Chapter 98: Summer

I could make out the sounds of the hospital.I could feel something plugged into my arm and something was flowing through my bloodstream.

Then I fell asleep again.

The next time I woke up, I opened my eyes and at first, all I could see was a white, sharp, bright light, but after a few minutes, my eyes got used to it and I could now make out the ceiling.

I shifted my gaze downward and saw the IV tube connected to my left hand, delivering a steady drip of medication into my bloodstream.

I could feel myself falling asleep again, drained of energy, with just a couple of movements. But I heard some nurses running around me and saying something about my consciousness returning.

The next time I woke up, there was a phisician in the hospital room. He asked all sorts of questions, trying to gauge my condition.

I was already feeling much better.

Almost perfectly fine, in fact.

"Take it easy," The doctor looked at me with sympathy. "Your artery was damaged, resulting in significant blood loss. You were lucky that paramedics were dispatched closeby. You've been in an induced coma for more than 24 hours."

A while later, my mom walked in.

She sat next to my bed. "I brought you something to eat, honey."

She placed a tray on the bedside table, and the aroma of warm soup reached my nose. The soup was a rich golden color, with steam rising from its surface.

Then, everything that happened came back to me.

"What happened to Joshua and Britney?" I asked.

"I heard that Joshua will stand trial. He's in a lot of trouble. As for Britney, she stayed at the hall until an ambulance came to take you away. Her parents came and picked her up later."

I spoke with my mother for the next hour or so.

She made it known that my well-being meant everything to her. That the entire world would collapse if something happened to me.

Then I quickly lost my strength and fell asleep for over 12 hours before waking up to a nurse standing by my bedside, holding a needle and a tube.

"Don't worry," she reassured me. "I'm just going to take a sample of your blood for testing."

It was then that my dad entered the room with a girl around my age with long, dark hair.

They walked up to my bed, and the girl sat beside me.

"You finally woke up, Jack. Britney filled me in on the whole thing. Did you seriously lose it or what?"

"Right... Wait... who are you?"

They fell silent.

The girl looked pale as she looked up at my dad.

Dad seemed scared out of his wits.

He placed his hand gently on my arm and looked at me with eyes filled with deep concern.

"Jack, it's Sydney, your sister," he said, his voice trembling slightly, and his hand shaking.

...

I spent the next two weeks at the hospital, often talking with psychologists and doctors. They were trying to piece together what had happened and help me recover.

Thankfully, my memory loss turned out to be temporary.

The day after I woke up, I got a call from Sam. At that time, I couldn't remember many people or the things I had done in the past few months.

But one thing I never forgot was going back in time.

Sydney wasn't oblivious. She kept on asking me about how I knew about all those events and taking into account all the 'lucky' investments I've been making, she came to the conclusion that I came from the future.

I didn't try to convince her otherwise, but asked her not speak about it.

She agreed, saying that if she told anyone she would only look stupid

Just after 2 weeks, my memory got much better; some things were still fuzzy, but, most importantly, I could now remember my sister.

The doctors were optimistic about my full recovery.

...

Another two weeks passed, and it was now Wednesday, May 15th. I was sitting in the study room of my house in Gainesville.

The doctors couldn't believe how quickly I had nearly fully recovered.

I sat at my desk, flipping through some notes.

I had two weeks of skipped university work, and if I wanted to graduate in just 4 terms, I needed to catch up.

The SEC had just announced a major decision regarding WhitePath Europe.

WhitePath Europe was being fined $30,000,000 for naked shorting and stock manipulation. They were also required to cover all naked short shares.

However, the SEC had given them a three-year period to comply, which was laughable.

All stocks under investigation will resume trading on May 19th.

"...It had been more than a year since I traveled back in time." I muttered to myself.

'I had no idea this year would end with such difficulties...' I thought.

In the meantime, I have also received another letter from Derec.

CalMeine's position had skyrocketed to over $67,000,000, and the company was holding more than $4 million in cash.

Derec had also hired three new traders. The company was growing.

As I thought about it, I took out a piece of paper and wrote to Derec.

"Derec,

Thank you for your outstanding work on the company.

I am pleased to inform you that, effective immediately, I will be raising your salary to $20,000 a month.

However, I also have an important task that I need you to focus on. Our company is growing rapidly, and to capitalize on the many opportunities, we need to expand our presence globally.

Please focus on finding suitable locations for our international expansion. Specifically, look into France ( but not too close to the ocean ) as well as China.

Best regards,

Christopher Vanderbilt

"

I leaned back in my chair.

There was a lot of work ahead.

'I need to make a trip to California as soon as possible, but first I need to wait for my funds to get unfrozen,' I thought.

Anyway, Monster Beverage earnings were a massive beat—revenue was through the roof, far surpassing expectations.

The plan I had crafted with Sam might not have driven the revenue to new heights alone, but it had definitely given it a helpful push.

There was no doubt in my mind that WhitePath Corp. was on a direct path to an unprecedented financial disaster, and the idea of their complete and utter collapse filled me with delicious satisfaction. Searᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

...

On Monday, May 19th, I waited in front of the screen for the trading on Monster Beverage to open once again.

I was watching for the frozen ticker to come back to life.

The ticker, showing $11.23, suddenly disappeared.

Moments later, it reappeared, now showing $18.82.