But still, it felt great to be with the old gang again, even if I was just an outsider.
“So, what’s it like?” Charlie asked.
“What?” I replied.
“To have more money than God?”
The others laughed, but not Ranier.
“I don’t think about it,” I said honestly. “It stopped being about money a long time ago. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you guys that.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Ranier asked.
I smiled. “Are you telling me that you do the work simply for the pay? Or don’t you love the thrill of it even more?”
Ranier shrugged. “It’s a bit of both, but I can’t see any thrill in what you do.”
“Lay off, will you Rainer?” Charlie asked. “I for one am glad to see Mason, even if the circumstances are a bit messed up.”
I smiled and shook Charlie’s hand. “Ranier, I only did what your dad asked me to do. He told me to go, so I went. If I’d tried to hang around he would have probably had me shot.”
The others laughed at my joke, but there was a strong element of truth there. You did not say no to Arnold Caplinger.
“Well, isn’t that convenient?” Ranier snapped. “You’ve been out twelve years. It’s been probably five years since you even talked to my dad. Do you have any idea how much that hurt him? You knew him almost as well as I did.”
“Yeah, I did. And I wondered, but I think the reason I stayed away so long is because I wanted to impress him. I wanted him to know that he made the right decision and pointed me in the right direction.”
Ranier shook his head. “I think he was impressed when you made your first billion.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Life has a way of keeping you tied up with things sometimes. I kept saying that I would come and visit him soon, but I just didn’t get around to it. And I’m so sorry. I’ll always hate myself for that.”
Ranier shrugged. “And you should. I hope you do.”
He didn’t have to worry; the guilt was going to punish me for a long time.
CHAPTER 6
Libby
It’s going to be ok. They won’t find anything. You have nothing to worry about, just like the past few times. Calm down and breathe.
It wasn’t working. I was doing my best to calm myself down, but as I sat there in the exam room waiting for the doctor to come back in with my latest labs, MRI, and CT scan results, I was on the verge of collapsing into total panic.
What if the cancer was back? I wouldn’t have to wait for the mafia to kill me; my own body was going to do it for them.
I had to stop the negativity. It was going to be ok. I felt fine. I hadn’t had any symptoms in more than eighteen months and I’d been declared cancer free a year before. There was no reason to think that this would be any different.
I’d first been diagnosed with cancer two years ago. One day I woke up with extreme stomach pain. I was doubled over in agony. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. Hell, I could barely use the phone to call an ambulance. It turned out that I had a huge tumor wrapped around my ovaries.
They had to do immediate surgery. Which, they did. They got all of the tumor, and luckily did not have to remove any part of my ovaries. I wanted children one day and if something like that happened, it would have been devastating.
After a few days the tests came back and the tumor was cancerous. After a battery of more tests they determined that the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. I began aggressive chemo and after several months of that nightmare the cancer began to respond to it. Eventually, I was declared cancer free.
That was the happiest day of my life. Hearing those words, “Cancer free” was like getting a whole new lease on life. I was speechless. I cried for hours out of joy. All of the fear and the pain I’d been holding in inside myself let loose just pouring out of me and once it started I couldn’t stop it.
But the downside to the surgery and the treatment was that I was now massively in debt for the medical bills. I didn’t have insurance then. Luckily, the hospital did the emergency surgery anyway, but I was now being faced with a plethora of medical bills.
My family has never had much money and I didn’t feel comfortable even asking anyone for help. I had to look at other options. So I sat down with my laptop and just started searching online for anything I could do. But my search turned up nothing that I qualified for.
It was then that I decided to get a loan. I tried all of the banks of course, but nothing. They wouldn’t lend to me. I was too much of a high risk.