Hide and Seek

22 hours...

'There was one thing dad cherished so much that no one could mess with, not even Ezra. His reputation. Dad took everything that people said seriously. That's why none of the Levi children were allowed to have a scandal, of any sort. We were only allowed to be in the media if it was related to promoting the business. Other than that, we had to be squeaky clean. We had to watch what we said, what we did, where we went, with who.
Dad did a background check on every one of the people we associated with. And if anyone slipped up we had to shun them. That's why we only ever had very few friends, and each other for those of us with full siblings. Ezra on the other hand, had himself. Anyway, we always had to be on guard and stay out of trouble.

A few days after the argument in dad's office, I overheard Ezra speaking on the phone in the passage.

"Yes dad," he muttered. "I understand. I'm going to take a look at the mine today and let you know."
I immediately knew that they were planning to buy another mine. Expanding the business and what not. That was the secret I couldn't find out just yet. But why? We have bought mines before, what was the big deal about this one? To find out, I did some digging. It was not easy because they kept it between the two of them. No one besides the seller and his daughter knew about it. The seller was someone named Demitri Merka. An old friend of dad's, and I'm sorry to say this, but if you had not shown up, Ezra would have married the daughter, Ida. Anyway, those four are the only people who knew about what was going on. Me being number five. I kept an eye on Ezra and even managed to eavesdrop on his conversations a few times, and let me tell you that guy was so good at giving one word answers. It was tricky to figure out what he was talking about, but of course, nothing gets past me. I found out that I was actually wrong. They were not trying to buy a mine, they were trying to sell one of our mines. What I could not figure out was why they were keeping it a secret. We've bought and sold mines lots of times before so it should not have been such a big deal unless... unless they were doing something dodgy. Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you choose to look at it, they were not doing anything dodgy. Once again Ezra is just perfect at everything he does. However, I chose to use that to my advantage just so I could knock Ezra off his high horse.

A few days went by and I had to take a document to dad's office. He has this assistant, Melody, who is very talkative. She means well but she can be so nosy and annoying.

"Mr Levi, goodmorning." She ran around her desk as I walked down the passage.

"Hi Melody," I forced a smile. "Is the Chairman in?"

"No, he had an early meeting. But your brother is there. I mean, he is around, just not inside the office. He stepped out. Probably to use the bathroom or something."

"Eli told me he was not coming in today," I muttered.

"Oh, I'm sorry, not Eli. You have a lot of brothers. I mean Ezra.  He's waiting for the Chairman."

"Oh." I fought the urge to roll my eyes and walked into the office.
I've never really told anyone this, but I had a love-hate relationship with dad's office. Love, because I always hoped that one day it would be mine. Hate, because I knew somewhere deep down that it would never be mine.

As I stepped into the office, I immediately noticed Ezra's phone on dad's table. At the time, going through it just seemed like the brightest idea. It was as if the universe was giving me the go-ahead. 'Put Ezra in his place,' the universe was whispering to me.
As I reached for the phone a text message from Ida popped up.

Oh really? I thought you were single! -Ida Merka

Though I was not really that surprised, my eyes did widen. At the time, no one knew that this mystery girl was you, Zahara, and for half a second, I thought of exposing these messages. That would have blown up the tabloids for sure, but it was easy news to get rid of. Then, something else came to mind.
Ezra's passcode was something simple, but a bit tricky to figure out. Long story short, it was his mom's birthday. I unlocked the phone and did why any self-respecting businessman does when he can't get his way. I sabotaged him. I sent a text message using Ezra's phone to a rival company's manager. I told him the details of the deal and all about the mine being sold. Then I deleted the message and put the phone back just in time.

"Mr Levi. Your brother is in there too." Melody's voice sounded from outside.

"Which one?" Ezra asked.

"Seth."

"I see. Thanks Melody."

Ezra walked in with one hand stuffed into the pocket of his sweatpants.
"Seth," he nodded.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, trying to sound as casual as possible. "You don't normally visit the office unless dad calls you in. Oh, wait, I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that." I tapped my mouth. "Is it a secret? I'm not supposed to know am I? Let's pretend I didn't see you." I covered my eyes.
Call me petty, I don't care. It was a product of my bitterness, so anyone in my shoes would have done it.

"Don't do that Seth," he sighed. "You're being childish."

"Whatever," I scoffed, moving to walk out.

"Seth, if it's that important for you to know what we're doing, I can just tell you."

"No need." I mumbled and walked out, releasing a breath I didn't even realise I was holding. As I shut the door, Melody was smiling up at me and I smiled back at her before heading back to my office.'

"Didn't you care that this could potentially ruin your dad and the company's image beyond just rumours?" Zahara stopped him.

"That was the point at the time. The company was never going to be mine anyway, so why care?" He rubbed his chin. "I couldn't care less if it meant showing dad that Ezra wasn't that perfect."

"Did you regret it? Even a little bit?"

"I had no time for regrets, Zahara. I had to look forward and figure out my next move, and how I was going to deny everything if I ever got caught."

"Your insane."

"No... no," he pointed at her. "I'm sane. Any sane person would put their interests over anyone else's, even family, because in the end, you're on your own."

"It's only when you do things like that. Sabotaging people. Stepping on others to raise yourself up. It's only when pitiful things like that come out of your mouth that you truly end up alone." Zahara told him, clenching her fists to keep from strangling him.

"Tell is what happened after," Teagan spoke for the first time.

"Ezra received a text in response. The manager wanted to meet up. Since it was a number that was not saved on his phone, he just ignored it until they started to call him..."

'"Yes?" Ezra answered his phone at the dinner table. We were all having dinner together in this very mansion.
"When was this?" He asked the person on the other side of the phone. "You're mistaken, good evening." He hung up and placed his phone face down on the table.
I knew that his condescending tone was going to get him into trouble one day. And that was the day.

"What was that about?" His mother asked him.

"I don't really know. I think he had the wrong number."
His voice was soft and his face looked calm as he spoke, but for the first time in twenty four years, I saw Ezra's hand shake, and I knew he was uneasy. I realised then that he was not going to ask for any help. He was going to try and solve such a problem on his own. It looked like deep down, golden boy did want to prove himself to dad. To show that he could handle anything on his own. But of course, he failed.'