Chapter 22: Illegal
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Ben 10 Or Any Of The Characters. I Don't Own The Rights To Nathan Black Or Any Associated Characters, The Rights Go To annihalator2015
Disclaimer: This Series/Story Has Nothing To Do With The Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Cartoon Series. Any Similarities That May Pop Up Aren't Intentional
Author's Note:
* Hello and welcome to Chapter Twenty Two!
* So, this will be an interesting chapter, I'll give you that. I hope this one will intrigue you guys. I won't say anything else.
* Anyway, with that being said, let's get right into the chapter!
Earth-6101
Monday, October 30th, 2017
Madison High School
Ben
"Your project is to research a famous American figure and write a seven page paper on him or her." Our English teacher, Mrs. Brown spoke. "On the paper that I'm currently handing out, you'll find that you are to write your paper in M.L.A. format and are required to use at least five credible sources."
She went quiet for a moment as she looked up from her podium at the front of the classroom.
"And no, Mr. Thompson, Wikipedia is not a credible source."
I turned around in my seat, to see one of the kids in the back of their room, slowly putting their hand down in shame. I turned back around just as Mrs. Brown began speaking again.
"Your rough draft is due in three weeks and the final draft is due at the end of the semester, during finals week. It is worth thirty percent of your grade. You do not want to fail this assignment, class."
This time I was the one who raised my hand. She noticed me and called upon me.
"Yes, what is it, Ben?"
I put my hand down as I spoke.
"Does it have to be a famous American figure?"
Mrs. Brown let out a sigh as if she had expected someone to ask that question.
"Famous is such a subjective word. So, no, as long as the person you write about is a well-known American figure, anything goes."
She turned away from the class and returned to her podium.
"Now class, open up your textbooks to page..."
I drowned out the sound of her voice as I pulled on the neck of my shirt, for some reason feeling nervous. I mean, there really wasn't anything to be nervous about. It was just another school assignment, I had done big projects in school before. But for some reason, this one seemed to make me nervous. I let out a sigh as I put my head down on my desk.
What am I going to do to get through this project? Also, why am I so worried about it?
Thirty Minutes Later
Madison High School Cafeteria
That lunch period, Nathan and I met up at our lunch table with Gwen, just like any other day.
"So, who are you going to write your paper on, Ben?" Nathan asked a few minutes into us sitting there.
I let out a sigh.
"I'll probably just write my paper on Mark Twain." I replied.
Nathan shook his head.
"Nah, Twain has been done to death. You should pick someone else."
Before I could respond, Gwen chimed in.
"How about Shakespeare?"
I shook my head in response.
"No, William Shakespeare was an Englishman. Speaking English doesn't necessarily make you an American."
She chuckled that.
"I knew that. I'm not some 'dumb blonde', Ben. I'm smart, I know things."
I didn't really have a response to that. While I was silent, Nathan spoke up.
"Speaking of, may I mention that you looked pretty good with black hair, when you had dyed it for the party last week?"
"Well, well," Gwen spoke. "look who's being flirty!"
"I wasn't flirting with you! I was just trying to give you a compliment!"
She started laughing in response.
"I'm just joking! I will gladly take your compliment."
I didn't really like the current topic at hand and pushed my tray ahead of me so that I could rest my head on the table. They seemed to notice my current mood and Gwen spoke shortly thereafter.
"Instead of writing about a famous American author, why don't you write your paper on a famous American movie director?"
I shook my head without lifting my head up to look at her.
"I don't know anything about movie directors."
I was hoping that after I said that, that they would change the topic again, but I should have known better.
"Well, you can't go wrong with James Cameron." Nathan chimed in. "Or Quentin Tarantino."
"Actually, James Cameron is Canadian." Gwen replied once more. "But don't forget Martin Scorsese. And how about M. Night Shyamalan?"
I had become fed up with this conversation. I looked up at both of them with an annoyed look.
"Guys!" I exclaimed. "I have no idea who any of these people are! You guys are speaking an entirely different language to me!"
Both of them remained silent after my little outburst.
"And before you tell me, I get it." I continued. "I have no taste!"
Gwen and Nathan exchanged glances, before they both turned to look at me again.
