Alex felt uncomfortable. He wasn't the kind of person who enjoyed being the centre of attention, and he wasn't used to it. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. He tried telling everyone to stop cheering, but the more he tried, the more excited they got.
Because David was particularly impressed and grateful, he cheered for Alex louder than anyone else. This only increased the intensity with which everybody else did, and there seemed to be no end in sight.
Lindsey could tell that Alex was embarrassed, and she felt a little bad for him. At the same time, his bashful reaction only increased her feelings for him and her sense that he deserved the praise. She joined in the cheering with a sweet smile on her face.
Alex saw her smiling at him, and he smiled back. He could tell that she knew how uncomfortable he was, and then he remembered that it was all her fault. With a mischievous smile on his face, he reached out and pulled her toward him.
"There's someone else who deserves credit," he exclaimed over the cheers of the crowd. "If Lindsey hadn't told me what was happening here today, I wouldn't be here. You should thank her instead."
Everyone laughed, and cheers for Lindsey started mingling with those for Alex. Her face turned a deep red, and she looked bashfully at Alex. "Why would you embarrass me like this?" she asked him in a playfully accusing tone.
Alex laughed. "David's company has been saved. We should celebrate together. It's not every day you have a group of people standing around cheering your name."
Lindsey smiled at him, and her embarrassment disappeared. In her mind, everything was just as it should be. The mingling of their names in the cheers of the crowd seemed to increase their connection, and at that moment, she felt that they belonged together. It was as if they were together.
The voices around them gradually subsided, and the silence brought her back to reality. She became aware that he was still holding her hand, and that every eye in the room was on them. She suddenly felt very awkward.
"That's enough," she cried and pulled her hand from his. With her head lowered, she went back to her father on the other side of the room.
Alex was taken aback. At first, he thought he must have crossed a line, but then he looked into her eyes again. There was no anger in them. Instead, he saw a secret joy, the happiness she wanted to conceal. He was assured that her action was not because of him, and he dropped it from his mind.
The cheering had died down, and the executives who had gone along with Colin and Noah were starting to congeal around Reginald. They begged for his forgiveness, and many were desperate to have their jobs back. If they wanted to maintain the lives they were accustomed to, they had no other choice.
David lashed out at them. "Get back!" he shouted as he waved them away from his father.
Jason joined him. "You're all useless cowards," he said. "When it looked like the company was in danger, you all jumped ship as fast as possible. And now that it's been saved, you come crawling back. Why would they take you back?" David's other friends looked at the executives with scorn in their eyes.
But the executives didn't care what they thought. The only one who mattered to them was Reginald. They knew that he was level-headed and fair. He would give them a second chance.
"You can continue to work for us," Reginald said after a few seconds of thought.
David couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Dad, how can you let them stay?" he protested. "They'll just be a massive liability."
The executives ignored him and came forward to shake hands with Reginald. They looked as if they were about to kiss his feet. Reginald stopped them with a hand raise.
"However," he continued. "While I will allow you to come back to work for us, you can no longer work in any kind of managerial role. It will be low-level positions only. And any promotion within the company is out of the question. Forever."
David laughed. Not only at the executives, but at himself as well. It was stupid of me to doubt him, he thought. He knows what he's doing. He'll never let himself be betrayed again.
The executives were shocked. "You can't mean that, Mr. Drake," one of them said. "Please, cut my salary. Make it as low as you like. But I can't make it on a ground-level salary. I'll starve."
"Yes," another joined in. "Mr. Drake, I just bought a house. The mortgage is very expensive. Also, my mother is in the hospital, and my father can't take care of himself. He needs to be in a care center. Without my salary, I don't know how they'll survive."
They each told one sob story after another, but Reginald saw right through them. The more they spoke, the more they steeled his heart against them. It wasn't long before they knew that it was useless. They could see it in his eyes.
Realizing this, one of them said, "This whole mess is Noah's and Colin's fault. We should settle it with them."
They all turned from Reginald and swarmed Noah and Colin, who trembled in fear for their lives. The executives looked as if they were ready to tear them apart.
