Chapter 1

I finally go home to my girls. They all have jobs except Crystal. She has a baby girl she has never told me about. When I find out about my daughter, I sware never to go into harm’s way again. Between The fucked up shit I had done, Syria, sinking the ships and the French prison, my head isn’t in a space where I am capable of raising a daughter. I have some thinking to do and need some time to myself. The girls understand. There are a lot of deaths I need to answer for.

Part of me feels terrible for, yet again, abandoning those I love. This time, when I leave, it isn’t to deal with the world’s problems, play with vengeance or hide my less hospitable side. I am gone to get myself under control so I can become a good father and husband. As far as I am concerned, fuck the world. It can start taking care of its self. I have done more than my share. There is a chance for peace in the middle east, the world’s slave and drug trades are almost abolished, and it was time I leave all that and healed.

I decide I should live among the common folk, so I move to Calgary. I have never applied for an apartment before. When I find a place I like, and they give me the application, I have no clue what to write. I have no references from a previous landlord, and I spent most of my time between a dozen mansions. Heck, I can’t tell you the addresses for all the homes I lived in for the previous five years.

I make a quick phone call.

“Hathor Holding’s, President Yakamoto’s office, Sheril speaking.”

Hathor Holding’s(HH) is the holding company I made to take care of all my other companies.

“Hi, Sheril. It’s Trent”

“Good Day, Mr. Brown. How can I help you today?”

“Dam it, Sheril. I told you to drop the formality and call me Trent. Mr. Brown is the asshole that calls himself my father. I know I can be an asshole sometimes, but I am a selfless asshole, not the selfish asshole the name reminds me of.”

My vocabulary isn’t always the best, but I talk in a friendly tone. Vocabulary is only a small fraction of what is being conveyed when you speak. My employees all know I care about them by my tone and actions.

“I’m sorry, Sir. Sakura insists I am formal with everybody.”

“Remind her how she got the job and that we are a family. Now stop with the Sir, bull shit.”

“OK, Trent. I’m sure you phoned for something other than to give me crap about how I address you. What can I do for you.”

“You have probably heard that I have gone off the grid.”

“Ya, you have a few of us worried.”

“There is no need for that. I’m fine. I just have to ground myself. I may come back in an unofficial capacity, but I set everything up so I will not be needed for a reason. The companies will go on without me.”

“We are worried about more than just the companies, si ... Trent”

“Having been top dog for so long, I have forgotten how the average person lives. I can’t even fill out the dam application to rent an apartment.”

“Please, tell me that isn’t why you phoned.”

“No, I found a workaround. I need you to buy the company that owns the building. Then have it passed down to the building manager that I am moving into suite 219. He isn’t to know that I own the place. Tell him I paid a year in advance.”

“Christ, Trent. That isn’t learning how the average person lives.”

“It is either that, or you find the addresses of every place I lived in the last five years. And, somehow, find a way to explain my two-month stay in La Santé Prison, all without giving away who I am.”

“What is the address of the building so I can find out who owns it.”

I gave her the address, and we socialize for a while. I direct the conversation to her family. I like to know all I can about my employees. It is important to make them feel loved. I know what it’s like to live years where nobody cares and wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Besides, an employee that feels like the company cares and that they are valued is a loyal employee.

After a while, she brings the conversation back around to me.

“If you want to understand how the average person lives, Does that mean you are looking for a job?”

“Ya, But I have never applied for one before. I have always just owned the company. I wouldn’t know how to go about getting a job.”

“How about I make some calls? What do you want to do?”

“I’m done being the brains, and I have few skills other than engineering and business management, so those are out. Anything brainless but not tedious. Heck, I wouldn’t object to cleaning toilets.”

That is how I got the job as a Janitor for the head office of a Canadian oil company.

I went from mansion hopping, to settled in a cozy apartment, from the richest man in the world to a janitor, overnight. Given how I got my start, disowned by my family and living in a northern village in British Columbia, Canadian, I never felt right living as a billionaire.

