Chapter 18 Spreading Influence

Jack had never expected that these two half siblings would be able to find him even after he had left their mansion. Furthermore, he had made sure not to tell anyone where he was going to. But now, seeing that the two of them were here at the same time, then this was by no means a coincidence, they must have known where he was.

Thinking things through, Jack immediately thought of the taxi that he'd used to get here. He remembered that it was Brenda that had called for it, and not he himself. That implied one thing, the driver had agreed to disclose his information. Although Jack was irritated, he still didn't blame that guy. After all, if he dared to go against Brenda, it was a sure bet that his life wouldn't end well.

Jack simply took a deep breath and looked at the duo before asking, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Hehe," Brenda chuckled as if Jack's question was funny. Then, she continued, "Of course, we're here to look out for our younger brother."

"I don't need it. Am okay. You can just go back, no need to worry about me." Jack was direct with his words. From childhood till this moment, he knew that flattering these half siblings of his wouldn't do him good. So, he had always been cold and direct with them, not hiding his thoughts at all.

"Bah, what's up with you Jack. We've come all the way from Crystal city to pay you a visit and this is all that we get?" Brenda frowned as she asked, obviously pretending to be hurt.

Jack bought none of her expression and said, "I don't remember inviting you to find me. I might as well pay for your transportation costs back to Crystal city."

"Hey chill it down boy. You know, there's no need to hide things from you. You were banished from the family. Now, we're here to make sure that you're not using the family name. After all, you using the name would surely demean our family's reputation." Steve spoke at this moment.

Jack stared at him with a blank expression on his face. Then, he said in a low voice, "You know that I've never used the family name even while I was back in Crystal city, why would I want to use it now?"

"Are you sure? Because I am sure that you've got no money on you. If you're using the family's name to get someone to host you, then you have to break it immediately. After all, if you dare to do that, then our family would surely sue you." Steve said after a moment of silence.

"Jack, you on need of cash? Hm? You can tell your sister here, she will surely give you some so that you don't live in streets." Brenda spoke with her signature sly smile.

"I've already said that I don't need your concern. Alright, if there's nothing else, I'll be on my way now." As Jack said these words, he completely ignored the two as he went to the Bentley Continental GT.

Opening the door, he got in before driving off. The two siblings were left both wide-eyed and slack jawed. They had never expected that Jack would be driving a car that was worth millions even after he had come from the family.

From what they knew, Jack was a frugal person, wanting to save all that he could. Even back at the family mansion, he had never bought a car like his half-brothers or cousins. Although the clothes that he was wearing were pretty decent for a person from Alfonso family, it wasn't up to par.

Now, he had left the family mansion and he'd bought a car worth millions? From what they knew, the total amount of money that would have saved wouldn't be enough to buy a Bentley Continental GT.

"Do you think this car is his?" Steve asked. Although he was older, he knew that when it came to intelligence, he was far below Brenda.

"From the way it is, I can see that it's new. That means that the car has been recently bought. But, Jack doesn't have money to buy the car. So, it means that he has found someone to support him, he has borrowed the car or…he had somehow gotten money from the family during his stay there." Brenda spoke with her eyes narrowed.

"For the first one, as far as I can remember, Jack has never left Crystal city. That means that he's got no connections here. The second one, since he has no connections here, there's no way that a person can give him a newly bought car. As for the third…..I haven't gotten any information on money missing. And even if there was money missing, Jack was never given a responsibility, so, it's impossible for him to get money." Brenda continued analyzing.

As Steve heard all of this, he couldn't help but think to himself, 'What a frightening girl!'

"The only thing that remains is that, he has used the family influence to get someone to help him. And, that person doesn't know that he's no longer a member of Alfonso family." Finally, Brenda came to a conclusion that she could accept.

Steve remained silent all this while. He kept frowning while thinking, but there was nothing that he could think of that could match Brenda's thoughts.

Brenda then glanced at the shop that Jack had just come from. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Then, her lips curled into a sly smile. She gazed towards the direction that Jack had left before saying, "Let's get going. We need to find where this brat is getting money from."

With that, the duo left the site as they headed towards the center of the city.

….

