"See you"

"See you tomorrow"

Ronald said goodbye to his friends and headed to his house from school.

Ronald Watergate is an ordinary student like any other. His father Gustaf Watergate owns a London-based textile company.

His father's company, founded by his grandfather, was no more than a midsize business until his father took control of the company and turned it into an international giant.

In a little less than twenty years, the company invaded the international market, becoming one of the most important companies in England.

Due to the rapid expansion of the business, his family has to move every time a new branch opens so his father runs it for the first few years before appointing someone in his place and later moving to a new potential market.

People would think that Ronald would be sick of traveling from one place to another, but the truth is that he has passed by so often over the years that he was used to it.

Others would think that Ronald is a lucky person, his family is rich and he won't have to work in life if he doesn't want to. They are right, but when you win something you also lose something.

“I'm home,” Ronald said without receiving an answer as he entered his house.

Ronald's voice was answered with the eerie silence that permeated the house. As always there was no one to receive him.

Ronald was not bothered by the silence and he went quietly to the kitchen.

Contrary to what one might think of the status of Ronald's parents, the house was surprisingly humble. No one would say that people who could buy the entire block of flats the house is on would live here.

Due to the number of times that Ronald's family moves over the years, buying a luxurious home could be considered wasteful. That is why Ronald's parents buy modest houses to live in temporarily, which they refurbish and sell at a higher price once they have to move again. Although in practice Ronald is the only one who lives in them.

It's not like he expected his parents to be here either, the surprising thing would have been if they were at home. After all, the last time he saw them was a month ago.

Ronald made himself something to eat and began to watch television, there was nothing interesting, just a couple of programs talking about the situation in the country.

Ronald watched television without much interest while he ate some dinner, despite being the heir to a fortune, his family taught him to be self-sufficient in case something were to happen to them.

Although neither expected that day to come so soon.

As the hours passed, the sky darkened and the streets emptied of people.

In Ronald's house, the only sounds were the low volume of the television and the breathing of a boy who was fast asleep.

The next morning the sun came out again and its rays of light filtered through the cracks in the curtains of all the houses.

One of those sunbeams directly hit the eyes of Ronald who was struggling to sleep for a few more minutes.

ring ring ring

"Mmm, what?" Ronald said sleepily.

As the ringing of the phone spread throughout the room, Ronald held out his hand to answer it.

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"Who is it?"

"Ronald Watergate"

"Yes, it's me. Who are you?"

"Good morning. I'm calling from the police department, your parents have been in a car accident"

…

“Ronald? Still there?"

“Ronald, answer. Still there?"

The news came unexpectedly.

Ronald's parents were struck by a hit-and-run driver.

Both were taken to the nearest hospital to try to rescue them. Unfortunately, none of them could survive. Ronald's mother died instantly while his father died in hospital during surgery.

Ronald was devastated. Although he and his parents saw each other very little, that does not mean that they did not appreciate each other. Ronald understood his parents' desire to want his company to be the best, and his parents tried to provide him with everything he could possibly need in life.

The death of parents is something that no person is prepared for, and Ronald was no exception either. One day everything was going well and the next you find your world has collapsed.

Unfortunately, Ronald's problems had only just begun.

When an entire company depends on one person and that person disappears, you can't expect things to go well.

The shares of Watergate Industries plummeted after the public learned of the deaths of its founders and major shareholders; investors fled faster than one would have imagined, and rats appeared everywhere trying to profit from the situation.

Ronald took a period of absence at school to try to solve the problems, but it was useless, for every issue that was resolved, three new ones appeared. The most difficult thing was that Ronald did not know who he could trust in the company.

His parents did not want him to get involved in the family business too early, he planned to wait until Ronald graduated from university to start learning about the family business so that he would have time to enjoy and relax before introducing him to the company.

In addition, being an international company it was very difficult to control the various branches located in various countries if you did not know their situation in real-time. As a consequence, Ronald saw every day how his family company was crumbling day by day.

So he regretfully decided to leave the company behind, but not before making sure that everyone who tried to ruin the company paid for it.

Ronald took the company accounts and went to an old childhood friend of his mother's whom Ronald had seen several times, who was a senior member of the police department, and handed them over to him for investigation. After delivering the documents, he sold all the shares that his family had in the company.

When his parents' friend saw Ronald's appearance, he was horrified; A sleepless night together with the stress to which he had been subjected these months had left a mark on him. Seeing that Ronald asked him for help, he decided to help his friend's son in any way he could.

After a few weeks of investigation, the results of the company's accounts were found.

The situation was worse than one could imagine.

If Ronald had been a little slower he could have gone to jail for scams, theft, fraud, crimes against intellectual property, money laundering, tax evasion, and many more.

It turns out that the employees in management positions were more rotten than Ronald thought possible. Among his many actions were the sale of products with poor quality materials, excessive quantity contracts, abuse of authority, and non-payment of raw material contracts, which carried Ronald's signature. That is, the higher-ups had decided to get rich as quickly as possible and let Ronald take the consequences.

No one expected Ronald's actions. None of them imagined that Ronald would give up the possibility of refloating his company. Everyone thought that he would try to save what was left of the company from him until the end. As a consequence, when the situation was uncovered, most of them were not prepared to flee with the money and were arrested.

That angered a lot of people.

In business, especially in big business, connections, and favors are essential, which is why businessmen organize and attend parties where they can meet, get to know each other, and help each other.

Some of the people who were arrested were related to shareholders and executives of other companies that collaborated with Ronald's parents. That has made them not only see how their friends and family were arrested, but that caused their names and that of their companies to appear connected to this scandal. In addition, when Ronald sold his shares before this corruption scheme was discovered, he caused those who bought them at a low price to try to take advantage of the situation to see how their value was reduced to nothing.

Ronald hurt the interests of important people, so he was not very favored by them.

Since then he was shunned by high society, no matter what really happened, in the eyes of others Ronald is merely the bastard who ruined his family's business after the death of his parents.

His situation changed forever; His friends abandoned him and started making fun of him behind his back, his former classmates started bullying him both physically and mentally, and teachers were unaware of the obvious abuse Ronald was enduring.

Meanwhile, Ronald endured in silence. He knew perfectly well that the situation would turn against him if he tried to oppose his 'companions'. Ronald's plan was to hold out until graduation and leave the country to attend a university somewhere else, perhaps even start the family business over again... until he heard an interesting rumor.

One of Yamato's uncles had a model exactly like the car that ran over his parents.