Celebrate

Chapter 1. Celebrate

After sunset, Luke Von Aleister was enrobed in an expensive lounge suit worth almost a million dollars, bought by his mother Mary Von Aleister for a whopping nine hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars as a gift for her son.

Her son Luke, has just reached an astonishing milestone, amassing a net worth of one billion dollars at a young age of twenty-four. He had just become a billionaire after only two years of serving as a divisional chairman of the Von Aleister companies.

Luke’s friends wanted to throw him a party to celebrate his accomplishment and Mary took it upon herself to dress her son in a way she thinks is most befitting of a billionaire.

Mary knew Luke was not experienced in fashion or anything outside of the cooperate capitalist endeavours. All of his time is spent working or innovating new ways of generating capital and maximising revenue. Being a person who is obsessed with public perception, she wants to create a better public image for her family, to bask in Luke’s success and brag about it as much as she can.

“Luke, wait.” Mary sprinted across the massive living room to meet her son, who was just about to exit through the front door.

Luke came to a halt. “I’m so proud of you,” Mary said, her face sparkling with joy. Her smile was so wide, revealing some of her upper teeth. “My golden boy, so brilliant and hardworking.” Standing in front of Luke as she fixes his tie.

Mary uttered resolutely, “You are the light I see at the end of the tunnel, the resurrector of my dead, bitter heart. Soon enough, the entire world will grovel before your feet in complete servitude.” 

“Mom, slow down. You know I don’t like such boastful compliments,” Luke was not very comfortable with the way his mom complimented him. ‘I’m not some sort of slave master,’ he thought to himself.

“Oh, come on, son, your grandfather subjugated and rule over some of the most prominent financial institutions in London. I believe that you can do the same thing with the IT sector.” She uttered sternly, showing no doubt at all about Luke’s capability to accomplish such a daunting mission.

‘She still doesn’t realise that every successful takeover or development is done in the name of Connor Von Aleister (grandfather). This means that everyone working with the Von Aleister companies is only as influential as Connor Von Aleister allows them to be, and he can easily strip the power away from them.’

After Mary was done fixing Luke’s tie, she hugged him tight and warm, then she gave him a kiss on his head. 

“You look so handsome right now. I need to take a selfie with you before you go,” she pulled out her custom made mobile phone and took a few selfies.

“I wish Rose Ashton were here with you right now. You two make a sweet couple. I can’t wait for your wedding day,” Mary said, overwhelmed with happiness she couldn’t contain. Her face was red and her cheeks became sore from involuntarily smiling the whole day.

“I have to go mom, my friends are very intolerant of lateness,” Luke finally weasel out of his mother’s hug and exited the mansion.

A super expensive phantom limousine was parked in front of the porch waiting to pick him up. It must have been sent by one of his friends. A chauffeur held open the door to the limousine, waiting for Luke to enter. 

Rudolph, who is Luke’s personal bodyguard, tried to get into the limousine, but the chauffeur objected to it, claiming that master Kenny insisted on bringing only Luke with him. Luke got into the limousine and said, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Rudolph was dismissed.

After a few minutes of driving, they arrived at the most luxurious hotel in all of North London. The chauffeur held open the door for Luke and a red carpet was rolled out for him." Master Kenny hired the entire hotel for this occasion," the chauffeur informed Luke.

‘Why will Kenny go this far for a party of just six friends? Something isn’t right about this.’ Luke thought to himself as he stood at the entrance door feeling discouraged and contemplating whether to attend the party or not.

The entrance door was opened, and a loud sound of applause filled the air. The hotel lounge was dimly lit, a stage light was directed at Luke as he entered the hotel, making it look like a spectacular grand entry. Luke was flattered but concerned. He thought it was simply going to be in a restaurant.

The lights came on and Luke noticed many unfamiliar faces that he didn’t expect to be at the party. His five friends approached and gave him a warm hug. Kenny Barron was last. He gave Luke a tight hand shake and usher Luke to seat at the dining hall.

“What are all these people doing here?” Luke whispered to Kenny. “Oh, don’t worry, they are just servants,” Kenny said with a wicked grin on his face.

“Look around, do you like what you see?” Kenny uttered, his face still wearing a wicked grin as he points at a group of five girls scantily dressed. “You can have all of them if you wish, Mr billionaire,” 

Laura Emerson commented, “you are disgusting, Kenny. You know very well Luke is not into these kinds of.....” she was abruptly interrupted by Kenny, "Don’t worry, I have treats for you too, look behind you,"

Laura was reluctant to look, but out of curiosity, he took a sneak peek and notice two muscular men scantily dressed with oily, shiny skin. Laura diverted her gaze sharply and uttered “eeww,” under her breath.

Laura Emerson is the only woman in their friend group. Each person is well over one hundred million dollars of net worth. Some of them thought having a woman in the group would distract them and lower their efficiency. Laura proved them wrong. She was the first billionaire among them and the richest one among them so far.

Soon after, the table was decorated with some of the most delicious dishes. Kenny stood up and pulled out an expensive bottle of wine from a bucket of ice. A clinking sound was generated by Kenny hitting a wine glass with a spoon to get everyone’s attention. Then he proceeded to pour the wine into their glasses.

“I want to make a toast to my friend for beating me to the one billion dollars finish line,” Kenny said while raising a glass. He continued in a soft yet hostile voice, “You have proven yourself to be a formidable opponent. I recognise your might, but the race is not over. In fact, it is on right now as I speak.” 

Kenny was wearing a grimace on his face with an air of hostility. 

“Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

Luke, looking at his glass of wine reluctantly, “Sorry, you know I don’t drink, I’d rather pass...”

“Come on, Luke, you can’t disrespect me like this. I spent five hundred thousand dollars on this premium champagne. The least you can do is show some appreciation by drinking with us,” Kenny uttered sternly. 

“Drink, drink, drink...” said Allen, one of Luke’s friends present at the party.

The rest of them joined, forming a chorus repeatedly, “drink, drink, drink, drink,” while they bang their hands on the table insistently.

Laura was the only one that abstained.

After a few minutes, Luke caved under pressure and gave into their demands. “Just this one time,” Luke said lazily. “Bottoms up.” he took a gulp from the glass, then made a gnarly face as a reaction to the alcohol burn. He wasn’t used to the taste of alcohol.

Luke’s friends laughed and made fun of the face he made. Kenny smirked while looking directly at him. Luke was weirded out by Kenny’s reaction, but he didn’t think much of it.

******

The party carried on with music playing, lots of food, and some of Luke’s friends got up to dance with the girls.

Luke was seated, feeling exhausted. He tried to get up but got light-headed and dropped back into his seat. He looked around through tired eyes and an increasedly blurry vision. No one was there in the dining hall except Kenny, who was still smirking and maintaining eye contact with him.

‘What is happening to me?’ Luke thought to himself, creeped out by Kenny’s demeanor but too exhausted to confront him.

As Luke’s vision continues to dim and was almost completely shut, he forcefully uttered a barely audible question, “what did you do?”. To that, Kenny responded by mouthing what seemed like, “I win....”

That was all Luke’s vision allowed him to see before he blacked out.