Symbol

"What will happen if the economy falls?" asked Eva with concern "Our house is very expensive, we could have problems"

"We won't have problems, in fact, it will serve us quite well" Smiled Christian "When the economy falls, all industries suffer, but we are just starting a coffee industry, we won't have so much blow, on the other hand those who have been around longer will have financial problems, with this we can eat their companies... we will attack everyone in our Coffee area"

"Maybe we will lose a few million dollars to keep the factories running and gathering products, but then it will all be recovered with interest."

"The people who suffer are only the ones with little money... when you are a billionaire this doesn't matter" With another sip, Christian continued "Our current stores will suffer setbacks, but since we gave the workers this week off and the stores will be closed to avoid damage with the protests, the damage will be minimal... and even if we do have damage to the stores, Aunt Sara insured them all against all kinds of damage, so it will work out fine"

"Christian... those suffering penniless people are just like us... don't you feel sorry for them?" With a complicated look, Eva asked.

"Of course I do... I don't forget that" Looking at the TV, Christian spoke softly "But it's something necessary... if we didn't bring this to light, it would continue to operate with impunity... what I'm talking about now is to take advantage of the problems... when life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade... that's what they say, right?"

"..." Looking at the boy with complicated emotions, Eva just nodded.

"I still don't understand why you talked about the statue of justice" Pointing towards the screen where they show the vandalism towards those symbols, Leslie interrupts.

"It's simple... in all these protest situations, symbols are needed... symbols of struggle, symbols of rebellion, symbols of hate, among others" Looking at the poster with his angry face, Christian smiled "I represent the symbol of struggle or justice, however you want to see it... that Epstein woman is the symbol of direct hate... but people always look for a culprit in power or something similar, it's always the person who has more power in the place, in this case the president"

"Let's take companies as an example...if an executive or any worker commits a crime or egregious mistake within the company, the highest person in the company suffers the blow, because even if they are not directly to blame, people won't care and will blame them with a thousand excuses... from the stupidest one like 'You had the power to stop it and you didn't' or 'You were the boss, you should know better'"

"The church, companies, countries, gangs... no one is spared from that, always the person with the most public power will get hit the hardest with these mistakes"

"In this case, I directed the hate towards the statues of justice, with the statue and Epstein, the whole symbol of hate is mostly covered"

"After all, we humans are nothing but animals who are carried away by the masses, may be some people have different mentalities during the protests, maybe some people hate the princes or the former president more, but as long as the majority hate those two symbols I gave them, it doesn't matter what those other people think"

"I also thought my last words in the speech carefully... I am Christian Grey and I always go with the truth first... after this no matter what I say, people will believe me from the beginning... until it is proven at some point that I have lied"

"I don't understand..." Eva whispered.

"It's simple, think of life as a video game... every time people see me, I'll get a 50 credibility point bonus, the maximum is 100.... as long as they don't find me a horrible lie, the bonus will remain and I will be a 'trustworthy' person to them."

"Sure, this is not something that can always be achieved, you need a lot of merit for it... but the merit I got is something that will be on record for a long time.... 'kid unmasks the country's elite', it's no small thing."

"How did you learn all this? Did someone teach you?" with curiosity, Leslie spoke up.

"No... I just learned it by observing" Christian replied "Always social protests have the same patterns, if you think carefully about it, you'll notice that people are quite predictable."

"I understand" nodded Leslie.

Picking up his cell phone, Christian dialed a number "Aunt Sara, how are you?"

"Hi Christian, everything's fine, I just saw the mess you left"

"I told you I was into complicated shit"

"I expected less" Sara sighed wearily "But so far you don't have any demands, I'll inform you of any situation"

"I'm not worried about that, I was calling her to find out if the auction will be held in 3 days or did they move it to another date with all this?"

"I was just talking about that, I called the people in charge of the auction and they say everything is going to continue to hold, the protest zones are pretty far from the site."

"So all good... Tia Sara, inject about $500 million into Starbucks, also could you tell me how much money we would be left with? Including books and sales"

"Give me a minute"

"Okay" Christian nodded, sipping his chocolate calmly.

"We made the trade for Netflix so a percentage of Facebook I won't count as money... if we count the money you get from books and Whatsapp sales, you have.... 7.25 billion in cash on cash, all this after deducting the 500 million you just told me and the purchases you've made lately, like the house, the protection service, among other things."

"Well..." Thinking for a few moments, Christian spoke "I want Uncle Jayden to invest about 500 million dollars in gold and precious stones, plus I want him to start a construction contract and look for the best architect he can to build my building, I will leave 1.5 billion for property purchases at the auction, if we come to need more, we add more... as for the construction contract, we can place a cap of one billion for now... with that I would be left with 4.25 billion... Will only that block be auctioned or will more properties be sold?

"More properties will be sold, but only properties within the United States."

"Well... we will buy the most interesting ones... tell uncle Jayden that the properties will start to drop in price in the next few months, I want him to buy as many houses and apartments as possible within the United States, plus I want him to look at the possibility of starting his own coffee plantations... he has 1 billion for all that" Holding his hand to his chin, Christian thought 'In a few more years marijuana should be legal.... we might as well prepare good land to grow it and win the industry.'

