The Root of all Evil - LOOK INSIDE
The Root of all Evil
By Jaydee Daley
?Copyright 2021 ? Jaydee Daley
This is a work of fiction that contains imaginary names, characters, places, events and incidents not intended to resemble any action persons, alive or dead, places, events or incidents. Any resemblances to people, places, events, or incidents are entirely coincidental.?
All Rights Reserved?
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part?by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical, without the express written consent of the author/publisher, Jaydee Daley, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
?Prologue?
Life was harsh; he had work on Monday, which was going to make his heart sink like a two-ton weight.?
He was going to be joined by most of the populace, but there wasn’t any safety in numbers.
He lived in the US, and sometimes he had to remind himself that at least he didn’t live in a third world country where the level of the world reveals itself - it’s just one step away from Hell, propped up by money that runs the world like a machine but it’s like a meat grinder.?
He was like the Matrix unplugged and saw how the machine had his life in its grip, and was making mincemeat out of him.?
Thoughts of retirement depressed him, knowing that the machine was going to spew him out the other end when he was old as if he was ….?
He felt that he had to do something about it.?
Chapter One
?Jake Wright hated his life; he didn’t actually hate living, but he hated the day-to-day ins and outs of having to go to work, five days a week, week after week, month after month, year after year. He worked as an insurance salesman in a call centre, where he spent his days' cold-calling people to sell them insurance policies, mainly life insurance. He was a 45-years old, Anglo-American, of medium height, slim build, and you could say he was very average looking, with weather-worn features and short-cropped thin hair that had a few grey hairs at the sides.?
He felt like a bird trapped in a cage every day, especially since he was always under pressure by his boss, Finley McDougal, to sell more insurance policies but the thing about life insurance was that the moment he mentioned it to some people, they can’t end the call quick enough, because they hate being reminded of their mortality. Jake always felt awful for reminding them but as he strived to get them to hear him out. He wanted a way out of having to 9-5 and became obsessed with winning the lottery jackpot as if it was a bomb that could go off and blast him free. He spent hours meditating, trying to guess what the next winning numbers were going to be, using his mind to pierce a hole into the fabric of time so that he could peep through to see what the future winning numbers were going to be.
He truly believed that time and space were woven together like a tapestry and the future was already weaved just waiting to happen because when he was 12-years-old, he had a nightmare about having an accident and being rushed to hospital. The next morning, he felt weird on his way to school. The next thing he remembered was being carried into an ambulance after being knocked down by a car. He had a premonition about it and now he believed the winning lottery numbers were all laid out in the future, like a key that would unlock the door to his freedom.
When he sat around his desk at work, he started glancing at the time that was on the bottom right-hand corner of his computer screen and he recognized a repetition, an impulse to look at the last two digits of the time that kept repeating itself throughout the day that formed a pattern:
11:17
12:17
15:17
15:20
16:20
17:20
He wrote the repeat numbers down until he had a set of numbers and he played the numbers and won $25k. He was jubilant but “25k wasn’t enough for him to leave his job, so he continued trying to recognize repeat numbers, but at first he kept glancing at the time too often and he wasn’t able to sense any patterns.
But after a few weeks, he regained the instinct to look at the time at the right time, to regularly see repeat numbers, which he wrote down with excitement. When he played his repeat numbers, he hoped that he would win at least enough money to pay off the mortgage on his home, and maybe he could find a way out of being an insurance salesman.
But he ended up winning $30m, and it sent his emotions shooting off like a rocket. No words could fully describe his joy.
HE WAS RICH
HE WAS RICH
He no longer had to 9-5, he could buy a huge mansion, go on holiday to the most beautiful locations around the world, buy himself a supercar. The first thing he did was hand in his notice, with a good riddance. It was the most satisfying moment of his life but he didn’t tell anyone why he was leaving, especially since he had to serve notice and he didn’t want green eyes of envy looking at him. A few weeks after he had served his notice, he began noticing patterns again but he dismissed them because he had already won, but they persisted, so he wrote them down and played them and he was struck with shock when he won an additional $50m. He sat in a chair looking frozen as he saw that he truly did have the power.
But the lottery firm was suspicious, and he was investigated because he was the first person to win a huge jackpot twice. They just couldn’t believe that anyone could be so lucky. But after a few weeks, he was cleared, and he ended up with $80 whopping million. ?
Jake’s whole lifestyle transformed beyond his wildest dreams along with his nearest and dearest - his parents, Beth and Ian, and two brothers Aaron and John, who he was very close to. He bought himself a huge mansion that had everything, including a bowling alley and massive home cinema and his garden was so spacious, he used a golf cart to travel around it. ?
