They hated the Windsor family for getting such a huge opportunity. Even though they had implied on various occasions to Marico that they wanted to be a part of his new business, Marico had ignored their good intentions essentially slapping their faces red metaphorically.
They didn't even consider how illogical the reason for their hatred of Windsor family was. Blinded by jealousy and driven by fear, they were manipulated into going against Windsor family by the leader of the Hunter family who was in fact trying to save his own hide for having designs on the Windsor family in the past when Marico was weak.
If these families knew what Marico was thinking after achieving such an overwhelming success, they would definitely spit out a few liters of blood and die on the spot.
"This isn't it. I don't think that we have even scratched the surface of the business potential that this sugar holds. We need to work harder and expand further than our ancestors could imagine. I want to bring in a new era of prosperity where the Windsor family would be the new overlords of the city. It's time the city underwent a power shift after staying dormant for so long."
Marico was unsatisfied with this little achievement and wanted to achieve even more. He laid out his concerns and his wishes for the future to Violet who had been as much responsible for the current success as himself. She had proved to be an effective manager capable of producing results which sometimes exceeded his own. She was definitely a talent and under his honing was like an uncut gem finally revealing its brilliance.
"We don't have the capital to reach more markets at the moment. With the capital we have accumulated from the sales of sugar this time, it might be possible for us to expand our business to a few more cities in the vicinity if we strain ourselves. But managing such a widespread business requires trusted individuals. Our family is at the cusp of achieving great success and we can't afford any mistakes that might put a stop to our steep rise. We can't trust any outsiders; which means that the decision to expand would have to wait until we earn ourselves some good reputation." Violet felt that her father was overly enthusiastic and had become incapable of straight and logical thought process. Therefore, she became the reality check that her father desperately needed.
Marico on the other hand didn't feel that his hopes were far-fetched especially when the business idea was as great as the one he had gotten his hands on. Moreover, he wasn't that far gone to invest so much into expansion at such a crucial stage. He only intended to delve deeper into far off markets in order to build the reputation of his family business.
"Who said I wanted to build more production facilities based in other cities? As you said, I can't put my trust in anyone at this crucial stage of business development. Don't think so little of me. I have been looking after this family for a long time. My intention is to explore foreign markets but I can send the produce from Byzantium city to other cities to be sold. I don't have to produce it there. We only need to strike collaborations with a few transportation businesses in order to help my project reach fruition."
Violet was convinced by her father this time as a scarlet hue covered her cheeks. She felt slightly guilty for underestimating her father too much. Although he hadn't shown his presence in the past few years and all the management of the family had fallen on Violet's shoulders, it didn't mean that her father had lost his edge. He was still cautious and diligent enough to produce exceptional results.
While Violet endorsed her father's plans, they both knew of the predictable hurdles in their plan to ship cane sugar to other cities. The other three families were surely going to interfere in their smooth business operation.
Hogan led the other two family leaders and approached the various transportation businesses in Byzantium city. Since the three families controlled most of the resources in Byzantium city and held enormous power among the government through their business influence on the economy, they were easily able to coerce the owners of the transportation hubs to do their bidding.
The three families forced the owners to reject any and all transportation requests from Windsor family or they would end up suffering the wrath of the remaining three families combined.
No one wanted to provoke the three families at the same time for the sake of profits or for a solitary Windsor family that might not even be able to retain their position for long considering the coalition of the three families that was working against the Windsor family with persistence reaching the level of shamelessness.
Neither land nor routes were available to the Windsor family.
Although Marico approached several transportation companies personally, none of the owners were even willing to meet him face to face. They not only refused to see him but they had passed down orders to all their subsidiaries to reject any and all orders from the Windsor family even if it was a pocket sized item of minimal significance.
Marico had expected to face some hardships considering the level of animosity he would garner from the other three families due to his new venture. But even he hadn't expected the resistance and retaliation from the three families to be so severe that they were unwilling to even leave him breathing space. They definitely wanted to strangle the Windsor family businesses so as to keep them from advancing ahead of them.
Although he tried to employ all the connections he had built over the years as the head of an influential family, but he couldn't drag the Windsor family out of their latest predicament. He had no choice but to suffer it all in silence since no matter where he went, the companies were unwilling to offend three influential families in favor of a single family that was on the verge of collapse just a few weeks ago.
Marico felt the water had crossed over his head and felt the need to call for help. But who to ask was the matter of grave importance. Firstly, he didn't want to reveal too much about his desperate efforts to someone who might use it against him in the future. And secondly, he couldn't trust anyone as the whole city seemed to be plotting against him. Choosing a person who would not betray him was of paramount importance at his critical juncture.
Therefore, there was no one else more suitable to help Marico other than Zach and the Luther family. He felt truly ashamed to be asking for help from Zach even though he had received so much help from him already. The business he was boasting about in front of the entire city had been handed over to him by Zach as well. And now that he had run into problems, he felt that he would look extremely incompetent in the eyes of Zach and his subordinates.
Despite the reluctance in his heart, Marico couldn't let things be and approached Bruce to seek help from him. During the time Zach was busy overseeing the construction of Greenland, Bruce had been acting as Zach's spokesperson.
Therefore, instead of finding Zach in the middle of the wilderness, Marico felt that it was far easier to talk to Bruce who was more approachable and was clearly in the know of the situation considering the fact that he had been sent to close the deal regarding the project on Zach's behalf.
Marico recounted the methods that the three families used to suppress the business activities of the Windsor family in a solemn manner.
Bruce listened to his struggle and dismissed his worries with a wave of his hand. The way he waved his hand implied his strong confidence in being able to solve the problem of the Windsor family. It looked like this little problem was nothing in Bruce's eyes.
At first Bruce had thought whether or not to inform Zach about the request of help he had received from Marico. But then he decided on keeping it a secret from Zach considering his penchant for goodness. Moreover, Bruce felt that Zach had greater things to worry compared to solving the little problems of Windsor family. Zach was not only looking after the entire construction project on his own but was also trying to come up with ways to increase the fighting prowess of his people on their island. Bruce was therefore reluctant to ask Zach for assistance when it was purely the Windsor family's own fault, that things had reached this point. It was their leader's incapability that led to the other families eyeing their business.
"Don't disturb Zach, he is currently busy. I will handle this." Bruce instructed Marico as he called for a servant to bring him something to write on.
The servant returned with a piece of parchment and an expensively fancy looking quill.
Bruce wrote a few lines on the piece of paper before folding it into a tiny square. He put it in one of the envelopes that he took out of his study table.
He sealed the envelope by dripping red colored wax on it and sealing it with the stamp of the previous Luther family.
Marico had long since known his identity so he didn't bother asking about the seal in his possession. He had already done his due diligence and knew that Bruce was probably seeking out his previous connections for help.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