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PROLOGUE
THE DRUMMING IN my ears was loud. So loud I had the fleeting thought that I was on the verge of suffering a stroke. Of doing myself irreparable harm and comprehensively ending this debacle once and for all.
But that would be too easy.
And the headline...
I could see it now.
Axios Xenakis Suffers Stroke Due to
Family Pressures!
They would have no clue as to the unreasonable part, of course. Despite the media outlets lauding the story of the Xenakis near-ruin to phenomenal rise on a regular basis these days, they would be swift to jump on past flaws. Old skeletons would be dragged out of closets. I would be deemed weak. Broken. Not quite up to the task of managing a global conglomerate.
Just like my father.
Just as my grandfather had been falsely labelled after that one risky move that had seen all his hard work whittled away to almost nothing.
He’d had to bear that one misfortune all the way to his grave.
Once a titan of his industry, a simple decision to align himself with the wrong partner had decimated him, leaving the Xenakis name with a stench of failure that had lingered long after his death, causing insidious damage.
Damage that had taken back-breaking hard work to reverse, with my refusal to allow my family name to sink without a trace spurring me to seek daring solutions.
The Xenakis name was no longer one to be ashamed of. Now it was synonymous with success and innovation—a global conglomerate that Fortune 500 companies vied to be associated with.
However, the solution being proposed to me now was one set to resurrect the unsavoury ghosts of the past, with their talons of barefaced greed—
‘Ax, are you listening? Did you hear what Father said?’ asked Neo, my brother.
‘Of course I heard it. I’m not deaf,’ I replied, with more than a snap to my voice.
‘Thank God for that—although you do a great stone statue impression.’
I ignored Neo and fixed my gaze on the man seated behind the large antique desk. My father was studying me with a mixture of regret and apprehension. He knew my precise thoughts on the subject being discussed.
No, not discussed.
It was being thrust upon me.
‘No,’ I replied firmly. ‘There has to be another way.’
The tension in the room elevated, but this was too serious for me to mince my words. Too serious to let the elephant that always loomed in the room on occasions like this cloud my judgement.
I simply couldn’t allow the fact that my grandfather had chosen me as his successor instead of my father to get in the way of this discussion. Nor could I allow the resentment and guilt that had always tainted my relationship with my father to alter my view on what was being proposed.
What was done was done. I’d turned the tides and restored the fortunes of my family. For that even my father couldn’t object.
Which was why I was a little surprised when he emphatically shook his head.
‘There isn’t. Your grandfather was of sound mind when he made the arrangement.’
‘Even though he was judged otherwise in other areas?’
Barely fettered bitterness filtered through my voice. The injustices dealt to my grandfather and mentor, the man who taught me everything I know, still burned like acid all these years after his untimely death.
‘Now is not the time to reopen old wounds, Axios,’ my father said, jaw clenched.
My quiet fury burned even as I accepted his words. ‘I agree. Now is the time to discuss ways to get me out of this nonsense.’
And it was nonsense to expect an arrangement like this to hold water.
