"How should I know?" Noah snapped. A few years ago, he would have made short work of the pampered rich men who were gathered around him, but he was getting older. On top of that, Reginald was throwing riddles at him about things that happened thirty years ago.
Reginald watched him with pity in his eyes. "It has to do with why you went to prison," he continued. "Ordinary women were never good enough for you, were they? You wanted better. So you went to Washington, checked into an expensive hotel, and found what you wanted. A real beauty. You followed her around town, and then you brought her back to your hotel room. A few days later, you were jailed."
Reginald looked around the room. At that moment, it dawned on Noah that he wasn't just talking to him. Reginald was telling the story to the entire room. He sought to make Noah look bad. He needed to defend himself.
"So what?" he asked indignantly. "She was the daughter of some rich businessman who took offense. I didn't do anything wrong."
Reginald shook his head. "So you still think her father was a businessman? She wasn't. She was the daughter of the mayor of D.C. A man who couldn't risk his reputation, nor his honor. So he had you put in prison, and then he kept tabs on you. When you got out, he was watching your every step. And when he learned about our business venture, he used the resources of the city to try to ruin you."
Noah was shocked. He had never suspected any of this, but somehow, he knew that it was true.
"That day when I went to City Hall," Reginald continued, "I met the mayor and found out what was going on. I told him that our company had great potential. He was a reasonable man, and he realized that it was wrong to kill a promising enterprise for your sake. He agreed to stop harassing you."
"But there were conditions. He made me promise that you would never be in charge of the business. I don't know if it was to stop you from succeeding, or if he thought that you would doom the company. Either way, he said that he would start coming after us again if you were ever put in charge. That's why I could never let you be the chairman of the board."
Noah was confused. All these years, he had misunderstood Reginald's intentions. Why didn't he tell me? he asked himself. But then he realized that his friend had wanted to spare him the burden of knowing the threat he was under. He must have figured that the strength of their friendship would bear the strain of what he had to do.
Noah was close to tears as he looked at Reginald, who stood over him with pity in his eyes. His friend had protected him all these years, and he had betrayed him. He had almost doomed the Fidelity Group twice over.
He became so angry that he punched himself twice in the face. Then he crawled over to Reginald and stood on his knees in front of him. "Reginald," he said loudly as he sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I almost destroyed our company. I'll never forgive myself. How can you even look at me?"
Reginald stepped forward and helped him to his feet. "Get up and stop talking nonsense," he said. "I'm equally to blame. I should have told you the truth. There will always be a place for you at the Fidelity Group." Reginald could be ruthless, but he was fiercely loyal to his real friends.
"No, my friend," Noah answered. "If you really want to make this right, you have to kick me out. We both know I could never run the company." He smiled faintly. "I may have some skills, but running a business isn't one of them."
Reginald nodded. He said that he would accept Noah's resignation and that he would give him a large severance package. As a founder of the company, it was unthinkable that he should be left wanting. Noah was overcome with gratitude, and the two old friends embraced.
The heartfelt moment didn't last long. Colin had been lying on the floor while Reginald told his story, but now he stood up slowly. He was hoping that nobody would notice him. But as he rose, a voice called out across the room. "Colin! What are you still doing here? Haven't you had enough?" Every eye in the room fell on him.
"All right," he said. "I'm leaving. But I'll be back. And some day, I'll rule this town." He turned to leave.
"Colin, wait for me!" Darryl cried out and hurried after him. It gave him no pleasure, but he had already picked it aside. Colin was not going to give up, and the best thing Darryl could do was to stay the course.
Myriam followed Darryl. Before she left, she glanced over at Alex, but there wasn't a trace of malice left in her eyes. At that moment, all she felt was awe at what she had seen him do.
Alex was surprised and saddened when he saw her. Darryl's hold over her was stronger than he had thought.
Reginald went up to Alex. "Alex, thank you again. I really couldn't imagine what would have happened here without you."
