Reclaiming Back My Empire

The Last Goodbye

The heavy rain fell hard on the shiny black umbrellas at the St. Philip's Church cemetery. Raymond Ashford stood directly in front of a giant, empty mahogany coffin that cost millions of dollars. He held a white silk handkerchief to his face and rubbed his eyes until they looked completely red. The bright flashes of the media cameras went off like small lightning bolts in the gray afternoon sky.

"My poor, dear brother," Raymond sobbed loudly, making sure the nearby microphones caught every single sound coming out of him."He was the best man I ever knew, and his sudden loss leaves a massive, empty hole in my heart."

A young reporter pushed through the crowd, holding a black notepad under the heavy, pouring rain, asking how the company would survive without Derek's brilliant mind at the top.

Raymond wiped his wet face again, looking straight into the lens of the television camera to declare that he would stay strong for the family and their thousands of employees.

Vanessa stood right by his side, wearing a long, custom black silk veil that covered her face softly. She took a slow step up to the microphones, her voice sounding very sad and perfectly practiced as she addressed the media.

"Derek had a truly beautiful vision for our corporate future," Vanessa told the huge crowd of sad faces. "He wanted this great empire to grow, and my new CEO brother-in-law will uphold that vision perfectly. Raymond is the only man who has the strength to carry this heavy torch now."

Another television reporter yelled out from the very back of the huge crowd, asking if it was true that all the company assets were already being transferred to Raymond.

Vanessa did not let her calm voice shake for even a single second under the bright lights. "We must keep the company stable during this awful tragedy, just like my dear husband always wanted," she replied.

Raymond took her gloved hand gently, showing total family support to the entire watching world before telling the reporters to please give their family privacy to mourn their loss.

They turned away from the empty grave and walked slowly toward a big, shiny luxury car. The private security guards opened the door of the expensive black Maybach limousine quickly, and Raymond and Vanessa stepped inside the vehicle, and the heavy door closed with a soft, quiet click that completely blocked out the noisy crowd and the flashing cameras.

The very moment the car started driving down the road, Raymond dropped his sad, wet handkerchief and let out a loud, cruel laugh against the leather seat.

"You were absolutely amazing out there, Vanessa," Raymond said, his eyes shining with pure joy. "That sad speech about my brother's great vision almost made me laugh right out loud in front of them."

Vanessa grabbed the long black silk veil and ripped it off her face with a wide, triumphant smile. "I practiced those exact words in front of my bedroom mirror for three whole days," she giggled happily as Raymond reached over to the small car fridge and pulled out a cold bottle of champagne.

He poured the bubbling drink into two crystal glasses and handed one over to her. "To our brand new empire," Raymond said, clinking his glass against hers with a loud, sharp ring. "And to my stupid older brother, who died in the cold mountains and gave us everything he owned."

Vanessa took a sip of the cold champagne, her heart beating fast with total, greedy excitement before asking if the corporate lawyers fixed the legal problems with their fast wedding since people might talk about a marriage sixty days after a crash.

Raymond laughed loudly again, waving his hand in the air like it did not matter to him at all. "Let them talk all they want," Raymond sneered, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "Our smart lawyers found the perfect legal loophole in the company rules early this morning. They are calling our fast wedding a corporate stability requirement to keep our stock price from falling. The old board of directors signed the papers because they only care about keeping their money safe."

Vanessa leaned her head on Raymond's chest, feeling completely safe. "Derek worked so hard his entire life just to build all of this wealth," she whispered with a cold smile. "And now we get to spend every single dollar together while his body rots under the mountain snow." Raymond agreed, kissing the top of her head as he added that Derek was always just too soft for the business world, actually believing that love and family loyalty were real when cold cash is the only thing that matters.

Far away from the city, a heavy steel axe slammed into a massive log of oak with a loud crack. The hard, frozen wood split completely in two, flying into the deep, white mountain snow drifts. Four long weeks had passed on the isolated peak, and the mountain air was brutally freezing.

Derek Ashford stood alone in the thick snow, wearing only a gray shirt and old canvas pants, no longer looking like the soft, rich billionaire who spent his days sitting in boardrooms.

His hands were covered in hard, rough calluses, and his shoulders were much wider and stronger now. He lifted the heavy steel axe over his head again, his muscles bunching tightly under his skin.

The angry purple scar on his neck stood out brightly against his pale, sweaty face in the winter light. Every single swing of the heavy axe pulled hard against the healing wound in his right side, but he welcomed the sharp pain because it reminded him of the promise he made to himself.

