15 Ulterior motive

The few people without ulterior motives he had met over the years, were the friends he had with him till now. He had met them at one of the parties he had to attend with his parents. It was at these parties that he started seeing the real intentions of people. It was like he could see the person who standing in front of him and behind them the person they truly were. These intentions were hidden in the eyes of the people in the upper circles of society and in their whispers. It could be seen in their actions towards the people at the top and their behavior towards those at the bottom. No one dared to say anything but praise to those who stood higher in the food chain and relieved their frustrations on those who were under them. This caused him to distrust people. He saw then how scary people can be. They smile in your face, but have a knife behind their backs. They will betray you the moment you fall from your throne.

Jason's parents did not want to expose him to this toxic world before, but now that Stephen had become president and Susan became the principal, they were forced to interact with these people more than ever and as Jason was to inherit all of this, he too had to get used to this world. Because like in the jungle, those who show weakness become the prey of those around. To prevent their son from getting taken advantage of, they allowed him to interact with children of their current business partners and the children of those whom they were planning to work with. If he bonded with them now, he could use these connections when he was in their positions. Plus he could learn who he could trust, now that they hadn't been fully corrupted by their parents yet. Who knew that these intentions would so misunderstood by Jason.

After attending more of these parties, Jason's walls became higher and higher. He saw how his parents were playing the game, just like everyone else. This mad him dislike the people they had become. As soon as they entered these parties he was hurried along towards the other children as they mingled with the other guests. Slowly he wasn't the person having to look up certain children, but they were coming to him. This was a display of the power shift that had taken place. As this happened the behavior that he witnessed became worse. Now not only children were coming to him to win his favour, but their parents did too. Showing their fake smiles and asking him to put in a good word to his parents, because he was supposedly such good "friends" with their children. Jason had never considered any of those children friends, just robots who were programmed by their parents to say certain words and ask certain questions.

Back then he just went along with it, as he got older and more tired of that behavior, he started ignoring them and now he had come to a point where he decided to torment them. To see if they would show their true character, to see if they would stand up to him despite knowing whose son he was or if they would continue groveling and remaining the fake persona's they had created for themselves. He wanted his classmates to rebel, to stand up to him, to file a complaint, but they did nothing. This angered him even more and turned him in the devil he was today. Showing no mercy to those who did not value their own dignity and were solely focused on the benefits a connection with Jason could bring. They thought if they did everything to please him now, he would surely help them when they took over their respective families businesses. Be it as a "friend" or as an acquaintance. Little did they know that this would merely make him despise them and let them end up on his hit list.

The only person who did not behave this way were his close friends, Harry Edwards, George Edmund, Elizabeth DuPoint, and the friend who had moved away to the USA Nick Richards. They were the children of his parents long time friends, so they had known him before all these changes. They too were used to the way of the rich and famous and did not approve of any of it, so they refused to go along with the rules of that society. It did help of course that they too were quite high up the ladder. Though they weren't as bad as Jason, they were no sweethearts themselves in these days. They were however among the few people who could act as a voice of reason to Jason. Because he knew they had no other motives, he trusted them and listened to their words or at least tried to. So when they saw situations getting out of hand, they would stop him in time to make sure he had a way back. After this time Jason was yet to meet another person like them, with pure eyes.