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  ISBN (print): 978-1-7357530-4-1

  ISBN (e-book): 978-1-7357530-5-8

  Published by:

  Lanni LV

  1000 S Green Valley Parkway,

  Suite 440-269

  Henderson, NV 89074

  Title: “DOWNFALL: The Price of Ego.”

  Copyright © 2021 by J.D. Neill

  www.Jdneillbooks.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Production coordinator Scroll & Pencil

  This is a work of fiction. All names, and characters are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to places or actual individuals, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design by Miladinka Milic

  www.milagraphicartist.com

  Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark.

  Zen Proverb

  Greed finds an endless field of conquest and leaves man dissatisfied…

  the partial satisfaction increases the craving…

  Thoughts of Meher Baba

  For Stephen, a loving and honorable man and a remarkable father.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Downfall

  One Life’s a Bitch

  Two An Illusion of Love

  Three Money Loves Money

  Four 2001 - The China Deal

  Five The Scammer, Scammed.

  Six The Dark Continent

  Seven Re-invention

  Eight Hope Before Despair

  Nine Lost and Alone

  Ten The Crash of 2009

  Eleven Not Enough Thought

  Twelve Pride Before the Fall

  Thirteen Pay the Piper 2012

  Fourteen Anonymous

  Fifteen Vulnerable

  Sixteen Stick to What You Know

  Seventeen Look At Me Now

  Eighteen Time to Reflect

  Nineteen Not Just a Diary–A Memoir

  Twenty Prepared

  Twenty-One Living the Dream

  Twenty-Two The Curse

  Twenty-Three Not in Las Vegas

  Twenty-Four It Must Be Random

  Twenty-Five Man of Mystery

  Twenty-Six Loose Ends

  Twenty-Seven The Funeral

  Twenty-Eight Frazzled

  Twenty-Nine Frayed Ends

  Thirty Slough of Despond

  Thirty-One In Touch by Skype

  Thirty-Two Taking Control and Keeping It.

  Thirty-Three A Succubus

  Thirty-Four Blighty

  Thirty-Five Malibu

  Thirty-Six Revelation

  Thirty-Seven Care to Volunteer?

  Thirty-Eight Finale

  Acknowledgments

  A Letter from J D Neill

  The Captive

  DOWNFALL

  “WHAT AM I GOING TO do without you?” She weeps softly.

  Mark notices, not for the first time, everything about her is soft. Her skin, her auburn hair, her pretty eyes.

  “With time off for good behavior, I’ll be out in less than a year,” he says.

  “I can’t bear it…” She shakes her head, a sign of her deep despair.

  “My darling, you’re a trained actress, a producer, and an extremely smart woman. You’ll be fine. Write something, a script, a book.” He reaches to push her hair from her eyes, and his hand comes away wet. “Please don’t cry. This is hard enough. Write our story—it’s a wonderful love story.” He tilts her chin, surprised when she does not meet his eyes.

  She says nothing. How can she write a love story when she is terrified about the ending? She has not found the courage to tell him about the death threats. She breathes deeply and looks up at her husband.

  Catching the doubt in her eyes, he says, “Okay, not a love story. Write my story! It could be a best seller. The Billionaire’s Downfall! I’ll give you the opening: ‘On April 18, 1972, Mark Henderson comes into the world, kicking and screaming. He learns immediately, that is the way to get what he wants.’ How about that?” ……

  ON APRIL 18, 1972, MARK Henderson comes into the world, kicking and screaming. Intuitively, he senses this is the way to get what he wants.

  With no clue as to what awaits him, his mother nurses her delightful baby boy, praying her young husband, an army officer, will not be sent into the aftermath of the catastrophe that recently occurred in Northern Ireland—a bloodbath that has made the British military an enemy and a target.

  Her prayers are answered, but three months later, the proud father is deployed to the turmoil in Cyprus, leaving mother and child to bond.

  As an army brat, constantly farewelling his friends, a sense of family is important. Mark adores his mother. Friends lack permanency, and it becomes more so as he grows older.

  From the beginning, there is little argument that Mark is handsome and charming, but his need to find an edge, and his early obsession with having money, turns out to be a poor foundation for a long life and is, perhaps, a harbinger of his fate.

  When the family is not with his father on a posting overseas, Mark spends three formative teenage years in London, England’s exciting capital.

  In the heart of the city, he tries to imagine a future—once he has made his fortune. But when he is only 16, his father, a dedicated professional military man, seconds himself into the US Army and heads for his new posting, leaving Mark behind with his mother to pack up, lock, stock, and barrel, ready for a move to the land of the free and the home of the brave.

  In London, with his eye on the main chance, it has been discovered that Mark has been playing truant. With another boy, Roger Bowman, the school bully, he is suspected of misappropriating school property.

  Mark’s dad is not here to hassle him, and he has only two days until they depart. He must have a lucky star looking out for him. He hopes it never fails.

  Roger was not so lucky; he had to stay behind and deal with the consequences.

