BOUND BY TRADITION

Chapter 1

“Young master, please return to the capital with us as heir to the property. Your mother would like to apologize for what she did in the past. She wants you to be able to forgive her while keeping in mind the general interest. As the keystone of City O, the Thompsons cannot exist without a leader.”

Looking at this old man who bows with respect, Jack Thompson laughs.

“This woman is a real snake. To control the family, she never hesitated to drive me out of the Thompson and make me bear the accusation of treason in the family. She was afraid of my revenge, and then she forced me to become a ridiculous and good-for-nothing son-in-law, attached to my wife's family, in this small town called the River City. Now she is seriously ill and you start thinking about me. Isn't it too late?”

“I got used to being the good-for-nothing son-in-law of the Decastro. I can no longer take care of the Thompsons. You should leave.”

After saying these words, Jack turns around throwing his garbage bag into the trash and leaves.

Although becoming the heir of the Thompsons shocks the whole world, this idea does not come to him at all. As soon as he was expelled from the Thompsons, he had no affection for his family.

Now, he is the son-in-law of the Decastros, the second-rate family at River City and known for its uselessness.

No one knows that he was once the powerful young master of the Thompson. However, all this is temporary. Although he leads a miserable life for the moment with a few dozen euros in all, he does not regret it.

Jack brings fruits to the former Decastro house. Today is Master Decastro’s birthday banquet where all the parents will be there. Rivalry is inevitable in such a circumstance. But because of Jack, his wife's whole family, who is called Melissa Decastro will become all the object of ridicule.

At the beginning of the banquet, the people of the Decastros began to offer gifts to Master Lemaire.

“Grandfather, I know you like antiques. Here is Paul Gauguin's painting, the yellow Christ, which I bring to you on purpose. Please accept it.”

Grandson Jeremy Decastro offers his painting with a smile.

“Grandfather, here is a jade stone that I bought from a friend abroad. I spent a lot of money.” The spoiled granddaughter Sonia Decastro passes her gift.

...

Everyone competes to offer gifts to Master Decastro to please him.

“Grandfather, can you... lend me 500,000 euros? The orphanage did not collect enough donations this year. It will no longer be able to survive and the children there will become homeless…” Says Jack at the end of the table.

However, this is a public demand. His mother-in-law, Cindy Morin Decastro gets up directly, points to Jack:

“You're just a jerk! Do you know what you talking about?”

Jack’s wife, Melissa, is the most beautiful woman in the River City. Not expecting this, she gets up from her chair in a hurry:

“Grandfather, Jack is badly awake. Forget what he said!”

When she finishes, she strongly pinches Jack’s arm with her fingers to warn him.

Three years ago, Mistress Decastro insisted before dying that Melissa marry Jack. Melissa is no longer a splendid woman in the eyes of the world.

During these three years, Jack did not work. He does the laundry and empties the trash all day, known for its uselessness, which makes his wife ridiculous. But now she is once again compromised by Jack at her grandfather's birthday banquet.

“I'm dying to laugh at you! You didn't give grandfather a birthday present and now you dare to ask him for 500,000 euros. Jack, haven't you been ashamed in recent years? Borrow money on the occasion of his birthday? Are you trying to make him very angry?” Says Jeremy, the young man favorite by Master Decastro..

“He's really a jerk! I say he did it intentionally. And then, the orphanage is only his pretext. He wanted to defraude grandfather for his own interests. But I doubt that such a jerk can have this idea. Maybe he is at the instigation of Melissa.”

The spoiled granddaughter Sonia echos her brother. She still doesn't get along well with Melissa and doesn't miss any opportunity to dirty her sister's reputation.

Melissa is involved by others in an unfounded accusation. Jack quickly explains:

“No, no, I borrow money from grandpa because I don't have enough. I'll pay it back in a few days.”

“Stop talking nonsense here. You're good at turning and you don't even have a job. If he lends you money, how do you repay it?” Asked Jeremy with contempt.

“Yes, yes. It's this shitty orphanage where you come from. Are you coming here to borrow money to make grandfather feed the good for nothing like you? It seems better for your orphanage to close its door.” Laughs Sonia.

Jack listens to these accusations and clenches his teeth.

At the time he was homeless, it was the orphanage that welcomed him and fed him. Maintaining the orphanage is difficult at the moment and he wants to lend a hand. The situation is so urgent that he does not have enough money to do anything. So he was thinking of borrowing it from Master Decastro.

He does not expect such a situation, because he thought everyone was nice and wanted to help the children of the orphanage. Thinking about the difficulty of the orphanage, he controls his anger.

