Richest Man: It All Started With My Rebate System

The next morning, Steven had just finished eating breakfast, after returning from his gym session for the day.

He washed the dishes and was about to walk back to the living area when his phone started ringing. He looked at his phone’s screen and he saw that it was Daniel from Meridian Advisory.

He immediately picked the call.

"Mr. Craig," Daniel said. "Good morning. I’m calling with an update on the Caldwell’s file."

"Go ahead," Steven said, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"The due diligence review is complete. The report is ready. I wanted to call before sending it through so you knew what you were receiving."

"How did it come back?" Steven asked.

"Comprehensively," Daniel said. "And largely as you anticipated." A brief pause. "The inventory irregularities you described are documented across fourteen months of records. The pattern is consistent and the adjustments are systematic — not the kind of variance that can be attributed to error or waste. Someone was making deliberate changes to cover outgoing stock."

"The manager," Steven said.

"The evidence points that way, yes. We’ve documented the pattern thoroughly. The cash flow discrepancy you mentioned is also in the report. The end-of-night reconciliation figures don’t align with the service volumes across multiple periods. The gap is significant and follows the same directional pattern as the inventory issue."

Steven said nothing for a moment, letting it settle.

"What’s the business actually worth?" he asked.

"At current performance and under current management, we’d put fair market value between four hundred and five hundred thousand. The location and the existing customer base add something to that number, but the mismanagement has suppressed what the business could realistically generate under different conditions." Daniel paused. "There’s genuine potential there. The bones are solid. The problems are concentrated in the management layer and the financial controls, both of which are addressable."

"And the owner?" Steven asked. "Any indication of how he’s likely to receive an offer?"

"Gerald Holt has three other businesses currently generating significantly more attention than this one. From what we could determine, the restaurant has been a passive holding for at least two years. He hasn’t been on site in any meaningful capacity and his involvement appears to be limited to reviewing monthly summaries that, given what we found in the books, are not an accurate picture of the operation." Daniel paused. "An offer at a significant premium arriving through a professional channel, with clean documentation and no financing contingencies, is likely to be received well. There’s no indication he has any particular attachment to the asset."

"Good," Steven said.

"I’ll send the full report through to your email within the hour. It’s thorough — you’ll want to review the financial section in particular before you move to the offer stage. There are specific figures in there that will be useful when the conversation with Holt’s office begins."

"I’ll go through it when it arrives," Steven said. "Thank you, Daniel. You and your team did good work."

"We appreciate that," Daniel said. "Is there anything else you need from us at this stage?"

"Not right now," Steven said. "I’ll be in touch if anything comes up during the offer process."

"Of course. Good luck with it, Mr. Craig."

The call ended.

Steven set the phone down on the counter and stood still for a moment.

It was done. The results of the investigation had come back exactly as he had known it would.

He thought of Jason briefly. The sneer. The yelling. The particular satisfaction the man had taken in making Steven’s working days as difficult as possible because Steven had refused to become complicit in what he was doing.

That debt was about to be collected.

He quickly picked up his phone and dialled Lena’s number.

The call rang twice before she picked up.

"Steven," Lena said. "Good timing. I was just thinking about you."

"Really? Tell me, what were you thinking about?" Steven asked in surprise.

"Well, for one, I was wondering about you. Secondly, I was curious to know the reason why you haven’t called or even texted in the past few days, and what you could possibly be doing at this moment in time," Lena replied.

Steven was silent for a moment, as he found it unable to form any word in reply. Lena’s words had made him to realise that he had been inconsiderate, especially with the ongoing issue with Drew.

Even though he had nothing to say to her, he could had at least called her to let her know that he was fine.

"I’m sorry, Lena. I hadn’t wanted to call to make small talk because I knew you would be busy, but I understand now that I was wrong and should had at least called to check up on you at least," Steven said.

"It’s fine. Though, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed. I thought you would call but you didn’t. Or were waiting for the due diligence report to arrive, so that you can have a genuine reason to call me?"

"I—it... Sigh..." Steven sighed heavily, unable to defend himself.

"It’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up over it. I completely understand. You don’t have to feel bad about it but you know that you can call me whenever you want. If I’m busy, I will let you know and we can talk at night."

"Thank you, Lena," Steven muttered, but his voice was loud enough for Lena to hear.

"You’re welcome. Just don’t do it again," Lena said, with her voice warming up. "So, tell me, is the due diligence report ready?"

"The due diligence report is ready," Steven said. "Daniel called this morning. It came back the way I expected."

"Tell me what they found."

"Fourteen months of documented inventory irregularities. Systematic adjustments, not variance. And a cash flow issue, like the end-of-night reconciliation figures that don’t match the service volumes across multiple periods. Both threads, fully documented."

"That’s clean," Lena said. "That kind of evidence doesn’t just support the acquisition. It changes the conversation with the seller entirely."

"How so?" Steven asked.

"Because right now, whoever owns that restaurant is looking at a business they’ve likely been under-monitoring and a cash offer well above market value. That alone is probably enough." She paused. "But if you structure the offer correctly, you can make the close even faster. You present a summary of the findings alongside the offer as a courtesy. You’re informing them of irregularities their own oversight missed, and simultaneously offering to take the problem off their hands at a generous price."

"They’d want to close quickly," Steven said.

"They’d want to close immediately," Lena said. "Nobody wants a liability sitting on their books. The offer becomes the solution to a problem they didn’t know they had until you told them. That changes their psychology around the negotiation entirely."

Steven thought about what Lena said for a moment. The logic was sound and it was exactly the kind of angle he hadn’t considered when he set the number at three million.

"What about the misconduct documentation itself?" he asked.

"That stays separate," Lena said. "The offer goes to the owner. The documentation of the conduct goes to whoever the appropriate authority is once the acquisition is complete and you’re in control of the records. You don’t use it as leverage in the deal. You use it as a matter of procedure after the deal closes."

"That’s the cleaner path," Steven said.

"It’s also the legally safer one," she said. "You’re not coercing anyone. You’re making a generous offer and separately fulfilling an obligation to report financial misconduct. The two things happen in sequence, not simultaneously."

"I’ll need the attorney to draft the offer letter," Steven said. "I have a referral from Chase bank that I haven’t used yet."

"Call them today," Lena said. "Have them draft the letter with the due diligence summary attached as an exhibit. The offer amount, the terms, and the findings presented together in a single clean document. Once the owner’s team sees what it contains, the conversation will be short."

"How short?" Steven asked.

"Cash offer, no financing contingency, that kind of premium, with a due diligence package attached?" She paused. "A week. Maybe less."

Steven was quiet for a moment.

"Thank you," he said. "This is exactly what I needed."

"No need to thank me. It’s nothing," she said. "Let me know when the letter goes out. I want to know how it lands."

"I’ll call you," Steven said.

"Good luck," she said. "Not that you’ll need it."

"I will call you later."

"I will be expecting your call."

The call ended.

Steven set the phone on the counter and looked out through the kitchen window at the city.

Everything was starting to get into position. When the due diligence report arrived, he would call Adrian and have him put him through so that the letter can be drafted as Lena said.

Steven pushed off the counter, walked to the living area, and sat down. He had an email to wait for and calls to make, and the morning was still young.

He didn’t have to wait too long for the report, as it arrived much earlier than he expected.