I Spoke Eight Languages In A Minute To Save My Family Chapter 01
In my last life, I was the heir to the most powerful business family in the world, and they made sure I earned it.
Fifty-eight languages. Advanced tactical training. A schedule so packed that even my free time was planned for me.
So my body gave out at twenty-five.
Just like that.
Then I got a second chance.
I opened my eyes to seven older sisters, all of them overachievers, and I cried like a baby.
If the world ever fell apart, I had seven people ready to hold it up.
Why would anyone work himself into the ground with a family like that?
So I skipped every class Mom and Dad signed me up for.
Kindergarten through college graduation, I turned my parents into the punchline of every joke in Alderwyn high society.
They were devastated.
Mom cried almost every day.
I stayed the course.
Did absolutely nothing.
Until today.
Eight rival corporate groups from eight different countries moved at once.
They locked down Meredith Mercer’s entire business operation.
They cut Colette Mercer’s international network off from the outside world.
They dismantled Tessa Mercer’s security operation piece by piece.
Even Maren Mercer, the one who never stopped working, had run out of options.
Then they placed an agreement on the table.
“Sign it and walk away with nothing.”
“Refuse, and everyone in your family will pay the price.”
Mom and Dad broke down.
All seven of my sisters looked like they were ready to fight back with everything they had.
I stopped.
Blink.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
So much for my retirement plan.
I set down my retro handheld, walked to the front of the room, pulled out a chair, and dropped into it.
The room went still.
I looked at the eight representatives and smiled.
Then I started talking.
And I switched languages with every sentence.
“Beatrice in Harbor City. Margaret in Westbridge. Clementine in Bellavere. Helena in Ironwood.”
Four names no one outside the inner circle should know.
I laced my fingers together and kept my voice soft.
“Tell me, are those ladies still where they were yesterday?”
Silence.
The smiles around the table disappeared.
…
“Ms. Mercer, just sign.”
“Everyone walks out of here with their pride still attached.”
Celeste Whitlock’s voice could have lulled a child to sleep.
She sat at the head of Mercer Group’s top-floor conference room, calmly holding a porcelain cup of Earl Grey.
The tea smelled like a quiet Sunday afternoon, but it couldn’t mask the tension in the room.
Across the table, my mother, Victoria Mercer, sat pale and rigid.
Her eyes were locked on the thick agreement in front of her.
Over in the corner, I was slouched on the couch, mashing buttons on a retro handheld.
Tetris blocks tumbled down the screen.
A line cleared with a sharp little beep.
In that silence, the sound felt almost ridiculous.
Nobody looked my way.
To every person in that room, I was dead weight.
Always had been.
The last time around, I’d been the heir to the world’s most powerful business family.
Fifty-eight languages.
Trained from childhood to handle almost anything the family could throw at me.
My schedule had been so intense that there was barely room to breathe.
It ran me into the ground.
I never got to see what my life could have become.
Second time around, I woke up as the youngest child of the Mercer family, Alderwyn’s ruling dynasty.
Better yet, I had seven older sisters.
And every single one of them was a machine.
Meredith, my eldest sister, was already running a major investment division at twenty-two.
Alderwyn’s business circles called her the Ice Queen.
Colette, my third sister, moved through political and corporate circles like she owned them both.
She had contacts on every continent.
Tessa, my fourth sister, had left public service and built a private security empire from scratch.
Even Maren, my seventh sister and the youngest before me, was a brilliant cybersecurity expert who could crack complex systems for fun.
I took one look at those seven and started crying happy tears.
The happiest of my two lives.
If the world ever fell apart, I had seven people ready to hold it up.
This time around, I decided there was no reason to push myself into the ground.
So I committed, fully and without shame, to doing absolutely nothing.
I slept through piano lessons, pretended to be exhausted during horseback riding, and folded my advanced math exams into paper airplanes that I launched out the window.
By the time I graduated college, I was the single greatest embarrassment Alderwyn society had ever produced.
Mom and Dad took me from one specialist to another, hoping someone could explain why I refused to apply myself.
They cried more than I did.
Eventually, everyone stopped expecting anything from me.
No more tutors.
No more pressure.
They simply kept me comfortable and out of the way, like something expensive and breakable.
Until today.
Eight corporate giants from eight different countries had been circling us.
That day, they finally moved.
It wasn’t a normal business dispute.
It was a coordinated attempt to take control of everything my family had built.
Meredith’s entire operation was suddenly locked down.
Colette’s contacts stopped responding.
Tessa’s carefully built organization was being dismantled from the inside.
Even Maren, three screens deep and still working, couldn’t stop the system from closing in.
“That’s enough, Celeste.”
Meredith slammed both hands on the table.
Her voice was strained.
Celeste laughed, barely making a sound.
She set her cup down and dabbed her lips with a white handkerchief.
“Meredith. So cold.”
“And here I thought we were friends.”
“I’m doing you a favor, sweetheart.”
“Your family has run out of room to maneuver.”
She stood, crossed to my mother’s side, calmly picked up a fountain pen, and held it out.
“Sign, Ms. Mercer.”
“While you still have the choice.”
My mother’s hand wouldn’t stop shaking.
She stared at the pen.
My thumb hovered over the buttons on my handheld.
The blocks had stacked all the way to the ceiling.
The screen flashed.
Game over.
I looked up.
Straight at Celeste and that picture-perfect smile.
“Hey, Ms. Whitlock, could you speed this up?”
“I’m starving.”
I yawned through the last word.
The room went dead quiet.
A different kind of quiet.
Eight pairs of eyes snapped to me.
Celeste glanced over at me.
Pure pity.
“See, Ms. Mercer?”
“Even Adrian is more worried about his next meal.”
“Sign the papers so you can take the poor boy out to eat.”