As a janitor, people often don’t see you. I mean, they see you, but they act like you aren’t there. You would be surprised some of the things people do around you, simple things like grabbing the secretary’s ass. They wouldn’t do it when anybody else was around, but somehow the janitor doesn’t matter. With conversations that they would stop, if any other employee entered the room, they don’t stop when they see the janitor.

Being the janitor taught me a lot about the inner workings of the company and how to improve it. It was funny to watch. I would overhear things, then phone Sheril. Two business days later, somebody in middle management would be pissed off because he didn’t get his way. I didn’t do it too often. I viewed it in the same light as helicopter parenting. People need to make mistakes to learn. At the same time, it is a company and needed to make money.

I did run into another problem. I am the janitor, and nobody makes friends with the janitor. I am going to work, snooping around, then going home and doing nothing. I need a hobby, but I am in a rut, so I am not looking for one. This goes on for a few months.

Having nothing to keep my mind busy, I start to get moody, and when that happens, I tend to overreact or do some silly shit that I later regret. As a janitor, I see most everything. At first, I let silly shit go, but the longer some things go on, the worse it gets.

There is this one guy in particular. He thinks he is a real lady’s man. No matter how a woman tells him to fuck off or stop grabbing, he just pretends they are playing hard to get. One time he is grabbing the tit of the new girl who is just out of high school. She is young enough to be his daughter.

I step in and remove his hand. He tries to swing at me, but I duck and step back. Then I say, “Can’t you see that she wants nothing to do with you?. Maybe you need to learn how to listen when a woman tells you to back off.”

He snarls, “Fuck off. Who asked you anyway?”

The next day I get called into the HR office. Not sure what was up, I go to HR reception, and they ask me to have a seat. I get called in to see Mr. Harison. After sitting there for 20 minutes, He comes out and gets me, walking me to his office.

I sit down, and once he sits, he asks, “Can I please have your keys?”

“Why? Am I being fired?”

“Yes, We have received reports about you doing inappropriate things with some of the ladies that work here.”

It takes me all of two seconds to realize what happened.

“Let me guess, Charles reported me.”

Charles is the womanizer I caught molesting the teen.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t divulge that information.”

“You can, and you will. My work records here don’t have my real name. They have my alias.”

I dig out my wallet and hand him my driver’s license.

“My real name is Trent Brown. If you don’t know who I am, google me. I own this company.”

“Hathor Holdings owns us.”

“Hathor Holdings is not a publicly-traded company. I started it to take care of my business empire, so I didn’t have to. I still own a controlling interest. In other words, I own this company.”

“Then why are you the Janitor?”

“That is my business. Are you going to google me or do I have to fire you?”

He starts to speak again, saying, “I’m sorry but...”

Before he gets the first word out, I pulled out my cell phone.

“Hathor Holding’s, President Yakamoto’s office, Sheril speaking.”

“Hi, it’s me.”

“Hey, Trent. What’s up.”

“More silly shit.”

“Oh.”

“Ya, they are firing me without grounds, and I gave the asshole in HR my real ID so he could see I’m telling the truth, but he is too fucking stupid to look me up.”

Sheril laughs, “I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t laugh. Do you want me to chat with him.”

“He won’t recognize your number, nor will he know who you are. Can you have our Canadian division give CNRL’s HR a call? Have them ask for Mr. Harison. He should recognize their number. At the least, he should be able to look up their number to confirm they are who they claim. Be quick with the call. I think he is calling security to have me thrown out.”

He is calling security as I am mentioning it.

When I get off the phone, so does he. Before he has a chance to say anything, I said, “Have you ever heard of the term ‘due diligence’?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Due diligence is looking up who I am when I ask you to, instead of acting like a fool and calling security. Were I to act like any other billionaire, you would be fired. As it stands, you will not receive your next raise.”

I think he is finally starting to understand that I am who I say I am, and he looks worried. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean anything. Many businessmen are taught to hold off making a decision until the right time, and once a decision is made, don’t veer from it, even if it turns out you are wrong. Somehow, that piece of bad advice has made many people rich.