Tough Love (Book 2)

42. Real Questions

~Ryan Kelly~

"Meneer van der Merwe," I smiled giving my best friend a hug.

"Mr R Kelly. How are you doing?"

I sighed, "It's been hard, not gonna lie to you. It's been hard."

"I can imagine. Please take a seat," he stated gesturing at the couch. He closed the office door as I took a seat. "How's life?" he asked sitting next to me. "We haven't really chat since your mother passed."

"Good." I showed him my left hand, "Karla is back as the wife for me."

"What? Really?" I nodded. "I thought you said she wasn't your type. I thought you didn't love her."

"Martin, this woman is more than I thought she was. These past few months she's been revealing this hidden part of her that's just so loveable. And... she's the mother of my beautiful innocent children. At my children's age we were doing some dodgy things remember?"

Martin chuckled, "That is true. We had already smoked our first ciggies and had our taste of burning liqueur."

"Exactly. She's doing a remarkable job. My kids, unlike me, will be good people."

"I'm not used to having you speak like this. It's kinda weird."

"What do you mean?"

Martin got up th a sigh. He poured us drinks as he explained, "You're talking about love and how your kids are going to be good people. I'm used to you coming to tell me about the problems Kalra is giving you and the fine lady you just fucked," he said handing me a glass.

He took a seat beside me as he went on, "Or talking to me about business. And speaking of business, I've been meaning to ask you... Who is the stakeholder now that you're gone? Unless you still got your shares and you're just going to be away from now on."

Leon was right. Martin still thinks of me as who I was. He hasn't accepted how much I've changed. He doesn't seem to care that my wife and I are on good terms or that my kids have a great mom. He kinda just brushed it off like it was nothing.

Could this mean Leon could be right about Martin laundering money? I had to test him.

I cleared my throat. "I still own 10% shares in the company and Leon owns 42%," I told him before taking a sip of my whiskey.

"Wait... so Leon is not a majority shareholder in the company?"

I shook my head keeping my eye on him for his reaction as I said the words, "There is no longer a stakeholder here at Kelly Konstruction. No one owns more than 50% of the shares."

Martin raised his brows slightly. He seemed shocked. That was abnormal. Martin doesn't care about shares now suddenly he's interested. "Why not?" he asked. "If you don't trust your brother with the company you could've just asked me to act as CEO while you're away and give you back your place when you return."

"You want to be CEO?" I asked him.

He chuckled, "No, I'm not saying that. I just want to help my brother out while he's a bit shaky on his feet with the peace of mind that everything is alright. I've acted as CEO for you for as long as 6 months, remember? The company was doing well. If you ever need that again, I got you boet."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Martin sighed, "Do you wanna hear it?"

"Hit me."

"Leon is struggling. He can't handle real business. The company has lost key clients because of his temper and stupid moral convictions. Not that its a bad thing to have morals but its costing us."