Chapter 118: New Beginning

"Wow, that must have been quite expensive," Grace said, her eyebrows raising slightly as she looked back at the necklace.I shrugged with a small smile. "Price doesn't really matter."

Grace nodded, a satisfied look on her face. "Well, that's sweet of you, Jack. Come on in, both of you. I've got breakfast ready."

We followed her into the dining area, where the table was already set. There were plates of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and golden toast with butter.

A bowl of fresh fruit—pineapple, oranges, and strawberries—sat in the center, and next to it, a pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice and a pot of coffee.

Charlotte's father was already sitting at the table. He was a tall man, maybe in his early fifties, with a bit of a tan, probably from working outside or spending time on the water. His hair was short and graying at the temples, and he had a neatly trimmed beard.

He wore a casual polo shirt and Khaki shorts.

"Jack, this is my dad, Anthony." Charlotte gave the introduction.

I stepped forward, offering my hand. "Nice to meet you, sir."

Anthony shook my hand firmly. "Good to meet you too, Jack."

We all sat down, and as I reached for some bacon, Anthony looked at me, sizing me up, as if trying to figure out what kind of person I was.

"So, Jack," he started, "how old are you?"

"I'm nineteen," I replied, a little uncertain about where this was going.

"Aren't you a bit old for Charlotte? She's twenty, but with her maturity level..." His voice trailed off.

'Damn. I thought he would tell me I'm too young...' I thought.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Well, sir, I think Charlotte is definitely mature. She might like to act a bit childish sometimes, but it's all in good fun."

Charlotte shot me an amused look, but before she could say anything, her mother joined. "Oh, I don't doubt her maturity, Jack. Especially not after the... noises coming from Charlotte's room last night," she said with a grin.

Charlotte's eyes widened in shock. "Mom!" she yelled, her face turning as red as the strawberries on the table.

I felt just... somewhat ashamed.

Grace chuckled softly. "Don't worry, Jack," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "We don't really control our daughter like that. We trust that Charlotte has the common sense to not sell herself short."

"So..." Anthony started. "Charlotte tells us you're doing pretty well for yourself. That you're wealthy, even?"

I glanced over at Charlotte.

"Sorry, Jack. I couldn't help myself..." she said, looking appologetic. "It just kind of slipped out."

"It's fine." I gave Charlotte a small smile. "I can't hide it anyway. My name has been public for a few days."

"Yes?" Charlotte looked surprised. "Is it because of the investment in Google?"

I nodded.

"Don't be modest, Jack." Anthony said, skewering a piece of bacon onto a fork. "What kind of investment are you talking about?"

I glanced at Charlotte's parents. "Well... I've been trying not to draw too much attention to myself, but a few weeks ago, I invested $50 million in Google, and it went public recently."

Suddenly, Grace and Anthony stopped eating, their forks frozen in mid-air as they stared at me like I was from Mars.

Charlotte noticed their shocked faces and seemed a little uneasy herself. "Mom, I told you."

Grace blinked in shock. "You... you told me?" Her eyes were wide as she looked at Charlotte. "You said he was wealthy, but you didn't tell me he's a... um... a...

I mean, he's..." She trailed off, struggling to find the right words.

Before she could finish, Anthony spoke up, his tone surprisingly calm. "I know people like you, Jack," he said, almost too casually. "So, is this thing with my daughter just a quick fling?"

His question caught me off guard, especially because he didn't seem angry—just curious, like he was asking about the weather.

It felt strange, almost like he wouldn't even mind if it was just a fling.

"At first... that's kind of what I thought," I admitted, feeling Charlotte's eyes on me. "But over time, Charlotte has been really helpful to me. And I also really admire what she's doing with her life—pursuing piano, tennis, doing what she loves. I've gotten really interested in her, and honestly, I don't think it's just a quick fling anymore."

Anthony looked at me for a few seconds and then continued eating without saying anything.

Charlotte glanced at her parents, then back at me before speaking up. "Jack wants to take me on a trip to Europe."

"Europe? Where exactly?" Grace asked, glancing at me.

