A Villain with a Smiling Cheek

Sebastian LaCerva woke up tired and hurting from the back pains he had for a few weeks now. They began affecting him about three weeks before his 43rd birthday party. The doctor explained to him there was no physical problem with his back, Sebastian's psychiatrist told him a secret or a even major worry can carry a heavy mental load sometimes, the pain could all be in his head.

June 29th, 1999

Sebastian LaCerva was on his way to work shortly after waking up late that morning. There was an uneasy settling in his stomach after he left the house, and he knew it wasn't the breakfast he ate.

Sebastian kissed his daughter Kimberley and gave his son Gavin some money for lunch. Jennifer his wife was still resting in bed when he left. The father of two knew exactly what he was walking in to when he entered that fifty-two floor building as he got to work. But it was already to late for it to be changed.

Sebastian was the fifty-one percent owner of a multi-million dollar computer technology company called Larvis Lacerva Software. His father founded the company and when he past, he left 51% ownership to his son Sebastian. The other 49% went to seven board members far older than Sebastian that have been there much longer than Sebastian as well. They thought they would have got the company after Larvis died.

Sebastian was in charge of corporate decision making and even larger ideas. The new millennium was coming soon, and things were changing, but they weren't for the best. He knew a great deal of money had to be invested for future technology advancement because of the myth of this Y2K virus expected to ruin years work and having a good name amongst the public customers. Sebastian was going to have to fire some various jobs and squeeze every bit of extra money out of his employees as possible to go through with this. Sebastian's assistant Alicia knew that, she had been with him from the start, the last 5 years helping him out, she worked for his father back in the day too. What Sebastian didn't know is that she would have been more than an assistant if it wasn't for him getting more ownership than the board did.

"Thank-you very much, we expect you'll do a very good job." Cameron said as he hung up the telephone on an overseas call. Cameron Zennings was a big investor in Larvis Laverva Software, half of his riches he made from simply sticking with the company from the start and watched them as they grew. However, lately there has been someone close to him filling his head with false statements and lies regarding Sebastian's company, future of it, and what would happen to his money in a couple more months when the new year rolled around. Cameron kissed his wife goodbye as he was leaving to drive upstate to the airport. Soon after that Alicia was done her lunch break and left anyway to get back to work. For SebastianÐ'...

"These have to be handed out before 3:00 or else some of the employees might not get them until tomorrow" Sebastian handed his assistant Alicia a hand filled of sealed envelopes. She knew they contained little pink slips that would soon ruin some innocent people's futures, people who were friends of hers, and people that were friends of even Sebastian's father.

"You must be Cameron?" "Yes indeed. Nice to finally meet u Vincent, we have spent so much time talking over the phone." Cameron Zennings shook hands with this tall dark skinned middle-aged man who looked like he was exhausted from hours of air flight. "There's half of the agreed money in this briefcase, your hotel is two avenues up from the building." "Okay" Vincent said as they began walking towards Cameron's black SUV parked just outside the airport entrance.

Sebastian poured himself a drink as he sat down in his study, it was 7:30pm and he was already home. Usually he would stay later at work, but not today. Trying to deal with people being fired is much easier doing over the phone than in person he figured, he had a direct line from his work office to his house office for days when he wasn't able to go in to work. Nobody had called yet.

"Daddy, daddy. Can I invite Courtney to your party tomorrow night?" Kimberley rushed in the room when she realized her Father was home. "No honey, it's really just for family and such, plus the restaurant would have to make up more tables when they really don't have too." "It's okay daddy, you're going to like your birthday present this year, I helped mommy pick it out." "Ok honey" he picked up his eight year old daughter and began taken her to bed before she said to much by accident. Sebastian fell asleep downstairs shortly after that, with his clothes still on.

-Wednesday June 30th-

"So is everything set up for Tonight?" "Yes, of course it is, how else do you think all our money will be saved after this year?" Cameron said sarcastically to Alicia as they began to wake up that morning. Alicia knew everything she had been telling her husband the last few weeks hadn't been true. Really there was no real threat to his money, the only thing that was at risk was her job. Half of what kept making her feel better about what as about to happen was that at least this way, a few hundred people would still have there jobs and regular lives at the end of the week and never knew they were on the edge of being fired. That's why the letters she was handed after lunch yesterday went directly to the shredders instead of employee's mailboxes. Alicia kissed Cameron and headed for the shower.

Sebastian parked his car outside of the medical building a little before 9:00 am. He was taking the morning off due to the excuse of illness.

"Sebastian, it's very hard dealing with your guilt if we can't discuss the business aspect of your life. Family is not the cause of everything here."

"My wife, causes me a lot of stress I know that." He said to Dr. Henderski. "Maybe, however I know it's not her why you are so depressed lately, I know you believe that yourself too. As long as I've known you, I can tell you are a very honest, good willed person. What on this planet has cause you to be so uncertain with yourself?" "I'm sorry but times up, and I got to go." Sebastian put his coat on and simply left.

Sebastian went back home, his wife must have been out running errands he figured most likely last minute present shopping seeing how she wasn't at