The ringing of his phone woke him up. He had been so tired that he took the day off. He had been sleeping for seven hours and could have continued if the call hadn’t come in. He gritted his teeth and took his phone.
“Good evening, grandfather.”
“Ivan, come over to the house tomorrow morning. I have a task for you,” Easton ordered without preamble.
“Alright, I will.”
The following morning, Ivan did as he promised. He sat with the family, having breakfast. Katty sat opposite him and kept stealing glances at him. Daisy noticed it and rolled her eyes at her. After a nice breakfast of sausage, pancakes drenched in maple syrup, eggs, toast with butter and jam with a cup of coffee, Ivan was summoned to Easton’s room.
“Sit,” Easton instructed.
He took out an envelope and pushed it to Ivan. The younger man took it and read through.
“What’s this? I don’t understand it.”
“Fine. Let me break it down. Jace group is a business venture. It’s way smaller than yours. This is one task I’m going to assign to you. I want that group back. It’s mine but a little shrimp is playing with the bosses. I have laid down strategies. All you have to do is follow them to bring desired result.”
Ivan looked at his grandfather and opened his mouth to ask questions. There were thousands of questions in his head.
“No questioning. Do as I say. Are you in or out?” Easton asked coldly.
Ivan took a deep breath. There were consequences for disobeying Easton Landers and he wasn’t willing to shoulder them. Moreover, the task ahead wasn’t bad or difficult. But he couldn’t help but wonder why his grandfather wanted Jace group.
“It has always been mine. It’s one of my companies,” Easton answered, reading Ivan’s mind correctly.
“Alright. I will do what you said.”
“Good. You know how we work. I need not remind you that you have my blood flowing in your veins. Follow the path I’ve set and you will be good to go. That’s all for now,” Easton waved him off.
Ivan spent some time with Katty and Daisy before leaving for work. On getting to work, he spotted his secretary seated in her office.
“Good…good morning, president Landers,” she greeted. Ivan hadn’t showed up at work since katty came to the office. His secretary feared he would fire her for leaving work without his permission. She bent her head low, waiting to hear the words, ‘you are fired’ from him but she didn’t.
“Bring me the files I need to sign in order of relative importance. Let me know my schedule for today and cancel anything beyond 4pm this evening,” Ivan said and walked off. Stacy, the secretary could not believe it. Her boss didn’t fire her. She had been scared for the past four days. She needed the job more than anything. This job was the only thing that sustained her and her family. Her mother was ill and her hospital bills depended on Stacy’s salary which was a very huge sum. She was going to be more careful now to avoid further mistakes.
For the next one hour, no sound was heard in Ivan’s office save for his breathing and the scribbling of pen on paper as he endorsed his signature on these files. When he was done, he took out the envelope he had received from Easton earlier that morning. The plan looked professional, easy and he thought it would be a walk over.
“I should accomplish this in two weeks,” he bragged. But what he didn’t know was that his rivals, Ethan and Nathan Stratford were fully prepared and they would be hard nuts to crack. By the time he started, he realised that it was not as easy as he thought. There were a lot of things beyond the surface and a lot of things he didn’t even know.
When he returned to Easton Landers, all he could say to him was,
“Startegize. Change plans. That’s why you are a Landers.”
Ivan was perplexed. What did his grandfather mean by strategize? How was he expected to plan well for something he didn’t know the foundation? He aired his opinion to his grandfather and the reply shocked him even more.
“In a fight for supremacy, the foundation isn’t as important as you think. There a lot of means we use here to achieve goals. Use them. Plan ahead, always stay one step ahead of your enemies. That man and his son are more difficult and stronger than I guessed. But I am still Easton Landers and I must outsmart them. Remember who you are too. Always keep it at the back of your mind. Don’t be a disgrace, Ivan. Don’t let yourself down. You can’t let little creatures like that trample on what you have set your heart on. It’s yours and yours it must remain. As long as you have laid your hands on it, you have the power to make it yours!” Easton challenged.
He succeeded in provoking Ivan to anger. Ivan didn’t want to be less of a man or less of a Landers. Letting go what they want was a characteristic that was far from a Landers. Ivan swore there and then that he would use any means to remove whosoever that was in his way to make Jace group his. He left his grandfather more determined than he was the last time.
Easton smiled.
“That’s the spirit. Take what you want without minding whose ox is gorged.”
He already imagined Stratford begging on his knees before him.
“That sly idiot dares to mess with me. He hasn’t seen anything yet. This is merely the beginning of his numerous troubles.”
The informant he planted in the company called to make the usual daily reports.
“How is the plan coming?” Easton asked.
“It was going well but there’s a problem.”
Easton never accepted problems or any mistakes in his plans.
“Quick. Tell me, what’s the problem?”
“Ethan and Nathan Stratford are of opposition parties. They aren’t working together as we thought!”