DESTINED TO BE A BILLIONAIRE

CHAPTER 3: TOO MUCH MONEY

Henry could choose not to work and spend his money on a lavish lifestyle. His inheritance could last for the rest of his life. In fact, there were certain heirs in the Parker family across several generations who chose not to work but lived a lavish lifestyle for the rest of their lives.

However, the elders noticed that the family tradition was fading because instead of working hard to expand the empire, some of the heirs chose to squander their wealth so a new order was instilled.

A competition was initiated among the heirs to determine who would be the head of the family in every generation of the Parker family for a fixed time and successors had the right to compete for a reelection.

The criterion that one must fulfill to become the head of the family is to use his inheritance to generate high value so the person who invests his wealth and generates more value is made supreme heir. Henry had considered this before leaving home.

Henry has two competitions in the family that is if he wanted to be head of the family. One of his competitors was the owner of the largest mercenary group in the Middle East and this group had smaller legions of men. The other one was a business mogul who was said to have secured most of the family’s multinational deals and it was claimed that he had the keys to the family business in the palm of his hands.

However, Henry had no intention of competing with them.

Henry’s parents died early and he didn’t have quite many allegiances in the family line so he was determined to be an ordinary person who would live a wealthy and peaceful life. If he was to compete for the position of the head of the family, Henry felt he had no chance especially because his competitors were powerful.

He sprang up, opened his bag, and pulled out the plastic bottles he had collected. He walked up to the trash can and dumped all of it there.

He left school.

The address he was given in the text message was a long mile away from school so Henry decided to storm the place immediately for his inheritance with the notion that his life was about to change forever.

Henry made his way to the nearest junction and stopped a cab. On regular days, he would have trekked to the location but now that he was about to become a billionaire so he didn’t mind paying for a cab fare.

The yellow cab he hailed pulled up right in front of him.

The driver, an elderly man with a bald head cocked his head. “Where are you off to young man?”

“City bank Walmart Avenue. I will be dropping off at number 9,” Henry replied.

“60 dollars.”

Henry sighed. That seemed like a lot of money to him but then, his life was about to change even though he wasn’t feeling like a billionaire. Maybe, not just yet.

He opened the car door and settled in front, right next to the driver.

As the driver swerved down the straight path ahead, Henry wondered whether he was going to be able to manage such a huge amount of money as an inheritance. As a broke man, he did fine managing the little he had but with wealth almost at his grasp, he wasn’t sure if he could keep up.

More than two hours later, the driver crashed into Henry’s thoughts. “We are here.”

Henry sorted the fare and stepped out. It was about noon. Although it was noon, there were a lot of people rushing to City Bank. He recalled how someone in his family had once stated that there was no rest in the service industry. The bank was a familiar one and there was a narrative about it.

The city bank was the particular bank where elites in the city kept their valuables so to ordinary people; the bank was a distant world.

As for the Parker family, the bank was a service industry that managed just a small amount of their money.

Henry made his way inside and headed straight to the reception. There were few people at the reception. Henry was approached by one of the receptionists at the counter.

“Hello, I’m Stacey.” She greeted him with a warm smile. She spoke in a high-pitched voice and her face was calm as the sea.

“Hello, I’m Henry.” He cleared his throat loudly.

Stacey urged him to go on with a nod.

“I’m here for an asset transfer,” Henry added.

Stacey looked at Henry with a quirked brow. “Asset transfer?”

She began to study him. He was wearing a faded black hoodie on ordinary pants and his hair looked rough. She could see from his skin tone that he was used to staying in the sun. She darted her gaze to the bruises at the back of his palms and instantly, her countenance changed.

“Sir, do you know that the minimum for asset transfer is 1 million dollars?” she asked Henry. As far as she was concerned, he didn’t look like someone that could boast of a penny.

Henry sighed.

Stacey felt that Henry was playing games with her and she wasn’t ready for such cheap jokes. If not that her job demanded her to be courteous with the high salary that came with it, she would have kicked him out.

“How much are your assets worth anyway?” she demanded. Her tone was sarcastic.

Henry hummed and thought for a while. Then, he looked up at Stacey. “I’m not sure about the details.”

Henry knew that he was entitled to 1% of the family’s wealth as his inheritance but he didn’t know how much it was worth because the family’s assets rose exponentially even if there was a loss, he was sure that it was not less than 100 million dollars.

Stacey looked at Henry suspiciously and threw her hands on the counter. Was he pretending to be cool? She wondered. She then put on a straight face. “This is the business service area for 5 million dollars and above.”

She was urging Henry to move away but he remained transfixed to his spot.

“Are your assets worth over 1o million dollars?”

Henry replied with a nod.

“What about 50 million dollars?”

Henry said nothing.

“The highest assets we’ve transferred in this bank are worth 50 million dollars. Are your so-called assets worth more than that? Let’s say a100 million dollars?” Stacey asked with a mocking laugh. 

“Yes ma’am. It is worth more than 100 million dollars.” Henry replied confidently.

Stacey was taken aback.