The Billionaire’s Desires

Nathan’s POV

The next few days were like a living hell for me. I broke a few bones and I lost a tooth that day. My whole body is covered in bruises and it hurts so bad. I could not move any part of my body for the next few days, I would never have survived it if not for Ray.

Raymond Hartford…

That is his name. I’ve heard of the Hartford’s, I know the role they play in our family, I had no fucking idea that I was going to be given my own personal Hartford. My dad never told me, neither did Gramps. If Ray had not mentioned his name to me, I would never have known that he is from the Hartford family.

Many years ago, several generations past, my great grandfather had adopted a young boy named Richard Hartford. He was visiting the orphanage like he always does, then he spotted Richard, sitting by himself, crying his eyes out because nobody wanted to adopt him. As a fifteen years old boy, he was already past the age to be adopted and the orphanage was looking for somewhere to ship him off to because he was becoming a liability for them, but my great grandfather never saw it that way.

My great grandfather saw potential in him, he saw his body structure and knew that he could be great and strong, and so he adopted him and raised him up, training him to be his personal assistant. Richard had taken his duties quite seriously, he exceeded expectations, and soon after his graduation, he became a personal assistant to my great grandfather, serving him loyally until his death. Ever since then, the Hartford’s have served my family for ages, serving them faithfully until two generations ago when the Hartford that served my grandfather quit on him. He resigned and abandoned his duties, leaving Gramps alone to fight his own battles and defeat his enemies.

That was the very first time that a Hartford had disappointed us, it had caused my grandfather so much pain and anger, making him so furious that he canceled our deal with the Hartford’s, sending them away in anger. Instead of resolving whatever issue he was having with the Hartfords, he had chosen to replace them with the Mafias. My father never had a Hartford by his side when he was in charge of the family’s empire. He had used the Mafia Lord, just like Gramps, he never bothered to find out what had happened with the Hartford’s, he had simply gone along with what his father had told him. He is not an inquisitive person, he doesn’t delve deep into an issue or ask too many questions. That is why he never did anything to my uncle and my cousin. He chose to keep silent and let it all slide down his back.

But I have vowed not to be like him, in any way. There is a connection between my grandfather’s secret and his fight with the Hartfords. It all happened around the same period of time, it all seems like a random occurrence, but I know that there is a connection between all of it, I’m just missing a piece of the puzzle, a very important part of the puzzle. Something must have happened between Gramps and the Hartfords, I think it has something to do with the secret he has been hiding from everyone, the same secret that Travis had discovered and is now using to blackmail him. I need to find out what really happened between my grandfather and the Hartford’s. Knowing everything that happened between them could help me find out the secret that Gramps is hiding.

I need to get out of this Island, there is so much I need to know, so many questions that need answers. But first, I need to get out of this island. I need to concentrate on getting well don’t can stop leaving clues for the enemies to use and find us. Raymond has set up a perimeter along the path, he had used some things to distract them in their search, we stayed holed up in that cave for two weeks, then we had to change location because they found our cave. Every night, he pulled me along with him, trying to save and protect me from those bloodthirsty killers. He kept changing our locations just to keep them distracted, it was so hard to keep up with him, but I had to, our lives depended on it.

“Why are you helping me, Ray, as far as I know, our families have not had any dealings for over two generations, why did you come here?” I asked him, earning a scowl from him as he scoffed at me. We were scouting the perimeter together, after I recovered from that incident, he doesn’t let me stay alone, he takes me along with him whenever he is leaving our campsite. He thinks I may pull a stunt like that again, he must think that I am stupid enough to try something like that again. I had almost died, it had taken me more than two months to recover from all that beating. Yet he thinks I’m stupid enough to try something like that again. I may be desperate to leave this island, but I certainly do not have a death wish. It’s so obvious that those guys are never going to listen to me, they live by a code and they keep to their code of conduct.

“Come on Ray, it’s been more than two months since you told me your name, hell, it’s almost three months even. I may not know much about our family’s dealings, but I know about our fallout and I know that my grandfather cut all ties with the Hartford’s. Why are you helping me when you have no reason to, are you trying to get the families back together, are you trying to redeem yourself before us?” I asked him, causing him to stop and turn to glare furiously at me.

“My family did nothing that required redemption from you guys. We are honorable and we keep to our promise, that is why I’m here. I owe you no fucking explanation, if you want to know what really happened between our families, you will have to come out of your pretty boy shell and carry out real investigations. You can’t sit in your pretty house, screwing your pretty girlfriend, or should I say pretty wife, and you except every secret and information to be presented before you, that’s not how things work, Mr. Trent.” He told me mockingly before turning to continue his movement, moving further away from me.

