Paul, Markus, Liam & I

Liam left with the promise to have a talk with Paul, Markus, and the others the next day. Because we need to find out more about Maverick, who could be the main person trained to be the Mafia king by his grandfather.

We met in our headquarters located at my grandfather's home. A place where no one can see the building from the entrance. This place was forbidden to us when we were kids, which made us more mischievous to find out what was going on. The more we tried the more we were banned until my grandfather took a rough decision not to let us visit him at his home from that holiday onwards.

We all met at the correct time.

"Come in Liam," I said welcoming him into our mini boardroom, which was upgraded with all the new technology.

"Nice place," he said looking around.

"We upgraded this after grandfather passed away," said Alex showing him the high-tech security equipment we had.

"Well, here are the documents, I found in my grandfather's safe," said Liam handing out some documents.

After turning the pages a few times,

"Oh my!" said Alex, "How could he do such things just to get his business on the run,"

"What do you mean?" I asked, taking the papers from him.

These documents contained details about the false accusations he had made just to crumble down small to medium size businesses.

"Are you sure this is all of it?" I asked Liam.

"I am not sure. But I am really embarrassed to be the successor of his business after finding this out,"

"Well we cannot erase the past but we can try to fix them and move forward," said Alex.

"I second that," said Markus.

"What did you find out?" I asked Markus.

"Hmm, well... Liam, sir, I know you will be unhappy to hear this but this is some of the truth,"

"It's ok Markus, go ahead," said Liam.

"Senior Alexander created this mafia gang to do all this dirty work, underneath the watchful eye. Venom's father was his second-hand man. And he was trained to take orders and help retain the reputation by any means,"

"What a great plan. Ahh.. Ben, can we use Markus to do the same?" asked Alex trying to make the atmosphere light in the room. With me just pretending to hit him.

"So in your grandfather's eye, you are the business successor while Maverick is the mafia lead,"

said Alex.

"Seems like it," said Liam.

After a while, Paul looked at us,

"Guys, I just cross-checked a few of these details,"

"And?" asked Alex.

"All the owners had died suddenly, the companies have gone bankrupt,"

"You mean?"

"As an assumption, they might have been killed with an overdose,"

We looked in disbelief.

"Overdose?" Liam asked trying to grasp the shock he felt.

"Yes"

"I mean what on earth has my grandfather done?" Liam said with a distressed look on his face.

"Liam, don't put the blame on yourself. None of this was done or created by you. From what I see your grandfather used you and used your father to force things you never wanted to do," I said trying to understand what he must be going through.

"But just from the glimpse of it, I can see how many families were affected,"

"I just don't know how he slept peacefully at night," said Alex going through the financial documents in his hand.

"Does Maverick know about these?" asked Paul.

"From what I gathered he doesn't know. But I don't know if he's bluffing or not," said Liam.

"We will have to find out about his intentions," said Markus.

"But how?"

"I will try to get him to talk. Anyway I will be meeting him next Sunday," said Liam looking at the photos. He went on staring at one for a few minutes with tears pooling in.

"Liam," I tapped on his shoulder.

"This is my mother," he said. And I saw a fair woman, who must have been a beauty.

"She was a very kind person, who always looked after the others before herself. But grandfather hated her,"

"Why?"

"Because he couldn't use her against his evil deeds,"

This was too much to process.

"Ben, Alex, can I talk to you for a second," said Paul.

"What is it, Paul?" I asked.

"Do you know anything about his mother?"

"Hmm, not much. but he once said she went missing," said Alex.

"Well, the truth could be something else,"

"What do you mean?"

"If Senior Alexander didn't like her, don't you think he must have done something,"

"So you mean we will have to investigate this first?"

"Yes, she might have known something we don't,"

"But how? we know she died," said Alex.

"But no body was found," said Paul.

"You mean she could be alive?"

Paul nodded his head agreeing to it. But where could she be?