Hollywood Zenith

" What is it?" John asked Jerry. He had been performing exceptionally, which made John trust him a little.

" As far as we can see, The consortium is not really taking it seriously. If they truly wanted to destroy us, they could have used several other more effective methods. Like leaking information to public or using the law to put pressure on us etc. We know they love money as much as we do-"

" Just get to the damn point!" Flint shouted. He was getting impatient with all the roundabout talks.

" I-it is a warning. I think we should contact their head office or seek out the heir to ask what they want. We should also reverse our unlawful ban on their accounts."

" That surprisingly makes sense. You must not know about it, but I have often interacted with them. The power they hold is unfathomable." Baroness supported his conjecture.

" Ok! if everyone is on board, we will proceed with this. Find out the firm\'s location and contact anyone from their side. We are running out of time!" John gave the order, and he became hopeful once again.

" What do we do about them?" He asked, pointing toward the perpetrators of the whole fiasco. He may have gone a little too harsh on them, which made him regret his decision.

Sir Flint and Baroness looked toward them; they had complicated looks on their faces. They often excused their behaviour, but this time, they would not be able to \'make it go away\' like usual.

Baroness didn\'t care anymore; she contacted his brother and told him what had happened. She decided to dump it on him to sort things out.

As for Flint, it was more personal, he raised Ryan with his own hands, but he never thought it would come to this one day. He also contacted his son to inform him about it, which he left on to Flint.

" Let\'s leave them be for now." He said to John and called a few people to clean up the mess. He also ordered them to call someone to treat their injuries. Fortunately, there were no broken bones or internal injuries.

Then, John\'s phone rang; it was an unknown number, but the rare number sequence must mean that it was someone important. Such a number went for hundreds of thousands of pounds on the market; for some, it couldn\'t be bought with money. He picked up the call when a magnetic voice asked--

" Sir John, How have you been?" John immediately recognized the voice. Although he had only spoken with this person a couple of times, his face instantly appeared in his mind.

" Mr. Rothschild, I was having a fine morning a few hours ago."

" That\'s unfortunate. But I am sure it was not a unwarranted. You must know by now right?"

" Yes, It was a mistake on my part but it was not intentional and certainly not our company\'s stance on the matter."

" I know, it would be disastrous but you could meet the person outside your building. I hope you give him a satisfactory response soon."

" Thank you for the help. I will handle it accordingly."

They said their parting words before hanging up. John breathed a sigh of relief; he could still salvage the situation. Flint and Baroness also heard his conversation as they awaited his following words.

" Come, we must not keep him waiting." He led them downstairs while other people wondered why his sudden mood change was. He assured his subordinates that he would take care of it.

As he reached the exit, he saw several people waiting for him. They led his party toward the café. It was a high-end tea house in a prime location, so there was a vast flow of people exiting and entering it. They looked at the group with curiosity; being an elite banker comes with a lot of public fame as you become easily recognized.

Ignoring those people, they reached their destination, a private room on the topmost floor, utterly devoid of any presence. Upon entering, John found Samuel, Abigail and Marilyn enjoying their refreshments with some drinks on the side. A few more people were present, but they sat on the side to avoid disturbing the people at the centre.

He recognized Samuel and proceeded to greet him respectfully. Despite being older, he decided to show respect to show his sincerity. Flint and Baroness also joined him, and they made themselves comfortable after introducing themselves.

" First of all, I am truly sorry for how you were treated by our company\'s people." John opened the conversation while bowing lightly.

Marilyn was fidgeting seeing such influential people; every day was a shock for her since she began working for Samuel. On the other hand, Abigail was not moved; she had seen such empty gestures many times.

" It is not me that you should be apologizing too. Its her, I don\'t know what transpired between her and your company but even after sacrificing so much, she along with my group got treated like dirt without any valid reason."

" I am sorry for my grandson behaviour. I know it will sound wrong but I just wanted what\'s best for him all these years not knowing that I was enabling him." Flint said.

" Enabling? He practically terrorized my whole life, tanked my career, and today too wanted me to beg just because he found it entertaining. Ask the females working under him about his constant harassment. He is his friends are running rampant till now without any consequences." Abigail went off and spoke her mind. She had been bottling her emotions for years which had begun to surface after the morning incident.

Others listened to her rant as she went on for a few minutes describing her horrible experiences in the company. Marilyn had to calm her down before she stopped; Flint and Baroness never really paid attention to it. They would always sweep it under the rug whenever a problem arose concerning their family.

" You heard her. I never intended to pressure you but what I have seen today could be happening to others and they don\'t have any courage to fight back. I hope you would take care of it. If not I have to take care of it myself." Samuel said.

" I will see to it. I will give you a satisfactory answer." John assured. He also looked toward Abigail to get his point across.

" Alright," Samuel said as he wanted to conclude their meeting. He would decide after observing his response. If he found them insincere, he would take further action accordingly.

" Wait! I believe that you are opening a new investment firm. For today\'s inconvenience, I would like to add few things."

Samuel, who was about to leave, took his seat back to listen to what he was offering.

" Ok, I am listening."

" We want to move your account to the top of the list. Be it service or any inquiry, you can contact us anytime of the day. On top of that, we will provide your five times the amount of leverage for your trades and for a year there will be no transactional fee from our side."

" That\'s seems excessive. Leverage is fine but you do know that, without transitional fee, It could potentially be a huge loss for your company. Some people also find certain loophole that could make the bank bleed a lot of money."

" I have faith that your firm will not operate in such a manner. Please accept it as our good will and a congratulatory gift for opening a new company."

" Ok, I will accept it."

Both parties left happily after the meeting. John resolved his issue, and Samuel gained a lot in return. He could have asked for more, but that would mean relying on his family, which was not something he wanted to use often.

Later they visited the firm to find that everything had returned to normal. He also discovered his grandmother Eleanor inside his office. She had learned about the situation from his father and came rushing down worried about him.

" You should have mentioned it to me. I would have teached them a lesson. How could they treat my grandchild like that?"

" Calm down grandmother, it has already been resolved. We also got a huge deal out of it."

" Nonsense, You let them off scotch free! Should I buy the bank and fire everyone? Tell me. "

" It already enough. I can\'t believe I would find closure after all these years. It felt good." Abigail said.

" I don\'t think so. What they did to you was horrible." Manan, the Investment manager, said. He was also waiting with Eleanor for Samuel\'s arrival.

" It is enough to know that people still cared about me. I feel lucky to have good work environment here."

They talked about it for a while before returning to work. They must keep a minor setback from affecting their performance. Every second counts when you are in this business.

A few days later, two important news hit the market.