"We weren't going to say that." Nathan replied.
"But while on this topic, Ben, we seriously need to have a movie night." Gwen chimed in. "We have a ton of movies at my house. You can come over for a weekend and we can just watch movies the whole time."
I let out a sigh.
"I think I'd rather get my butt kicked by Lucy in one of her video games than watch a bunch of movies."
Gwen was silent for a moment.
"Is it because I mentioned watching movies at my house?" she asked.
"What? No! I mean, I still am a little uncomfortable with meeting your family, but it's just the whole movie thing. I'm not a movie guy. If you want to have a movie marathon, then you need to find someone else to do that with. I'm sorry."
She let out a sigh of her own, but nodded.
"I understand."
Before I could say anything else, Nathan spoke up.
"Speaking of Lucy, she's still not on speaking terms with you, is she?"
I shook my head.
"You really screwed up, didn't you?" Gwen asked.
I nodded.
"Yeah. Yeah, I did."
"You kind of had it coming, asking her something like that. Nathan told you to leave her alone about it."
"That I did." He chimed back in.
I let out a sigh.
"It just confuses me that she's into stuff that teenage boys would be into. I felt like I should bring it up with her and now she won't speak to me, not even at the dinner table."
"Then you apologize." He continued.
"She won't even let me near her. She's made it clear that she doesn't want to see me and that she doesn't want to talk to me."
"Wait for her to cool down." Gwen chimed in. "Then you apologize."
I nodded.
"Okay." I said in a glum tone.
The Following Night – Tuesday, October 31st, 2017
Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona's House
The next night was when I finally decided to begin research for my English project. I was sitting in the basement, at the computer, when I heard my phone vibrate from its place on the small desk in front of me. I picked it up and turned the screen on, to see that I had gotten a text from Gwen, with an image attachment. I opened up my messages and clicked on her contact information and was surprised by the picture that she had sent.
She was wearing a golden yellow dress, that didn't cover part of her shoulders, along with matching golden yellow gloves, that reached all the way up her arms. She had also dyed her hair again, this time she had dyed it brown, as well has having it in a bun, with the rest of her hair hanging down to her neck. After I looked at the picture, I quickly sent her a reply text.
What are you wearing? – Me
It was very quickly after I sent that message that I realized what I had said. And so, in a panic, I typed out another text message.
I SWEAR, I MEANT IN LIKE, A CASUAL SENSE! – Me
It took her a few seconds to respond, but her response made me sigh with relief.
Lol, you are SO funny! – Gwen
A few seconds after that, she sent me another text.
I'm cosplaying as Belle. You know, from Beauty and the Beast? – Gwen
Not a movie guy, remember? – Me
We really need to change that. Anyway, yes, even at fifteen years old, I still love Disney princesses. I cosplay as one of them every year for Halloween. Last year I did Snow White and the year before that I did Sleeping Beauty. – Gwen
Oh, yeah, I thought. I guess tonight is Halloween.
I made a point to quickly get back to her before she thought that I had lost interest in the conversation or something.
That's cool. – Me
She responded in a matter of seconds.
Well, I have to go. I'm going out with my friends for the night. Talk to you later, Ben. – Gwen
Yeah, later. – Me
I was a little disappointed that our brief chat was over, but at the same time, I was relieved that I could finally get a jump on my project.
Sometime Later
I had made no progress. I had done a whole Google search on "Famous American Figures" and I couldn't find anyone that I was remotely interested in researching. As I sat at the computer, being frustrated that I hadn't gotten anywhere, I noticed an article that intrigued me. The headline was: Blue Cross Pharmaceuticals CEO Announces Holiday Party for December. Seeing as I wasn't getting any closer to a topic and I was somewhat curious, I clicked on the link to the article.
I started reading and quickly found myself getting more and more interested in whatever this was. It was made clear at the beginning of the article that the CEO of Blue Cross Pharmaceuticals, Jack Abernathy, was throwing a party in the middle of December, to celebrate the ten year anniversary of him founding his company.
Blue Cross has only been around for only ten years? I mean, I knew about Blue Cross, everyone and their mother knows about Blue Cross! They're the best pharmacy in the city! But they've only been around for ten years? I thought that they had been around for at least a few decades!
