Chapter 66 Shopping

"How did you come up with this story?" The woman realizing that the boy did not want to speak directly, played along.

"As I said, I always look beyond what meets the eye, but you know what? I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows this sad story, but I think I'm the only one who has the heart to tell it, I don't like to imagine how those people who believed in the disguise got hurt... maybe I'll write a book about this sad man in the future, it would be an interesting story... maybe just so people who see things like this will dare to talk about it, and stop thinking only about the miserable money they earn"

"..."

Smiling for one last time, Christian took his leave " That would be all for today, thank you all for being polite, we will now retire so we can rest"

Taking his sibling's hands, Christian looks at his mother and nods, then turns to Professor Andrew who up until now was watching everything in silence.

Moving a little closer, Christian whispered in his ear "If you know the woman who works at Theranos as chief investigator... that woman with the last name Gibbons, tell her that, if she doesn't jump from that lie she runs, she will die with regrets... but if she decides to jump, that she shouldn't be stupid and keep proof of everything, or it won't do her any good"

With confusion, Professor Andrew simply nodded.

"Thank you all very much for your time."

With a final parting smile, the Grey family walked to the limo, and left the place, leaving behind a great deal of chaos over a little story told by a 10-year-old boy.

...

December 9, 2010.

A week had passed since that controversial event.

The life of the Grey family changed significantly, since that day the media around the world was constantly talking about the millennium child, even in the newspapers it was daily.

Most of the news was to show what an amazing American boy he was, where at only 10 years old he managed to win the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in mathematics, while constantly talking about his talent in writing.

The donations of 4 million dollars came to light, thanks to the fact that the people who received the donation did not miss the opportunity and sponsored their causes to get more money from the public, causing even more talk about the child.

But not everything was good, many people seriously took the story that Christian summarized, knowing perfectly well that the boy was attacking Henry Holmes.

In general, people criticized the boy, saying he was looking for press, or that the boy was simply jealous of the man, while most just said it was child's play, nothing more than a child speaking without knowing.

Even Henry Holmes came out publicly about the boy's statements, warning that he would not accept any more slander from a person, no matter how old they were. Threatening that, at the next similar situation, he would initiate legal action, something that caused annoyance in some people for his threat to a cute little boy.

Now in reference to what the child warned with his story, nothing substantial has come out, but Christian has no doubt that more than one person did take his words seriously, and that sooner or later, the truth will come out.

"Miss Georgia Koum, Miss Aurora Acton, this is Christian Grey, the investor I represent" With a professional smile in a luxurious restaurant, Sara introduced Christian, who was looking at the two women with a slight smile.

Looking at the boy in front of them, the women looked at each other doubtfully, but then Georgia looked at the boy seriously and spoke "Hi Christian, your lawyer told us about an investment and app support, I'd like to know what it's about"

"Straight to the point, I like it" Smiling, Christian his laptop and opens it, so that 5 minutes later, he gets a little closer to the woman, and shows the screen "I was researching your app, and the idea that a person can know if someone is available or not, is interesting but lacks importance really, that's why I think we could merge it with my idea"

Showing the screen, Christian runs a program, and a simple messaging program is displayed.

"Messaging, plus status information and connectivity, an application that can bring the whole world together" Squeezing certain sides, Christian shows in his project he already merged the two applications "As you can see, I already put our two ideas together in one mockup."

Grabbing the boy's computer, Georgia quickly glides through the program, instantly noticing the boy's brilliant idea.

"I did some research on you, you both have careers in major tech companies, that gave me the confidence to contact you to strike a deal" Looking at Aurora Acton, Christian spoke "I would like to merge our ideas and create a more complete and useful Whatsapp, at the same time giving an investment in your small partnership"

Finishing reviewing the boy's program, Georgia turned to Aurora and nodded with a serious look, then turned to Christian and spoke "I find your idea brilliant, plus I heard a lot about you lately, the boy genius... that gives me the confidence to believe in your abilities, but I have a question... how much will your help cost us?"

"I want us to split the company in 3, if we count that it is 100% based I will settle for receiving 32%, I am not interested in being the majority investor."

"..." Frowning, Georgia and Aurora look at each other doubtfully.

"At the same time, I would like us to prevent other people from entering this project, leaving everything just between the 3 of us as founders... we won't need investors, because as you may know, I have enough money from my books, I will be able to finance what we need"

Still in doubt, Georgia speaks "Christian... that's it-"

"Wait, before you speak listen to me" With seriousness, the boy looks at the two women "I am giving you an idea that will complement yours, I will be the investor and the person who will take all the financial risks in this partnership, I even have ideas for the design of the application"

"..."

"If I am interested in investing in Whatsapp, it is because of you two" Pointing to the two women, Christian spoke "Because I know you are trustworthy people with a track record, I trust the vision you had when creating Whatsapp, that's why I talked to my lawyer and asked her to contact you"

"..."

"Besides I know you have financial shortcomings, bad investments, and leaving your job will not help you in the process" Looking at the two women, Christian speaks.