But something was missing in his life, a wife. He was the odd one out in his family since both his brothers were happily married and had children. Now he was ready to join them, so he joined a dating agency called Gold Dating, dedicated to rich singles. The truth was, he had never been a ladies-man and wanted an easy life - to not need a chat-up line.?
Gold Dating made things so easy for him and he found himself spoilt for choice but some part of him felt a bit uneasy since he doubted that any of those beautiful women would look twice at him if he was a lorry driver. He knew that he was no Brad Pitt. It was clear that Gold Dating wasn’t just a dating agency for rich people seeking dates, it also attracted very attractive people seeking partners who could give them a luxury lifestyle. It was seedy, and no place for Jake, but he dismissed his fear like pressing an off button and started dating a beautiful blonde woman named Carla Evans who had the type of body to die for that would make most dogs howl.
He couldn’t help but feel out of sorts with himself dating her but she seemed so into him. It was hard not to be flattered. He just wasn’t willing to believe that she was like an Oscar-winning actress. She seemed so warm and alluring - laughed at all his jokes. She had him talking about his childhood as if everything about him fascinated her. They started seeing each other every week, sometimes several times a week.
Gold Dating helped Jake out by organizing the when and where, and it was VIP all the way. The places he took Carla was a new experience for Jake who saw how rich men treat their women.
You can forget about cinema with a cheap takeaway afterward.
He took Carla to the theatre to watch Swan Lake and they sat in a VIP booth where they were served champagne and caviar. Jake had never tried caviar before and he tried to not dwell on the fact that he was eating fish eggs. Carla seemed to really enjoy it.
?????????After a few months of dating, he began to feel more comfortable dating Carla; he felt that they were perhaps becoming serious, so when she insisted on him taking her back to his place, he agreed. When he drove her down his very long driveway, he didn’t see the wicked gleam in her eyes. She lived with a bunch of roommates, and she once told them that she would never date a man unless he had a driveway that was more than a two-minute drive time. Jake's driveway seemed endless, which made it clear to Carla that he was filthy rich. Carla was legless with excitement when she stepped out of Jake’s car as she saw that Jake’s mansion was like a world within itself. She had clearly hit the jackpot and could barely contain her excitement when Jake set about showing her around.?
Jake smiled all throughout the tour, but there was a hint of unease that glimmered in his eyes, fearful that she had fallen head over heels in love with his mansion.
He knew that he lived in a world where hordes of rich men bought themselves a young and beautiful wife. Being rich was like Shangri. There was that fountain of youth.
Jake caught a glimpse of himself in one of his mirrors and the expression on his face froze when he saw how he looked, as though he had lived every day of his 45 years with interest. He saw how he looked so ordinary looking. Even when he was in his twenties, women would look past him.
He turned to look at Carla, who was so beautiful; her long blonde hair looked so luscious, and she had that body to die for that most men could only dream of, but a feeling of uncertainty assailed Jake as if he had stepped towards a cliff's edge. He decided to take things slowly between them. There was going to be no marriage proposal any time soon. He wondered whether she might truly fall for him in time, or maybe he was just fooling himself. He enjoyed dating her - enjoyed her company, and they had gone to so many nice places together, but he was also under no obligation.?
She can’t exactly put a gun to my head, he thought, feeling heartened. But as Carla’s cattish eyes looked across at him, it was clear that she would love nothing more than a gunshot wedding.
That evening, when Carla was home, she was whipped up with excitement with a wild look in her eyes as she told her roommates about Jake's mansion.
Her roommates were all beautiful women like her, after a rich husband, and they listened keenly as Carla gushed,?
“He has this dining room THAT CAN SEAT OVER 50 PEOPLE. I counted” Carla looked almost beside herself as she continued. “There were endless lounge bars. One bar had this marble counter that glowed.”
As she spoke, her roommates listened, looking shocked, envious, but happy for Carla, who had clearly hit the jackpot.
“He has a spa,” she continued, “you should see the size of his sauna… OH MY GOD… and......”
The more Carla spoke, the more her roommates became green with envy that battled with their happiness for Carla, who they were close to, like partners in crime.
But over the next few weeks, Carla’s excitement dimmed as Jake continued dating her, but as a complete gentleman; all she got from him was a kiss on the cheek. He also failed to buy her expensive gifts when she felt that being given gifts was customary, like a promise of more to come when things between them became official.
He bought her flowers, and she acted delighted to receive them, but mere flowers from a rich man was like being given water to drink instead of vintage champagne.
