Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 185

Third POV

Hundreds of men and trucks started clearing out business goods and equipment late Saturday night. They loaded up the trucks and drove the goods to the pier, where the stock was loaded into containers and moved onto a waiting ship. They worked all night and through Sunday and continued until early Monday morning. Every business was cleared, and shops and warehouses were left empty shells, not even a scrap of paper left on the ground.

On Saturday night, not long after the local bowling alley closed, a group of young lads, angry with the owner for kicking them out too early, hung around the bowling alley throwing stones at windows and generally doing vandalism through boredom; they decided it was a good idea to torch the building. They watched it burn for a while before running when the fire department arrived, happy at the result.

Firefighters bravely raced to that side of the city. Unfortunately, people came out to watch the fire, unintentionally hindering the firefighters as they struggled to get the inferno under control. The blaze could be seen from the city as it lit the night sky. Later that night, as the fire department struggled with a blaze, a popular mall caught on fire, and as the firefighters were busy with a massive fire at the bowling alley, the firefighters had fewer resources to rush to the mall blaze. The fire ran rampant, and the fire crews struggled to get enough engines over to it; the traffic was banked up, and spectators filled the streets; it was early Sunday morning, and many people were out clubbing and came out to see the blaze nearby. Luckily, it started after the Mall was closed, and nobody was in the building. By the time the firefighters reached the mall, it was too late to do anything but try and keep the other buildings from being consumed by the raging fire. The heat was intense; soon, the roof of the four-story building collapsed, sending sparks into the night.

Michello POV

My phone rang, waking me from my sleep. It was early Monday morning, too early to get out of bed, and I felt like I had only just climbed in.

'Hello?' I answered groggily, not checking who was calling, thinking it was one of my men.

'Sorry to wake you, job completed; the businesses are all closed, either being emptied and goods taken away or razed to the ground. The voice was just as tired as mine confirmed.

'All traces of us gone?' I asked, sitting up in bed, now fully awake.

'Yes, nothing left, goods gone, banks closed, staff paid out. He said in a bored tone.

'Thank you for the call. Good work. The boss will be pleased. I hung up and called the banker.

His phone barely rang when his voice boomed over it, way too loud for me at that time of morning.

'I see all the businesses have sent me the message that all is done, bills and staff paid, places are closed, I have just completed sending all the funds to a secure location, and in the middle of tying up loose ends, you can consider all dealings in that country now closed.'

'I will let the boss know. Good job. He talked a bit more about what had transpired, and I hung up in a better mood; the clearing took less time than I expected. I am unsure about the fires, but at least they are gone, as he requested. I called Spider.

'Not yet.' Spider barked over the phone before I could even greet him.

'Keep your nickers on; I am about to call the boss. I just thought I had asked that question.' I joked with him, knowing it annoyed him.

'I have a plan in motion; could you give me more time?' He sounded desperate; it was a large ask of him to do in such a short time.

'The quicker, the better. I quipped back, just like our boss would have done.

'Before the week is out. He sighed, and I could tell this job was getting to him; it was a big ask, but it would be good for his reputation and future work if he could pull it off.

'Will inform the boss.' I was still in a good mood and hoped this news would please the prince.

I called the prince, one person I never like to call, even when it is good news.

'Speak. He barked out, his tone never varying when answering the phone the first time.

'Businesses closed, banking is done.' I replied strongly.

'Jail?' He asked in a more subdued tone.

'Working on it, hope to have something happening within the week. I was not sure what he could do, but if he said he had something in mind, that was enough for me.

'Goods?' I think he was making notes as we spoke.

'Ship sailed around four am.' I was not sure of the exact time.

'Losses?' The sound of him hitting the keyboard on his computer was now heard in the background.

'The mall and Bowling Alley.

'Bowling Alley was expected; the Mall might have been a necessary loss. By fire?'

'Yes.' What else could I say? Fire was the only option in that case.

'Keep me in the loop regarding the jail,' he hung up. There was no great job or pats on the back. He was the type who expected a job done and only growled when it was not done. I cannot say I remember more than a couple of times in the years I have known him, complimenting anyone for the job done.

Too worked up to go to sleep, I decided to call Maria.

'Hello, I answered in a weepy voice, and I could hear all I needed to know in her voice.