That got me thinking.
How could they have become the best pharmacy in Bellwood in just ten years? Something's fishy about that...
Before I could have any more thoughts, I took a glance at the clock on the desktop and saw that it was past ten o'clock. I had pretty much wasted my research time, had come up with nothing to show for it and I should have been in bed at this point. I let out a sigh. I may have wanted to do more research on Abernathy and Blue Cross, but that would have to wait until later. I promised Gwen that I would help her study for an upcoming science test tomorrow and I couldn't just cancel on her, so I couldn't do more research tomorrow. I got up from the desk and shut off the lights in the basement, before heading up the stairs to bed.
The Next Day – Wednesday, November 1st, 2017
Madison High School Library
The end of the day had come and with it, the beginning of my study session with Gwen. I met her in the library and we sat down in one of the computer rows. From there, I got to work doing my best to help her study for the test. After about thirty minutes of studying, Gwen didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I let out a sigh as I shut the textbook in front of me.
"Okay," I replied. "shut your textbook."
She looked at me with surprise.
"Did I do something wrong?" she asked in a hurt tone.
I shook my head.
"No, but this doesn't seem to working. We've been using the textbook for a while now and you don't seem to be getting anywhere."
I stood up a bit and pulled over her keyboard. I opened up Google Chrome and entered YouTube's address in the top bar. Once we were in the home page, I began typing in the search bar.
"This guy I'm looking up has a YouTube channel where he breaks down everything in our textbook in a much simpler way, none of the unnecessary bulks of information, no yada, yada, yada, here's the point we want you to get, yada, yada, yada. He does this for Bio I and Bio II, as well."
"Okay," she spoke in a confused tone. "but why are you doing this?"
"I think your problem is that you're easily overwhelmed by the bulk of information that the current chapter in our book makes up. Here's the problem: textbooks are very notorious for hiding the point that they want to make inside of a mess of unnecessary clutter. Our book is no different. I have a hunch that you're so overwhelmed with unnecessary information that you're missing the point. I think if we dumb down the chapter to simpler terms, you might understand them better."
She let out a sigh.
"Okay, then, why not? It's not like it could get worse."
"I promise that this will help okay? You flunked our last chapter test, didn't you?"
She nodded.
"Yes."
"Well, if I can't help you ace the test, then I can at least hopefully help you to not flunk it, even if you get a D plus, which is technically passing."
"Okay, okay, I'll watch it."
"Thanks." I said as I looked at my watch, to see that the library would be closing soon.
Yikes, I thought. If I'm going to help Grandma and Grandpa with chores before dinner today, I need to get a move on.
I started packing up my stuff and as I did this, Gwen noticed me doing so.
"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked as she turned to look at me.
"I have to get home if I want to get my chores done for the today."
"Okay, I guess I understand."
"Just watch that video. Memorize all the terms and what not until you can have a brief understanding on them all. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I promise that it will help."
She nodded.
"Okay. What do I do when I'm done with it?"
I turned to look at her.
"Well, you watch it once, just to let the information soak in, then you watch it a few more times and take some notes while doing so."
"Okay, but what about after that?"
I gave her a bit of a confused look.
"What do you mean?"
She pointed at the computer monitor.
"Well, I can't stay here all night. How do I get out of this window when I'm done?"
I looked at her with confusion, wondering if she was just messing with me. Nevertheless, I helped her out with her question.
"Oh, that." I replied as I reached for her keyboard again. "You just hit the escape key here and it will exit full screen."
In response, Gwen made a weird reply.
"Es-ca-pay!"
I gave her another confused look.
"What?" I asked.
She returned my look with a sheepish one.
"You've never seen Finding Nemo? When they're in the sunken submarine and Dory says 'Es-ca-pay'?"
"I don't watch movies, remember?"
She let out a disappointed sigh.
"Right. Remind me not to make movie references around you."
I chuckled as I patted her back.
"Don't worry about it, Gwen. Feel free to be yourself around me, regardless of what I think." I reassured her. "Look, I gotta take off. Are you going to be okay here for the last thirty minutes or so?"
She nodded.
"I guess so."