Whenever she dated and was bedded by rich men, they gave her expensive jewelry, which she always sold when the relationship reached a dead-end. Sometimes, she ended the relationship when she saw that he was just having his fun, with no intention of putting a wedding ring on her finger. Whenever she hinted at it, he would look at her as if she had turned into a toad.
She had to think about her future, and the clock was ticking. She knew that if she wasn’t married to a rich man by the time she reached 40, she could kiss her dream goodbye. Having a sell-by date gave her sleepless nights on many occasions when she needed her beauty sleep.
It was clear that Jake wasn’t after a bit of fun, which was great, but he didn’t appear to have fallen madly in love with her and it was very worrying for Carla who wanted nothing more than to be able to twist Jake around her little finger.
But there was always Plan B, which was to fall pregnant with his child and then demand that he pay her thousands of dollars per week in child support. So she tried to get Jake into bed, but she was astonished when he resisted her advances. It was a bit like dating a schoolboy under the age of 10.
As he continued kissing her on the cheek at the end of their date she wondered,
How can I get pregnant with a kiss on my cheek??
But one evening she stood around one of Jake's bars and set about making Jake a fruit punch laced with every strong liquor known to man. She had learned a trick - if you want to mask the taste of alcohol, mix it with fruit juices and sweet syrups.
Jake’s bar had everything after he had hired a Public House Alcohol and Beverage Specialist to deck out his bar with all the necessary drinks and accompaniments and it included bottles of sweet syrup. She made a large pitcher of punch, strong enough to floor an elephant. Jake loved it and as Carla continued topping up his drink, she watched as he became plastered, but things backfired because instead of Jake becoming compliant to seduction, he became rowdy like an uncontrollable toddler and didn’t remain on the sofa where she had planned to get intimate with him, instead he was up and began staggering around, looking around his plush lounge with a broad smile on his face and he started yelling…
“I WON…. I WON…” deliriously and euphorically.
Carla, who had been sitting on the sofa, frowning, stood up and as she walked over to him asked,
“What do you mean…. you won?”
Jake swung around to look at her and cried,
“ALL THIS….”
Carla’s eyes coiled and asked,
领英推荐
“How?”
Jake’s face was so flushed, and he could barely stand as he answered,
“WITH MY POWERS” exuberantly, as if the alcohol had let out all his joy.
“What powers?” asked Carla, as if she was a hypnotist, who could now ask him anything, and he would answer, with no reservation.
Jake never told her how he had gained his great wealth; he always changed the subject.
?“I’VE GOT REAL POWERS…..” he answered “AND I WON THREE TIMES… EVEN NOW…. ALL I SEE IS NUMBERS…. Numbers… numbers… numbers…. WINNING NUMBERS”?
Carla was struck with shock as she gaped at him with a frown.
“Are you telling me that you can foretell winning lottery numbers?”
Time held as the question hung in the air for a few tense seconds but then Jake laughed exuberantly and answered,
“YES…. WITH MY POWERS…. IT WORKED THREE TIMES….. THAT’S WHY I HAVE ALL THIS”
As Carla continued gaping at Jake, her face blanked with complete shock since she believed him. He looked more like a lottery winner than a successful businessman. She had spent a lot of time around mega-rich businessmen and they all had this sexy aura of empowerment that Jake just didn’t have. She knew that there was something about Jake that wasn’t authentic, and now she knew why.
He had won his fortune
A burning hunger assailed Carla that came from the core of her being and she spoke from that place as she asked,?
“Can you give me the winning numbers?” for she wanted to be rich more than anything in the world. She saw how most people have to work for a living, earning nickels and dimes. But ever since she blossomed into a beauty, she knew that she could use it, SELL IT, to the highest bidder. But bagging a rich man wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be because there were countless beautiful women out there on the make too, and rich men were spoilt for choice. So many of them were as slippery as an eel. Just when she thought she had one gripped, he slipped away. Some of them made out that they were trying before they buy, and Carla always went all out in the bedroom like a she-devil. She always thought,
You can’t get better than this, but apparently, they thought otherwise.
There’s always other fish in the sea
Beautiful women were a bit like apples - some rich men like to take a bite out of, but after he’s taken a bite, he looks for a fresh apple. They end up with a mountain of apples.
Carla always hoped to find a man who would settle for her apple, wanting no other, but sometimes, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Carla would attend gala events frequented by wealthy men, but those events were frequented by other beautiful women who were on the make like Carla and they would eye each other like daggers. Carla wanted to be like Delilah, irresistible to men and have them down on their knees before her declaring their undying love and be at her command. But rich men had so many outstretched hands towards them that were the hands of women desperate to be picked…
Pick me,
Pick me,
Pick me,??
