2023-09-05 07:08:53"Hey, Leonard!" A harsh voice called out. " How much time would it take you to clean a table? You're going to disturb the customers."
Leonard wiped away the sweat trickling down his face with a napkin. He spun around.
"But–" he tried to explain that he was working as fast as he could.
"No excuses! Speed up or you will have your salary deducted," his superior said coldly.
Leonard nodded slowly.
"Don't talk to him like that," a feminine voice spoke behind Leonard.
They both turned to look at her. Her arms were folded beneath her breast.
"I am sure you don't know who he is," she added, making Leonard groan silently.
"I advise you to apologize to him immediately," she said to his superior, leaving him shocked.
" Me? Apologize to him? Ma'am, I am only doing my job. "
The woman stared at him coldly.
" Apologize to him or–"
"Can you just stop?!" Leonard glared at her. "I am at fault here and he doesn't need to apologize to me. "
He tilted his neck to gaze at his superior.
" I am sorry, boss. I will do as you say."
His superior shook his head and walked away.
"What exactly do you want from me?" Leonard asked, irritated.
" Leo, I have been trying to make you understand who you really are. We have been looking for you for a while now," she looked around. " You're the most magnificent member of our secret group 'Dark Dragon'," her voice, a whisper as she spoke.
" You were injured during one of our operations and you lost your memory three years ago in a secret mission."
Leonard let out a chuckle and stared at the beautiful lady, wondering if she had gone mad or was just mistaking him for someone else.
"Ma'am, I would advise you to leave me alone so I won't risk losing my job. I am sure you are mistaken or just drunk."
The woman sighed deeply.
" I am telling the truth, Leo. I am not drunk and neither am I mistaken."
"Dark Dragon gave each member a special credit card, and as far I can remember, there's a lot of money in that card so why don't you just go and withdraw the money so you can have a good life instead of working in this place," she said, taking a look around the restaurant, seeing it too lowly for him.
" And also, you would know if I am telling you the truth or not."
Leonard rolled his eyes and continued cleaning, ignoring her.
The lady took her bag from the table and held his shoulder.
"Think about what I just told you, Leo. I am telling you the truth. Have a nice day," she said with a smile.
Taking one last glance at him, she said, " We will definitely meet again." With that, she walked out of the restaurant.
Leonard stared at her retracting figure through the transparent glass door and laughed mildly, continuing with his cleaning.
"Where's that good for nothing fellow?!" A woman cried out angrily, bursting in through the door.
Leonard and the others in the restaurant looked up at the outraged elderly woman.
"Mom?" Leonard called out, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
The woman stared at him scornfully and sneered, "I am not your mother, never was and I never will be."
Leonard sighed deeply.
" Take this! "
She handed a black file to him which he stared at curiously.
"What's that?" He asked, curious.
She gave him no reply. He collected it from her hesitating.
On opening it, it read: 'DIVORCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN MR LEONARD MARSHAL AND MRS TRISHA STONES'
He glanced up at her, shock written vividly over his face, his mouth wide open to say something but was stopped by her.
"Sign that quickly. And never come back to our house, here are your filthy clothes," she said, throwing a black bag at him. " My daughter would marry the rich guy who is after her and not be with some poor rat like you."
" But, you can't chase me away from the house I bought myself," he said, raising his brows.
She shook her head, chuckling.
" House? What house?," She asked. "That house doesn't belong to you but to my daughter as written on the property certificate, so you have no house to lay claims on, young man."
" Really? This is how you people decided to treat me after all I have done for you!" He said, irritation clearly in his voice.
Leonard was disappointed.
"Done for who? What have you done for us?" his mother-in-law scoffed.
" Where's Trisha? Did she agree to this?" He asked.
" Of course she did. Did you think she wasn't also willing to get rid of you?" His mother-in-law furrowed her brows.
" I don't believe you. You were against our marriage from the start. I need to see Trisha before I sign anything."
His mother-in-law laughed.
" You want to see Trisha? Trisha has no time for you," she told him, waving her palm in his face. "She's with another man, having fun. Someone who would give her a good life, not some peasant like you who can't even get himself a pair of shoes."
"Having fun with another man? " He frowned, clenching his fists,:"Well,if that’s what she wants"
He took a pen from his pockets and signed on the papers.
His mother-in-law had a vicious smile on her face and she took the divorce papers and went away without saying anything more to him.
Leonard looked on. He felt insulted, with the many eyes staring at him, he hoped for the ground to open and swallow him up.
Getting embarrassed like that as a man wasn't acceptable and it was all because he had no money.
He married Trisha because her father had saved his life but a few months after their wedding, he died.
Trisha and her mother had made life a living hell for him, turning him into their slave.
Leonard's mind flashed to his conversation with the strange lady about the card. He needed money to show folks that he wasn't as useless as they thought.
He plunged his hands into his pockets, searching for the card. He found it and stared at the black card, his name boldly written on it.
"If this card was truly with me all along then definitely she wasn't lying and there's only one way to find out."
Throwing the napkin in his hand on the floor, he walked out of the restaurant onto the busy street,headed to the closest bank.
It was time for him to find out the truth about himself and if that woman wasn't lying, then Trisha and her mother should be ready for his come-back!