"Alright, well I'm going to take off, you keep watching that video and take notes once you start watching again. I'll text you the link to the video later tonight so you can get some extra study time in."
"Okay. And, Ben?"
I had been turning to leave, but had to turn back to look at her after she spoke.
"What is it?"
"I know that I was initially against the idea of you tutoring me, but seriously, thanks for doing this for me."
I nodded at her with a small smile on my face.
"Of course, I'm happy to help in any way I can. I gotta run. See you later, Gwen."
"Bye."
I gave her a little wave, which she returned and then I was on my way.
The Next Day – Thursday, November 2nd, 2017
Madison High School
The next day, when third period came around, I was in a hurry to get to Physical Science, feeling a little guilty about how quick I had been to walk out on Gwen yesterday. Once I got to class, I stood just outside the doorway, looking in at Gwen, who was sitting at our usual table. She hadn't noticed me yet and I decided to walk in, before she noticed and thought I was being creepy. I let out a sigh as I walked into the room, eventually reaching our table.
"Hey, you." I said as I came to a stop.
She turned to look at me and I saw that she had a weird look on her face.
"Do I have to tell you what I told Nathan about being flirty?" she asked.
I gave her my own look as I lifted up my hands in confusion. As I did this, the look on her face eventually brightened and she started laughing as she held her fist in front of her chin.
"I'm just joking!" she replied as her laughter died down.
For some reason, I found myself sighing with relief before I sat down.
"So, what's up?" she asked after I didn't say anything in response.
"Oh, nothing." I finally spoke. "Hey, I just wanted to apologize for suddenly running out on you yesterday. I just really want to help Grandma and Grandpa with whatever I can at home."
She nodded with an understanding look on her face.
"It's okay, Ben. I understand, you don't need to explain yourself to me."
Just then, before either of us could say anything else, the bell rang and Ms. Vaughn walked into the room.
"Okay, class." She replied as she came to a stop at her table at the front of the room. "Let's get started."
Gwen and I quit talking as we turned to pay attention to our teacher up front.
Wednesday, November 8th, 2017
Downtown Bellwood, The Bellwood Post
Seeing as I was still interested in what was going on with Blue Cross and their founder, Jack Abernathy, I decided to see if I could use some resources up at the newspaper. I had talked to the guy in charge, Mr. Ellison, (I don't know if publisher is the right term for him), who added me onto their list of freelance photographers and he let me use one of their computers to continue doing research. So, I got to work.
I began looking into Blue Cross and one of the first things that came up from a Google search was a link to their website. I recalled from my look into the article that I had read last week that Blue Cross had only been around for about ten years now. Their website confirmed that. It said that in December of 2007, Abernathy came to Bellwood and opened his pharmaceutical company. And fast forward to now, where he was the owner of a multi-billion dollar company.
Maybe I was looking too far into it, but something about that didn't sit right with me. I mean, really, how did he do that? How is it possible that Abernathy came to Bellwood in 2007 as a nobody and to now, where he's a billionaire whose name is known by mostly everyone in the city? Something about it just seemed fishy to me. I continued looking on their website, but the only noteworthy thing that I found was that they were the leading pharmaceutical company in the United States, even overtaking the other two primary choices, Walgreens and CVS.
As I said before, it just didn't make sense to me. Anyway, their website didn't give me anything else than that. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then again, they wouldn't post anything that could possibly make them look bad on their website. They want to maintain as positive of an image that they can. Seeing as I was having no luck here, I decided to get onto the Post's website and utilize the username and password that Mr. Ellison gave me to make a custom search.
Just how do you go from a company worth nothing to one worth billions of dollars in only a decade?
I was having frustrated thoughts as I began typing in the search bar. I typed in Abernathy's name and in hopes of narrowing down the results, I chose advanced search and typed in the name of his company in the second search bar. When I hit enter, I got dozens upon hundreds of results. I began scrolling through the results. The Bellwood Post wasn't a new company by any means, they had been around for several decades. So, I was scrolling through results for a while. Eventually, the headline of one article in particular stood out to me.
Crime Bosses in Bellwood, was what I read.
