After Horton Wiggins' bond hearing, trial was set for a week later. Nothing that Homer did made any difference, and he was unable to get his son out of jail. Horton was adamant about pleading innocent to all charges, even though the prosecution had witnesses and the recording from his visit to RBG LLC Business Management. He just could not believe that a jury, once they knew 'who he was', would dare to convict him. His arrogance was way over the top for sure. Even his lawyer could not convince him that there was no hope of acquittal. The day of the trial arrived, and all parties were seated in the court room. As the trial began, the prosecutor played the recording. The lawyer for Horton spoke up just as the tape began to play "I object to this. It could have been faked for all we know. I move that the recording be deemed inadmissible, Your Honor!" The judge for the case was Kenneth Truman. He was known for his sense of fair play, and never took sides in any case that he oversaw
In the conference room of the RBG LLC Business Management, everyone settled down to listen to Matthew. He had called the meeting to discuss what they should do next. "My idea is to put a little pressure on Homer Wiggins, which in turn, might make him show his hand. If we can get him to make a mistake, the police can lock him up with his son, and the people of Shanghai will be rid of at least the Wiggins family threat for good." Rick said "So how do you purpose to apply this pressure? Nothing illegal, I trust?" Matthew chuckled and said "Of course nothing illegal. We don't need to resort to his level to bring him down, he will do that out of his own greed. We know from our sourses that Homer Wiggins paid a lot of money to take revenge on RBG Group. We also know that the man he hired skipped out with the money. Homer must be livid at this point. His focus will still be on revenge. Let's refocus his attention to something closer to home for him." Old Wilson knew where Matthew
Everyone was familar with Rick's 'ideas'. Some were excellent, but others were ...less so. Old Wilson rolled his eyes and said "Ok, let's hear it!" Rick cleared his throat and said "My idea concerns the ophans of Shanghai. This city has a large number of orphanages, and not enough money to go around. I thought that as a way of giving back to society, we could sponser a scholarship for several of the brightest to come out of the city's orphanages, and use the rent from these high rises to fund it. If they go to a local university, we could even offer them an apartment as well. Not many of them could ever afford to even go to college otherwise." Debbie clapped her hands and said "Oh Rick, that's the best idea you've had all year!"Everyone agreed. They all knew that the Greens didn't need the money from the rents. And this was diffinitely the best use of the revenue that any of them could think of. Old Wilson was in awe of Rick's generousity. He said "Why stop at just scholarship
Lois, Howard and Heyward were all looking forward to their trip to Shanghai. Debbie had called to invite them to the gala, and said that she hoped that they would come a day or two early. She wanted to have a family meeting. Old Man and Old Madame Thomas were coming, as well as Rebecca. Heyward's wife was invited too, but she had something on with her family that weekend, so she would not be attending. Not much had been heard from the Jelang group lately. Lois was busy with her shop, which had made surprising progress in the last few months. And Lois was so proud of her work. This made Debbie very pleased with her mother. Howard and Heyward had been working hard at the shelter and were glad of the break this trip would give them. The shelter was full almost every night now, and the demands on thier resourses were making it difficult to manage sometimes. So Howard wanted a word with Rick, and this was the perfect time to do it. Everyone was seated out by the pool of the
The gala was a huge hit. Everyone had enjoyed the evening spent with the local high society members, and even a few celebrities showed up to support the Green Children's Foundation. The auction had made close to $10 million on its own. Total revenue for the event including ticket sales was over $75 million. But the biggest success of the night was the bachelor bidding. There were ten bachelors who agreed to participate, with the highest bid of $2 miilion being paid by a local business woman who bid on the handsomest guy for her daughter. Brandon was estactic that it had gone so well. He had Matthew to thank for such a glorious evening, as it had been his vision that made the gala memorable. The next day, the Thomas family had an outing together. They all went out to a local restaurant to have a family meal. All of the members missed these dinners. They used to have one every week back in Jelang. But now, it was difficult to get everyone together in the same place at the same ti
Jelang was a typical country village. It had everything that a family needed, but not all the high end stores of the bigger cities. The produce market was actually better than most city markets, because the produce was locally grown. Therefore it came to market usually the same day it was harvested. The same was true for meats and dairy products. The shelter was on the property of the old Thoams estate, but after the fire it had been leveled and the shelter was built in its place. The old man's garden had been expanded, as well as the stock yards. Pigs and cows provided fresh meat, as well as milk. The chicken coop had been enlarged to hold several hundred chickens, to provide eggs for the kitchen. But still, food had to be brought in, as the demand on the food offered was getting higher all the time. This was becoming a major outlay, and combined with the demand for overnight shelter, the place was out growing the current facilities. This was a worry for Howard, but he wanted
