Revenge

Houston

Third person's POV

"I don't know how that restaurant called Charlie's Place beat us this year! You two have to stop your playboy ways and settle down and take this business seriously! We were always number one in the States. Yet, we are losing customers to that restaurant in every city they open! I can not even believe you do not know who the CEO of that restaurant is! What is wrong with you? Did we spoil you two too much? Paul, James, I need you to get on this and get our restaurants back to the top!"  Laurens Stevens was mad. He looks at the two CEO's for Harmonies restaurant group in anger. For years Laurens and Conrad Johnson built up their restaurants. At first, they were rivals, but to take the market of upper-class restaurants in the States, they have decided to merge the two businesses. For years they were the best and the finest restaurants in the whole of the United States. Paul frowns. He is no longer a playboy and does not even remember the last time he went out drinking, but he keeps quiet.

"They called us outdated! OUTDATED!" He goes on with his tirade. "Where did this Charlie's place come from out of the blue? In six years, they made more progress than you two did, and you had everything already handed to you. You just needed to keep it going as we did!" Paul and James look at each other, not knowing what to say, they were hard players, yes, but they work hard as well. "We need to revamp our restaurants to give it a younger, fresher look, father" Paul tries to talk with his father. "Revamp my ass!! We are traditional, and that is what makes us different! We are not some low-class family restaurant, we are classy, and that is how it will stay! You just need to find a way to make it work like Conrad, and I did all these years, but you prefer to go out every night and drink and party! Instead, you should be at some of our restaurants and see that everything is at its best!"  Paul sighs. He does not go out and drink anymore, yes he used to be a player and was partying hard when he was young, but he grew up overnight. That night six years ago, he grew up. 

"I am so disappointed in you two," Conrad Johnson says and shakes his head. Although he is much calmer than Laurens, he is also very unhappy. Conrad does not know what to say. For years they build up this business, and overnight a new place is taking their place at the top. Maybe they should listen to the two younger men and Pierre and revamp a bit, but he is also reluctant to do that. The business always did well with the traditional ways. Pierre has begged him for years to let him be more creative with the menus. Pierre is no longer cooking. He plans the menus and trains the new chefs, but he said he was getting tired of doing the same thing repeatedly. They need fresh, more exciting food.

As they sit in the office, there is a nerve knock on the door. "Enter," Conrad barks. He hates to be disturbed while he is busy. A nervous secretary walks in and hands him the newspaper. "What is this for?" he asks rudely, "Sir, look at the front page," The secretary says and walks out fast. He looks down at the front page, and the headline reads. "At last Charlie's Place is coming to Houston" There is a picture of the new building that went up near them, and the name big on top of it reads "Charlie's Place" in big golden letters. He read through the article fast. So the CEO of Charlie's Place will be the one to open this branch in person!  The other three look at him as his face pales and then goes red with anger. He throws the newspaper on the table, and the other three looks at it as well. "The audacity of that man to open so near to us! It is like he wants to rub it in our faces!" Conrad is mad.

Just as they thought things could not get any worst, Pierre walks in. He has been part of the company for such a long time that no one will shout at him if he walks into a meeting. Pierre is, after all, the one that is the most important in the company planning their menus and training their chefs. He looks like he just won the lottery and smiles from ear to ear. "What are you so happy about, Pierre?" Conrad asks him. Pierre places a letter on the table and says, "Because today is the day I can say what I wanted to say to all of you for years. I resign!" Conrad looks shocked like the rest of the men in the office.

"But why Pierre? We are family. Did we not treat you right?" Pierre looks at all of them with disgust and asks.

"Can any of you treat anyone right? For years I have begged you to let me be creative, but you would not let me. And let me ask you one thing, Mr. Johnson. Where is your daughter? For six years, she has been gone, but not one of you cared enough to just ask about her or look for her. Do you know if your daughter is still alive? You should have let her run the business instead of these two playboys! She is so much better than them, but you all treated her like she was an inconvenience and none of you cared about her. Where is your sister Mr. James? Where is your ex-wife, Mr. Paul? Do any of you know what has become of her? She was more a daughter to me than to you, Mr. Johnson. I am leaving, and I do not want any compensation for all my years of work, you can even keep this month’s salary. I am joining a new restaurant group that is allowing me to live my dream and be creative. I am joining Charlie's Place!  Au revoir!" Pierre does not give them a chance to speak again and walks out, slamming the door behind him, leaving them all in shock.

Paul is the first to speak after Pierre leaves. He is now furious and says, "How dare they steal Pierre from us!"