So, I gave it a read and as I read, the gist of what I picked up was that Bellwood had a criminal underworld, which wasn't much of a secret. I guess most people knew about it and the police knew about it, but didn't do anything and as long as you don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, you should be fine. I was beginning to wonder what this had to do with Abernathy and his company, when it finally came up. The writer of the article mentioned it in one place out of the entire article:
...We all remember how one year ago, Jack Abernathy, owner of Blue Cross Pharmaceuticals, was accused of having a hand in the criminal underworld, said accusations were later dropped due to a lack of evidence, testimony and willing prosecutors...
That part of the article hit me like a truck. I had never heard about this, even if I had only done a small amount of research at this point. Was there any truth to that claim? I exited that article and began scrolling through my search results again. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything that was as telling as what I had gotten from the previous article. When I failed to find anything else, I decided to go speak with Mr. Ellison in his office. I logged out of the computer before I went and then walked over to his office, knocking on the door once I got there. He told me to come in, so I opened the door and entered.
"Hey, Mr. Ellison?" I asked as I shut the door behind me.
"Benjamin," he spoke as he looked up at me from his desk. "do you need help with something?"
Mr. Ellison was balding and had a somewhat bushy black beard and wore glasses. I nodded at him.
"Yes, sir. So, I'm doing some research on Jack Abernathy and—"
"Oh, Abernathy, the Blue Cross guy. Good man, isn't he?"
I nodded at him once again, before I found myself stuttering.
"I...I...I'm s...sure he is. But, I've been doing some research on him and I found an article that mentioned something about him being accused of being involved in the criminal underworld. Is there any truth to it?"
He let out a sigh.
"Right, that one. Well, it's a complicated story. Abernathy was in fact accused of having ties to the criminal underworld, as well as being associated with the mob."
"Well, what happened with that? I mean, how was he able to walk away from the accusations?"
Mr. Ellison raised both of his hands in a shrugging gesture.
"There wasn't any sufficient evidence to convict him for it. And frankly, he's an honest, hardworking man."
For some reason, I had a hard time believing that.
"Well, is there any more information on this? I didn't find anything else besides an offhand statement in my search and I really want to know more about this."
Mr. Ellison just looked at me for a few seconds, before letting out a deep sigh.
"Alright, well if you're so curious, I guess I could show you where we keep the papers that had to be pulled."
Pulled? That sounds promising.
He got up from his desk and walked around to the front, continuing toward the door.
"Follow me." He said.
And I did so. I followed him out of his office and through the press room, where he eventually led me to a door on the back wall of the room. He opened the door, turned on the lights inside and ushered me in. I followed him inside and saw multiple shelves in the room, every one of them with multiple stacks of boxes on them.
"Wow." I said as I looked around the room.
"This is where we store old papers that we don't end up selling or papers that we have to recall."
"I'm assuming that you had to recall any papers that talked about the accusations against Abernathy?"
"Exactly."
He gestured to me with his hand.
"This way."
I followed him to the far right side of the room, where the last row of shelves sat against the wall. He crouched down, grabbed a box that was covered in dust, not to say that the rest weren't dusty, and pulled it out, setting it on the floor. He opened up the box and I saw that it was full of old newspapers.
"Here you are. These are all of the papers that we had to recall after the accusations were dropped."
He stood up and looked at me.
"You can look at them for as long as you want. I don't think anyone's going to care about you looking at papers that have been out of print for seven or eight years."
I nodded my thanks.
"Thank you. Um, can I ask you something, sir?"
He chuckled in response.
"Benjamin, you can ask me whatever you want. I'm not going to yell or scream at you if you ask a weird question. So, go ahead."
"You said that there wasn't enough sufficient information to convict him. And you called him an honest, hardworking man. I don't believe that you think that. I think that there's more to this than you're letting on."
In response he just looked at me, saying nothing. I saw his mouth barely twitch and I thought that I had hit a nerve. But, he was right. He didn't yell or scream at me in response, he only sighed.
"Mr. Abernathy is a very rich man, Benjamin." He said as he turned away from me. "And no matter what you do, there is no beating the corporate big wigs."
