About this ebook
The darkest of secrets sometimes linger for a
lifetime. When they are finally exposed they can be like the discovery of an
ancient tomb, perhaps better left alone, although never ignored. Aristotle
Mercury’s father knew too much, so he was silenced. With the help of his
friends in the Russian mob, Aristotle’s Uncle Jacob is able to move in and take
over as the new head of the now successful factory that his own brother
created.
The year is 1968. As the Red Army’s tanks roll
into Wenceslas Square in the very heart of Prague, a seventeen year old
Aristotle learns the horrible truth about his father. Five years ago someone
else was murdered in his place to make it appear as if he was accidentally
crushed under a factory press. Since then his father has been alive and
imprisoned in the notorious Prague Institute for the Criminally Insane.
In a daring rescue Aristotle retrieves his
barely alive father from the bowels of the terrible prison. After a short time
his father succumbs to the ravages of his imprisonment, but not before he
divulges the location of the evidence which proves he owned the now thriving
factory, and of Uncle Jake’s murderous duplicity in stealing it from them.
With the Russians taking over the country, and
the mob closing in to eliminate the only living heir to a burgeoning fortune,
Aristotle flees Czechoslovakia and makes his way to America, vowing to one day
go back and even the score.
He settles in New York, in Greenwich Village.
He’s honest and works hard to learn the new ways of a strange land. Soon he
befriends his eccentric landlord, the elderly Mrs. Schroeder. Telly, as his new
friends in America like to call him, ignites a withered spirit of adventure in
the lady who still believes in the good in people. She owns some property, and
Telly has a talent for building. They both learn Telly also has an eye for the
deal. Together they first develop her land, and then other land in the
exploding New York real estate market. Telly’s ambitions lead him from the posh
boardrooms of New York to the lucrative shores of New Jersey, where he’s almost
killed as he constructs the world’s largest casino.
Never too far from his mind, always there to
haunt and motivate him, Telly dreams of the day he will finally return to his
homeland and exact vengeance on his Uncle Jake. In a sweeping saga of familial
betrayal spanning three decades of intertwining lives, Telly Mercury finally
gets his chance for justice. But does righting of wrongs of a demon filled
closet come with a price too high? Secrets are sometimes better left untold, in
spite of their screams from across the years to be heard.
His own salvation hanging in the balance,
Telly must somehow accept that forgiveness trumps retribution, and money truly
can’t buy happiness. And just maybe, as it is with Uncle Jacob, forgiveness is
the worst possible epithet for a life lived in the accompaniment of the
unquenchable thirst of greed and murder.
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About the author
P.S. Meronek would like to thank everyone who has been kind enough to read his work. He doesn’t live a whole lot differently than some of the more notable characters in his books. He admits it has been a road less traveled, but worth every step along the way.