"You're welcome, Mr. Drake," Alex responded. "I'm happy to help. But what will you do now? I'm afraid this crisis won't be the last. I hope you're prepared."
Reginald smiled. "You're right," he said. "But there's a silver lining to this whole thing. The traitors have been weeded out, and we know who's loyal to the company now. All we need to do is fill the vacancies with the right people. We'll also reconsider our range of partnerships, so that we're not so dependent on the larger ones."
Reginald knew how to grow from adversity. He had learned his lesson. Everyone in the room looked at him with admiration.
"That's good to hear," Alex said with a smile. "You clearly don't need any help knowing what to do. I admire you very much, Mr. Drake."
Reginald smiled and put his hand on Alex's shoulder. "I'll get the Fidelity Group back on track as quickly as I can. With any luck, I'll pay you back in about five years."
"I'll take your word for it, Mr Drake," Alex said. It wasn't important to him when the money was repaid. It wouldn't matter to the Cliftons, and the Sultan of Brunei wouldn't miss it either. As long as the Drakes paid it back, the timeframe didn't matter.
The important thing was that the crisis was over.
Alex went out for lunch with David and his friends. They were all very curious about who he was, but Alex didn't talk about himself. He kept the conversation focused on other things, and they all respected him too much to ask.
After lunch, Reginald and David drove Alex to the airport. Before he left them outside the airport, he asked them to control the media coverage as much as possible and not to allow his name or his picture to be published. Too much publicity could bring unwanted attention to his family.
Reginald and David happily agreed, and they saw Alex off. He went into the airport, went through security, and got onto the next plane back to Baltimore.
When he found his seat, he sat down and closed his eyes. He had no Internet access on the plane, but he didn't miss it. He only wanted to sleep.
Just as he was closing his eyes, a beautiful woman came walking down the middle aisle. She was wearing a black and blue jacket that revealed her slim figure. Her hair was dyed blonde and tied in a ponytail, and her earrings shimmered as she walked.
She looks like a singer on TV, Alex thought. As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered if he hadn't seen her somewhere before.
**
He woke up just as the plane landed in Baltimore. As it rolled into the terminal, he rubbed his eyes and stood up to disembark. He looked around for the beautiful woman, but he could not see her.
When he came out of the airport and walked onto the street, he hailed a taxi and asked to be taken straight back to the university. Behind him, back inside the airport terminal, two men stood watching him. It was Chris and one of his men.
Ever since his defeat at the hands of the Cliftons, Art had been in a terrible mood. He had not gone to work since then but had locked himself up in his villa outside of town. Chris had never seen his father behave like that, and it worried him. The more he watched his father, the more convinced he became that their family was truly ruined. And it was all Alex's fault.
But Chris also had questions. He needed to know how Alex was connected to the Cliftons, and why such an excellent martial artist would be working as a university security guard. Chris couldn't make any sense of it, and it was driving him mad.
That was why he had been following Alex. At first, everything he did seemed perfectly normal. But then he had gone to Washington D.C., and Chris' associates there had told him that he had gone to the Fidelity Group and somehow found them 500 million dollars.
That was when Chris had started to suspect that Alex might be the rumoured son that had been cut off from the Ambrose family. The family kept a low profile, but the information had slipped out. And it fit.
But Chris needed proof. Alex was connected and dangerous, and it might be dangerous to move against him. But if he was the disgraced son of the Ambrose family, then his family would not be protecting him. Chris could kill and move against him without fear of reprisal.
"Chris, are we still following him?" his henchman reminded him. Alex's taxi was already driving off.
Chris snapped back from his thoughts. "Yes. You go after him, and report to me tonight." The other man nodded, left the terminal, and got a taxi to go after Alex.
I need to make a move soon, Chris thought. I can't follow him around forever. I'm running out of money.
Just as he turned around to go back to his car, a beautiful woman in a black and blue jacket came walking past him. It was the woman from the plane.
As she walked past him, she muttered something to herself. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but it was something about money. And there was one word that had stood out among the rest. Alex.