Family Business

Gerald sighed "Alphonse, the family business is WHY I am the last surviving heir. Please consider.I have no name, no business, and currently no hope. If I were to take the company now, it would be as good as committing suicide."

Alphonse agreed, he had no retort.

"Sir, then why do we not just build your name?"

This was exactly what Gerald wanted.

"It is as if you read my mind Alphonse. What did you have in mind?" Gerald asks.

"Well sir, There are some smaller business of the family we can have transferred to you, these are long off subsidiaries and not worth much. It should be enough to get you going." Alphonse continued. "I can also have some money deposited into a special bitcoin account. The family does not have too much floating around, so I can only spare a couple of billion worth of coin for you"

Gerald chuckled, It had been a long time since he tasted his families money. "What Business are you transferring me?" he asked.

Alphonse was looking at a list "We have a small shipping company that works in your area. They own a tiny fleet of only ten ships. The name is Star Ocean Group. This should be enough right?"

Gerald heard the name and almost crashed his car. He slowed down quickly.

"Star Ocean group?" He asked to confirm.

"Yes sir, is that not enough? Ok then I will also transfer a small logisitics company to you, here we go, this one is also in your area. Happy Sun Transport. I am going to finish some business here, and I will send some people to help you before I arrive." the line then went dead.

Gerald balked, Two companies? This was excellent news!

Gerald seemed to remember hearing both of these names before. But he did not think much about it for now. He decided to get breakfast, and then return home to his wife to tell her the good news that he had found employment.

Back in the villa, Adrianna was on a group video conference with the heads of the family and her siblings. Lewis was also on the call.

"We are in trouble" a balding older man said to the group.

"If we do not land a big contract soon, we will default on all the loans we took out for our expansion!" This old man was Adrianna's uncle.

An older blonde lady, wearing fancy jewelry covering her neck, ears, and hands spoke, this was Adrianna's mother, and current owner of Reliable Transport Group, Sabine Hamilton.

"Adrianna, divorce your useless good for nothing husband, and merry Mr Roberts. He should be able to help us get a large contract with one of the ocean freight groups!"

Everyone agreed. "Divorce him!"

"Merry Mr Roberts!"

"Your husband is useless! except for shinning shoes" He held up a polished pair of merry janes to the camera.

Everyone laughed.

Adrianna blushed hotly but said nothing.

Lewis then said "Your husband is a useless piece of street trash, why our father took him in is beyond me. But it has been years and he has proven time and again he is useless and nothing but a drain on the family!"

Everyone agreed.

A new face joined in, he was a slightly older man, with a giant trimmed beard and bushy eyebrows. This was Mr Roberts.

"Everyone did you hear? A giant company has just transferred to our port! Star Ocean Group!"

Everyone gasped.

Lewis was the first to respond "Star ocean group is a massive shipping giant with a fleet of ten heavy cargo vessels! They are coming here?"

Mr Roberts continued "Yes! I just got the docking orders in!"

His family controlled the docks, and all the loading and unloading had to be approved and timed through him.

This was the reason Sabine wanted to marry off her daughter to him. They would have first pick of all the ships loading and unloading at the port!

"Quick, does anyone know anyone with Star Ocean Group?" Sabine asked everyone.

No one responded.

A thin elderly man then gasped and quickly shouted "Happy Sun Transport just bought a new office near the docks!" This was Sabine's Brother. He worked in real estate.

"Happy Sun Transport? Why are they moving here? Oh no this is horrible! They have over eight hundred trucks! they could dominate the market!" One of the other men who worked for the company said.

Everyone quickly paled. The news just got worse.

Each truck cost over half a million dollars, the size of a logistic companies fleet was the show of their power.

The Hamilton's combined fleet was only one hundred and sixty trucks.

While there were many other large families who worked the area, who had much larger fleets, there was usually plenty of work to go around with the ships coming in and out of Fushan port.

With both Star Ocean Group, and Happy Sun Transport moving in, If they did not score a big contract, they would be done for.

The family had taken out a loan to expand their fleet.

Lewis paled "Adrianna, Divorce your husband now! Marry Mr Roberts! Save the Family!"

Sabine agreed "Yes daughter, show your mother some filial love and divorce your worthless husband. Your Family needs you!"

Adrianna chewed on her lip, but she did not want to marry Mr Roberts. She loved her husband.

Lewis stopped and looked at his phone. Everyone else did the same.

All of them were in logistics, everyone's phone was tied to the contract database for shipments.

A large contract had just been updated on the database.

Star Ocean Group had just submitted shipments for over two thousand trucks!

But then everyone paled.

The contracts were private award only, and had to be bid on. They were not open market.

Sabine moaned "If we do not get one of these contracts we are doomed! Can we get two thousand trucks?"

no one answered.

Even if they combined forces with every shipping company in the area, there would not be two thousand trucks among them.

No one knew how to solve this crisis.

Sabine groaned "YOU ARE ALL USELESS! Does no one have any ideas? is there not a brain among all of you?"

Gerald walked back into the house about this time, carrying a bag of breakfast for him and Adrianna. He heard Sabine shouting.

He walked up behind his wife, and everyone saw him on her stream.

Lewis howled "What? Fail in life so soon today boot licker? And you even had the balls to spend our money to buy breakfast for you? What nerve!"

Gerald ignored them. He pulled a small breakfast biscuit out of the bag and offered it to Adrianna.

She smiled at him and took it, but did not eat it.

"Gerald, Divorce my daughter right now! If you do so I will give you enough money to move away and never bother us again!" Sabine shouted. "You have wasted our families money long enough. It is time you pay for our help and Divorce her! it is the only way!"

Everyone agreed.

Mr Roberts stayed silent. He was at least not tactless enough to fan the fire further.

Gerald said nothing and began eating a biscuit himself.

Lewis Roared at the screen "Dont you ignore me boot licker! You are single handedly ruining this family with your shit attitude, your shit appearance, your shit personality, and your general shit smell. We have smelled your shit long enough. Divorce my sister, Move away, and never let us see you again!"

Gerald ignored him and patted his wifes shoulder, he leaned down and asked her what was going on.

Adrianna explained the situation to him.

Sabine mocked him "Why does a useless pissant like you care? You cant help! You would not know how to clean the toilets of a large company like either of these, let alone help with getting a contract with them! Stop wasting our time and Divorce Adrianna this instant!"