When Matthew came back from the realtor's office, he was in high spirits. He went looking for Rick to tell him the good news. He found Rick in the kitchen talking to the cooks there. When Rick saw the look on Matthew's face, he knew that something good had happened. So they walked out to the garden area, and Rick said "OK, spill it! I can tell that you have someting that you can't wait to say!" Matthew grinned and replied "You now have two hundred acres of land to the north of the shelter!" Rick was flabbergasted "How did you do that so quickly? How much did you spend on it? Wow! Two hundred acres!" Matthew said "I met the owner of the oldest real estate company in town, a Mr. Dwayne York. When he heard that we were looking to expand the shelter, he donated the land to us for free! Here is the deed!" With that, he handed Rick the documents. Rick was overjoyed with this news. He responed "That is unbelieveable! " Matthew said "Well, it's all thanks to your mother-in-l
The general and his men had a meeting to discuss ideas on how to break up this gang of petty thiefs. One idea was to try and infilatrate the gang. But this was dismissed by the general when he said "It's a good idea, but you are all too old to fit in with them. We are dealing with young punks in their late teens and early twentys. All of you are over thirty. Any one else?" Another man said "Let's some of us pose as workers who are going to reopen the plant. Maybe that will draw thier attention." George liked this plan. He said "I will act as a presepctive buyer of the factory, and you all can be foremen that came with me to inspect it. That might be our best option. So, everyone get changed into civilian clothes, and no boots! Nothing on you should give away our true identities. Since it's just a bunch of punks, there's no need for any kind of weapons. We don't need to reveal who we really are to these thugs." After everyone was wearing regular street clothes, they headed o
It was a sad day for Rick. Today, he was to bury his beloved mentor, Old Wilson. Old Wilson had been frail, and his health had declined slowly. If someone didn't see him every day, they would notice a vast difference . But since Rick would go down to see his old friend regularly, he did not realise just how bad Old Wilson had gotten. It was on such a visit that Rick found Old Wilson sitting in his favorite chair out in his back garden. At first Rick just thought he was asleep, as Old Wilson would nap out there almost every day. But after sitting down beside him, Rick finally realised that Old Wilson had passed on. It broke Rick's heart. Old Wilson had left instructions as to what he wanted done after his death. He asked that Rick bury him next to Ruth, his wife, and their son, Christopher. It was out in the countryside, north of Fing City. Rick had made all of the arrangements, and that morning, he and Debbie headed out. He had made the announcement of Old Wilson's death to the com
After the kidney transplant, Debbie's health improved tremendously. She had regained her strength and stamina to the point that she was able to resume her duties at RBG LLC. Over the years, she had expanded offices in all of the major cities in the south. Every big company clamoured to have RBG LLC handle their accounting needs. It became a status symbol to have Debbie work for them. After such a huge expansion, Debbie and Rick had set their sights in a more global presence. So they started with Cairo, Eygpt. Since Anita had done such a good job organising that pharmaceutical office years ago, it had become the premier branch of RBG Pharmaceuticals. So it was a natural place to start the global expansion of RBG LLC. Rick and Debbie spent several months in Cairo setting up the branch, and even acquired a residence in Eygpt. It was an expansive villa right on the banks of the river Nile. Larry had designed it to reflect the location and local culture. The villa was named 'Alhudu
As time flew by, Lois had been in Jelang and had been doing very well with her shop 'Second Chance'. The local population had, for the most part, forgotten about her sordid past. She was a valued member of the business community. Last yesr, she had been nominated to run for the local Chamber of Commerce Chairman. She was of course flattered to be nominated, but was very surprised when she actually won the position. It was the peak of her life to have been given this post. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine that she would reach such a height in her life. Even though it was just in a small village such as Jelang, the fact that she was overwhelmingly the popular choice humbled her even more. Rick and Debbie both were just so proud of Lois, and even came to her investiture ceremony, along with all of the rest of the Thomas family. Howard had really been putting his all into the Thomas Shelter. Along the way, he met a very nice lady, who had come in for an interview fo
