William flicked his screen to his trading platform and took Edward through it. He was able to show him a small win and a slightly bigger loss over the past few days.

‘Same as any normal exchange,’ remarked Edward, unimpressed.

‘It is, Dad, but it’s completely unregulated. All the old schemes can unfold on these exchanges. It’s crazy. I can’t help but think we could make some great cash by doing a pump and dump. If we build the right inner core, we can make a killing,’ said William, his excitement contagious.

‘OK, boy. Before you get ahead of yourself, we have a lot of money that needs to be cleaned…you understand?’ said Edward, raising his eyebrows at William nodded. Edward was paid by a number of less-than-savoury clients and money needed to be put back into the financial system without being traced. He now understood why his father wanted him to trade on the coin markets: he needed him to buy the coin with the “dirty” money and then turn it into Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Edward could then double his money on the markets or just keep it stashed safely. The problem was that the coins’ prices fluctuated and changed so quickly.

‘Sure, Dad. Let me see what I can do with the $5000 by end of the month and then we can work out how to clean the rest,’ said William. To be honest, he did feel a little disappointed that all the money he was going to make was just going to be used by his gangster father to build his empire.

Edward slapped William on the shoulder, nearly knocking him off his chair. ‘Good boy. Always been my smartest…’ Edward dug his thick fingers into the muscle between William’s neck and shoulder and squeezed. William shrank from the pain but said nothing. He knew better. ‘Yes, definitely the smartest of my boys but also the laziest,’ he said, before letting William go, ‘but maybe we’ve found something you have a knack for.’

As Edward walked away, William rubbed his shoulder muscle where a purple bruise would appear later in the day. He closed his eyes and breathed carefully. It was just a matter of time. He would get his father for this, for everything — for his mother, Mzi’s family, for the Matabele treasure. He would make sure his father paid with every ill-gotten cent he had — for all the hurt and pain he had caused for all the people he cared about. William was going to make sure that Edward English got what he deserved.