“You know everything, don’t you? You know exactly what happened between my grandfather and yours, why won’t you tell me, do you feel ashamed of your family’s mistake, did your grandfather betray the promise made by your ancestors, is that why you are helping me?” I asked him mockingly, pushing him to say what he knows. I think I pushed him a little more than necessary, he turned around and punched me in the face, shifting my jaw the other way.

“You have no right, no right at all to say such rubbish about my grandfather. I risked my fucking life for you, at least show some appreciation and stop blaming my family unjustly as your grandfather did. He gave the orders and my grandfather complied with his orders like all Hartford’s do, it’s not his fault that your grandfather is a heartless, vengeful man, who wouldn’t let go of his grudge against his friends. If there is anyone to blame, it’s your grandfather, he gave the order, and later on, he blamed my grandfather for listening to him and carrying out his instructions. We never betrayed the Trent’s, we honor the promise made by our ancestors, we swore to serve the Trent’s until our dying day, we would give our very lives for the Trent’s, that was our promise and we have always kept to our promise down to this day until your grandfather let his emotions becloud his judgment.

He gave an order that he wasn’t supposed to, and when his conscience throbbed him, he turned around and blamed my grandfather for his mistakes. To add insult to injury, he went ahead to replace us with the Mafia Lord, as if the can do half of the jobs that we do for your family. I see you dining with Costello every other day, why did he not see this coming, why did he let you get trapped in this fucking hell hole?” he asked in that same mocking tone that passes me off. I get that he is pissed off at my grandfather, and talking about it right now just opened up old wounds, but he doesn’t have to remind me of my mistakes too, does he? He doesn’t have to remind me of my present condition because I know that I’m here because of my stubbornness.

“If you must know, Costello knew something was up, he knew they were planning something and he tried to warn me not to go, but I chose not to listen.” I retorted defensively, trying not to look so daft and stupid.

“Too bad, Mr. Travis. Too bad. You know, while your Mafia lord was busy distributing his hard drugs around the city, your enemies were sabotaging your planes, ruining your every chance of escape. If you had worked with the Hartford’s, we would have told you all that, and we would have gotten you home safely.” He let out smugly.

“Fine, I was wrong. I should have used the Hartford’s and I should have at least tried to find out why our ties were severed. But that’s water under the bridge already. It’s all in the past now, if you really want to help, you can start by telling me what happened between your grandfather and mine.” I responded calmly, causing him to scoff and snicker at my words, glaring dangerously at me.

“Did you just say if I want to help?

If I want to help?

You ungrateful son of a bitch!!!

I boarded that fucking plane, replacing your copilot who by the way is still holed up with my boys at a basement downtown. I knew that plane was going down, yet I got on it just to save your proud, sassy ass. And you fucking stand there, spitting out trash to me.” He yelled at me, his eyes blazing in anger.

“Fine, its already been established, you still care enough to come to save me. But don’t forget, we are stuck on this island together, we still have no idea if we would be leaving here alive. My grandfather has been hiding this secret from the entire family but someone knows about it, someone is using this secret to blackmail him, that is the reason why he sent for me urgently. You have helped me get to this point, the least you can do is to tell me what all this is all about. I never asked questions before, that is why I’m stuck here on this island. But now I’m asking the questions and I need you to answer me truthfully, what happened between my grandfather and yours that caused the separation between the two families? “he looked at me intently, like he was weighing his options, considering if he should tell me the truth or not. He moved forward and sat on a huge fallen tree that lay close by.

“Are you waiting for an invitation or what?” he asked me sternly when I didn’t follow him to sit down on the tree. I chuckled softly before going to sit next to him, waiting patiently to hear what this whole secrecy is all about. He turned to gaze at me for some seconds, I could tell that he doesn’t really want to tell me what he know, but I’m not letting him off easy. He ain’t got a choice, he has to tell me everything he knows, I can’t be left in the dark, not anymore.

I sat there patiently and listened as he told me a story that was just too hard to believe. My grandfather had been in love with a girl called Elsa. My grandfather never told her about his feeling for her, he kept it hidden, waiting for the right time to tell her exactly how he felt about her. But he had been too late, his best friend Conor was also in love with her and Conor beat him to it, snatching Elsa away from my grandfather.