He slammed the steel axe down again, shattering another large piece of frozen wood into tiny splinters just as a loud voice called out from the cabin door. Earl Bone walked out into the snow, throwing a thick piece of heavy rope onto the frozen ground. "If you lose your breath out here, this arctic air will burn your lungs," the old man said sternly.

"The only thing I feel inside my chest right now is a burning, unstoppable fire of hatred," Derek said, his voice sounding rocky.

Earl walked closer through the drifts.

"Hatred is a very heavy weight to carry around, son," Earl said, shaking his gray head slowly. "It will slowly eat you up from the inside until there is absolutely nothing left of your soul."

Derek buried the sharp axe deep into a wooden stump and turned around to face the old forest ranger. "They completely took my life away from me, Earl," Derek growled, his eyes flashing with rage. "They sat in my house, slept in my bed, and laughed while my private jet plummeted from the sky. I am just making sure I am strong enough to go back and take every single thing back from them."

Later that evening, the small wood cabin was completely filled with the loud roar of the fireplace. The yellow flames danced across the log walls, throwing big, dark shadows over the wooden boards.

Earl sat on a low wooden stool, carefully cleaning the long barrel of an old Remington rifle while Buster the hound dog lay right by his boots, snoring softly in the warm heat.

Across the room, Derek was sitting alone at the heavy table, holding a spring-loaded steel animal trap tightly in his right hand.

His blue veins popped out as he squeezed the thick metal bars with all his might, forcing the jaws of the trap to open slowly. His fingers trembled from the strain, but he refused to let go of the cold iron.

"You are going to break your fingers if that steel snaps back on you," Earl warned him quietly.

"My hands need to be much stronger than iron for what I have to do," Derek muttered back, squeezing harder until the metal trap clicked open completely before setting it down on the wood.

"I have been thinking about what you said earlier about my hatred," Derek started very quietly, pacing quickly across the small, creaking wooden floor. "But you do not understand the horrible truth of what those people did to me. I sponsored Vanessa’s younger brother and paid for his entire elite college education abroad. I spent millions of my own dollars to cure her mother’s stage four cancer when they were poor. I treated Raymond like a real partner and gave him high executive positions in my own company."

He stopped and looked at the old man, his voice dropping low and dark. "I promised our dying mother on her bed that I would always protect him”.

Earl looked up from his rifle, his old eyes full of deep, genuine sadness for Derek as he put the clean Remington rifle back up on the wooden wall storage racks.

"I am not telling you to forgive them, son," the old forest ranger said softly. "I am just worried that you will become a horrible monster just like them to get your revenge."

Derek countered that maybe the old, nice Derek had to die so the monster could live, walking right back to the table to grip the steel trap again.

Suddenly, Earl reached out his hand and tuned the small dial on an old, dusty shortwave radio. The vacuum tubes inside started to glow with a bright, warm orange light in the dark, and a loud, fuzzy sound of radio static filled the quiet cabin for a long moment.

Earl turned the plastic dial slowly until a clear voice broke through the small speaker. "This is the Charleston Daily News," the radio announcer said. "We have a major, exclusive announcement from the highest business circles in the city tonight."

Derek froze completely still, his hand stopping right on top of the sharp metal bars of the trap.

“Marking exactly sixty days since the tragic mountain aviation disaster," the radio voice said clearly. "The Ashford Group will host a massive merger celebration later on tonight. This grand event will also celebrate the formal union of Raymond Ashford and Vanessa Ashford. The lavish wedding gala will take place tonight at the historic Charleston Custom House."

The radio announcer started talking happily about the expensive designer dresses and the rich guests until Earl reached out his calloused hand and turned the small black knob, shutting the radio off completely.

The sudden, heavy silence in the log cabin felt thick, suffocating, and absolutely terrifying. Buster raised his big hound head from the floorboards, letting out a low whine in the dark as Derek slowly let go of the steel trap, his eyes remaining fixed on the quiet radio speaker.

He looked down at his hardened, calloused hands, his knuckles turning completely white from his grip. He walked over to the small, foggy cabin window and looked out into the pitch-black night air.

Derek’s lips curled up into a slow, cold, and absolutely terrifying anger.

"The winter is finally over, Earl," Derek said, his voice dripping with fury. "The roads are opening up tonight, and my dear brother is waiting for his guest of honor.”