And with that, he left the storage room, leaving me by myself. What he said would really stay with me in the following weeks. So, I started digging through the box and soon found out that it was a treasure trove of information. All of the papers mentioned Abernathy being accused of very serious crimes. There was too much here for me to handle in one day, so I decided to go talk with Mr. Ellison one last time. I left the storage room and returned to his office, where I once again knocked on his door. He told me to enter and so I did.
"Mr. Ellison?" I asked.
"Did you put that box away?" he asked without looking up at me from his desk.
"Um, about that, sir... That's a lot of information to get through in just one day. Do you think that I could take them home with me and bring them back at a later date?"
His response surprised me.
"You can take them for all I care. No one's going to notice if a bunch of old papers go missing from our storage nor will anyone care that they're gone. So, go ahead. Take them all if you want. I'll get a bag for you to put them in."
He got up from the desk and once again walked around toward the door. I looked at my watch and realized that I couldn't afford to stay here much longer.
"Good," I said as I followed him. "I promised a friend of mine that I'd help her study for a upcoming science test and I'll have to leave soon."
"That's fine."
I followed him, where he eventually stopped before getting a plastic bag with the Post's logo on it.
A Few Hours Later
Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona's House
Gwen and I sat up in my bedroom and had been studying for an hour or so now. As we were going through our own respective notes, Gwen suddenly spoke.
"Oh no!"
I turned to look at her.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I didn't realize how much time had passed and it's already dark out."
I looked at my watch and sure enough, it was eight thirty. When I looked outside, it was dark out, just as Gwen said.
"If I don't get home soon, my parents will begin to get worried!"
I let out a sigh as I stood up and dropped my textbook and notes on my bed.
"Well, come on, then." I said as I gestured to her. "I'll take you home on my bike."
I was on my way out of my room when she stopped me.
"You don't have to, I can call my parents and have one of them come get me."
I turned to look at her.
"I know." I said with a smile. "But I want to."
At that point she gave up.
"Alright. Well, take me home, then."
She packed up her stuff and we left my room, went downstairs where I told my grandparents where I was going, where we were going. They told me to be careful and from there, we exited the house from the back door. I kept my bike in the backyard and we had a wooden fence, so it was hard to see into our backyard. I grabbed my bike and Gwen held the fence gate open while I took my bike out to the street. Once I placed it on the sidewalk and got on, she got onto the bike behind me.
"Are you ready?" I asked.
"Uh-huh." She replied.
Sometime Later
We might have been halfway there, to Gwen's house. She rested her feet on part of the bike's frame, while she leaned on my back to support herself. We rode in silence for most of the way, except for when out of nowhere, Gwen randomly started singing.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky."
I was a little confused as to why she started singing. I looked up at the night sky and saw that there were stars out. In an odd way, it made sense now. Meanwhile, I felt Gwen nudging my shoulder, as if she were egging me to sing with her. I didn't really understand why she wanted me to sing.
Eh, why not? What's so bad about singing?
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star," I began singing along with her. "how I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky."
So, we kept singing in unison for most of the way to her house. It was odd, but at the same time, it was kind of fun in a way.
Friday, November 17th, 2017
Madison High School
Well, at the end of last week, we had our test in Physical Science and today, we got them back after Ms. Vaughn had graded them. I aced the test, liked I usually did with my tests, but I was currently looking at Gwen, waiting to see what she had gotten. She just barely glanced at me, before looking back to her test that she was holding in her hands.
"Well, don't leave me in suspense." I said to her. "What did you get?"
She turned to look at me with a small smile on her face.
"I passed." She said as she held up her test for me to see. "With a C."
"That's great, Gwen! I'm really happy for you!"
Her cheeks turned pink in response to what I said.
"I couldn't have passed without your help." She said in a quiet tone.
"Now all you have to do is keep studying like we've been and you should be fine."
She turned away from me to face the front of the room again.
"I hope so." She replied.
Later That Night
Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona's House
I was sitting downstairs in the basement, unpacking all of the newspapers that Mr. Ellison let me take with me. As I was doing that, Grandma Verdona called out to me from the top of the stairs.
"Ben, are you down there, honey? I'm assuming you are, seeing as the light is on."
"Yeah, Grandma. I'm down here."
I heard her begin to make her way down the stairs.
