The Royal Contract

The first option would be to proceed to the parking lot and ride his car far away from this place. But that would piss his father off, which would be bad for him. The other option would be to stay.

“Here we are, Mr. Andrews.” Finally, Alona informed him, hearing the dinging of the lift as it stopped at the lower level floors. “This is your floor. You are to report to Mr. Lee. He is already waiting for you.”

He expected he would work with the top executives on the upper floors. Therefore, he was surprised to end up at the bottom of the food chain.

He looked at the chaotic room, full of shelves, boxes, papers, and people who were busy stocking things, a position way below his pay grade. It was an insult to his social status.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” He furiously shouted, realizing that Mr. Alexander Blackstone had decided to play with his life. “You expect me to work in the mailroom.”

He looked around the room, shocked that his new boss would dare do this to a Senator’s son. If it had been a friend standing in his shoes and not him, he would applaud his boss for his balls. But at the moment, he could not find anything humorous about his situation.

.....

“Not me, but Sir Alex does,” Alona answered him, without a doubt, knowing what her boss had instructed her to do.

When her boss ordered her to do something, she never took it lightly, treating it as a delicate matter that she had to do with precision and accuracy. She did not want to make unnecessary mistakes that might cause her boss problems.

“You must be crazy.” Then, he stopped and corrected himself. “He must be crazy if he thinks he can force me to work down here,” Zach answered Alona, turning around to go back to the elevator.

He quickly pressed the button, waiting for the doors to open. He still could not believe that his father would agree to such insanity.

Then, he felt her presence beside him. “Sir, Alex said that you might say that. There is no need to return to his office once you set foot on that elevator.” Alona pointed to the inside of the lift when it simultaneously opened.

“What do you mean? Of course, I have to talk to him about this arrangement.” He looked at the secretary beside him, demanding an explanation.

“Once you set foot on that elevator or fail to report for the rest of the week to Mr. Lee, you are no longer working for Mr. Blackstone,” Alona told him as she stopped the elevator from closing and stepped inside.

She kept her hands by the door to prevent it from shutting as she waited for him to decide. She wanted to laugh at him because she believed he deserved it.

“Are you leaving or staying?” She had seen many self-entitled rich boys and even girls who thought they were the rulers of the earth, but, of course, they were just lucky to be born into such a family.

“Are you serious?” Zach looked at the elevator and gazed back at the other room, debating whether to leave or stay.

But he knew he could not get fired from this. His father had already given him an ultimatum. One more stupid stunt and he was cutting him out of his life. Could his father do it? He would not dare.

But was he willing to take that risk? What would happen to him if his father did? What did he know about being poor?

But if he did this, his father would continue to support his lifestyle until he received his trust fund, which was just a few months away. Then, he could go from there. So now, all he had to do was get through these two months of working under this man.

“Are you leaving or staying?” Alona asked again when he failed to answer the first time.

He turned away from the elevator and faced the room he would work on for the rest of the week. “Good choice.” He heard the woman behind her say before the door closed behind him.

“I must be crazy too.” Zach thought as he walked towards the room where the manager’s name was on the door.

But one thing was true about what Alex said. His clothing did match the workers down there. The only difference was that his clothes were much more expensive.

Soon, the manager welcomed him to the group. “It is great to have you join us, Zach.” Then, the manager escorted him to the receiving area, where the packages and mail were initially dropped off and picked up by the delivery trucks.

As if that was not bad enough, the manager asked him to wear a vest with the company logo while working on their floor. It seemed he had to learn every aspect of the job before he could transcend to the next level.

He believed working down here was an insult to his intellect. He would report his boss to his father for making a fool of him. But for now, he had no choice but to carry the boxes and bags of mail that his other boss had asked him to do.

It was not a hard job since he had been working his body in a gym. He could carry weights heavier than most of these packages. However, his situation was humiliating in his stature. He was the son of fucking high ranking politician. He should not be doing this.

“Once you have brought in the boxes, Miguel here will show you what else you need to do today.” The manager pointed to an older man. “He would guide you to most of your work down here.” His boss said as he left them and returned to his office.

He could only surmise that Mr. Lee would be calling the big boss and laughing about him. But he would prove to him that he was not giving up. Not when his future was on the line here.

“Zach, right?” The older man looked at him. “Call me when you are finished.” Then, he moved to the other side of the room, leaving him at the underground entrance.

He was not even aware of this place. But that was not relevant now. He only had to do this job without his friends knowing about it or the press. So far, nobody seemed to know who he was. They only called him Zach and nothing more.

“Sure, Miguel.” He answered, deciding not to make too much attention to him. The last thing he needed was for one of them to take his picture and sell it to the press or post it on the internet. That would ruin him.

“So, you are the new guy. I am Mario.” Another man approached him, putting his hand before him. “Don’t mind if you start here. Many without experience usually used this place as a stepping stone to promotion into a more suitable position.”

“Zach, the new guy.” He responded, taking the hand of the man. “How long have you been down here?”

Any information he could gather against his boss would be worth his while. He would dig as much dirt on him as he could find, much more, much better. He would not let Mr. Blackstone get away with tainting his reputation.

“A couple of weeks, but I had seen how the boss valued his employees.” He answered him, proud to be working in this company. “Let me know if you need anything. I am your guy.” Mario told him as he moved away to handle his obligation.

“You had made many mistakes, but we expected that since it was your first time working in the department,” Miguel told him, clapping him on the back. “It is time to go home. I hope to see you again tomorrow.”

The older man waved goodbye to him and proceeded to the elevator. He realized he had not noticed the time. But when he checked, his shift had ended.

He quickly dropped the vest and proceeded to the elevator, where everyone was already gathering, waiting for their turn to leave.

When he finally reached his car, all he wanted was to roll over on his bed and sleep. He had never felt this exhausted before in his life. Yet, he barely lifted anything heavy today. However, he had never done remotely similar to this.

“Where to, Sir?” His driver asked as he lay flat on the cushion of the backseat of his car.

“Home.” He answered that might have surprised him and even his driver.

He rarely came home to see his father, hating that he never understood him as his mother did. He only saw his failures but ignored his accomplishments. The only thing he had in common with his father had to be their hatred for each other.

They had always had this estranged relationship.