Currently, Jack had a balance of $7,404,607. He wanted to purchase a building that would be used as the headquarters of Jackson Enterprise. But, this amount wasn't enough to purchase a building that could host the reputation of an international level enterprise.

So, he decided to discard that thought aside. He would have to collect enough cash before going for the purchase. He would have to buy the biggest office building in the city.

As he thought of this, he immediately drove to the government office in charge of shops. He wanted to continue buying grocery stores so that he could earn more income.

On his way, he thought of something important. Having many grocery shops was fine. But, they needed management. So, he would have to get himself a manager that could do that.

He then made a decision, he would try and see if he could recruit a manager that was good in the grocery business. This way, he wouldn't need to worry about the issue of poor management of the stores.

In about half an hour or more, he arrived at the office. He then marched through the familiar corridor that led to the office that he'd been to previously.

When he reached the place that he'd collided with the lady the previous day, he stopped for a moment. For some strange reasons, his originally cold expression somehow melted as he revealed a rare smile.

This smile perfectly matched his handsome face, making him show the charm that he was hiding. The blue eyes showed some kind of strange of emotion that they hadn't shown since he was fifteen years old.

After a moment of remembering what had happened the previous day, as well as the beautiful face that matched her extraordinary temperament, Jack finally headed to the office.

"Welcome Mr Jack," The man, whom had attended to Jack the previous day immediately welcomed him. Jack nodded I response.

After taking a seat, the man spoke, "Mr Jack, since you told me that you wanted the grocery stores, I made sure to make enough preparations for you."

Unlike the previous day, his attitude this time was flattering. After all, as long as Jack bought more shops under him, then the amount of money that he would receive at the end of the deal would be big enough for him to go on a vacation.

So, since the previous day that Jack had wanted to purchase the shops, he made sure to get more shops that could be sold. He went as far as persuading some owners to sell their stores. He offered good prices for the stores, which some of the owners felt that there was no harm in gaining some profit.

But of course, there were some that wouldn't agree to sell their stores, no matter what. For this reason, the man decided that he would look for the most expensive stores that could be sold. In this way, although the number of stores that would be sold would be low, but the amount of money that would be brought in would be enough.

Jack went through the folder that he had been given. He was slightly surprised upon seeing that in less than twenty four hours, the man had already gotten more than fifteen stores, ready to sell them.

The thing that made Jack's eyes shine was the fact that all of these stores were big, the size of Comest or bigger. Although they were good, Jack immediately knew that the price of these stores would surely be higher.

"What's the collective cost?" Jack asked after closing the folder and returning to the man.

The man immediately smiled. "The total price of those fifteen stores plus the stock and the employees' salary is $14,653,000." As he said the price, his smile grew wider.

Jack thought for a moment. Although the price was high, he could see that the conditions of the stores were good. They were making profits, and good ones at that. Furthermore, they were located in different places of the city.

That meant that Jack's influence was already around the city. If they were located in the same place, he would obviously buy one and ignore the other one. How could he make his two stores compete instead of using the money to buy another store dealing in another area.

"I'll give you $5M now. Tomorrow at around ten in the morning, I'll send the remaining balance. I don't know if that's okay with you?" Jack made his decision.

One thing that he wanted to make sure of was that, his card would never be empty. He wanted to have money, just in case there was an emergency.

"Of course Mr Jack, I'll immediately do that." The man said while laughing happily. In just two days, he had sold shops worth over ten million. And what's more, there was tomorrow.

"By the way, continue preparing the shops. As long as you make sure that the size is good and they're not competing with each other, then I'll buy them all." Jack stated.

"Hahaha…sure, sure Mr Jack." The man replied as he completely lost the etiquette of a government official.

*****

Author's Note;

Hello guys, thanks for the support so far. Let's hope that we'll keep on with this pace.

And by the way, there will be many characters in the book. As a result, I've decided that there will be some that I wouldn't be giving them names as they would only play a small role in the book during the beginning chapters.

A good example will be the person in charge of the office, where Jack is buying the shops. As long as Jack has bought enough grocery stores, he would stop meeting with him and that will be the end of his role.

Anyway, am going to use the names like Mr Man and others in their reference, hope you won't mind.