The drive home from the hospital felt a hundred times harder than the one there. There was no more panic, only cold, silent despair. Clarisa stopped crying, just staring blankly out the window. Matteo Carrason drove with his jaw clenched, the lines on his forehead deepening.
That night, they didn't go to sleep right away. Matteo gathered everyone in his office, a room that usually reeked of success, but now felt like a morgue for their family business. Stacks of financial reports and warning letters from the bank lay on the mahogany desk.
"The situation is worse than you think," Matteo said hoarsely, pointing to a sharply declining sales graph. "Our biggest client, Imperium Mining Corporation, won't renew their contract next month. They say our service is too slow and inefficient. They've found another, more competitive logistics company." He pointed to another stack of letters. "And the bank refuses to give us a new loan until we pay off the old one. They no longer have confidence in our ability to survive in this industry."
He sighed, looking at his wife and daughter. "That hospital bill... was the final nail in our coffin. To pay for it, we'll have to sell this house and maybe 50% of the company. That's if anyone wants to buy it in this state. We're truly at the edge of the abyss."
Clarisa sobbed softly. Rania lowered her head, her shoulders heavy with the burden of her family. Bankruptcy was imminent. The miracle that saved her grandmother's life had come at the cost of destroying their lives.
Amidst the atmosphere thick with despair, a calm voice rang out.
"There's one way."
Everyone turned. Rayden stood by the door, not sitting, just observing silently until then. For a moment, they forgot he was there.
Matteo looked at her wearily. "Rayden, I appreciate your help last night. I really do. But this is business. This is the real world. There's no magic potion for problems like this. This is about money, contracts, and ruined reputations."
"I know," Rayden replied. "And I'm not offering a magic potion." He walked over to the table, his eyes tracing the map of the massive Barcelona Province project displayed on the wall. His finger stopped at a point in a remote mountainous area.
"A logistics tender for the Mount Nero Gold Mining project," he said.
Matteo and Rania immediately shook their heads. "Impossible," Rania said. "The tender has been open for three months, and not a single major logistics company has dared to touch it. Even giant companies with the most complete fleets have turned down the project."
Matteo nodded in agreement. "Don't be ridiculous, Rayden. The terrain is a nightmare. The paths are steep and prone to landslides. Transporting heavy drilling equipment and giant excavators there requires specialized trucks costing billions. Not to mention the insurance costs for such terrain, which would drain our capital. The risk would eat up all potential profits. Even if we succeed, we could face significant losses. It's a suicide project. I considered it months ago and decided not to participate in the tender."
"That's because they all use modern maps," Rayden replied calmly, as if discussing the weather.
He looked at Matteo. "Thirty years ago, before the main highway was built, there was an old mining trail that cut through the eastern side of the mountain. It was gentler and cut the travel time by almost half. It's long since disused and isn't recorded on modern GPS, but it's still passable. I've seen old maps showing the route. It was built by illegal miners in the 1980s and is still solid because the base is solid rock, not a landslide like the main trail."
Silence fell over the room. Matteo stared at Rayden, trying to process the information. "How do you know that? I've been in this business for decades and have never heard of that trail."
"And as for the equipment," Rayden continued, ignoring the question. "You don't need to buy a new truck. Fifteen kilometers from here, there's an old workshop called 'L Teknik'. The owner is almost bankrupt due to the economic crisis. He has three used low-bed truck heads from Germany that have been specially modified for extreme climbs. They were used for a project in the Alps. He's going to sell them for scrap metal because no one wants to buy them. With a few repairs to the hydraulics and brakes, they're more than enough for this project."
Rayden now looked directly at his father-in-law. "Because all the big companies are scared and refusing, the mining company is offering a 50% completion bonus if the project is completed ahead of schedule. They're desperate because they've already signed a gold export contract with an international buyer. With that shortcut, you can complete the shipment in two months, instead of the four they originally estimated. The profits from this project, after adding the bonus, are enough to pay the hospital bill three times over, pay off all the bank debt, and even buy back the contract from Imperium Mining Corporation. There's even enough left over for the next six months of operating capital."
Every word was spoken with absolute conviction. The plan was so detailed, so specific, it felt insane. Matteo, who had been in logistics for thirty years, had never considered such possibilities.
He fell silent, his mind racing. This plan was insane. Absolutely insane. But... somehow, every detail sounded so plausible.
Clarisa stared at her husband in confusion. She didn't understand business, but she understood the expression on Matteo's face. It was the expression of a gambler faced with a final gamble that could make him rich or lose everything.
It was Rania who broke the silence. She looked at her husband. The same man who had given her the impossible explanation about the ancient potion. The same man who had turned out to be right. The same pattern repeated itself: impossible problems, impossible solutions, and unwavering faith.
She stepped forward and stood beside Rayden. "Dad," she said to her father. "Last night, in the hospital, we had no choice. And Rayden saved Grandma's life when all the doctors had given up. Tonight, it seems we don't have much of a choice either. We're at a point where we have nothing left to lose."
She looked at Rayden, then back at her father. "I... I trust him. Somehow, I feel like he knows what he's talking about."
Matteo Carrason looked at his steadfast daughter, then at his mysterious son-in-law, who in less than twenty-four hours had changed his entire world. The future of his family now depended on a single decision. Either persist in a way that would surely bankrupt them, or take a blind leap following his son-in-law's strange intuition.
He took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the biggest gamble of his life.
"Fine," he said, his voice heavy as if every word were made of steel. "We'll try. But if this fails, Rayden, I want you to tell me who you really are. I deserve to know the truth."