It was like none of them even heard what Pierre had to say about Isabella. James is the only one who listens to what Pierre says about Isabella. It is true he does not know where his sister is. James has not thought about her in years. He looks at his father and the other two men, realizing they do not even care what Pierre has said about Isabella. He gets up and wants to leave. "Where do you think you are going?'' His father asks him with a frown. "To call an old friend of mine a private investigator, to look for my sister. Since none of you cares about what Pierre just said!" He looks at all of them, including Paul.

Paul says, "Don't waste your time. I can find her for you in no time. Sit. I think we must all just stay calm and concentrate on what we can do now. I will get someone in Pierre's place, and we will do a little revamp on our restaurants, but keep them classy and traditional."

The two older men get up, and Conrad says, "Well, we will leave it to you, and we want you two to get us back up to number one, oh and do not forget to go to the opening of that Charlie's Place, we need to see who our enemy is." So they leave, and Paul and James are alone in the office. Paul walks over to his PC to log into his bank accounts. He also feels guilty about Isabella he always has.

"The night Isabella left, I gave her a bank card with enough money to last her a long time, and every month, I have transferred money into it. So all we need to do is see where she used it last." James walks over and stands next to Paul. He is relieved that his friend did that, so now they can find her.

"You know she is an excellent chef. If we can get her to come work for us, Pierre will return," James says, smiling.

"And here I thought you cared about your sister," Paul replied coldly. He looks at James, and he sees no love for a sister in James' eyes, Paul feels guilty about the way he treated her all those years ago, and that is why he keeps giving her money. Paul also knows in his drunk condition that night. He did not use protection. He was so young and arrogant that he even let the lawyer put in a clause to say he would not take any responsibility and would not even acknowledge any child born as his own or as an heir to the Stevens family. Paul looks at the statement in front of him, and he pales. She never uses the card. All the money is still on the card.

"What is wrong?" James asks, looking at his friend's face.

"She never used the card." Paul says, "Not even one time! All the money I have paid over into the card in all these years are still untouched".

James looks at him in shock. James and his family never knew about the fortune his grandmother left for his sister. She was a clever lady and knew that Isabella's parents and brother would never let her have any money from the Johnson family, so it was n matter between her,  her lawyer, and her granddaughter. Grandma Johnson did not use the family lawyer as it was her own money. Her father left her. She has saved over the years, especially for Isabella, because she knew she would have to look after her beloved granddaughter even after her death. It was a considerable amount since her father was a rich man, but she had no use for the money as her husband provided for her, and it was her personal money that had nothing to do with the Johnson family. She invested the money, and it gained a lot of interest as well over the years. She only told Isabella about it and made her promise she would never tell anyone about the money. Isabella also knew that her family would not look after her, so she was delighted that at least her grandmother cared enough to worry about what will happen to her, so she kept quiet about it all the years.

The two men in the office were speechless. What has happened to Isabella? Maybe she is a chef somewhere, they know she was an excellent chef, and perhaps she is working for Charlie's place, and that is why Pierre is leaving them.

"We need to go to the opening. If Isabella is a chef there, she will want to work in Houston. I am sure. Or maybe we can find out if she is working in any of their other branches." Paul says.

"The opening is tomorrow night, but it is by invite only. So how are we going to get an invite?" James ask.

"Wait, I bet the rich families in Houston got all invites." James picks up his phone and calls a number

"Hi Rose, I miss you."

Rose answers and says, "Really? You have not called or even talked to me in a while, James," 

James looks at Paul and winks, "I have been so busy. How about me, you, your sister, and Paul go on a double date tomorrow night?" Rose can not help feeling her heart beat faster she always loved James, and her sister is crazy about Paul, but then she remembers.

"We can not. We are going to the opening of the new restaurant Charlie's Place," James sighs, pretending to sound sad.

"That is a shame as we only have tomorrow night open, and it will be a long time before we can go out again."

Rose thinks a bit and says, "Well, why don't you and Paul come with us to the opening."

James smiles and says, "That would be great! At what time can we pick you up?" Rose is excited, and he hears her tell her sister in the background that they have dates for the opening.

"Oh, sorry, pick us up at six. We want to see the CEO cut the big red ribbon that is already around the building."

James shows Paul a thumbs up and says, "Okay, my lovely Rose, then I'll see you at six tomorrow night.”

James looks at Paul in triumph and says, "What will you do without me?"

Paul smile and says, "Good job. Although I do not like Rose and Jasmine much, at least we have an invite, and our fathers will not be shouting at us again." But Paul's eyes are cold. He was always known as a playboy, but lately, the women have started to irritate him. And he still can not forget that pair of blue eyes full of tears six years ago.