I have always wondered how we ended up in New York City when the rest of the family settled in the Caribbean. It turns out that my grandfather had been too heartbroken to stay back and watch his best friend dating a girl he loves, so he had left the country and settled in New York and there he met my grandmother and they both got married, but his heart never left the Caribbean. He still loved Elsa, even after getting married to my grandmother.

Although he loved my grandmother, he still couldn’t forget about his first love, he felt angry at his two best friends, he wanted to hurt them, he wants them to feel the pain and hurt that he felt before leaving this city. He couldn’t bear seeing them happy, he got even more jealous when they finally had a child together. He orchestrated the kidnapping of their grandchild, a little girl who lost her mom during childbirth. He had sent Raymond’s father to take the little girl away from home and put her in an orphanage, leaving her to face this world on her own. A few months after the little girl got missing, Elsa fell sick because of the pain and heartbreak. That was when my grandfather started to feel regret for what he had done.

He watched as his best friend fell into depression and got confined into a mental institute because she couldn’t bear the pain anymore. First, she had lost her only daughter, and now her granddaughter is missing too. It was all too much for her to bear and it broke my grandfather’s heart. He knew it was all his fault he knew he shouldn’t have kidnapped the little girl and he regrets his actions, so he ordered Raymond’s grandfather, who had been his personal assistant at that time, to go back to the orphanage and get back the girl and bring her back to her family.

Mr. Hartford, Ray’s father had taken the little girl very far away to a foreign country, he was following his master’s orders and he didn’t want them to find the girl. But when he went back to get her back, he couldn’t find her anymore because the orphanage had found a home for her and they could not locate the family that had taken her into their care.

When my grandfather heard that the girl was missing, he flew into a rage, blaming Mr. Hartford for not being careful enough. Ray’s grandfather had tried to search for the girl, but he couldn’t locate her, he managed to find the family that took her, at least he found their bodies. They were involved in a ghastly motor accident that took their lives and nobody knows about the little girl they just adopted. There was nothing Mr. Hartford could do, the little girl had slipped through their fingers. He reported back to my grandfather, but he just would have it. He had put the blame on him, cutting all ties with the Hartford’s completely.

“That is what happened between my grandfather and yours, your grandfather couldn’t bear the guilt, so he shifted the blame to my grandfather, breaking the bond between us. It was all his fault, his!” he said in a pissed-off voice, his eyes red with anger. I can feel his pain and anger, it’s exactly how I feel right now. I could recall a couple of times that I got a stern warning from Gramps whenever I do something bad, he never fails to discipline us strictly when we go wrong. He is always acting all high and mighty, being so self-righteous. How could he be so wicked?

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This is so unbelievable. I can’t believe that my grandfather had been so heartless as to kidnap an innocent child, just after she lost her mom. Now I know why he had given in to Travis, now I know why he keeps being sentimental about aunt Elsa. I thought it is because of his friendship with uncle Conor, I had no idea that he is the cause of her problems, how could he have the heart to go and visit her in that mental institute when he knows that he is the reason why she is there in the first place. It’s been almost twenty-five years and that little girl had not yet been found, and our families are yet to reconcile our differences.

But this doesn’t explain why he is still helping me, he should be pissed off at me, he should be so damn pissed, why the hell is he helping me? I guess I’ll have to wait until he feels like telling me everything. He is still holding back, I don’t know why, but I guess he still doesn’t trust me completely. I’ll have to work hard to earn his trust, I’ll have to make him see that I’m nothing like my grandfather.

“How did you know about Hillary and I?” I asked him, once more. He smirked down at me, making me feel really so stupid.

“You’ll be surprised at all the information I have about you, Nathan. You try to live a very quiet life, but you end up leaving so many clues about yourself, making it so easy to get information about yourself. I won’t tell you how I know about your relationship with Hillary Futon, but all I can tell you right now is that her life is also in danger, she’ll be killed pretty soon by the same people that put you here. I keep wondering how you would defend her when you leave this place, you couldn’t even hit one guy the day you got beaten, not even one guy. You’re so pathetic.” He spat out disgustingly. Although I hate to admit it, but he is actually right. The thought of Hillary is all that keeps me going, she is all I live for. I don’t know what I’ll do if anything ever happens to her. I need to be able to protect myself, only then will I be able to protect her as well.

“Teach me…” I muttered softly, causing him to raise his brows in question.

“Teach you what?” he asked curiously, looking me straight in the eyes.

“Teach me how to defend myself, teach me how to be strong.” I told him boldly, fixing him the same stern look he always gives me. I think I look like a clown right now.