JON STILLED AT the mention of the Russian name. "The same Maxim? The Maxim Ivanov that hates me and wishes me dead?" Lucas nodded and laughed, "Yeah, the very one." Jon sat up, leaving one sock on, "What did he want?" Lucas looked at Jon and held his gaze for a moment before turning and looking at himself in the mirror. "Well," Lucas leaned in to take a closer look at his face in the mirror, "He came to meet with me," he said slowly, rubbing at a spot beside his nose, "He came to meet with me to plan your downfall." Jon winced, "Wait, what?" "That was my response," Lucas said, "But yeah, he came here to talk about you, and how to make you fall, you get it?" Jon looked blankly at the Persian rug laid in the centre of his room. Lucas cleared his throat, "Hello, did you hear what I just said?"Jon snapped out of his mini-trance and said, "Yes, yes. But… Why are you telling me this?" Jon looked at his stepbrother who was looking closely at the mirror, "I thought you and Maxim woul

IT HAS BEEN 3 days since Rick left the house for Miami and Jon had felt a very strange type of loneliness. He knew he was bordering on depression at that point. His best friends were in different parts of the world, and even with the one that was in the next state – Jeff – Jon still felt very lonely. Jeff barely had the time to text, let alone to call, whenever he was in New York. Once in a while, he spoke with Paxton, but he had not heard from Rick in over a day. The house had become too big for Jon, Maureen, the housekeeper knew what Jon was feeling so she tried to reduce that feeling by making him sugary food. She had read somewhere that sugar helps to reduce sadness. But Jon had no appetite for anything. He only ate when he felt extremely hungry. He immersed himself in the family's empire, constantly thinking of new business enterprises to enter and invest in and spending sleepless nights researching on any ideas he had.He barely saw Lucas, except in the tower. They had very

"I WANT IT," Jon said. "Um, maybe we can make – build another one for you," Gale said helplessly, "I have this amazing team of different engineers. We would build one exactly like this and –" "I want that one… now!" Jon said, coolly, "350 million dollars," He added. Gale was distraught, "But Mr Stone, it has been sold…" He said in a tight voice. "And I want to buy it for almost triple the normal price, what do you say?" Jon asked. "Don't put me in this type of position, sir," Gale said, "I beg of you," Gale pleaded. "I am not putting you in any position, Mr Gale," Jon said, "All it would take was some papers for me to sign and a transfer to you. Simple as that," Gale looked at Jon, "The previous owner won't take it lightly," He said. Jon smiled, "You said 'previous owner'. That means it doesn't belong to them anymore." "That w-was slip of, um, tongue," Gale stammered, "It was a slip of tongue." "Right," Jon muttered, "So what do you say?" Gale still looked cut between. Jon

THE FIRST THING Kimberly noticed as soon as she stepped out from the plane was that New Jersey had a clearer sky than Illinois. Ideally, she whipped out her phone and took a series of selfies with different facial expressions. She immediately shared them on her social handles, and added the location as "New Jersey." And captioned it, "New City. New Adventures. New Jersey – eye-boggling emoji. Head blown emoji. Blowing kisses and hearts emoji. She headed out of the airport's departure and flagged a taxi down. She showed the address that Maxim Ivanov had given her to the taxi driver and he nodded before putting the taxi into gear and driving off. After almost half an hour, she was dropped in front of an old stone building. She stepped out and cross-checked the address on her phone with the small chrome address written on a brick. "Yeah, this is it, alright," She muttered, looking up at the one-storey building, "This doesn't look as impressive as what I read about him on Google," She

THEY STAYED IN the air for close to an hour, Jon had no idea where they flew to or the route they took. But he was very satisfied with the sound of the engine. He drank his champagne slowly as he mulled over thoughts in his head. He tried to figure out what Maxim was up to and the part that that dumb Kim had to play in it. He knew Kim was nothing but a puppet in the grand scheme that Maxim had. He thought of texting Kim and asking to meet her, but he knew that it would arouse suspicion and possibly blow Lucas's cover and he did not want that. He still needs Lucas in that circle of his enemies. He needed the information that his stepbrother got from Maxim. "Penny for your thoughts?" Nicole's voice brought him out of his reverie and to the present.He smiled, "Even thousands of dollars can't buy my thought," He said. Nicole chuckled, "You just bought yourself an aeroplane. One of the biggest in the world… you should not let anything bother you except pride. You should be proud of yo