Their Tale

Pierce/Meadows

Each step I talk towards the conference room I take with a thought and calculation in each as I go through the reasons to way Meadows would dare to call for a meeting so boastfully.

The moment I walk into the conference room I feel the tension and worry radiating off of Andrew as he files through the papers sat, he has in front of him. In the chair at the end of the table, Meadows sits in a position of confidence, standing only when he turns and sees I have arrived "Mr Macias, I am happy you could make it here so quickly." A wave of sarcasm drowns his words when he steps from his chair to give me a handshake.

Uneasy about his greeting I look behind him at Andrew who has risen from his chair with an uneasy look on his face as he leans on the table, hands balancing him. Ignoring the greeting I go to Andrews side and take a seat, Meadows doing the same. I know what he is doing right now, easily seen by the fact that he chose the most visually authoritative chair to situate and his attitude in the few minutes I have been here. He wants to talk about his deal, the dirties one I have heard yet.

Unbuttoning his jacket, he leans back on the chair but before he can fill the room with his egotistical words I begin "What is the reason for this meeting Mr Meadows?" A sinister smirk grows on the mans face when he answers me "See I thought after you read my more than generous proposal you and your parents, would find it more than pleasing to sign and have us begin a new branch in the business."

Refusing to play his games I bring myself forward, unshaken eye contact with him before speaking my part on his 'generous proposal' "I did read it, and its absolute bullshit. We may accommodate your unmarked assets when conducting business but we will not participate in any work that involves us doctoring our financial statements. Your proposal will not be accepted, regardless of the percentage you have generously placed for it."

Meadow's may be the man who built more schools and aided more hospitals than I have breaths in a day but under all that charity was a man of dark influence. Going by Pierce he became the fastest distributor of black-market goods. This power and influence got him in works with the Nader's who assisted in building many of his community projects, but also assisted in special accents off blue prints for builds many didn't know exist.

With power came money and now he was sitting on too much of it so he came to me with the preposition. Donations and new constructions funded by Meadows. ND inc would document that buildings were being built and donations where being made, all so that the money could be cleaned, documented and pushed back to Meadows, all for a hefty settlement for each transaction.

ND inc would launder money for him, and I would be the Nader who would authorize these buildings.

The moment I told it was easy to come to a conclusion that the move was too dangerous for us. Samir, Marisol and I knew that we could simply disapprove the proposal and move on, especially with the amount of evidence we had on Meadows and what his business truly did, all while keeping our hands clean if it ever came out. So, we did just that. They trusted that with Andrews help I could handle this.

With him sitting at the table right now, it was better now then later to tell him no, but something about this felt off. Like I was missing a piece in this game he was playing, and when he gives a heavy chuckle, giving Andrew a look that he only new the meaning of I felt the room drop.

Sliding me the document he had been reading with precise focus during the conversation Andrew released a heavy breath, defeated more than that. Taking the file in hand I begin to read when my blood runs cold and anger grows hot "Here I was thinking I liked control, but you Mr Macias, well you like it with pain and bruises." Each word I read in the file sends me spinning.

It was the nature of my relationship with Celeste and Evita in black and white. Written in the form of an article was how I was pimping them, buying them with money and schooling so that they would be my... "sex slaves". Holding my rage in I mute the world out, the sound of Meadows speaking as I go through the more accurate words of the article like my marks on their bodies, them calling me Master, fuck sakes it even spoke of the deaths of Jimmy and Jessica and how Evita saved Celeste and I.

To anyone who read this, I was a wealthy, sex-driven abuser who found his kick in demoralizing woman.

Thanks to my truth to Andrew who himself was a dominant understood the nature of my relationship with Celeste and Evia, but that did nothing when it came to what the public would think if they saw this.

The feeling of a hand on my shoulder brings me out of the haze of the hell that was the article I was reading. One breath, two breaths, finally reaching ten I close the folder and turn my calm rage to Meadows "See Hendry, I could paralyze you permanently seven different ways with the same folder that is in front of me. All because you brought the women, I love in this. Still I won't instead I will remind you before you fuck yourself over any harder, that ND inc has information on more than a hundred building that hold your drug operations. You would be in cuffs before you reached the door of this building."

My words slow and thought out before I entertain my rage, this hell that I carry in me when it comes to protecting my women "So take this shit, before your blood stains my boardroom."

Standing from his chair I believe that Meadows understands the level to which my threat is in all a promise but instead he leans on the table.

"You could destroy all those pathetic drug houses but what you forget, half the system are my suppliers and clients. I'll be out in 24 hours but this..." He gestures to the building but I know he meant the Nader name "The moment your sex scandal is public, you are ruined. Fuck the Manson family. I can see the headlines already 'Nader dynasty, shield for the cult leader that is their long-lost son.' Mom and Dad would sink and people with business worse than mine being investigated and exposed by your questionable sex life. Let's not even start on what happens to you little girlfriends."

He was right. Fuck he was right. Even if his business was powerful in drugs and guns, nothing feed tabloids like a sex and power scandal, and with how he put it. This was the scandal of the century.

Buttoning his suit, he gives Andrew and I a look over, the putrid aura of success running over him he smiles "You should reconsider my proposal. You have a week."

With those being his last words, he exists the room, closing the door behind him leaving me in a mess greater than just myself. He has me in a corner, I couldn't do this. With this much leverage over us it wouldn't just stop at laundering money, sooner or later he would have my seat and office, all because he could.

And worse of all, I would be the reason Celeste and Evita's lives would be ruined. They would paint them as victims of a vicious abuser. I was not abusing them. I was not abusing them. "I AM NOT ABUSING THEM!" My sudden burst of anger is meet with me slamming of my fists on the conference table before swiping all that was on it to the floor.

Struggling to see my emotions fall back in line, fear, worry, anger, sadness, love, protection it all fought in me as I stood from my chair watching the water from the jar fill the table. Pulling me to look at him, his eyes grown in worry "I know brother, I know. They know, you know too." Taking his words as truth I focus my mind on one thing only.

How do I save everything that I and the people around me hold dear? How do I save their legacies and livelihoods?