Master Decastro is all pale. He looks at Jack and:

“How dare you do that? Are you here to celebrate my birthday or to make a mess? Go away, you! I can't tolerate you anymore. Jack Thompson, you will no longer be allowed to assist at the banquets of the Thompson.”

“Grand-dad, the orphanage is really in trouble today. The children there need your help.”

Jack does not want to give up and sincerely declaims. Seeing Jack’s serious face, Melissa sighs:

“Grandfather, what Jack did is to save the orphanage. That's where he grew up. He has a deep affection for this orphanage. Please give him a hand.”

Patrick Decastro, that is to say Master Decastro, makes a contemptuous head:

“Are you confused by this idiot? Go away, both of you! Don't ridicule yourself in front of me.”

Melissa's mother, Cindy, speaks quickly:

“What are you doing here? Hurry up to leave with this idiot! If you make Master Decastro angry again, our family will be ruined.”

Powerless, Melissa bows to Patrick:

“Grandfather, I'm sorry.” Then she drags Jack outside the villa.

“You should keep an eye on this idiot to prevent him from fooling others and dirtying the reputation of the Decastro!” Jeremy's sneers come behind them.

Outside the villa, Melissa lets go of Jack like a waste.

“Melissa, sorry. The orphanage is really in difficulty right now. I have no choice, so I want to borrow money from grandpa,” says Jack.

Melissa responds with great disappointment:

“What is the purpose of these excuses? You have already offended grandfather. He wants to buy an office building from the Corecloud Land company. It's very difficult to do. The latter despises our family and does not want to sell us this building. Now I can only buy it to make up for your wrongs.”

“I'm going to my company. Get home on your own.”

Then she goes directly forward.

“Melissa!” Shouts Jack.

She stops, but does not turn the body. She says in a strangled voice:

“Jack,you disappointed me too much.” Then she leaves without turning around.

Looking at Melissa's lonely back, Jack takes a deep, ashamed breath. After Melissa's departure, he heads to the orphanage.

Jack looks at the rusty door of the orphanage, very moved. He enters and sees a lot of children crouching on the floor without knowing what they are doing. He approaches and asks them:

“What are you doing here?”

A group of children raise their heads and recognise him. Then they show innocent smiles.

In recent years, Jack very often came to the orphanage to help when he was available. So, all children know him.

“Brother, we're pulling wild vegetables. Nadia told us that we didn't have enough food. With these wild vegetables, we can keep food for little brothers and sisters,” says a slightly older child.

Jack looks at the wild vegetables found by the children. These are only weeds. How can small children distinguish wild vegetables?

The more he thinks about this, the sadder he feels. After saying something to these children, he goes to the door of Nadia's room.

He hesitates, because he could not find money for the orphanage. He doesn't know what to do in front of her. He was welcomed by the orphanage and it was Nadia who was still taking care of him. In her eyes, she is her savior.

The door opens by itself, Nadia leaves her room and sees Jack. Very benevolent, she smiles immediately:

“Jack, you didn't say anything before you came. Enter and sit down.”

“Nadia, I'm not sitting down. I know that the orphanage is in difficulty to borrow money. Don't worry! I will certainly succeed,”says Yann.

“Don't worry about money. Today, a very nice person gave us two million yuan and gave us a lot of food. Our difficult time has passed.” Nadia looks relieved.

Jack is a little surprised and asks her:

“A nice person? Who is that?”

“It's me,” Answers an old voice.

Jack turns and finds an old man without knowing when he was already behind him:

“Why you? It remains dark, didn’t I ask you not to come and see me anymore?”

“This old man is Kevin, the Thompsons’ intendant.”He sighs:

“Young Master, I have not finished my word this morning. I know it's hard to accept for a while. But we can expect you to change your mind.”

On this, Kevin takes out a black bank card and passes it to Jack.

“It's the Bank's unlimited black global card. There are only ten in the world. It can be considered as the compensation that the Thompsons offer for your last years. Moreover, your mother managed to buy the Corecloud Land company at River City. If you sign this contract, their future Villa Celeste will be yours.”

“I don't want it. Come back and tell this woman that I am not interested in everything about the Thompsons. Don't bother me anymore.”

“But young Master, the orphanage will not be able to perpetuate without this amount of money. The children will be homeless if it closes its door.”

Jack frowns. Although he does not bother to spend money from his family, the children of the orphanage really need the money to live.

Jack thinks about what Kevin proposed and says in a deep voice:

“How much money is in this card?”

“To answer you, this amount will suffer from buying the entire property of the River City.”

“Don't say nonsense! How much is it?”

“Ten billion…”