He knows perfectly well that Georgia invested in lost a lot of money because of the dot-com bubble, and although they had a little money from working in companies like Apple and Yahoo, he knows that they had a trip to South America, causing their savings to be quite empty.

"..." Looking at each other again, Georgia sighs and turns to Christian "Can you give us a moment alone? I need to talk to my friend."

"Sure, whatever you want" Getting up from the seat, Christian nods towards Sara and they walk away towards the restaurant's patio.

Once they were outside, Sara took out a cigarette and lit it, then looked at Christian "Are you sure about this? Those women don't look very sure about their own project."

"That's what will get me what I want" Shrugging his shoulders, Christian leaned against a pillar "This company has a future, you'll see in a few years"

"As you wish" With a deep puff on her cigarette, Sara speaks "Jayden agreed to work for you, he started researching the market for Coffee and stores in sales as you asked him to"

As soon as they arrived at his house, Christian didn't have to wait so long and received the books the next day, instantly starting his research process.

Investment money is no longer a concern for Christian, the publisher called to let him know that they already sold another million of each book thanks to the new publicity, causing their funds to exceed $70 million.

"How is the process going with Uber and Tesla?"

"Uber said they would talk to their board of directors, they are interested in the ideas and money you offered, Tesla on the other hand has yet to get back to us."

"And the common shares in tesla?"

"We already bought over 1.8 million dollars in shares, exactly 60,000 shares, thanks to that the stock went up to 35 dollars, the market is impressed by the big rise in a few days"

"Uncle Jayden bought everything?"

"He got help from a friend of his, he had to pay him $10,000, I left you the single contract with your mother, the money has already been paid."

"Good, it's a fair price, ask him to buy more shares, at least $20 million more... the account with shares is secured?"

"I'll talk to him about that... as to whether it is secured, we left the password you asked for on a disposable computer, the only page that opened on it was the one for the stock market, all secure."

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"Perfect, how are things with Zoom?"

"I left them an email yesterday, I'm waiting to hear back."

"Airbnb?"

"I talked to them, they sounded ecstatic when you offered to invest in them, they told me they would talk to their lawyer and get back to us, in a week at the most we will have an answer"

"The talk with mom's boss?"

"Yes, she is a pretty nice old lady, as far as I managed to see, she comes from a pretty rich family, that's why she wasn't interested in selling her coffee shops to those people your mother said"

"Why does she want to sell now?" still unsure, Christian turned to Sara.

"Because of her son's accident, the woman doesn't want to be responsible for the business anymore and just wants to rest with him.... She knows her business will fall apart without her."

"You told her about my interest in buying her coffee shops?"

"Yes, she says she wants to do some research on you and find out more about you, she asked us for 15 days to think about it."

"Okay..." Nodding, Christian looked up at the clear sky above him, then turned to Sara "I'll need a team to run a growing company, the coffee one."

"You know not many people want to work in that, right? Even more so the professionals."

"Yes, it will be difficult, but I need them, I'm sure I'll achieve an interesting result and the coffee shops will go up in value."

"*Sigh* I'll tell Jayden to look for people, anything you need specifically?"

"Aside from a team, I need him to look at a building in a state with low taxes on this type of company, we need a headquarters for the team to be located in, that old lady's coffee shop doesn't have one."

"That will be somewhat complicated, but not impossible."

"Christian, Sara" A voice interrupted from behind her, causing Sara to quickly put out her cigarette and turn around with a professional smile.

"Have you made your decision Miss Georgia?"

"Yes, we accept your proposal, but we want you to invest 7 million dollars, not 6, furthermore we would like to ask to keep our main idea, the security process of our users will be kept as a priority"

"Okay" Nodding without getting upset, Christian looked at both women "You already know who will be the person with the most investment between the two of you?"

"Yes, it will be Georgia" Aurora nodded "I will keep 33.5% and Georgia 34.5%, with those we make 100%, no more people with fundamental shares"

"Then let's start with the contracts and see what designs I have in mind" With a smile, Christian headed towards his table.

The rest was all normal, Christian showed the 2019 Whatsapp sketches, but without adding the stories to add images or videos, leaving that for the future Instagram.

With the contract signed, and the shares already in Christian's name, Aurora and Georgia, left with many ideas in mind, while Christian stayed eating with Sara.

"It's already 7 pm, your mother must be upset" Taking a sip of wine, Sara looked at the boy with a smile.

"Okay, we finish up here and leave."

...

March 12, 2011.

Time passed quickly for the Grey family.

Eva still didn't have to quit her job thanks to Christian's agreement with her boss, but she doesn't ask any more questions and just keeps smiling.

Christian's publishing house published the second part of Game of Thrones, Lovecraft and Harriet Potter, being a success throughout the country, while Harriet Potter has already reached abroad, reaching countries such as England and Spain. Apart from his main books, Christian achieved several successes in his other published books, among them The Girl in the Striped Pajamas and the controversial book, The Da Vinci Code, a book that was widely praised and at the same time criticized for its words about the church, in which they were openly called a big lie.

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Edited By: Lord_Shiva_