The day dragged on as George frantically looked for his missing man. Since the man had no pockets, he didn't have his cell phone on him. So he could not call the general to tell him what was going on. He had all of his contact numbers in his phone, so he had not bothered to memorize any of them. After a long afternoon of being interrogated by the police, they at last let him make a call. He decided to call the resort, and if nothing else, he could leave a message for his boss. After this was done, the jailer put the man in a cell to wait for further instructions from the police Chief in charge. George finally went to the front desk to ask the desk clerk where the nearest police station was, thinking that it was a place to start looking, and to file a missing person's report. The desk clerk then remembered to give him the message that had come in for him, and it just so happened to be from his missing man. George went and sought out Matthew and Rick to accompany him to the p
After ensuring Su Ma had everything that she needed, the group left to return to the yacht. They were to spend the next few days at sea. Everyone was back on board, then they set off for their next port of call, Manilla, Philippines. It was an exotic port, and nothing like anything any of the group had experienced before. They had a wonderful time seeing all of the sights. Then they set sail for Singapore, Malaysia. This trip was a smorgasbord of many different cultures and sights, not to mention landscapes. Singapore was a bustling city, full of high end shopping centers with branded stores, as well as the local cultural sights. Museums, art galleries and the like. The kids especially liked the Singapore Zoo. It was filled with all of the animals that they had studied in school. The adults were partial to the Singapore Botanical Gardens and the National Orchid Garden. They all enjoyed the trip to China Town. It was a taste of home for them, but in a different way. There was really
The years had flown by. The Greens had expanded their businesses in every direction. The most profitable were the ocean shipping company and the pharmaceuticals. Medical supplies was running a close third. Rick was planning a big suprise for the kids' ninth and tenth birthdays next month. They had grown so much, and still all of them got along so well with each other. Li Fan had gone on to be a managing director of one of Rick's local offices, and he was proud of his work. His son, Ricky, was looking more and more like him every day. Alice was a very good mother. Ricky had grown up with the Green children, and seemed more like one of the siblings, rather than just a cousin. George and Anita's daughter Leah was also part of the "tribe". Since George paid close attention to the security of Ting Gap, Leah had grown up in the house as well. It was an exclusive daycare that Rick and Debbie were proud to provide for the two kids. All of the Green kids were very protective of them
General Han gathered all of the evidence that he had collected and called his friend at the police station. They sent the fraud investigation team over right away to go over the documents. They agreed with George that this was an embezzlement case, cut and dried. After informing Debbie and Rick of their findings, Debbie called a meeting of those involved. The head of personel walked into the conference room, stopped dead in his tracks and turned to flee. He was stopped by the security guards at the door. He was made to sit down and shut his mouth. Next, the other two culprits walked in together, chatting with each other. They sat down across from the upper managment team and waited. George introduced everyone. "Mr. Waits is the head of personel, this is Mr. Floyd, head of accounting, and that is Mr. Grooms, the managing director. Gentlemen, this is Mrs. Green, CEO of RBG LLC. The man next to her is Mr. Green, Chairman and owner of the RBG Group. Then we have Mr. Moore, Vice Pr
The crowd outside the venue were so excited to see their favorite stars and public officals as they arrived at the gala. The men dressed in tuxedos and the beautiful gowns that the women wore were worth standing in the night air to see. All of the attendees made use of a step-and-repeat banner set up for press photos. These glamour shots would been seen all over the media in the coming days. But the most stunning had been Debbie in all of her finery. Her jewels shone like the stars in the heavens. They cast a glow around her like nothing else could. The evening was filled with surprises, and a lot of money was raised for the Green Children's Foundation. Brandon was thrilled with both the turnout and the donations total. It had been a very successful night. The day after the gala, everybody at the Green villa slept in late. They only got up in time for a scumptous brunch prepared by Chef Matthew. It was well worth dragging themselves out of bed for. Then everyone started to get
Once again, the Thomas family came together for a family weekend. The highlight of the weekend was of course the gala for the Green Children's Foundation. Since Jonathan and Betty lived in Beijing, they were to be included in all of the festivities as well. Rick and Debbie loved having their family around them, and this weekend was no exception. Rick and Debbie's Beijing villa was not as big as Ting Gap, but no less opulent. After all, Larry had done the design work and supervised the work himself. It was large enough to hold most everyone coming from out of town. Lois, Rebecca, the Old Thomas', Howard, Heyward and his wife , Aunt Alice and Li Fan and of course Matthew and Brandon. So the Green mansion was full to the brim. Matthew decided to cook on the first night of the gathering. Dinner on that Friday night was a master piece of culinary delights. Matthew rarely got to indulge himself in the kitchen of late, so he went all out to prepare a meal fit for a royal banquet. His dish