"What are you doing?!" Colin shouted in desperation. "I'm worth billions of dollars. I'll rule D.C. one day. Get away from me!" His voice trembled with fear as he made his threats.
"Billions of dollars?" one of the executives repeated mockingly. "Sure. And you'll rule Washington? You're a liar!"
The executives were furious, and they needed some way to vent their frustration. They rushed Colin and Noah, grabbed and hit out at them maniacally for several minutes, and then dispersed. They formed a circle, and Noah and Colin lay beaten on the floor in the middle.
Colin's face was swollen on the left side and bright red on the right. His hair stood on end, and his clothes were torn.
Noah had been beaten far worse. He had been kicked to the ground and stomped on by several feet. His suit was in tatters and his face was black and blue. He looked as if a brick wall had fallen on top of him.
David was indignant. As much as he hated Colin and Noah, the treacherous executives were no better in his eyes. "We're not here to act like hooligans," he said to them. "Get out! Security, throw these people out of here!"
Several security guards came into the room. They went over to restrain the executives, but some of them resisted. The guards struck at their legs, and they fell to the ground or kneeled.
Noah raised himself onto his knees. He was shaking with pain. "Reginald, these spineless cowards might beg for your mercy," he said. "But I won't. I know you better than anyone. I know you're as rotten as any of them. And yet you stand there judging us. It makes me sick!"
Noah knew he had made a mistake by giving up his job in the Fidelity Group, but he would not bow to Reginald. The way he saw it, he didn't have anything more to lose.
Reginald stared blankly at him. "Noah, I know you've felt slighted lately," he said. "You're wrong, but it doesn't matter now. You betrayed me because you think I sidelined you, but now you're out and I'm doing better than ever. How does that make you feel?"
Noah sneered. "You've always been a liar, Reginald," he said. "We started this company together. Sure, you handled the daily operations, but I was responsible for purchases and security. Do you remember the state of the neighborhood we were in? If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have survived. And then your precious Fidelity Group wouldn't exist."
He paused, and the look in his eyes changed from contempt to a resigned sadness. He had carried these words inside him for many years. "Then you decided that the company was only yours," he continued with disdain in his voice. "But you deigned to let me stay on as a manager. How merciful."
It was true that Reginald and Noah had started the Fidelity Group together. In the early days, it was a very different company, much smaller, and they had set it up using fifteen thousand dollars of their own money.
Since they started with so little money, they had rented a location in a rough neighbourhood. The area was riddled with crime, and ruffians often came to the local shops to demand protection money. Other shops nearby were blackmailed or destroyed, but theirs was not. Noah had a history as a hoodlum, and he had served several years in prison. No one in the area dared to provoke him.
Noah saved them from the problem of local crime, but they had faced other issues as well. Corruption was rampant, and politicians and government institutions need to be appeased. If those people weren't satisfied, the company would be fined. Reginald had dealt with these kinds of issues. He was the one with the college degree.
They operated like that for many years, and their little company gradually developed into a huge conglomerate. But the bigger they got, the less of a problem the local hooligans became. While Reginald was still instrumental in dealing with legal issues, Noah's usefulness decreased. He was marginalized.
Reginald remembered all this very well. "That's your version of the story, Noah," he said. "But it is incomplete. Allow me to fill you in. A year after we started, the government stirred up trouble and tried to shut us down. But I made it go away. Do you remember?"
Noah stared at him. He remembered. "What are you trying to say?" he asked.
Reginald smiled. He had been wanting to tell this story for a long time. "I'm saying that it was a difficult time. Not unlike today. We could have been closed down. For some reason, the local government kept demanding money from us and issued strange fines. One time, they even hinted that it wouldn't stop unless I got rid of you."
Noah grew nervous. He still didn't understand what Reginald was getting at.
"But without you, there wouldn't have been a Fidelity Group," Reginald continued. "I had to take care of it. So I went to City Hall one day, and after that our problems went away."
He fixed his eyes intently on Noah. "It wasn't until that day that I truly understood what was going on. You see, the government wasn't harassing us for no reason. There was a very good one. Can you guess what it was?"