CHAPTER 144: THE AFTERSALES DISCUSSION

(There was an election in my country, Tanzania, and a protest erupted so they shut down the internet)

"She has what is called extreme shyness, which is a mixture of a genetic predisposition and a few additional factors. Her current situation is an improvement, as she has managed to make a friend after more than three years of behavioral therapy, play dates, and a mixture of other treatments."

"If she had failed to make friends in the current school year as well, we would have started on medication as a means of treating the situation, but it seems like, thanks to Fatih, there is no need for that."

"I invited Fatih here to allow her a longer time to spend playing together, instead of the small amount of time they get at school, as that was what her doctor recommended when she learned about her having a friend. I hope that is not a problem?" Brunhilde said, deciding not to hide anything regarding Seraphina since it was something she needed the other parent to know.

"So all he has to do is play with her?" Rümeysa asked curiously, wanting to know what their expectation of Fatih was, as her decision depended on that.

"Yes, that is what her doctor recommended, if possible. This is to allow her to form an external connection of equal age, which would make her less shy in front of that individual. Through that individual, it would be easier for her to form friendships of the same age by association. Slowly, she should be able to form new connections, and the more connections she forms, the less her condition will affect her. If everything goes well, she should be able to function in her life without any problem in a few years," Henry took over explaining, tensing on the inside, worried about what Rümeysa’s reaction would be.

Following the explanation, the room went silent for a moment as Rümeysa digested the information. The two parents held their breath, waiting for her answer, wondering if she would deny them. After all, their daughter’s ability to live a normal life was on the line.

"If that is all he has to do, then I don’t see or have any problem with it since he is her friend as well, and them playing together is to both their benefits. But I don’t think it is going to be possible for them to play every week next year since he will be regularly competing," Rümeysa answered. With her response, the room, which previously felt suffocating, regained its life as the nervous parents finally released a sigh of relief.

"We know about the competitions he has to go to, plus there is no need for him to come every day of the weekend. We can come to you on those days that they are both free, which we can of course coordinate ahead of time, so there is no need to worry about that," Henry said, his face having regained its color.

"Thank you very much for your understanding," Brunhilde said, as she too had regained color on her face. She had been ready to beg if Rümeysa had denied their request, but thankfully, that wasn’t necessary.

"There is no need to thank me. After all, she is Fatih’s close friend, and them playing together is to both their benefits, so I will keep you updated on his availability depending on his competition timetable ahead of time..." she went on, explaining her reasoning for accepting their request, which were many. As a mother herself who loved Fatih with all her heart, she would have done everything possible to treat him if he had a similar disease or a worse one. Through that, she had a good understanding of what they were feeling, and seeing that there were no negative complications on their side, she saw no reason to deny it.

The conversation then naturally shifted to other things. It turned out that Brunhilde was a housewife and Henry was a normal office worker. The conversation went on for hours as the kids played, their sounds of laughter and the chaos they caused being heard across the whole house. This warmed the hearts of both parents, with Rümeysa happy that Fatih had a friend he could finally play with to his heart’s content, and the Eversons happy to see their daughter play with her whole heart with someone other than them.

After having dinner together, the day finally came to an end. Seraphina, who was tired from all the playing but still happy, bid Fatih farewell and even showed a semblance of development when she was able to bid farewell to Fatih’s mother without being prompted. Though she did it while looking at her fingers, it was an improvement nonetheless.

In the eyes of both Rümeysa and Fatih, the day went very well. The next week, it was repeated, but this time it was Seraphina who came to them to play. The following week, Fatih went to their house, with the back-and-forth continuing all the way to the end of the year, during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve holidays.

On one of those days, after spending a full day with Seraphina, who had visited them and watched Fatih record an interview for one of his videos, Fatih finally had a meeting with his mother.

.....

"Let’s get to the main point. With the sale of the bitcoins, we have managed to earn a total of $5,219,562, which is currently being held under the ownership of an offshore company as its own fund, removing the majority of tax requirements. This should allow us to spend all of it without having to pay any taxes."

"But based on the company’s calculation of your plan that I handed to them, it came up that they would need about ten million dollars to be able to make it a reality. So I’m considering including your inheritance from your father as part of the remaining investment, with the rest being covered by a loan," Rümeysa said, giving Fatih a summary of the situation.

"Isn’t the inheritance yours? Why are you thinking of spending it that way?" Fatih asked, surprised that inheritance money was even being brought up when he was not aware of it at all.

"Well, it is because I set that money aside for you for when you need it in the future, and it seems that, currently, this is the only situation where you might need it. Otherwise, the million dollars will just remain in the bank account, accumulating interest and not doing anything."

"I think we should go with just covering the remaining amount with loans. I’m pretty confident we can receive a loan of that size, considering our scale."

"If our size were the only metric, then that would have been fine. But if they went through our books to see our earnings and debt-to-earnings ratio, they would be able to see how much we are in debt as a result of receiving a majority of our financing from TC Analytics as loans. We are down by a couple of million dollars," Rümeysa said, reminding Fatih that although they are the largest news and content company in motorsports, they were still small compared to the entire news and content market due to how small a niche motorsports currently is. As a result of the company implementing the things that brought them to the top, they needed large amounts of money to accomplish that, and it was done mostly by TC Analytics, lending money to the news company through the holding company.

Although all of them were owned by Fatih, and he could consider himself not to be in debt since he was just taking money from his left pocket to his right one, they would then need to disclose that to the banks and have that information out in the world. This is something that Rümeysa wanted Fatih not to be connected to the TC Analytics company. That’s why she registered it in a privacy-first country. She was aware that although what Fatih was doing through that company was completely legal, since he was using his own methods to guess the outcomes, the level of accuracy was very difficult to explain by those means. It might even create a large scandal of match-fixing or, even worse, the possibility that F1 is fully rigged, just like WWE.

Although that is not true, if the betting website’s data came out, that would be one of the theories out there, and having a child connected to it would be no different than it reeking of a scapegoat or fake-name ownership. That would taint Fatih’s career or even how the public viewed him, which was also one of the reasons that the group remained as small as it is at the moment, and all of the users went through rigorous checks once they were moved to the new website to ensure that the chances of the company’s secrets leaking were as small as possible, and even if it leaked, it would not be connected to them easily.