ve got a business deal to disrupt.