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As it turns out, I inherited everything––the houses, the cars, the business, the assets … and the debt. I don’t think Gabriel realized the dire situation the business was in. The Louws lived well above their means, and bribe money made a big dent in their coffers. Magda did a good job of hiding it. Because of the ongoing investigation into the sabotage, Gabriel’s assets and estate are frozen. My only income is the salary Kris pays me. Thank God for paid maternity leave.
The house will have to go. There’s no way I can sustain it on my salary. The mortgage Magda took out on her house in Parktown to keep a drowning business afloat requires that the house be sold. One week later, both houses go on the market. I call Sylvia to ask if she wants anything––maybe there’s something of sentimental value to her––but she slams the phone down in my ear.
The big, old place in Parktown has to be packed up. It takes Kris, Charlie, Quincy, Rhett, and me a full week of strenuous labor to wrap precious crockery and glassware in paper and ship sealed boxes to antique stores. I use the money I get for the furniture and houseware to pay off the most pressing debts. That same week, to my great joy, Connor comes home.
Our house is next. As soon as I secure a buyer, I rent a modest house in Northriding, a cheaper area, but still in the safer, northern suburbs. Then comes the hard part of paying off the staff. Marie left when Magda passed away, and Gabriel got rid of the guards who remained on Magda’s property. I terminate the contracts with ours and pay them a bonus to soften the blow. When I propose the settlement to Rhett and Quincy, they stubbornly refuse.
“I can’t pay you what Gabriel paid you,” I say. “In fact, I can’t pay you at all.”
Quincy crosses his arms. “I’ll settle for profit share.”
“In what? The loan shark business is in so much trouble it’ll take years to recover.”
“Then I’ll settle for years.” He winks. “What can I say? I have faith in your business ability.”
“I’m with him,” Rhett says.
“It’s a foolish decision, guys.”
Rhett raises a brow. “This is what Gabriel would’ve wanted.”
“What about what you want?”
“Profit sharing sounds good to me.”
With that, our discussion is settled. Rhett and Quincy stay on to protect me and Connor, sharing one of the two bedrooms in my tiny, rented house, while Charlie, Connor, and I share the other. It isn’t right, but no matter how much I argue and bargain, they won’t change their minds.
With the move behind us, I dive headfirst into the business. Not knowing enough about finance, it soon becomes clear that I’m going to need a financial adviser to help me navigate through the minefield of contracts and debts. Michael and Elizabeth are a great help, going through the legal jargon and explaining things to me in simple terms. Gabriel was busy after Magda’s death. He cleared the illegal portion of the business, cutting loose the government and police officials who received regular kickbacks from Magda. He settled territorial squabbles by putting contracts in place that operate on a commission basis. Conveniently, all evidence of corruption and crime was destroyed in the explosion that leveled the Brixton office, leaving me as safe as I can be in this city and business. If I had dirt on the big shot politicians and judges, I wouldn’t have lived long. Disturbingly, Christopher, the hypnosis psychologist, disappeared after Magda’s death. I can only hope he fled for his life and not that Gabriel revenged his underhanded dealings. In any event, all traces of Magda and her cronies are wiped out. What is left is the legal side, albeit a business I don’t care to exploit. It still involves using crippling interest rates to rob already poor people.
Acting against Michael’s advice, I lower the interest rates across the board and write off the debt of those debtors who already paid interest equal to their capital loans. There will be no more bone breaking and violence. I close all the offices except for the one in Auckland Park to save expenses and retrench the staff. Magda hired them, and I don’t trust them. Rhett and Quincy help out with the bookkeeping, even if it isn’t their forte. We can’t carry on like this indefinitely, and I can’t afford to simply shut everything down. I need money to pay Rhett and Quincy, and I need to survive. I need a future for my child and brother. I need lots of money if I’m to find Gabriel. What I need is a change of direction and a CFO. The problem is that I can’t afford to employ a decent CFO. I need a different strategy. I run my idea past Michael when he pops in to see how I’m coping, which has more or less become his Monday ritual.