  Serves him right, arrogant prick. Mark chuckled.

  Roger Bowman is expelled, a source of enormous shame to his father, a teacher at the school. It is a dishonor the older Bowman will never forget, and in consequence, father and son are forever estranged.

  It is the first time Mark Henderson has pissed off Roger Bowman, but not the last. A fundamental life altering error.

  Mark has no way of knowing the consequence or understanding the significance the loss of his father’s love has on Roger. But Roger neither forgives nor forgets. No matter how long, he vows revenge.

  At Easter 1989, busily packing, on the eve of shipping out, Mark and his mother learn the senior Henderson, with the Army Corps of Engineers, will join the US Coast Guard in a massive cleanup effort of 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound—the largest and most damaging oil spill in American history, from the Exxon Valdez tanker. His father will not be there to meet them.

  “No way I’d want a life like that,” Mark tells his mother.

  “A little army discipline might be just the thing for you.”

  Seeing Mark’s look of horror, she immediately recants. “Of course, I wouldn’t want that for you, Marcus. But, I worry you’re going to end up in serious trouble if you keep going the way you have been.”

  “I’ll be fine, Mum. I had my fortune told at the fair last week. She said I’ll lead a charmed life, and I’ll make my fame and fortune. How about that?”

  He grins at his mother, sweeps her up in his arms, and twirls her around the k
itchen.

  “Put me down,” she laughs. “Let’s hope the woman’s right.”

  When he sets her on the floor, his mother reaches a hand to his cheek. “I worry about you, Marcus. What do you want to do with your life?”

  “I’m going to be rich and powerful.”

  “That’s not a career.”

  “It’s the only career for me.”

  She laughs. Irene Henderson loves her son, but she recognizes that when he is not charming the fillings out of people’s teeth, his competitiveness often causes resentment. She fears, one day, it may cause problems.

  Mark grabs the last suitcase and takes a final look around. “Come on, we have a plane to catch and a new life waiting for us.”

  Arriving in the USA, with his father absent, the months slip by. Literally up to his armpits, Major Henderson has little time or inclination to hear reports of Mark’s past misdeeds, which suits Mark well.

  His mother struggles to influence and direct her son’s choices and behavior. In turn, Mark comforts his mother.

  Returning home for just a short while, his father soon announces, “I may not be here for the holidays this year. Tensions have heightened in Panama.”

  Although accustomed to army life, Irene now frets constantly about the absence of her husband. She fears Mark lacks discipline.

  Mark doesn’t care about Panama or some foreign president, but it crosses his mind he may get short-shrift on gifts this Christmas. So, just a week before the holiday, he takes matters into his own hands and decides to go “Christmas shopping.”

  It will be a long while before Major Henderson learns that his son, at the age of 17, along with his new-found friends, have been charged with breaking, entering, and stealing. Luckily for Mark, his father shipped out the previous day.

  On Christmas Eve, Mark’s father calls home. “US forces hold most of the country. We reinstated the President, so it may not be a long deployment.”

  Mark still doesn’t care about a country he will never visit, but he holds his breath, praying his mother says nothing of his “adventure.” She does not, and the Henderson duo waits in vain for Major Henderson’s return.

  Optimistic and mistaken, Mark’s father does not return stateside for a couple of years—a vital two years in a developing boy’s life.

  Not yet eighteen, Mark announces, “I’m leaving school. I’m going to paint houses.”

  “You could be so much more, Mark. You are smart and quick.” But seeing the determined set of her son’s jaw, Irene Henderson resigns herself. What should she do? She has been left to raise him alone, and she long since accepted that Mark, unlike his dad, has no interest in school or the military.

  “Ah well, at least you found a job.”

  Mark does not mention that painting people’s houses is the stepping stone to bigger plans—an inside track to scouting what they have and ascertaining how he can purloin the most valuable and disposable items for himself.

  When Mark is hauled in for attempted burglary, it is his first offense in the US. He is a juvenile, and the local sheriff lets him off with a warning—his mother is still pretty and, with her soft English accent, rather appealing. If only her husband could help. Mark is a challenge.

  Irene Henderson relaxes as Mark seems to thrive. She has no reason to suspect that the access his job offers to affluent homes is simply too tempting for Mark.

  One Thursday, as dusk settles, Mark is recognized by one of the people whose house he just painted. He is roaming around after hours, dressed in utility company overalls, lugging tools. In the Beverly Hills Flats, the wealthy streets between Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards, he stands out.

  The man calls the police. “I don’t want to create a problem for the kid; he seems nice enough. But why would our house painter now be garbed in a gas company uniform? He is a painter, and he finished more than an hour ago.”

  Mark is detained, and in early 1990, just before he is 18, he admits to planning a robbery. Once again, fortune favors him. He gets rapped on the knuckles, a little community service, and it is done.

  But by now, Mark has a sense of the area, and he has an idea that could offer an inside track on robberies, using other people to gain access.

