“Shut your mouth, Richard. You’re talking to the largest shareholder of Sterling Capital,” Jonathan snarled. “Yesterday, Sir Leo Vance bought 51% of my company’s shares in cash. He’s my boss now. And this car is my personal gift to him.”
The garden erupted in horrified murmurs. My mother covered her mouth, sobbing uncontrollably. Bradley recoiled, his face deathly pale.
“The largest shareholder? Bought… 51%?” Richard stammered, staggering to his feet, his knees shaking. He looked at me, forcing a crooked smile. “Leo… son… where did you get such a huge sum of money? You’re just a janitor!”
“I won $450 million three years ago, Father,” I smiled, a smile colder than ice. “I’ve continued cleaning toilets because I wanted to know if this family could love me when I had nothing. I gave you three years to give you a chance. But last night, you proved that, in your eyes, I’m not even a stain on your carpet.”
“No… Leo… you’ve misunderstood,” Richard stepped forward, intending to grab my hand, his greedy eyes gleaming with lust. “I just… just wanted to motivate you to do better! We’re family! Come back, I’ll throw a celebratory party…”
“Stop it,” I interrupted, my voice sharp as a knife. “You took away your fatherhood last night. I didn’t come here to listen to your explanations. I came to get my things.”
I slowly walked past my father and brother, toward the corner of the porch where a cheap cardboard box containing my childhood photos and old books lay tossed about in the pouring rain last night. I carefully lifted the box, brushing off the dust.
When I returned, I looked Richard and Bradley straight in the eye.
“Oh, by the way, Bradley, Richard,” I said flatly. “As the new owner of Sterling Capital, my first decision this morning is a personnel restructuring. You two are fired. All your stock options will be voided for breach of professional ethics.”
“You can’t do that!” Bradley yelled furiously, lunging to grab my collar, but Jonathan Sterling quickly waved his hand. Two burly bodyguards jumped from the SUV parked outside the gate and pinned Bradley to the ground.
“Get out of here!”
“Go find a job, you arrogant fools,” Jonathan Sterling said coldly.
I hugged the cardboard box and got into the Bugatti. Jonathan Sterling walked around to the driver’s seat and started the engine. The engine roared proudly, tearing through the Vance family’s mask of hypocrisy.
Through the rearview mirror, I saw my father kneeling on the grass, his hands covering his head, wailing uncontrollably. My mother was sobbing uncontrollably. They weren’t crying because they’d lost a child. They were crying because they’d just thrown away a half-billion-dollar empire because of their own cruel arrogance.
I turned away, without a trace of lingering emotion.
“Where are we going now, Mr. Vance?” Sterling asked respectfully.
I smiled, the warmest and most peaceful smile I’d had in three years.
“To the State Children’s Hospital, Mr. Sterling.” Maya is waiting for me there.
Maya isn’t a supermodel or a pampered princess. She’s a night shift nurse at the Children’s Hospital, someone I often see when I take out the trash at the school clinic. For the past three years, while my family has ostracized me, Maya has been the only one to make “the janitor” a hot cup of cocoa on a freezing winter night. She loves me for who I am—Leo, a janitor who can tell jokes—and has no idea about my $450 million fortune.
Tonight, I will propose to her. I will use my fortune to build a medical center named after her, and we will live a full life, enveloped in true love, untainted by pragmatism and deceit.
The shadows of the Vance family have receded. From this moment on, I am no longer a hidden janitor, and I will never become a ruthless rich man like my father. I am simply… A free man, driving his car towards the light of human kindness.
