Driven

Aiden Samuels couldn’t help but smile as his eyes took in the headlines of the newspaper splayed across his desk. The latest poll numbers were giving him a comfortable double digit lead over his opponent in the race for governor. With the election only ten days away, he dared to allow himself a brief moment of relief and internal celebration. All of his plans were finally coming to fruition. He relished the feeling of self satisfaction for just a moment before snapping back to reality. Though a young man, he already had enough political experience to know that no fight is over until the winner is sworn in. He grabbed his I-phone and began going over the schedule for another grueling day of campaigning.

Samuels seemed to be born for this. Throughout his life he had made up for his shortcomings with an irresistible charm and a work ethic that was legendary. Beyond that, he knew and understood that being successful, especially in politics, meant doing things that others might look at as questionable or worse. He had no problem doing what needed to be done and he had the best “cleanup crew” in the business to make sure that nothing unsavory ever made its way into the spotlight. After college he had gotten into real estate development. He had parlayed a series of increasingly larger deals and a long list of friends, in both high and low places, into a seat on the city council. From there he had navigated the political waters with an ease that baffled his detractors and had become the youngest mayor of a major city in the country. The governor’s mansion was the next logical step.

Today was a big day. It was the grand opening of the new hockey arena in the city. This had been Samuel’s pet project for years and with the election so close, the completion of it couldn’t have come at a better time. He had guided this project from the beginning. He had worked with the owners of the hockey team, selling them on moving to the city, and attracting a fan base. Then there was the problem of the location for the arena. That had proven to be a little more difficult. The owners of the factory on the potential site weren’t exactly eager to sell. He had tried to take the property by eminent domain, but that had begun to alienate the public. He had been forced to get “creative”, and in the end he had got what he wanted. That was business, sometimes you had to work a little harder and bend the rules a bit to get the deal done. The way he saw it, the city was the real winner and if he got a little credit or recognition for bringing that about, well that wasn’t such a bad thing either.

The ringing of the phone broke his reverie. It was his secretary calling to confirm his morning itinerary. She informed him that his stepson had called and wanted to see him briefly this morning. He found that odd. His relationship with Justin could be described as stormy at best. He still blamed Aiden for breaking up his parent’s marriage and truth be told, he was probably right. His mom had had worked on Samuel’s first mayoral campaign. They had become close and while there was no hard evidence of an affair, the marriage had ended very shortly after Samuels was elected and she had married Aiden only months after that. He had tried to foster some sort of relationship with the boy, but the job always took most of his time and the boy was aloof if not openly antagonistic to him. Today was certainly a bad day for Justin to pick to have a father son chat but his mother would be upset if she knew that Aiden had blown him off. He told his secretary he could squeeze him in before lunch and she told him she would work out the details.

His morning went by quickly with a series of campaign related duties. It was just before eleven when his secretary called to say that his stepson was in the lobby. He told her to go ahead and show him in.

“Good morning, Justin”, he said as the boy walked in to the office. “What brings you here this morning?”

“I’ve got some things I’d like to talk to you about” the boy said. “Some things I’d like you to know before the grand opening this afternoon”.

“It’s going to be quite a show, I hope you can be there” Aiden said.

“Oh don’t worry, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. You’re finally going to get the recognition you truly deserve” Justin said with a smile.

Something in the boy’s voice made the hair on the back of Aiden’s next stand up. He immediately went into alert mode but he kept his demeanor cool.

“What’s that supposed to mean son?” he asked Justin.

“It just means that I know the truth about the whole arena deal and when I leave here I’m going to the media. I know how you leaned on those factory owners, I know how when you saw that you couldn’t get the property by eminent domain you had the results from the soil samples fabricated to make it look like the ground was contaminated. All so you could ride in on your white horse and offer to buy the property and pay for the remediation out of your own pocket. I’d say that was a small price to pay for all you going to pocket from the deal you made with the hockey team. Not to mention the new job you have your eyes on.”

“I don’t know what you think you know…” Aiden started to protest but the boy cut him off.

“Save it,” Justin said, “let’s just say I’ll be able to present a very believable story. I think it’s high time you finally get what you have coming to you and don’t ever call me son again, you’re not my father.”

With that the boy turned on his heel and left the office slamming the door behind him. Samuels felt his blood run cold. For one of the few times in his life he felt real fear. The prospect of all he had worked for going up in smoke left him with a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. The fear quickly turned to wrath. He had to concentrate hard to resist the urge to punch the wall. He paced the floor of the office trying to clear his head. After a few minutes he began to regain his composure. This was just another obstacle to be overcome. He hadn’t gotten to this position by lying down when faced with a difficult problem. He just needed to calm down a bit and put his mind to finding a solution.

He sat down at his desk and thought for a moment. There was really only one option that would work. He hesitated only a second before he opened his desk and pulled out a small black book. He opened the book and pulled a small business card out of the back of it. He picked up his phone and dialed the number on the business card. The phone was answered by a deep gravelly voice.

“I need your help fast,” Aiden said.

He quickly related the details of the meeting with his stepson.

“You realize that once you put this in motion there’s no turning back,” he heard the voice say.

Aiden swallowed hard before replying, “Just make it happen and make sure it looks like an accident,” he said as he hung up the phone.



Word Count 1299