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"And what do you plan to do?"
"Besides offering five times the market value, I'll secure a professional guardian for the little girl."
"Do you think he's worried about dying and leaving her helpless?"
"Yes. By offering to buy the shares for much more than they're worth and also solving the guardianship issue, she'll be protected."
"How old is the child?" he asks.
"She's not a child; she's a teenager. Seventeen, but according to what I found out, she can only access the inheritance at twenty-one, and only if she's married. Otherwise, she needs to wait until she's twenty-five."
"Her father was an idiot," he growls.
"I can't disagree, but maybe his intentions were good. The problem is he made his daughter incapable of managing her own life as an adult. If she were my girl, I'd also find it reasonable to impose the age of twenty-one for her to inherit the entire fortune, but not requiring her to get married."
"Sort this out, Ares. I can't wait to close the matter." He sounds anxious.
I know Gordon has been pushing him more and more every day. In any other situation, my brother would tell the son-of-a-bitch patriarch to fuck off, but without the one percent of shares we lack, that would mean the end of any chance to enact our revenge.
Days later
"I think the best thing to do is to meet the guardian in person," I say, already fed up with this shit.
We are in Zeus's office, at the headquarters of our bank. Although we are all not only shareholders but also on the Board of Directors, it is my brother who occupies the position of CEO, since Dionysus, Hades, and I have separate businesses.
"Fucking stubborn man!" he growls. "What more could he want?"
"A guarantee. He would not accept me hiring a professional guardian. But talking on the phone isn't working. I suggest we go there together."
"New Orleans?"
"Yes. When would be a good date?"
"ASAP. The issue should have already been resolved."
"Then I'll go ahead and organize the trip to Louisiana."
"Do it. Even if I need to pay ten times the value of the shares, I will only return when we acquire what is needed to become majority shareholders ofGordonBank."
"Do you think you will be able to resolve everything?" Hades asks, sitting next to me in a piano bar.
In the past, when we went out together, it was to parties on our yachts or those of friends, like Vicenzzo, but my brother is less and less interested in anything other than his obsession.
"I think so. It’s not the solution I want, but from what I can tell, it’s the only possible one," I say.
"And what would that be?"
"I will take on the role of the girl's guardian."
"Shit!" He groans, and even though he doesn't speak, it's clear what he thinks of the idea: it’ll be a fucking nightmare.
Who in their right mind would want to take care of a teenager? Not me, that’s for sure.
"It won't be personal. I'll keep my distance and just make sure Serenity has everything she needs until she's old enough to take possession of her assets."
"After she gets married? The idea is ridiculous! Forcing her to make a commitment at twenty-one years old just to have money to support herself seems like the kind of stipulation that would have been made in the Middle Ages."
"No. In the Middle Ages, she would probably have had to get married at twelve or thirteen years old," I say sardonically. Even though his intentions were good, I can't help but despise her father a little for putting a clause like that in his will.