Rise of the Rich and Powerful Jamie Ashford

Chapter 17

Before Jamie left the birthday party, he attempted to return Stacy's money back to her, but then, with a snack on his shoulder and a disapproving frown on her face, she declined.

“Listen to me, Jamie, I don't care how rich you are now, don't you dare return my gifts back to me, do you hear me? It's almost like you're looking down on me.”

Jamie quickly held her hands. “Stacy, come on. You know that's not true. I would never look down on you. I just don't want you to go through this month without money.”

Jamie smiled lovingly at his former stepsister. “I'm aware that the money you sent to me that night was your entire allowance for this month. It's not right that a beauty goddess of HU would spend the next thirty-one days without spending on herself. I'm not lacking money now, so give me the honor of giving a bit back to you, okay?”

It was hard for Stacy to reject this offer at this point. Jamie wanted to repay a fraction of her kindness. It would be wrong to not accept it. 

Thus, she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Jamie wasted no time as he made the transfer to Stacy's bank account. “Done.”

Stacy looked down at the notification that just popped up on her phone screen and her eyes widened in shock.

[Credit amount: $5,000,000:00]

Stacy turned her widened eyes to Sonia before showing it to her. She then turned her gaze back to Jamie's calm face. “This…..Jamie, where did you get so much…..”

Jamie didn't wait for Stacy to finish her words. “It's one of the many gifts I got from the Ashford subordinate as a means of encouragement.”

Sonia became curious. “So the Ashford subordinate also stabilized you financially. How much exactly did he give you?”

Jamie touched the top of his sharp nose. “I don't wanna disclose that. I'm afraid some jealous losers with fragile egos would decide to come after me.”

Just when Sonia and Stacy realized that Jamie was referring to the Reynold brothers and their crew, all four young men popped up behind Stacy, and Jonathan grabbed his sister's phone to see the credited amount.

All four boys were in utter shock as they stared up at Jamie.

“Wait, where did Jamie get $5 million? He just gave it away to Stacy like that.”

“You idiot, if he can give away such an amount, then that means he has so much more in his bank account.”

“What the hell is going on here? Since when did Jamie become richer than us?”

Nathan glared at Jamie from the safe distance created by the five Ashford bodyguards. “Since he became acquainted with that Ashford subordinate.”

This answer made sense to all of them. The Ashford clan, without its business empire, is easily worth tens of trillions of dollars. 

This meant that even a member of a subordinate family under the Ashford umbrella would have more money than the Reynold family.

These four troublesome young men were certain that Jamie had been gifted at least $10 million by that Ashford subordinate.

Unknown to them, Jamie was holding $10 billion in his bank account instead.

Jamie preferred this level of assumption though. If they knew the actual amount in his bank account, it would only bring about doubt to the stories he had told earlier.

This is something Jamie would like to avoid until he is ready to deal with it.

In fact, Jamie wouldn't have given Stacy that much money as long as it didn't bring any notice to him. But he couldn't help himself as Stacy is extremely dear to him.

After losing everything, it was because of the money Stacy had sent to him suddenly that stopped him from jumping off the bridge that night.

This hesitation due to Stacy's aid was what stalled him enough to finally notice that $10 billion had suddenly appeared in his bank account.

Therefore, Stacy unknowingly becomes Jamie's lifesaver.

If the former step-sister had not sent that money, he would have definitely jumped to his death before he could even begin to live his best life.

Back to the present, one of the Ashford bodyguards reminded Jamie that they needed to go now. His grandfather is anxiously waiting to reunite with his long-lost grandson.

Jamie then asked the bodyguard if the gist Tom Yates had helped him order was finally here. Apparently, he didn't want to leave without properly wishing Sonia a happy birthday.

Before the bodyguard could even answer, the sound of a flying drone could be heard, and everyone turned to the western sky to find a futuristic-looking drone heading towards them.

This, of course, drew the attention of most of the 70 guests at the birthday party, including Amanda, Meghan, and Olivia.

The three pompous women rushed over to join the Reynold brothers, Seth, and Danny.

The buzz being created right now wasn't only because there was the sudden appearance of a drone, but rather, the brand label on the drone.

The guests had become understandably excited.

“Holy shit! That's a drone from Crows Tech Corp!”

“A drone from Crows Tech Corp?! Isn't that a company owned by the Ashford family?!”

“Yeah! The company only develops futuristic tech inventions for mostly exclusively wealthy people, establishments, and military bodies. They're worth over $300 billion!”

“This drone ... .isn't that the company's latest release, estimated to be priced at $500,000 per rent and $50 million per purchase!”

Hearing all this from the overly excited guests, Jamie didn't expect that such a drone would be so expensive. He was even more surprised when the bodyguard confirmed that his order had been delivered.

In front of so many pairs of eyes, this drone was coming towards him. It stopped a few meters above Jamie before a beam of soft light projected over him from the drone’s eye camera.

[Scanning for order recipient.]

Everyone watched as the futuristic drone scanned Jamie from head to toe before speaking in its mechanical masculine voice.

[Recipient identified: Mr. Jamie Reynold. Please, wave at me.]

Jamie waved as instructed and the drone slowly descended further before opening its compartment. A pair of robotic arms extended out, holding a package in its hand.

Jamie received the package before the drone turned a part of its body that revealed a fingerprint scanner to him.

[Mr. Jamie, please, confirm the delivery with your fingerprint .]

Jamie has his thumb scanned and the drone soon leaves. The audience's attention was on Jamie the whole time. This is a drone that hasn't yet been released to the public, so how on earth did Jamie get access to it.

Could it be the work of the Ashford subordinate behind him?

Jamie figured out this was purposely done by Tom Yates to elevate his status even higher. 

He couldn't help but shake his head as he turned to Sonia and gave the package to her. “Happy birthday, Sonia, from the Ashford subordinate and me. I hope you like my gift more, though.”

He didn't wait for a reply as he got back on the helicopter with his bodyguards and ascended to the sky.

Everyone watched him leave before Sonia opened the package, the eyes of her peers on her.

There were two boxes within that package. One contained a golden-plated card that gave access to all-paid weekend trips for a whole year at any hotel suite of Sonia's choosing within the United States.

Stacy gasped at this. “Wow! Sonia, this is an Ashford gift card! Not a lot of outsiders get to have them. With this, you book out a suite at any hotel of your choosing for a whole year without restrictions or payments.”