Chapter 4

 Ken journeyed down the stairs while Richard linger a little longer in the empty room. He planned to make the family go bankrupt and ranked the bottom ten but how will he execute his plans. He remembered that Victoria was still part of the family. He was sorry for all the pains he had cost her. Though she treated him like the rest of the family.

 He remembered the first few months they got married, she stood firmly behind him when her mom objected their marriage. Eventually, Mrs. Lucis flew out of the country and did not witness her daughter's wedding ceremony. 

For the first few months, Victoria showered him with love and Richard thought he made the best decision to get married to her. Until Mrs. Lucis returned and Victoria turned into what she is now.

 Richard sighed.

 Meanwhile, Ken had gotten to the dining hall, and everyone were almost done with their meal. "How did it go," Charles said sarcastically.

 "You guys were right, he is really a no-good fellow," Ken said.

 "I warned you," Mrs. Lucis said.

 "What did you discuss with him," Rachael inquired.

 Ken was not prepared for this question. He searched his head quickly for the best possible answer. One that will satisfy the Weldoms and will not put Richard into much trouble. 

 "I spoke about offering him a good job and a better life."

 "And what did he say."

 "He said he was a school dropout."

 The place became as silent as a graveyard. "I have done more harm than good," Ken thought. "So I left him to his fate," Ken continued but no one was listening to him. 

"It is such a pity," he ended.

 "What," Mrs. Lucis screamed and she fainted.

 The whole meeting broke Into a commotion.

 "What have you done, marrying a school drop out?" Rachael yelled at her elder sister while Charles was trying to restore Mrs. Lucis.

 Victoria froze in her seat as a tear escaped from her eyes. Ken was greatly frightened, what will be his young master's reaction when he returns.

 "Somebody get me a glass of water," Charles yelled.

 Meanwhile, Richard was at was still in the room deliberating on how to carry out his plan. Then he heard the screams and commotion from the down floor. He knew instantly that it was because of him and it had some connections with the discussion he just held with Ken.

 He decided to linger a little until the commotion had gone down.

 Thirty minutes later, Richard went down on his knees and placed his ears on the floor, there was no sound coming from the down floor. "It is over now," he thought aloud.

 He marched towards the dining room and everybody turned towards him at the sound of his battered sandles.

 "As I was saying," Mrs. Lucis continued, bringing all attention back to her. One of Victoria's relatives who was a nurse had successfully revived her but she still looked a little bit pale.

 Soundlessly, Richard got to his seat and Sat, faking a serious look.

 "What is he still doing here," Francisca inquired.

 "Let us not let him distract this meeting, we shall proceed," Mrs. Lucis said cooly.

 "As we were saying before the interruption, this family has become stagnant for a while now, we almost two years after our sudden boom, we still rank fifty in this city. We need suggestions, useful suggestions on how to increase the family's ranking. The floor is open."

 "Hmmm," Richard tried to say something.

 "Shut up," Victoria said as calmly as she could but the word came out violently from her mouth, making the Weldoms to burst into laughter.

 "Everyone will maintain silence. And as for you Victoria, try as  much possible as you can to control this cave man you call a husband. A word from him and you will seize to be my daughter," Luci said angrily.

 Victoria was dumbfounded the words she just heard, her mum as never talked to her in that manner since she was born.

 "Mrs. Lucis, I suggest we partner with one of the top ten families," Charles suggested.

 "That was exactly my thoughts before I came to this place, you are really the son of your mother," Lucis said with a smile.

 "And partnering with the Armstrongs will be a big hit. I learnt they are four trillion dollars ahead of the second ranked family," Rachael added.

 "Yes, they were the ones I had in mind, If we can partner with the Armstrongs, we will definitely rise to top three."

 "But mum, I do not object any suggestions from my siblings but we should also look at the possibility of the suggestion. The Armstrongs have not partner with any other group for over a decade. Not even from other first-class groups. As we all know, the possibility that the Armstrong group will partner with us is too little."

 "Must your family also bring problems to us?" Charles fired.

 Richard knew what Victoria was talking about, his father stopped partnership with other companies over twenty years ago. He will never agree to partner with the Armstrong groups.

 "Victoria, if you don't have anything better to say, than object to what others have said then shut up."

 "Ma, Victoria is right, my company has been trying to partner with the Armstrongs group for over five years now but our efforts have proven fruitless. The last time I went myself to see the general manager and he told me the group will not go into any form of partnership anytime soon," Ken noted

 Mrs. Luci sighed heavily. "What should we do know."

 "I think we should look forward to the partnership with a lesser ranked company," Charles suggested.

 "That is okay but before then.."

  A phone beeped interrupting Mrs. Lucis' speech. Everyone turned searching for the owner of the cell phone. It was Richards. He quickly reached out the phone in his pocket. It was a text message. "Yes," he exclaimed immediately after he got a text message.

 The whole place was silent. Immediately, Richard realized his mistake, he was about to get his wife Into a serious trouble.

 "Mum, you won't disown Vicky because of this piece of garbage right?" Rachael said.

 Luci kept silent.

 "Ma, I am very sorry, it is a message from the office I recently applied for a job, I got the job. I could not contain my excitement," Richard explained.

 "Well since it is a good news, I will temper justice with mercy this time."

 "You did not ask him the type of job he got," someone called out from the table.

 "Exactly, what type of job can a school dropout possibly get," Charles added.

 "What type of job did you get," Victoria whispered into his ears.

 "I was employed as a cleaner," Richard said. Everyone burst into laughter.

 "I would have thought so," Luci said.

 "Don't you have any shame, Richard, you still had the guts to voice it out," Charles said.

 "You don't have to do it, I will pay you the money," Ken said.

 "You don't have to," Richard replied nodding his head.

 "How much is your pay," Mrs. Lucis inquired.

 "One hundred bucks per week," Richard said proudly.

 "See how proud he is about it," Rachael roared.

 "I will give you the money but you will become an official servant for Victoria," Mrs. Lucis said.

 "Don't bother ma," Richard spat.

 "You don't have a choice thrash bag," Mrs. Lucis replied. "As for the inquiry of the group suitable for partnership, Charles will take over that. This meeting is adjourned for today."