Billionaire: Bridegroom From The Streets

Big Boss

Chapter 4

Kelvin's face fell into a deep frown as Janet explained what had happened. Was Charles really going this far, getting Janet fired, just for revenge?

"I'm the one who hit him though, why is he going after you?" Kelvin protested. "Let me deal with that jerk instead."

"No way," Janet stated firmly, shaking her head. "Don't even think about confronting him again. Charles is vicious - he won't stop until he gets payback on you too."

She paced around nervously. "We should also keep this whole situation hidden from my parents for now. If they find out what happened, they'll definitely kick you out."

As long as Kelvin stayed in the house, he would be shielded from Charles' retaliation to some degree. But if he was forced to leave, Janet knew her crooked cousin wouldn't hesitate to strike back viciously.

"Don't worry too much though," she tried to reassure him with a forced smile. "It's just one job. Not working at Alexander Group doesn't mean I can't find employment somewhere else eventually."

Kelvin didn't know what to say to comfort the young woman. He simply nodded, keeping his expression neutral. But inwardly, he seethed with anger and formulated a plan. Those bullies wouldn't get away with continuously tormenting his wife without facing consequences.

Retrieving his cheap prepaid phone from his pocket, Kelvin quickly typed out a text message and hit send...

Meanwhile, Charles was absolutely giddy with glee over his perceived victory. With Janet fired and disgraced, all he had to do was successfully finalize the big company project she had been leading. Once he did that, his status and power within the Alexander family would skyrocket.

Grandfather might even name him as the heir apparent to take over the whole business empire someday! Charles could hardly contain his excitement as he strode confidently into the Dynamic Group office building, battered hand bandaged up, carrying the contract documents.

"Hello! I need to see your CEO right away," Charles stated arrogantly to the receptionist, his chest puffed out with self-important pride. "I'm here from Alexander Group to sign the big deal we've been working on."

The receptionist looked at him puzzled. "Do you have an appointment scheduled with Mr. Davidson, sir?"

"Appointment?" Charles scoffed, rolling his eyes dramatically. "What are you talking about? I'm Charles Alexander, the general manager of Alexander Group itself. We've already discussed this deal - today I'm here to finalize everything with your CEO."

"I'm very sorry sir, but Mr. Davidson isn't able to see anyone without a confirmed appointment," the receptionist responded politely yet firmly. "Those are his standard policies that I have to uphold."

Charles could feel his face flushing red with anger at the woman's insolence. "Did you not hear what I said? I'm Charles freaking Alexander! We're your biggest potential client! This multi-million dollar deal hinges on me getting in to see your CEO immediately!"

The receptionist remained calm and unruffled. "I understand your situation sir, but I only have explicit instructions regarding one person from Alexander Group - Miss Janet. Mr. Davidson has cleared her for unlimited access to come see him as needed. But for anyone else, normal appointment procedures have to be followed, I'm afraid."

At the mention of Janet's name, Charles felt his blood pressure spike dangerously. So she had already been working directly with this company's CEO, deliberately undermining him? Unacceptable.

"Well I simply don't have time to make an appointment right now," Charles said through gritted teeth, puffing his chest out. "This deal is much too important to risk delaying any longer with pointless bureaucracy. If you won't let me see your CEO, then I'll just go find him myself!"

He started to brush past the reception desk, but a stern voice suddenly rang out. "I wouldn't take another step if I were you, son."

Charles turned to see a sharply-dressed, intimidating older man staring him down with piercing eyes. This must be the CEO himself.

Putting on his most charming face, Charles grinned disingenuously. "Ah, Mr. Davidson! There you are, excellent timing. I was just joking around with your receptionist here..."

The serious look on the CEO's face didn't waver in the slightest. "Save it, whatever little game you're playing. This deal may seem small potatoes to a big shot corporation like yours, but it's critical for my company. Which is why I won't be brokering it with just any arrogant young punk who saunters through my doors."

Charles opened his mouth to protest, but the CEO cut him off abruptly. "I'm only willing to negotiate this contract directly with Miss Janet from your group. She's the one who approached me initially, and she's the only one I'll be working with to finalize everything. I don't deal with random middlemen or demanding little brats like you."

"B-but I'm Charles Alexander himself!" he sputtered indignantly. "General manager and heir apparent to the whole Alexander empire! Who are you to dismiss me like some...some bellboy?!"

"I don't care if you're the Prince of Wales, kid," Davidson stated flatly. "Behave like a raging entitled prick in my company, and you'll get treated as such. Now either get Miss Janet down here promptly to discuss business, or get the hell out of my building immediately."

As if on cue, a group of large security guards started filtering into the lobby area, standing at the ready. It was a not-so-subtle message for Charles to back down before things escalated further.

"You're going to regret this!" Charles fumed at the CEO, knowing he was completely overpowered in this situation. "Janet's been fired - she can't just waltz back in here whenever she pleases anymore!"

Mr. Davidson simply shrugged. "Then I guess we have no deal to finalize at all, do we? Your company's loss entirely." He turned and strode off down the hallway without a second glance, the security guards clearing a path.

Charles watched him go, utterly humiliated and seething with rage. He'd been disrespected and disgraced like a punching bag, all because of that insufferable Janet. If this deal fell through now, Grandfather would have his head on a pike.

He had no choice - Charles stormed out of the Dynamic Group building and headed straight for his father Michael's office to explain the dire situation. This quickly spiraling into a full-blown crisis that jeopardized the entire family business.

As he fumed over the debacle, Charles' mind raced with growing suspicion and jealousy over Janet's cozy relationship with CEO Davidson. Just what exactly did she have going on with that arrogant old prick to make him dismiss the Alexander heir so flippantly? Charles vowed to get to the bottom of it, one way or another.

