MasukA year later, the Cael & Cole Trading Group had grown into one of the largest trading companies in the State.My net worth had risen right along with it, and people now called me "Mr. Coleman."I had also brought my parents to the city, moved them into a large house, and hired a caretaker to look after them.But there was one habit I never gave up.Whenever I traveled for business, unless circumstances required otherwise, I still preferred to ride second class on the high-speed rail and eat at small, run-down roadside restaurants. Not to save money, but to remind myself never to forget where I came from.That day, I went to the prison.I wasn't there to see anyone in particular. I had come to cooperate with the police on a follow-up investigation.As I walked down the hallway, I unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure: Oscar Richmond.In just over a year, he seemed to have aged decades. His hair had gone completely white, his back was hunched, and he slowly swept the floor with
The Skinner was finished, completely and utterly.Once the bald man and his crew were locked up, they spilled every dirty secret they knew, confessing to every job the Skinner had ever ordered them to carry out in exchange for lighter sentences.With charges for intimidating business rivals, forced demolitions, and illegal loan-sharking stacked against him, the Skinner was guaranteed to spend the rest of his life behind bars.As for Lindsay, she was sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy.That rotten company was seized and auctioned off.I did not go to the auction. That place was too filthy to bother with.…Three months later, the Cael & Cole Trading Group officially opened its doors on the top floor of an office building in the heart of the capital's busiest business district."Cole" came from my own name. "Cael" came from Caelum's.Caelum had only put up the money and stayed out of the day-to-day operations, but I insisted on putting his name in the company anyway.Without
I had thought the whole thing was over.The Skinner was behind bars, the company had been shut down, and I had Caelum's backing to start something of my own.Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction.Unfortunately, I had underestimated just how ugly people could get.Three days later, I was back at my parents' place, sitting down to a meal with them, when a sudden burst of noise erupted at the front gate.A moment later, the gate was kicked open with brutal force. Eight rough-looking thugs poured into the yard.A bald man with a hard, muscular face led them, a steel pipe clenched in one hand."Which one of you is Anson Coleman?" the bald man bellowed, and the shock sent my mother's bowl clattering to the ground.My father was a simple, honest farmer who had never seen anything like this in his life.He scrambled to his feet and stepped in front of my mother to shield her. "Who are you people? What do you want? This is trespassing! I'm calling the police!""Call
The wail of sirens grew louder and louder until they finally stopped on the street below.The Skinner and Lindsay had gone pale as ash. They cowered on the floor, trembling, every trace of their earlier arrogance gone.I looked at the two of them and felt nothing but a strange sense of sadness.Greed was what killed people. But when someone was this greedy, this stupid, and still tried to hurt others on the way down, they deserved every bit of what was coming to them.The police stormed into the office.The officer in the lead held a detention warrant in his hand. "Oscar Richmond. Lindsay Barinov. You are both suspected of major misappropriation of company funds, tax evasion, and extortion. Come with us."Handcuffs snapped shut around the Skinner's wrists with a cold click.He suddenly thrashed against them and shouted at me. "Anson! You ungrateful piece of trash! I was never anything but good to you! I gave you a job! I put food on your table! And this is how you repay me? You
The Skinner stared at the shredded paper scattered across the floor and let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered. "No! My money! My 200,000,000 dollars!"He threw himself onto the floor like a madman and tried to piece the scraps back together.It was obviously useless.I watched him make a spectacle of himself and felt nothing at all.Caelum burst out laughing and threw an arm around my shoulder. "That's the way! Now that's what I call guts! Who cares about tearing up a trash contract like that? I'll draw you up a bigger one later."Come on. Let your bro take you out for the most lavish spread in town. It'll settle your nerves."With that, he started to lead me away."Stop right there! Neither of you is leaving!"The Skinner suddenly sprang to his feet. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a mad dog backed into a corner. He rushed to the doorway and spread his arms wide to block our path."Anson Coleman! You destroyed my company, and you're not walking away from t
The moment the Skinner laid eyes on the recorder, his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. He had never expected me to keep a card like that in reserve."You... You set me up?" he roared, nearly out of his mind with fury, and reached to snatch it from me. "Grab it! Smash it!"The security guards lunged forward.Before they could reach me, the company's front doors suddenly burst inward with tremendous force. The two heavy glass doors crashed against the walls, and cracks spiderwebbed across the panes.Everyone in the room flinched and froze mid-motion.A dozen or so massive men in black suits stood in the doorway.Every one of them wore sunglasses, had a build like a wall, and radiated such menace that people instinctively kept their distance.Their sheer presence made the company's sorry excuses for security guards look laughable by comparison.The two rows of men quickly parted to open a path down the middle.A middle-aged man strode in, dressed in a loud floral shirt with a