"Well, I have some business to take care of in France, and then Sweden." I said. "So, for now, we're planning to visit those two countries. But we might add a few more places on the fly."

Antony put down his fork and gave me a thoughtful look. "You seem like an honest guy, Jack," he said, as if he were just now reacting to what I had said about Charlotte. "What about your family? Where are you from?"

The tone of the conversation changed to be more casual and laid-back as I talked about my family and myself.

Grace told a funny story about how at one of big family parties they do, Charlotte loudly and proudly announced to her entire extended family, 'My mom thinks my nipples are the cutest!' Everyone froze, looked concerned, and then burst out laughing.

'Dimples! She meant dimples.' Grace corrected her. 'Yea! My mom thinks my dimples are the cutest.'

Charlotte buried her face in her hands at one point.

The more we talked, the more comfortable I felt around them and Grace and Anthony seemed to enjoy getting to know me.

I stayed at Charlotte's house until dinner. Sёarᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Grace prepared an amazing dinner...

After dinner, I said my goodbyes to Charlotte and her parents and got into my car before driving back to Gainessvile.

Charlotte wanted to stay with her family for a few days, and she would get back to Gainessvile by herself.

...

Two weeks had flown by in a flash.

It was Saturday, June 28th, 2003.

I was walking back to my house from the grocery store.

My personal guards were still by my side. I paid a hefty sum to keep them around—$38,000 per month, to be exact.

To ensure that I would still have guards when we arrived in Europe, I even made sure to set everything up with a security company based in France.

I walked back to my house. The renovation of my roof that I ordered two weeks ago has been finished. New, gray tiles had been put down to replace the old shingles.

I carried the grocery bags into the kitchen and after putting away the items, I headed to my office, sat down at my desk and booted up the PC.

I opened my brokerage account.

[Charles Schwab]

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[Total Balance: $133,711,184.05]

[Available Balance: $402,267.00]

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[Market Value of Holdings: $375,935,425.05]

[Borrowed Margin: $242,626,508.28]

[Buying Power: $1,206,801.00] (3x Leverage: Futures Trading)

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Portfolio:

[Single-Stock Futures ($AXON)] [$16.89] {[ 5,491,704 shares ]}

[Single-Stock Futures ($ANIK)] [$4.31] {[ 11,300,645 shares ]}

[Single-Stock Futures ($APA)] [$34.12] {[ 3,626,172 shares ]}

[Single-Stock Futures ($TK)] [$15.22] {[ 7,276,595 ]}

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While accumulating futures contracts for those four stocks, I caused quite a stir in the market.

Despite having over $360 million in buying power, I could only secure around $48 million worth of contracts in Anika Therapeutics. This was partly because it was a smaller company with limited interest.

Even with that little, I had a big effect during my accumulation; the stock price went from $3.10 to $4.30.

The same thing happened with AXON. The stock price increased from $14.50 to $16.80 by the end of my buying spree.

In the end, I had to focus the majority of my buying power on the larger companies.

I invested over $120 million in Apache Corporation and $110 million in Teekay Shipping Corporation.

These were the first investments that I wasn't making based on my knowledge of the future.

While I remembered that some Chinese energy stocks had performed well in my past timeline, this was purely a speculative move based on how the history and the relationship between the US and China have changed.

After logging out of my brokerage account, I left the office and quickly gathered a few things. I got into my Ferrari and drove over to pick up Charlotte; we were going to watch the 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' premiere in the cinema.

Well, I have already seen it...

As I drove, I remembered the PlayTube meeting I had at MIT a week ago. We pitched the idea for PlayTube. Raheem's presentation was so impressive that we ended up with over a dozen calls for interviews afterward.

So far, we had hired three students from MIT, as well as an experienced software developer who had previously worked at Microsoft.

We still had a few more interviews lined up and were in the process of setting up our initial server infrastructure.

It seemed like everything was going swimmingly.

...

On Tuesday, July 1st, I parked my Snow White BMW at Valdosta Airport.

Charlotte and I got out of the car together, got our bags, and walked to the airport.

Our flight to France was today, but first was a transfer in Atlanta.