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.
‘A sweeping agreement where the other party gets to call the shots whenever they like? How come the lawyers haven’t ripped this to shreds?’ I demanded, striving to keep a tighter rein on my ire.
My father’s lips firmed. ‘I’ve spent the last month discussing it with our counsel. We can fight it in court, and probably win, but it’ll be a protracted affair. And is now really the time to draw adverse publicity to the company? Or drag your grandfather’s name through the mud again for that matter?’
My own lips flattened as again I grimly accepted he was right. With Xenakis Aeronautics poised for its biggest global expansion yet, the timing was far from ideal.
Which was exactly what Yiannis Petras had banked on.
‘You mentioned you’d offered him ten million euros and he refused? Let’s double the offer,’ I suggested.
Neo shook his head. ‘I already tried. Petras is hell-bent on Option A or Option B.’
The breath left my lungs in a rush. ‘Over my dead body will I go for Option A and hand over twenty-five percent of Xenakis Aeronautics,’ I replied coldly. ‘Not for the paltry quarter of a million his father bailed Grandpapa out with, while almost crippling him with steep interest repayments!’
The company I’d spent gruelling years saving was now worth several billion euros.
My brother shrugged. ‘Then it’s Option B. A full and final one hundred million euros, plus marriage to his daughter for minimum term of one year.’
A cold shudder tiptoed down my spine.
Marriage.
To a bride I didn’t want and with a connection to a family that had brought mine nothing but misery, pain and near destitution.
During the formative years of my life I witnessed how a fall from grace could turn family members against each other. Clawing my own family out of that quagmire while other factions sneered and expected me to fail had opened my eyes to the true nature of relationships.
Outwardly, the Xenakis were deemed a strong unit now, but the backbiting had never gone away. The barely veiled expectation that everything I’d achieved would be brought down like a pile of loose bricks and that history would repeat itself was a silent challenge I rose to each morning.
While my extended family now enjoyed the fruits of my labour, and even tripped over themselves to remain in my good graces, deep down I knew a simple misstep was all it would take for their frivolous loyalties to falter.
I didn’t even blame them.
How could I when my own personal interactions had repeatedly taken the same route? Each liaison I entered into eventually devolved into a disillusioning level of avarice and status-grabbing.
It was why my relationships now had a strict time limit of weeks. A few months, tops. Which made the thought of tying myself to one woman for twelve long months simply…unthinkable.
My chest tightened, and the urge to rail at my grandfather for putting me in this position seared me with shame before I suppressed it.
He’d been in an equally impossible position. I knew first-hand what the toll of keeping his family together had cost him—had watched deep grooves etch his grey face once vibrant with laughter and seen his shoulders slump under the heavy burden of loss.
Yes, he should have told me about this Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. But he was gone. Thanks to the ruthless greed of the Petras family. A family hell-bent on extracting another pound of flesh they didn’t deserve.
‘The hundred million I understand. But why insist on marriage to the daughter?’ I asked my brother as his words pierced the fog of my thoughts.
Neo shrugged again. ‘Who knows how men like Petras think? Maybe he just wants to offload her. The clout that comes from marrying into the Xenakis family isn’t without its benefits,’