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The Davisons:
That night, Keith sat at his apartment, files sprawled across his dining table. One in particular caught his eye—a cross-reference of investors and shell companies. Most of the connections were dead ends… except one.He hadn’t thought of them in months. The Davisons were powerful, discreet, and infamously detached from the public spotlight. But their name popped up—barely—in a transfer to a subsidiary recently restructured into a tech-based logistics competitor now bidding aggressively for the same contracts Marshall Corp had its eyes on.Keith’s phone buzzed.Leonard.He picked up. “Hey.”“I have news,” Leonard said without greeting. “The competitor targeting Marshall? We ran a full audit trail. It's being funded through proxies—offshore firms, fake holdings. But we finally traced the money.”Keith sat forward. “Let me guess. The Davison family.”A long pause. Then Leonard cursed. “You found it too.”“They’re not just watching Marshall Corp,” Keith said. “They’re moving in.”Leonard’
The Davisons:
That night, Keith sat at his apartment, files sprawled across his dining table. One in particular caught his eye—a cross-reference of investors and shell companies. Most of the connections were dead ends… except one.He hadn’t thought of them in months. The Davisons were powerful, discreet, and infamously detached from the public spotlight. But their name popped up—barely—in a transfer to a subsidiary recently restructured into a tech-based logistics competitor now bidding aggressively for the same contracts Marshall Corp had its eyes on.Keith’s phone buzzed.Leonard.He picked up. “Hey.”“I have news,” Leonard said without greeting. “The competitor targeting Marshall? We ran a full audit trail. It's being funded through proxies—offshore firms, fake holdings. But we finally traced the money.”Keith sat forward. “Let me guess. The Davison family.”A long pause. Then Leonard cursed. “You found it too.”“They’re not just watching Marshall Corp,” Keith said. “They’re moving in.”Leonard’
The Plan:
The room was quiet aside from Keith’s laptop softly humming. The transfer bar blinked at Ninety-eight percent then Ninety-nine percent, then completed. Keith dry swallowed and leaned back in his chair, staring at the now secure Marshall Corporation archival database on his screen.“Done,” he said to himself.His fingers hovered over the keyboard as if to try and revert back. But this was permanent. The data: sensitive projections, confidential financial models, internal audits, were no longer solely within his dominion. Barry had it now. Or at least had a backdoor to it.His phone buzzed.Barry.Just the name made Keith’s stomach tighten. He inhaled once, then picked up.“You’ve been efficient,” Barry’s voice poured through the speaker like warm steel. “Impressive. I knew you would be.”“I kept my word,” Keith said, staring at the screen. “The files are transferred. All of them.”A pause.“Good. It’s nice when people understand the stakes.” Barry’s voice dipped. “And when they don’t…
The Will Of A Man:
That night, Keith didn’t go home. He couldn’t. He booked a room at a discreet hotel on the edge of the city, not wanting to bring any of Barry’s reach near his son, Seth. He had enough problems to deal with already, ever since the confrontation with his mother.Alone in the room, Keith placed the flash drive on the nightstand and stared at it like it might sprout legs and crawl into the computer on its own.His phone buzzed. Unknown number.He didn’t pick up.It buzzed again. This time, a message.**Tick-tock, Mr. Marshall. Bella works late tomorrow. Would be a shame if she didn’t make it home.**Keith’s jaw clenched. That was the line. Threatening him was one thing. Threatening her—even if they weren’t personally close—was another.He opened his laptop and ran the flash drive through a private, air-gapped system, logging into a clone environment he used to audit company material.The drive required a password.Of course it did.He typed: **Barry**.Access denied.He tried: **Marshall
The Weight Of Blackmail:
Keith’s hands felt really heavy with the flash drive. The size was so tiny and could be mistaken for a bomb. Barry's message was clear:Transfer the contents to the Marshall Corporation archival database. Midnight. No delays. No excuses. Or someone disappears.The room was full of Keith’s thoughts as he paced back and forth in his office, clenching and unclenching his fingers all the while. Each second that passed seemed like ticking time till doomsday.Then came a creak from his door. He immediately put the flash drive away.Bella stepped into the office, excluding all elegance carrying a cup of coffee. “You were absent during the commercial shooting,” she said in an almost whispering voice, “I thought maybe you would want this.”He ignored her presence by turning towards it and pretending to look out of it at the raindrops running down on his windowpane pretending not to notice how wet it had become.“Thank you.” He muttered pretendly lost in thoughts about work.Bella placed the co
Barry’s Threat:
Barry stepped forward, one hand casually brushing a crystal pen on Keith’s desk. “Do you remember the party, Keith? The lights, the dancing, the betrayal... the escape?”Keith remained silent.“I do,” Barry said with a smirk. “You and that little beauty—what was her name again? Bella? You ran from me. Quite rudely, I might add.”“She’s not part of this anymore,” Keith said quickly, fists clenching at his sides. “Leave her out of it.”“Out of it?” Barry laughed. “Oh, Keith. You made her part of it the moment you brought her to my event. The moment you let her get a glimpse of my world. And then—like a thief in the night—you both vanished. Didn’t even say goodbye.”“You threatened her life,” Keith snapped.Barry waved a hand. “Minor detail. You’ve seen what I’m capable of. You know the weight I carry in this city. And yet here you are… making me come to you.”He leaned in.“To settle scores.”Keith’s throat dried. He tried to stand tall, keep the fear buried.“I didn’t take anything fro
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