Up in his corner office, Daniel Davidson had just finished up a tense phone call. "There, big brother Lucas, I did what you asked and gave that arrogant fool the runaround, just like you instructed."

He spoke in a respectful, obedient tone, very different from his brash demeanor with Charles just minutes earlier. "I'm not sure why this situation with that boy was so important for me to insert myself into on your behalf, but you know I'd never disobey or question your orders."

The authoritative voice on the other end of the line rumbled with displeasure. "He is our boss, Daniel. Not just my boss, but yours as well. You would be wise to treat his requests with the same urgency as my own from now on, understand?"

Davidson felt a cold shiver run down his spine at the ominous words. There was someone even higher up the chain than his old friend and mentor Lucas? Someone powerful enough to be considered both of their bosses? That was a sobering realization.

"O-of course, absolutely," Davidson stammered, his bravado from earlier completely gone. "Everything I have, my whole career and lifestyle, I owe to you vouching for me all those years ago, big brother Lucas. I will never forget that."

Lucas' gruff voice remained steely. "Yes, you'd do well to keep remembering that my connections are the only reason you aren't still a homeless wretch begging on the street corners. But our boss' reach extends even farther and higher than you can possibly fathom. With a simple word, you could be granted even loftier heights of success and wealth...or be utterly and completely destroyed, along with everything you've built."

Davidson felt a lump form in his throat as his mentor's dark words sank in with their full weight and implications. Just who was this mysterious "boss" that even Lucas seemed to fear?

Davidson swallowed hard, trying to compose himself. "I...I understand the scope of your boss's power and influence now. Whoever he is, I owe him the utmost respect and obedience as well."

There was a calculated pause on the other end of the line before Lucas spoke again, his tone slightly softer but no less serious. "Good, I'm glad we're on the same page then. This entire situation with Janet and that arrogant Alexander brat was simply a test, one that you've passed admirably so far."

Despite the faint praise, Davidson couldn't quite stifle the uneasy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. A test? Ordered by Lucas' own higher-up boss, this enigmatic figure whose reach seemed to span the entire corporate world and beyond? Just how high did this tangled web of conspiracy and power stretch?

Before Davidson could voice any of his swirling questions and doubts, Lucas continued. "Janet is clearly being positioned and groomed as a potential asset by our boss, for reasons not even I'm fully privy to yet. Hence, the need to undermine and humiliate her detractors within the Alexander family ranks. You played your part flawlessly in that today."

It was starting to become clearer now. Janet, the bright, hardworking young woman he'd been prepared to sign that lucrative contract with, somehow had connections to the upper echelons of this shadow organization Lucas called "the boss." No wonder she had such ambitious aspirations and abilities far beyond her years - she was being covertly cultivated from on high.

And that brash, entitled prick Charles who had blustered into Davidson's office? Apparently he represented the old, outmoded regimes of corporate nepotism that this "boss" entity wished to dismantle or devour from the inside out. No wonder Lucas had insisted on giving him such a harsh, disrespectful dressing-down.

"I...I see," Davidson replied at last, still trying to wrap his mind around the murkiness of the bigger picture being revealed to him. "So Janet was meant to be elevated, while Charles and his arrogant ilk are intended to be knocked down a few pegs, at least for now. By following your boss's orders, I played an unwitting role in ensuring their plan progresses as intended."

Lucas gave a rare, mirthless chuckle. "Yes, you're a fast learner, Daniel. I'll admit, when my boss first instructed me to bring you under our wing all those years ago, I had my doubts about your potential. But you've continuously exceeded expectations, even before realizing the full extent of who you're truly serving."

The lingering implication in Lucas' words gave Davidson pause. If even his old friend and mentor from years back represented just one mid-level layer of this deep, overarching conspiracy, than just how far did the rabbit hole go? How many other operatives and unknowing pawns were being similarly manipulated across various corporations, governments, and spheres of influence?

At that moment, Davidson felt exceptionally small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Like a raft adrift in a vast, choppy ocean, just going whichever way the current pullsand eddies dictated, with no sense of the larger tides and unseen forces truly controlling it all. It was at once intoxicating and utterly terrifying to be given a mere glimpse behind the veil of this shrouded underworld lurking in the shadows.

Unconsciously, Davidson loosened his collar and neck tie, feeling like he could barely breathe under the weight of this revelatory information. He took a long sip from his scotch tumbler, the liquid's throat-burning slow and soothing his rattled nerves.

"So...what now?" he finally asked, his voice barely above a hoarse whisper. "What are my next instructions for continuing to serve our boss's agenda properly?"

There was a momentary pause, as if Lucas could sense Davidson's sudden skittishness and reluctance over the phone line. When the response came, it was pitched in that same calculating, measured tone that brokered no argument or rebellion.

"For now, maintain your current strategic position and prepared to assist however needed as future situations develop with Janet and the Alexanders," Lucas stated evenly. "Continue making the appropriate power moves to inhibit any obstruction or retaliation from petulant fools like Charles. Our boss has grand longterm plans for enabling rising assets like Janet while neutralizing those entrenched relics desperately clinging to unearned status and influence."

The implication was clear - Charles' humiliation today was just the opening salvo in a much broader, higher stakes battlefield taking shape. One where Alexander's family members and closest business associates could end up as acceptable collateral damage if they couldn't be brought to heel completely.

For better or worse, Daniel Davidson had been conscripted into playing his role as cannon fodder in that larger war. All he could do was nod silently in understanding and watch as the dominoes continued toppling all around him, knowing he was in way too deep to safely extricate himself now.