KATIKA-Treason is never far away (Part.1)

Chapter 4 | BanzAI

Of all the possible scenarios for this day that could have crossed John's mind, this one was the craziest.

Meeting potential love. What a huge surprise!

Chatting with Rebecca for nearly an hour and kissing her left a sweet, sugary feeling of impatience in his heart, looking forward to seeing her again.

Even though he had to rush to arrive on time for the fancy dinner planned by his father, the scent of Rebecca's lips would not leave his mind, no matter what he ate during the evening.

However, if his father were to learn that he was seeing a new woman, he would pester him with embarrassing questions and might try to sabotage any potential relationship if Rebecca didn't meet the criteria he considered essential to deserve his son.

That's why John promised himself to do everything possible to avoid the conversation going into that treacherous territory. His relationship with his father was already exasperating enough without adding more tension.

His father was someone very pedantic, excessively proud of his success, and the empire he had built over the years, hoping to pass the torch to John.

Of all the studies he could have pursued, all the careers that were open to him, only the Katika company represented an acceptable future for his father.

If, by misfortune, John had the audacity to express a desire to pursue a different path, he would have been considered a mutineer, a renegade, a traitor to the Katika name, and perhaps even disowned.

This dinner was, therefore, nothing particularly pleasant. He was coerced into it every time his father asked for something. Who was this famous "friend" who was supposed to join them? Probably some rich man full of pretension, as insufferable as William Katika himself.

He would find out in a minute: the Luxurious Plazza was coming into view.

John had eaten there thousands of times since his earliest childhood. It was where he had come to understand the real nature of the business world: all the big shots of San Francisco, as well as various mafiosos, came to dine there. It was like their canteen.

It was also where John had seen his father shame him with his excesses with alcohol. How many times had he vomited in this restaurant? Insulted the staff? Worse, hit some of them and even John himself?

Parking his car, he entered the restaurant and was accompanied by an employee to the table where his father was talking with a tall man with medium-length brown hair falling on his shoulders.

Both were dressed in luxurious suits, and it was easy to imagine that they had direct family ties, given the complicity that was evident between them, a complicity that William Katika had never been able to share, neither with his son nor with his own wife.

Upon seeing his son, the owner of Katika stood up and greeted him in an excessively showy manner, too forced to be believable.

"John! How are you, my son?" he asked, embracing him.

"Hi, Dad," John replied, "I'm doing well, thank you."

Ending his falsely paternal embrace, William turned to his friend, gesturing with his right hand.

"Allow me to introduce you to Ian Fisher, a man I consider a brother," he announced. "We studied together, and his company, Tech International, manages nearly 80% of the world's Internet and the software used by the biggest firms in the world, as well as the media."

As the so-called Ian Fisher stood up, John had the impression of facing a true giant, so impressive was his height.

Judging by eye, it seemed that he had reached at least 2 meters tall: the Katika father and son, at their respective 1.75 meters, appeared truly minuscule next to him.