Chapter 23: Contract

We arrived at the Coopers' house.

"Boys, are you crazy? What were you doing? Took your father's bike, could have caused an accident," Mary says, crying. "I'm worried about Missy."

"Mom, I'm back home," Missy says timidly.

Missy is not to blame for what happened to her. Even though she doesn't know what happened, since her brother and cousin don't tell her, she can only tell the story they agreed upon.

"MISSY!" Mary rushes to her daughter, embracing her while sobbing on her shoulders.

Missy, with an expression as if she didn't expect this situation, with her arms raised and an impassive expression, soon understood what happened and said, "It's okay, Mom. I'm okay. Miky, Georgie Jr., and Connor came to save me."

Capturing the message Missy let slip last, Mary realizes something's wrong and raises her face to look into her daughter's green eyes and asks, "Save? Why did they have to save you? Did something happen?"

Missy nods in agreement and starts telling the story they agreed upon, excluding the weapons and deaths, which they decided not to tell Mary for obvious reasons.

After hearing Missy's story, Mary looks towards her sons and nephews and speaks with a trembling voice and tears streaming down her face, "Thank God you're okay. I'm so proud of you both. You were both very brave." She says as she hugs us, her arms trembling, showing how worried she was.

I pat her back, signaling for her to calm down, and then she lets us go and says with a smile, "Kids, dinner's ready. Come in before it gets cold."

After the situation was reported to Meemaw and George, they returned home worried. As for the authorities, they were looking for Missy's kidnappers. But even if they find the bodies, they'll link it to internal conflict or gang warfare, which has nothing to do with the victim's family. Of course, we had to go to the police station to give a statement, but that was it.

As soon as he entered the house, George Jr. lay on the bed and looked at the ceiling in shock, thinking about the man who died in front of him, the men he shot and killed. His hands were shaking. He got up, went to the bathroom, washed his face, and looked in the mirror, saying to himself, "What the hell did I do?"

Three months later

, George and I were in an office when Georgie whispered to me, "Are you sure about this?" I quickly responded, "Of course I am, I've had this appointment scheduled for months." I said in a casual tone.

"Months, but I heard Sheldon say you only started writing a few months ago?"

I remained silent for a while and then said, "Those are just details. What matters is that we're here!" I said confidently.

"I read your draft, it's a good book, but are you sure you want to go through with this? If they reject you, you won't give up, right?"

"Don't worry, they won't reject me. Not when a gold mine is knocking on their door," I said to George as we were called by a woman in a suit.

"Mr. Kenway?" I stood up, adjusting my tie, and replied, "Yes, that's me." The woman looked a little surprised, but quickly regained her professionalism.

Mr. Nigel is waiting for you in his office. Please follow me. I'll guide you there.

I followed the secretary, while George did the same nervously.

Upon arriving at the office, we found an old man sitting in a padded chair behind an oak desk.

I greeted him, "Mr. Nigel, pleasure to meet you. Thank you very much for taking the time to see us."

There was surprise in Mr. Nigel's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and said, "You must be Mr. Kenway, right? I heard you have something for me."

"Yes, I've written a novel and would like you to take a look," I said as I took the manuscript from my bag and handed it to the secretary next to me.

When the secretary reached Mr. Nigel and handed him the manuscript, he took it and adjusted his glasses, saying, "Let's see what we have here," and began reading the manuscript.

After some time, he adjusted his glasses and said, "I won't deny it, it's very interesting. Very promising, but I'll be honest with you. As a newcomer, I think you have a good writing. By the way, I noticed this is the first volume. Do you have the others?" I replied, "Of course. But I think we can talk about publication first?" I said with a confident smile.

He returned the smile and said, "I like you. Direct and confident for your age." "Of course we can," he said. "What do you think about us buying the copyright for $5,000?" "What? Are you kidding me? Copyrights, only for $5,000? Do you think just because I'm a kid you can take advantage of me, right? Then we're not having this conversation. I think some other publishers might be interested," I said as I got up, took the manuscript, and signaled for George to leave.

"Wait, maybe we can come to a consensus. What do you think? We don't need to be so extreme," he said. "Are you kidding? This manuscript is the best thing he's read in his entire life, even though he's a mid-level publisher. He couldn't miss an opportunity like this out of greed." "Gotcha, old man," I smiled and quickly disguised it, turning to face him and said, "Make your offer, I'll see if I'm satisfied with the contract." He quickly signaled for me to sit down and said, "Alright, Maisy, bring the level 1 contract for this gentleman," he said in a flattering tone, while commanding his secretary. "So, Mr. Kenway, do you have the other manuscripts ready?" I laughed and replied, "Not at the moment, but I have a general idea of what to write." I said as I sat down in the chair facing the desk and waited for the contract. "In case you try to cheat me, I have the full copyrights to the work, so don't even try to replicate it." "Of course not, that never crossed my mind, Mr. Kenway," he said as he adjusted his glasses. At this point, the secretary arrived with a contract.

After the contract arrived, we discussed a few things and settled on 10% royalties. The first edition of the book will have about 5,000 copies to test the market, the book will be published in two months, and for now, I'll have $20,000 in hand, plus the percentage. If the book does well, I won't have to worry about future projects anymore.

Soon after leaving the office, George, who was sweating buckets, said, "Connor, I'm sorry I couldn't help you in there. I really didn't understand half of what you guys were talking about," and I replied, "Don't worry, George, you were there as my legal representative. And don't worry about the money I received. We could have a better life. Of course, before that, I want to make some investments that can generate a good income in the long term."

George sighed deeply and said, "You don't need to worry about that. The money is yours. You can save it for the college you want, or even for when you get married," said George.

I sighed and said, "Alright. I just want to make the family that raised me happy," I said nodding my head. Soon, George got emotional and said, "As soon as you get married and have children, you'll have your own family."