  He floods the area with flyers. The homes, cars in parking lots, and office buildings, and in record time, he starts a house and office cleaning company. To his astonishment, it takes off and grows exponentially.

  There is just no time for thieving.

  Before he knows it, Mark is making real money from a bonafide industry. He hires and fires, and all the while, he grows, becoming the predominant cleaning service in the area.

  Thrilled and proud, his mother tells him, “I knew you were born for greater things. Maybe that gypsy fortune teller was right.”

  In a move reminiscent of the past, Mark picks up his tiny mother and swings her around. “Sit back, have a cup of tea, and read a book, Mum,” he says. “You’ll never have to sweep or scrub ever again.”

  Conscious she has always tried her best to care for him, Mark adores his mother and loves to make her happy. His crew cleans, and his company grows. Only in the USA, he thinks.

  Incredibly, in late 1992, he receives an offer to sell his company for a whopping profit.

  He has been running it for three years, has discovered the innate skill he has for business, and $1,000,000 is too tempting a number for a boy who is only 21.

  In January 1993, he sells.

  MELISSA BURNS’ FATHER IS PRESIDENT of a small, privately held, local bank. A gymnast and an Olympic contender, when she is not practicing, she works for her father for pocket money. Tiny, fit, and with an athlete’s figure, Melissa is prettier and smarter than most of the girls Mark meets, and she helps cement his friendly relationship at the bank, where, over the months, Mark has become a valued customer. Now, with the influx of cash from the deal, he is considered a VIP.

  When he plucks up the courage to ask her out, Melissa doesn’t hesitate to accept the invitation to be wined and dined by this gorgeous, smart, and successful young man.

  Her father, Poppa Joe, encourages the relationship. They make a delightful couple.

  After six months, he can see the boy has moxie, and, if he is serious about his darling Melissa, as seems to be the case, why not give him a helping hand—a push up the financial ladder. He remembers his early struggles and wants to help.

  Melissa is also 21, and her uncle is a prominent Catholic congressman. When she discovers she is one month pregnant, he makes it clear to Mark that scandal is not an option. In early summer 1993, naive and with little regret at spending his life with this pretty and sweet girl, Mark asks Melissa to marry him.

  He converts to Catholicism for the marriage, and everyone is happy. The future looks bright, and before the wedding, the bank arranges an introduction to one of their clients.

  In failing health, the man needs a bailout. His soft drink company has seen better days. The equipment is still in good order, but without keeping in contact, he has lost customers. With his surrounding three thousand acres of land—over three square miles—he optimistically planted grapes, but the man has grown old, and with no children to inherit, his interest has waned in recent years.

  The plant and various winery buildings can be had for cents on the dollar. Perhaps a little out of the way in the Inland Empire, but it is available at a steal. As a wedding gift, Poppa Joe arranges the mortgages.

  Mark has married into a family of note, the wedding is covered by the local press, and he is thrilled to find their photos on the printed page.

  “After all, people are married every week; we are not the only ones being photographed,” Melissa laughs.

  It is not the first time there have been stories covering Melissa, with all her previous gymnastic achievements, and she doesn’t understand why it is so fascinating to Mark.

  But for him, it is a first. It is thrilling to see oneself in print—a sense of validation somehow, and a degree of status. He take
s a clipping and puts it in the drawer, excited by the possibilities he imagines ahead.

  In the early days before the baby is born, they have fun together, enjoying the comfortable life Mark’s business acumen allows, and soon after the birth of a little girl they name Simone, Melissa becomes convinced that she could still be a contender for the next Olympic Games, if she gets back into serious training.

  With their busy schedules, they have little spare time together. To Melissa, they seem to have grown into a comfortable family lifestyle.

  From July 19 to August 4, 1996, the Centennial Olympic Games are to be held in Atlanta. Melissa squeaks in. She has been training hard since having the baby. It seemed doubtful for a while, but her tenacity paid off.

  Leaving their little one with her parents, Mark and Melissa head to Georgia. Swept up in the excitement of the moment, Mark sits back to watch his accomplished young wife among the slew of world-class athletes. He considers how far he has come, via a couple of military bases and a small street in London to settle on California’s golden coast.

  Celine Dion sings ‘The Power of the Dream,” accompanied by composer David Foster on the piano and backed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, with the Centennial Choir. It is the stuff of Mark’s dreams.

  As the husband of a well-connected woman and a successful entrepreneur in his own right, he celebrates that doors are opening for him.

  This is just the beginning; Mark feels it. The one thing he is learning is that with every little taste of victory, he wants more.

  He tries to imagine where he will be five and ten years from now.

  He has plans, big plans, and for sure, he will make his mark.

  Gladys Knight’s voice calls him back to the moment, performing the state’s official song “Georgia on My Mind.” Setting his dreams aside, he looks down. Without him noticing, she has finished.

  Before the applause dies down, cheerleaders and marching bands fill the arena, Muhammad Ali lights the cauldron, and the games begin. By the end of the event, Melissa has won a medal. She carries it with them back to California and to a huge welcoming crowd.