"I need your friend, Nathan's phone number." She said once she got to the bottom of the stairs.
I turned to look at her.
"Why?" I asked.
"Usually for Thanksgiving, we'd get the whole family together, even have Great Aunt Vera come out from Arizona. But that's not going to be happening this year, because of what happened a couple months ago. Your grandfather and I have been talking and we thought about inviting Nathan and his family over for Thanksgiving next week."
"Oh, okay. That sounds cool. Here, let me find his number for you."
I pulled out my phone and brought up my contacts, before I found Nathan's contact info. I began writing it down onto a Post-It Note, before I ripped it off of the pad and handed it to Grandma.
"Here you go." I replied.
"Thanks." She said as she took it.
It was then that she looked down and saw what I was doing.
"What are you working on?" she asked. "What's with all of the newspapers?"
"Oh, I'm using them to work on a project for school."
She just stared at me for several seconds, before finally speaking.
"Okay." She said in a skeptical tone. "Well, I guess I'll leave you to it, then."
She turned back to the stairs and walked back toward them, but stopped on her way there.
"It may be the weekend, but don't stay up all night, okay Ben?"
"I won't, Grandma."
Once she was gone, I started to get to work again. Once I had unpacked all of the newspapers, I began working my way through them one by one. The amount of information that was now available was astounding. As I worked through it all, everything that Abernathy was accused of doing, it got me thinking.
If they retracted all of the articles that mentioned the trouble with Abernathy all those years ago, then why was the one I read that mentioned it left out in the open? Did they forget? Or did they just not care?
An Hour and a Half Later
Well, I had unpacked a lot of information and I had come to a conclusion. A pretty big conclusion. For starters, Jack Abernathy was accused of some pretty big crimes seven or eight years ago. They accused him of having a hand in the criminal underworld, I knew that much already, but that didn't even scratch the surface.
There were claims that he had men drug running and gun running in the city, as well accusations that he had issued out numerous hits on multiple different people. He had holdings in numerous businesses in the city and it was suspected that he used all of these businesses as fronts to launder stolen money. There were also rumors that he may have had his hands in the pockets of the police force here in Bellwood. Dirty cops.
And you know what? I don't think I'd be surprised if it turned out that Blue Cross Pharmaceuticals was also a front in some capacity. As I continued my research, the next piece of damning evidence that I came across was accusations of him partaking in bribery, which I'm pretty sure was illegal. As the accusations came to an end, I found an article with the headline claiming that Abernathy's court date was pending.
But after that, nothing. The next articles that I found mentioned that due to a lack of evidence, as well as no one willing to testify against Abernathy, the charges were eventually dropped. And it just didn't sit right with me. How was he able to escape the criminal charges that he was faced with? More importantly, to me, how was Abernathy able to go from a nameless person when he arrived in Bellwood ten years ago to the owner of a billion dollar company now?
And going back to the topic of his court date being dropped for just a second, I think I had a theory on how he was able to get away with these accusations, if they were real. The people who were going to testify against him, as well as jurors and all that, they're all still alive. The articles made a point to mention that none of them disappeared nor was there any foul play, nothing like that.
My theory is that if Abernathy had so much money, he more than likely paid off everyone who was going to testify against him. And granted, this was a point in time where his company was still relatively new, so how can he afford to pay off everyone that was against him? To me, there was only one logical explanation. My conclusion was that Jack Abernathy was in fact a mob boss.
Author's Note:
* And that's it for this chapter.
* So, what did you think of the character development between Ben and Gwen in this chapter? Do you have any opinions on the unraveling story concerning this Jack Abernathy character (who is original, on my part). Ask me any questions or give me any comments that you feel like giving me.
* Anyway, I'm going to go, though. So have a fantastic day and bye.
Review Responses
Guest Review (Chapter 3): :This is giving me tasm peter and gwen vibes
Thanks for the review. Um, okay? I don't know why you'd get vibes from those movies, I didn't take a lot of inspiration from them, but you can get whatever vibes you want, I guess. Forgive me lackluster reply, I just really don't like the TASM movies. Thanks for the review, as always.
Next Chapter: Ben and Nathan's families get together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Tensions between Ben and Lucy worsen.