'Just checking in. Are you nearly home?'

'No, still a couple of days sailing! She sniffs back.

'Hang in there, not long, and you will be safe.' I encouraged.

'Any news?' I was afraid she would ask this, but I had to tell her sooner or later.

'He did not make it; he passed early in the night. She wailed, and I had to pull the phone from my ear as I waited for her to compose herself again.

'Sorry, I know I should have expected that, but confirming it makes it harder. Did he suffer?'

'No, he never regained consciousness. I replied that she is still the old boss's wife, has been around for a long time, and has seen a lot of action. To the boss's sadness, he had no children, but he took on many young men as sons and taught them over the years; it saddened him when he learned that Peter, his best chance of an heir, was in jail. He will not be coming out either; he knows the score. He might want to think he is different, but he is not. The boss blamed him for the fall of this section, and now he is the reason Horandeze is dead; the big boss won't let that go without punishment.

Peter was starting to get Horandeze in trouble with the prince. His filthy ways with women and how he treated his wife did not go down well with the prince. Once he found out about it, the prince rarely got involved with internal affairs or how one treats his wife; it is personal, but he got so many complaints about the sordid events he ran and how it was insulting to the syndicate that he was close to putting a contract out on him. Horandeze intervened and asked for time to go see him, and that was the end of Horandeze; he had hardly stepped foot in the country and was in hospital. The prince was fuming; his best man was gone, and the simp was an heir; no wonder he ordered the complete closure and to get rid of the so-called top of the tree. They were all into hurting their wives and making a fool out of the syndicate. The prince never liked or agreed with the wedding group; he was in the process of making sure it was closed down, but everything was gone now. Horandeze was the glue; with him gone, so is this side of the syndicate. Later, the prince will make a new group come and start again, but in honor of losing a good man, he is wiping out all he thinks is his downfall.

If Cynthia had lived and not gone the way she did, Horandeze would have taken her to his country and trained her to be the wife of the heir. Cindy, who was Peter's preferred woman, would have been removed.

The prince believed in marriage's sanctions, and Peter insulted it by taking on so many women.

The story I heard was that Cindy liked Peter so much and did not care that he was married, showed up in his room one night wearing only a see-through skimpy outfit, and offered her virginity to him. He happily took it while his wife Cynthia was in the room, forced to watch it.

I felt sorry for Cynthia; she was made into the vicious woman she had become because of Peter and his violent ways, thinking he was above everyone and believing he had the power he did not really have; it was all an illusion that could be snuffed away with one bullet. Cynthia spent time away many times, healing from beatings.

Peter was a big problem, which is part of why he had to marry Cynthia. Horandeze originally sent Bret, Peter, and his Dad to this country after his mother died from an overdose, thinking he was giving them a fresh start, the boys, to get better schooling, something that Peter needed if he was going to be a lawyer. But things went badly when Dad could not get off the booze after his wife overdosed on drugs; Horandeze had contact in the country he trusted, and he took the boys in, but it all fell in a heap somehow, and at the time, we could do little to help as we were in a little war of survival, some gang trying to muscle in so we had to forget about the lads for a while.

Peter kept getting in trouble with the law, as a lot of young hot-headed youths do, and getting married to a citizen was the way to stop him from being deported back to his place of birth.

I had lost contact with them for a while. Peter was supposed to be doing the final yet to become a lawyer; when things settled down here, Horandeze had Peter and Bret visit. However, only Peter continued to visit until Horandeze stopped having him come home for that final year. Bret never fitted in, and Horandeze was having trouble working out what to do about him.

I thought when they had a bright police officer named Peter to arrest the judge, it was our Peter, maybe undercover, to get closer. It was a brilliant idea, but Horandeze said it would not be possible, as Bob knows our Peter; you can't blame me for getting confused at the time or wishful thinking.

Peter was a confused young man who grew angry at the world. No matter how much Horandeze wanted him to be a good heir, he was never going to be. The syndicate heads did not like him and would most likely not last more than a few days as the boss, before someone put a bullet in him.

I think Horandeze realized that he had failed to help the two lads. Peter was not going to see the light of day. Horandeze was going to get rid of him himself after he had dealt with Peter's humongous failure, which cost him his life.

If his last words to me were true, Horandeze died with a broken heart over that failure.