The Underdog Billionaire

Chapter 4: Here Comes Trouble

Ever since the will reading, Jake felt as if he was walking on land mines in the mansion. Linda had stopped speaking to him and Morgan hated him.

“I can’t believe I brought you here to steal my inheritance from me!”

“Listen, I had nothing to do with that. I’m just as shocked as you are.”

“What did you discuss with my father the following morning after I brought you here?”

“He was just telling me about his businesses.”

“Liar! You somehow managed to convince my father to give you my inheritance!”

“That’s not true, Morgan, and you know it. How would a complete stranger convince an intelligent old man to give up his fortunes like this?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me how you did it?”

He sighed. The arguments were always the same every day and he just couldn’t win. He too was still struggling to wrap his head around it all.

In two weeks, he had gone from a poor guy to becoming a billionaire. It was unbelievable and he hadn’t yet come to terms with it.

The following day, he was summoned to the head office to resume his role as President/CEO. His first meeting was with the lawyers and they all looked worried.

“There’s something your father-in-law didn’t tell you before he died,” said one of them. His name was Eric.

“What’s that?” Jake asked with a pounding heart.

“Well, you see, Mr Sherwood got involved in some sort of shady business with some really scary people. He thought it was a clever way to triple his worth.”

“We warned him against it, but he wouldn’t listen,” said Mike, another lawyer.

“Let’s just call it what it was, greed. He wanted to be the richest guy alive,” said Ryan, a third lawyer.

“Ok, guys. Hit me with it,” said Jake. “What did he do?”

“He got involved in shipping some illegal stuff across the U.S. borders and he was heavily involved in money laundering too,” said Mike.

“Shit,” Jake muttered.

“That’s right, son. Sherwood Holdings is in deep shit,” said Mr Bates.

“First of all, I’m not your son, I’m your boss,” said Jake sternly. “Secondly, what’s this drama about? What has this got to do with me?”

Mr Bates cleared his throat and apologized to Jake.

“Richard tried to cut off his partners but they found out and things went south,” Ryan explained. “Now, they’re claiming that your father-in-law owes them some back payments for all the time that he was doing the business behind them.”

“How much?” Jake asked.

“1.5 billion dollars.”

Jake nearly fell out of his chair. “What!”

“They said it’s back payment plus interest,” said Eric. “That’s basically half of Richard’s empire.”

“Who are these people? Who’s their boss?” Jake wanted to know. He was furious.

 “We don’t know,” said Bates. “Only Richard met with the boss but the guy had middlemen that ran errands for him.”

“How do I meet the boss?”

“We’ll reach out to the middlemen and ask them to set up a meeting with him,” said Ryan.

“Good. Get it done immediately,” said Jake. “Postpone the rest of my meetings. I’m going home.”

When he informed Morgan and Linda about the new development, they were hysterical. It wasn’t bad enough that Jake had taken over their empire, he was about to lose half of it too!

“You have brought nothing but bad luck to this family!” Linda shouted at him. “First, you stole my child’s inheritance and now you’re about to sink her father’s empire!”

“Are you kidding? What do I have to do with this?”

“Those criminals are coming after everything we own because they know you can’t run the company,” she added. “We’re doomed!”

“No, we’re not. I’ll handle it.”

“How? What do you know? You’re just a street urchin!”

“That’s enough insult from you, Linda. Don’t make me lose my temper,” he warned her.

“Don’t you dare threaten my mother!” Morgan snapped. “You wanted to be the boss, didn’t you? Now, get to work and fix this problem.”

Jake was pissed. He couldn’t understand why his wife and mother-in-law were blaming him for this issue. He was also angry at Richard for not telling him the truth before he died.

The meeting was set for the following night and he was instructed to come alone. He couldn’t even inform the police because the whole deal was illegal, to begin with.

 “Ready, boss?” Asked Rex. He was Richard’s righthand man and now Jake had inherited him too. He was his PA/bodyguard.

“Yes,” Jake answered but he didn’t feel ready. He was terrified but he would rather eat dust than let Linda and Morgan see him shaking in his boots.

“Wish me luck,” he said to them.

“Don’t come back here unless you fix this mess,” said Linda.

“Make this problem go away and you’ll have my respect forever,” said Morgan.

He nodded curtly and entered the back seat of the black jeep he was going with. A lot rested on his shoulders now.

Richard probably trusted him to take care of this problem and that was why he chose him to be his heir. He wasn’t going to let the old man down. He would do everything it took to sort out this nonsense.

The venue was in the basement of an abandoned meat storage unit. Rex wasn’t allowed to go inside with Jake, so he went in alone.

“You got any weapons on you?” One of the huge guys in a black suit at the entrance asked him.

“No.”

“I’m gonna search you anyway.”

“So, why did you ask?”

“Just following protocol.”

He let the guy search him thoroughly and when he was done, he nodded at Jake.

“Go ahead. The boss is waiting for you.”

Jake walked through a door that was shielded by curtains made from plastic. The interior looked like a scene from a mafia movie.

The place was dark except for a fluorescent bulb hanging from the ceiling. It shone over a metal table in the middle of the room. Whoever was sitting on the other side of it was hidden in the shadows.

“Well, here I am,” said Jake, addressing the man he couldn’t see.

The man leaned towards the table and his face became visible. Jake was gobsmacked.

“Martin? You’re the boss?”

“That’s right Jake. What’s up?” said Martin, grinning like the devil.

“I don’t understand. How?”

Martin shrugged. “It’s not my job to explain anything to you. That son-of-a-bitch thought he could outsmart me. Well, guess what. I’m ready to take back what’s mine.”

“Look, I don’t know what the deal really was between you and Richard, but I’m 100% sure he didn’t owe you half of his empire.”

“I don’t give a shit about what you think, boy. It’s payback time. I’m going to take everything you now own and leave you as penniless as you were when I first met you.”