Carla hated every beautiful woman she came across, knowing that their numbers were stealing her power. Now it looked as though she had a possible way out.
Win big like Jake and to hell with rich old men
She would hook up with a personal trainer Adonis and have the satisfaction of bedding a man who she truly wanted.
She waited tensely for Jake’s answer, and she was delighted when he said,
“Maybe…. Yeah…. Why not…..”
Carla immediately rushed at him and gave him a big hug as she cried,
“THANK YOU” as she beamed with a bright smile of excitement and overwhelming hope.
But the next morning, Jake woke up with a terrible hangover; he felt sick, his head was throbbing, and his face was flushed, for his body hadn't been fooled by Carla's fruit punch as the alcohol percolated in his system as a poison.??
But as he sat up in bed and clutched at his throbbing head, with a grimace on his face, he suddenly felt cold inside after his mind had turned to the events of last evening, and his mind screamed,
YOU STUPID PILLOCK, YOU TOLD HER ABOUT YOUR POWERS
A cold feeling of dread and overwhelming regret came over him, along with vertigo, as if he stood at the edge of a steep cliff and could fall off.
Carla was the first person he had ever told; he hadn’t even told his family about his powers. It had been his secret. He just didn’t want people knowing that he had the power to foretell lottery numbers, knowing that billions of people out there would give anything to be a winner.
He hoped that Carla would just forget all about it, but that evening, she turned up at his gate, and it was the first time she had visited his home without an invitation. She hadn’t even called him to tell him that she was coming over.?
Jake was very dismayed, and hoped that she wouldn’t mention anything about lottery numbers, but after he let her in, she rushed towards him in excitement and asked,
“Do you have my numbers?” and looked at him with an expectant smile as her eyes gleamed with anticipation.
Jake’s face immediately dropped as his eyes went hollow and then he stepped back away from her and said,
“About that…. I’m sorry?- I was plastered….. I didn’t know what I was saying”
The expression on Carla’s face immediately darkened as her eyes turned hard and deadly, and then she sneered and began cursing Jake to his complete horror, for he had never been cursed by anyone before, and he never heard anyone curse the way Carla was cursing him.
She looked so vicious - demonic even - as though she wanted to kill him.
Jake’s eyes were wide with alarm and horror as he gaped at her and it mortified him that he had been dating such a woman.
It was so scary having her in his house, so after she stopped cursing him, he said,
“I think you should leave. I’ll call a cab.”
He was so relieved when Carla left - driven away in the taxi. She had left him feeling shaken to the core. He also felt so ashamed of himself for having dated such a woman because it was clear that he had let the Devil into his life - hidden beneath her beautiful exterior and deep down he had known that he had been on the wrong path.
He was relieved, for more reasons than one that she was out of his life. But she had left a troubling taint.?
Me and my BIG MOUTH, he thought, feeling wretched.
Now he hoped that Carla would forget all about what he had told her about his powers because he didn’t want that type of information out there in the world knowing how a love of money is the root of all evil. ?
But that evening, Carla was raging viciously, with her beautiful face flushed and contorted with hate as she voiced her fury against Jake in front of her roommates, who were all very intrigued by Carla’s claims that Jake had powers to guess the winning lottery numbers.
Carla hadn’t told them until now, for if things had worked out, she didn’t want them to know that she had a goose that can lay the golden eggs, knowing that they would want one of the eggs, and Carla had never been one for sharing.
“HE’S F---KING KEEPING IT ALL TO HIMSELF,” she raged, filled with mindless resentment. She thought that he was a simpleton who would hand her over winning jackpot numbers. What made things worse was that she had ruined things with him and didn’t even have Plan B. He could continue living the life of Riley while she was left out in the cold with rent to pay. He hadn't even given her any expensive jewelry that she could sell.
She doubted whether he would take her back after she had revealed her true nature to him. She had always been a bitch and a bully ever since she was a child.
“I could kill him,” raged Carla venomously.
Word spread fast about Jake’s powers, and all the more due to one of Carla’s roommates, Jackie, who knew a friend of a friend who was connected to a dangerous criminal organization run by a gangster named Ron Dudley who was as deadly as they come.
His love of money was like a burning fire that would incinerate everything in his path to secure more wealth. He was filthy rich due to his criminal activities, but he may as well be broke, the way he always hungered for more wealth, as if it was the elixir of life.
The saga continues......
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