Greg lay panting on the dirty floor of the warehouse. He had gone out to buy some supplies and for some reason, he thought that the search for him would have slacked off. As a result, he was chased around for half a day and he couldn"t even run back to his hideout because he was afraid that he would not have a place to turn to if it was exposed.
He knew he could not continue living like that and that he had to ask for help. He took out the burner phone he had for emergencies and dialled a number he had not called for years.
The phone rang for some time before the person on the other end picked it up.
"h.e.l.lo?" a rough voice was heard on the other end.
"Dad" Greg said emotionally.
"Greg?" his dad asked as if he was making sure he did not hear wrong.
"It"s me dad" Greg said his voice still carrying a lot of emotion.
"What do you want?" His dad asked after he recovered his senses. The boy had run away from home years ago because of his obsession for some girl.
The only thing that had rea.s.sured him over the years was the fact that he was still using his credit card. It was an insurance that he was at least alive, but saying he was disappointed in that son of his would be a big understatement.
It went beyond disappointment, to be more accurate, he was heart broken by his son. He had painstakingly raised him by himself and the boy ran away from home to follow some girl. He was not a perfect father but he had tried his best to raise him without his wife.
"Dad, I should have listened to you. I should not have ran away from home" Greg said with a broken voice after he realised how much he actually missed his father.
His sudden admittance of his mistakes surprised his father so much that he did not know how to respond to him.
"What"s going on?" His father asked feeling concerned.
"I"ve been following her for years but I ended up exposing myself and i"m scared of what her boyfriend might end up doing to me" Greg explained.
"You followed her even when she already has a boyfriend? Where is your dignity?" his father scolded feeling outraged.
"Dad, that"s not the point, her boyfriend is Lucas Lewis, and I ended up offending him. Dad please help me" Greg said feeling he was going to cry soon.
When his father heard Lucas Lewis he thought his soul had probably flown out of his body. How can he handle this situation? Their family was well off but not to the extent that they would be welcome to sit on the same table with the Lewis party in events.
He was even doing business with them and the last thing he expected was his son doing something to jeopardise the relations.h.i.+p that he had already painstakingly built with the Lewis family.
"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND! YOU CALL ME AFTER YEARS TO TELL ME THAT YOU HAVE OFFENDED PEOPLE WHO CAN RUIN US?!" his father shouted in anger. He had thought that his son was useless but never to this extent.
"Dad, I"m sorry, but please, can you help me with this? I promise i"ll come back home. I"ll even work at the company. I"ll start at the bottom if you want, but please help me, I can"t leave where I am, much less come back home at the moment" Greg begged shamelessly.
The other side was quiet for awhile and the only thing he heard after a while was his father"s sigh. For the first time he realised how much of a useless child he had been. He could not find anything to say at that moment because for the first time since his self induced confinement he felt guilty for his father. He realised how pathetic he had been and how uselessly he was living his life.
"I"m sorry dad" Greg said with an emotion filled voice.
Lucas looked at the two men standing in front of his desk carefully before looking at Dave with a gaze filled with schadenfreude.
"Dave, he is going to be a.s.sisting you" Lucas said as he pointedly looked at Michael who naively smiled at Dave. Dave could already feel an impending headache as he looked at Michael"s hopeful gaze.
When Lucas was laying in bed the previous night with Jen, she told him that Michael was very ambitious and he wanted to be the vice president in the future which surprised Lucas immensely.
He had thought that he accepted his offer for the experience he was bound to get from working with Dave but it seemed he had set his eyes on working in Lewis & Co. He was not against it as he would rather cultivate the boy from early on than have his second in command be a complete stranger.
As long as he was hard working and ambitious enough, his goal would not be too unrealistic. Of course he would not rise to a powerful position as fast as he would, but if he met his expectations then he would not mind making his road a bit smoother.
Dave had been with him from day one and even though he did not plan to make him vice president, he would hold an influence that would be equivalent to his in the future. He would obviously be above the vice president to a certain extent.
"Please take care of me Mr. David" Michael said with a smile that made his slanted eyes look even more charming. Dave looked at him and nodded with a face that was completely void of any expression.
"I"m leaving him in your hands, I hope he will grow under your care as I have plans for him" Lucas said with a smile.
Dave almost rolled his eyes when he heard his statement but held himself back. After a short discussion on their arrangements the two men walked out of Lucas" office and into their office. An additional desk was added to Dave"s office for Michael to use.
"Sit" Dave said and watched as the boy walked to the other side of the desk before sitting down. Dave looked at him with scrutiny for a while.
"Are you planning on doing this temporarily?" Dave asked trying to a.s.sess the amount of work he should dedicate on teaching Michael.
"No, I would like to build a career here" Michael said honestly making Dave smile in satisfaction. That would mean that he had gotten himself a long term a.s.sistant which for him was definitely good news.