Chapter 8 Just One Sign

• Chapter - 08
• "My daughter... I have something I want to discuss with you," The man walked into the room and gestured for the doctors to leave.
• "Umm..." Thea nodded and tried to stand up, seeing her so-called father, but the man stopped her.
• "No need to get up. Here..." The man forwarded a file towards Thea.
• "What is this?" Thea asked, taking the file.
• "Queen Family Assets," Thea looked at the name on the file. Thea looked at the file and then towards the man, "Queen?"
• The man smiled and nodded, "You are the heiress of the Queen family."
• "Ahh... The Queen family," Thea nodded her head, but soon her eyes widened, "The...The QUEEN family?" Thea asked with her voice shaking, 'It can't be that Queen..'
• When the man saw Thea looking at him with those shaky eyes, he nodded with a meaningful smile affirming what she had in her mind.
• Queen Family? Are you kidding me? What was the Queen family? Everyone in the world and not just the city has heard of the Queen family. They were said to be one of the wealthiest families in the world if not the wealthiest. Mind you, not the wealthiest man or woman, but the wealthiest family. A man's wealth can be limited, but the wealth and power of a family? No one can match it.
• From needles to guns and matches to rockets, the Queen family dwelled with everything that could be seen around them. If one were to walk around the street, the number of times they could come across something that belonged to the Queen family was like the number of hair on ones head. Be it a shop, mall or skyscraper. Be it phones, cars or aircraft. Anything one could think of, a high chance was that it could have been made by the Queen family.
• But the more popular the Queen family was, the less people knew about the family itself. The Queen business group, in face, was managed by a team which had nothing to do with the family. The family was a mystery, but ordinary people hardly cared about it.
• But for Thea, it was a bombshell. No matter how hard she tried, Thea could not wrap her head around the surprise she just got. The man, on the other hand, continued to look at Thea without disturbing her. He knew it would have been hard for the girl to come to terms with the sudden revelation. Not every day do you become a member of the richest family with a snap of the fingers.
• "How come..." Thea wanted to know how she suddenly became a member of the Queen family. Her past, her present and even her future looked false.
• "Your grandfather," the man knew what Thea wanted to know. So, without letting Thea complete it, he spoke up, "He was against my marriage to your mother. I married her without the consent of my father. And I did face the consequences for it," The man started to narrate.
• "How...?" Though Thea did not believe the man to be her father, she was still somewhat interested in the story.
• "I left my house with your mother. Both of us, lived together away from all ther," The man looked around the room. He was referring to all the luxury and wealth around them, "We were not that rich, but we were happy."
• "... And slowly but steadily, we had also started to build a comfortable life for ourselves," There was a smile on the man's face as he reminisced about the past.
• "But at that time, a couple of years after we had left this house, my father... your grandfather called us. He wanted us back."
• "That's a good thing. He must have missed you," Thea sincerely spoke.
• But the man shook his head and smiled helplessly, "We thought the same. Though I had my reservations, but your mother... She was more than happy. She had always blamed herself for the drift between me and my father. So, she wanted us to get back and reconcile." The man explained.
• "So we decided to move in here."
• "It must have been nice," Thea asked with a sad smile on her face. Unlike the happy ending in front of her, he had just had the worst day of her life. Her boyfriend just dumped her, and she was slapped with a million dollars settlement on her face.
• "Huh… It was the biggest mistake of my life." The man said and sat beside Thea.
• "Because not long after that, your mother left me." The man with a helpless sigh told Thea.
• "Left you? Why?" Thea suddenly found herself at the edge of the bed.
• "I don't know..." The man shook his head, "I was on a business trip, and when I got back, all I had left was a letter from your mother."
• "When I asked your grandfather. He did not tell me anything. I knew he was behind it all, but I could not say anything."
• "I wanted to leave this house, but if I left, I wouldn't have the resources to find your mother. Thinking about that, I continued to work tirelessly, hoping to meet your mother some day."
• "So, did you find her?" Thea asked.
• The man shook her head, "Every time I got a clue about her whereabouts, I was a step late to find her. It was as if someone was helping her hide."
• "I searched for her for years, but even I am just a man. I lost hope along the way. And after that, all I had in my life was this business that I have worked hard to expand to keep me occupied."
• "But maybe the gods have not forsaken me," the man smiled," I finally had a piece of good news," the man smiled tenderly, looking at Thea, "I had a daughter."
• "It must have been hard on you," the man suddenly skipped the story he was telling, "But let me compensate for all the hardships you have suffered. It's time to change everything."
• "... Open the file," The man asked of Thea.
• Hearing the man," Thea nodded and slowly opened the file. It was a tabular list. The table had only two columns in it. Company and shares. What the hell was that? Thea scrunched her nose in confusion.
• "This is the list of companies the Queen family has shares in," the man explained.
• " Queen Pharmaceuticals, 100%," Thea understood at once what the man was trying to say.
• "All the subsidiaries of the Queen family business are owned entirely by the Queen family," The man said.
• "Meta, 43.6%," Thea skipped a few pages of Queen family assets and finally saw the first company the Queen family did not own entirely.
• "Blue Origin, 47.3%," Thea remembered hearing about this one a lot lately. This was an aerospace company making the buzz around town, claiming to send people into space as tourists. The Queen family was a shareholder in the company? In Thea's head, it was nothing but ruthless.
• Thea was more shocked by every name he read. They were all big companies around the world. Amazed, Thea continued to turn pages one as he went through the companies before he abruptly stopped at one name.
• "Ocean City, 63.9%," Thea murmured to herself. Wasn't this the same restaurant chain she worked in? The Queen family partially owned it? Thea could not help but look up at the man.
• "I know what you went through," the man put her hand on Thea's shoulder and said. And with just those words, all the memories of the humiliation she suffered today came back to her. Unknowingly her fingers flexed, and her palm made a fist.
• "It is unexpectable for you, my daughter... to go through all of it in your own backyard," the man looked at Thea with pity.
• "... But all of it can change with just a single sign," the man extended a pen towards Thea and turned the file to the last page. It was some sort of document.
• "Just one sign," The man said again.
• "Just one sign?"
• * * * * *