BOUND BY TRADITION

Chapter 3

Early the next morning, Jack does the dishes, leaves the house and takes his obsolete motorbike to go to the Corecloud Land Company.

Near the office building of the destination, he puts his bicycle on the side of the road and enters the interior of the company.

The Corecloud Land Company is a real estate company specialized in the development of high-end communities in River city. The villas of their projects developed where to sell to rich or powerful people.

Before reaching the entrance to the office building, a woman in workwear, made up in an outrageous way, approaches him. She glanced at him and blocked his way.

“Stop, you come here to repair the sewer, don't you? Enter through that door. Not this way, here it's towards our sales hall.”

A little embarrassed, Jack takes a look at the woman and says:

“No, I don't come here to repair the sewer, but to look for someone.”

The woman looked at him from head to toe, notices that he wears cheap clothes like badly dressed rubbish, a touch of contempt shines in her eyes.

Suddenly, she widens her eyes and says, looking surprised.

“Jack? Are you Jack Thompson?” She touched him with disdain, without hesitation.

Intrigued,Thompson looks at the woman.

“Do you know me?”

The woman laughs.

“Maria, your classmate in high school, have you forgotten me?”

Thompson focusses to thinking for a moment. A figure appears in his mind.

“Eh! I remember, Maria, we shared the same desk at the time.”

Maria was a classmate in high school, but he had not seen her in a few years. She was putting on makeup, more beautiful than before, so he didn't recognise her at first sight.

After recognising Thompson, Maria's attitude changed again, going from contempt to derision.

When they were at school, she often made fun of him by saying that he was a wild child in the orphanage. After he stays with the Decastros after his marriage, everyone in the City River still made fun of him with his colleagues.

She looks at him again, a sardonic smile illuminates her face.

“I heard that you're staying with your father-in-law, oh dear. I predicted that you won't have a good future. And I'm quite right.

Now you are quite famous in City River, even my colleagues know that you are a good-for-nothing thoroughbred. I'm laughing.”

Listening to her, Jack's face gets dull. He does not expect Maria to take advantage of this reunion between classmates to make fun of him in person.

“By the way, why are you coming here? Don't tell me you're coming here to buy a villa. I'm afraid you can't even buy a floor tile from here even if you've been working hard all this life.”

Maria speaks in a light and mocking tone once she has recognised the person in front of her.

“I'm coming here to see your general manager,” says Jack .

Maria doesn't laugh.

“That's enough, don't pretend to be important. Why don't you look at yourself in a mirror? Do you think you are qualified enough to see our general manager? I think you've never seen beautiful things, and you come here to see the beautiful houses? But it's not worth seeing them since you can't buy them. You'll find yourself more useless if you see them. See your clothes, I suggest you leave here without delay, otherwise security will drive you away. I'm going to work, I don't want to take care of a useless one like you.”

That said, Maria moves away from him and goes inside.

Thompson doesn't know what to say. In reality, he came to the Corecloud Land Company to see the general manager on a receiving form. To her surprise, Maria is so aggressive that she doesn't want to give him any chance to explain it.

Regardless, Thompson doesn't bother to argue with people like her. After all, they were at different social levels and their fields of vision were not the same.

Shortly after Maria's departure, a man in a suit who looks skilful and knowledgeable appears. He sees Jack, rushing towards him and addressing him respectfully.

“Mr. Thompson!”

“Are you Mr. Thompson? Nice to meet you. My name is Marcel Dupont, General Manager of the Corecloud Land Company. Please, Mr. Thompson, please follow me to the office.”

Thompson nods his head and follows Marcel, they enter the office building and take the passage reserved for executives.

In the elevator, Marcel looked at him secretly, noticed that this young man is wearing cheap clothes and looks ordinary.

Nevertheless, he does not dare to despise him, because he is the owner of the Corecloud Land Enterprise. He never forgot that that day the old man came and bought the land company.

Corecloud at twice the price of the company without even blinking his eyes saying that he offers Jack the Corecloud Land Enterprise as a gift.

It was the first time in his life that Marcel saw such a thing: Buy a business and give it as a gift. So he knows that an old man is much richer and more powerful than he imagined.

And Jack is the young master the old man had talked about, no matter how banal he may be in appearance, Marcel does not dare to underestimate him.

They arrive together at an office. Marcel takes out some documents, invites Thompson to sign, then he gives him a key.

“Mr. Jack, from today, you are the president of the company. This is the key to the Celestial Villa and it is the symbol of your status at the same time. Please keep it up.”

Jack takes the key, nods his head.

“You will continue to help me manage here. I want to tell you that Decastro will buy an office building later. You just have to do what I'm going to tell you, you just have to spare them.”

Marcel smiles and nods his head.

“Mr. President, rest assured, I will take it seriously. If you want, we can give them an office building as a gift.”

Thompson smiles a little and says nothing. Although he can give Melissa an office building, he doesn't plan to do that. After all, he bought this office building for Melissa to consider it differently. He prefers to help her in secret in this matter.

“Mr. President, I will accompany you to the auction house to see the newest miniatures of villas. If you like one of them, you can stay there at any time.” Proposes Marcel.

Thompson thinks a little, anyway, he doesn't have much to do at that time and he may take time to familiarize himself with the company, so he nods.

They arrive together on the ground floor. At that moment, Marcel suddenly feels sick to his stomach. Embarrassed, he tells Jack about it and tells him to take a walk in the auction room, then he runs to the toilet.

Thompson enters the auction room and looks at the architectural miniatures. The villas and mansions are very beautiful. Villa Celeste is a famous building in River City, whose miniature is in the center of the room.

Thompson walks towards the center of the room. At that moment, Maria, who is in the room, sees Thompson. She frowns, then shouts unscrupulously:

“Jack, didn't I tell you to leave here as soon as possible? This is not the place where a good-for-nothing like you can visit, so leave this place right away!”