"I've got it all written down, anything else?"

"Yes... look for a better bank, the one we're at now doesn't give us any royalties, and they always lock us in for big purchases..... look for one that offers better rewards and interest percentage...also ask Uncle Jayden to look at land with fertile soil to grow Medical Marijuana in the future"

"Christian... that's illegal"

"For now, but in a few years it should become legal, everything points to that...I want to win that industry early"

"Fine" Knowing that the boy is never wrong about projects, Sara nodded "But we can't grow until it's legalized."

"It will take a few years, but we can set up the whole industry to be ready at the earliest time"

"I create a company for that? We can put a vague trajectory on it and when it's legalized we give it its real trajectory"

"Does it cost money?"

"Maybe a few bucks to maintain it, but it's next to nothing."

"Okay, leave the farmland purchases to the company and the name will be... Ignite"

"Okay, I'll do that in a few days, for now we have all the registrations locked in."

"When Uncle Jayden buys the gold and the other stuff, let him keep it in a safe inside the bank."

"Easy, I'll see to that... by the way, reserve the name 'Grey Corporation' and 'Grey Signature' is not an official record, but it will prevent someone from taking it"

"Will it give problems when constructing the building?"

"None."

"Well, for now I'll be working on Instagram and Tik Tok, so we'll have more dealings with Georgia, outside of that we're pretty much free."

"Christian, this year you have a lot of taxes to pay...about $600 million."

Opening his eyes a little wider, Christian sighed "That much?"

"Yes, you received a lot of money and you have a lot of properties, we passed the properties to the company's name, but the company pays about the same in tax."

"Any way to avoid taxes that borders on the legal?"

"This year you have no choice, with what you did they will be watching you, but in the future we can start diverting money to some offshore bank account."

"Is it legal?"

"It's your money, you can do whatever you want...then we'll talk in person about this"

"Fine, but do me a favor and get me an accountant to keep track of my expenses and pay my taxes" Christian nodded "That would be all Aunty, when you go to the auction give me a call, I want to hear what they are offering"

"Don't worry, your uncle Jayden already thought of that and hired one for his team, we'll be in touch, bye~"

"Bye" Hanging up the call, Christian looked towards his mother, who was looking at him in a daze "What?"

"So much money do you have?"

"Correction, you have" Pointing towards his mother, Christian smiled "I left almost all my money in your bank account, just in case all this mess involves me"

"When did that happen?" widening her eyes, Eva asked in disbelief.

"A few weeks ago, Aunt Sara is your legal attorney, she can do it without any problems, sure, you can sue her or something similar, but you wouldn't do that, would you?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" frowning, Eva asked.

"Because I knew you would refuse" Putting the cup down on the coffee table, Christian walked over to his mother and hugged her.

"..." Pursing her lips, Eva asked "What's this about Grey Signature and Grey Corporation? Besides what building are they talking about?"

"I will open a law firm in the future, Aunt Sara will manage it, plus I will put all our companies together and leave them under Grey Corporation.... as for the building, I will buy a whole block in New York, it will be our corporate headquarters."

"..."

"We will have our own family empire" Christian smiled, kissing his mother's cheek fondly "And you have to quickly get used to handling all this, because in the future you will leave the position as CEO of Starbuck's and become CEO of Grey Corporation."

"Family empire, huh..." Eva murmured, remembering certain words her mother had said.

"We're also going into real estate, that's why I told Uncle Jayden to start looking at properties, you may not know this, but he now has a team of 47 people researching the market for me, everything is simpler that way."

"Just don't overextend yourself or I'll have to lock you up" Sigh bitterly Eva "You said this was the last thing you did, but you already have that Instagram thing and Tik tok, the building, the firm...you never stop working and it will take its toll on your body"

"Easy mom, finishing the mock up of that, I make a deal with Georgia and she takes care of the apps, I just have to give her the idea and money" Smiling, Christian snuggled into his mother's chest "After that I'll be a total slob"

"I'd like that" Eva smiled slightly, wrapping her arms around the boy's back, while Leslie just watched everything calmly and quietly.

...

December 22, 2011.

Settling down on the couch, Christian places the cell phone on loud and smiles "We started shopping!"

"Somehow I feel excited" Eva smiled slightly.

"Aunt Sara, is everything all right?"

"Yes, I'm in my seat...now that I see the place, there are VIP rooms with closed glass...they didn't give me the option to get one"

"They're for powerful people..." Thinking for a few moments, Christian spoke "That must be where the Trump family is."

Something that surprised Christian, is that that family wasn't involved with Epstein, something he claimed happened in his old world, always seeing the blond, old man as a potential child molester.

"Now I feel nervous" With a slightly agitated voice, Sara spoke.

"We'll kick them in the face today, no one takes my building!" Christian exclaimed excitedly, already seeing the building of his dreams in front of his eyes.

"It's starting" Sara whispered.

"Good" Moving on the couch, Christian sits on his mother's lap and takes her hand "I'm in my lucky seat".