There has never been a time in my memory when my parents and I had gotten along. While they lived happy lives without technology and sugar, the things that they didn’t allow also caused me to struggle to make friends.

At the end of high school, I finally decided I wanted to be a candy maker. My family were not happy. They said I had to give up on my dream and help tend to the family farm instead. I refused, so my family disowned me and cut me off.

That was almost two decades ago now, and my family are currently selling their farm as it isn’t bringing in a profit anymore. I, on the other hand, am doing quite well myself and I have plans to expand my candy making into a factory to sell lollies around the world.

I looked down at my table, littered with pamphlets all about conveyancing near Highett. Today was the big day. I sent a conveyancer on my behalf to finalise the purchase of my family’s land and begin building a candy factory on top of where the house was. I knew they wouldn’t sell to me personally, so I needed to use a buyer’s advocate and then have the conveyancer hide my identity from them.

After a long few hours of waiting by the phone, my conveyancer called me. He told me congratulations and that the purchase of the farm had gone through. I blew out a sigh of relief and thanked him before hanging up.

I was so glad I went with Reggie the conveyancer because clearly, he was one of the better conveyancing lawyers near me. Malvern Farm was now all mine, and my family had no idea. 

I grabbed my keys, wallet a document to go down to finalise the paperwork. Once I finished that, I planned to pay the previous owners a little visit. Just to let them know that their land is now in good hands, and it isn’t even leaving the family, technically. Oh, it will be great to see the look on their faces when I tell them my plans for the property.

The elevator came to a rest with a ding. As the door opened, it revealed a dark passageway with several offices on either side. Jesse stepped out first, flicking a switch to his right. The corridor lights struggled to flicker on, but eventually, they settled above them.

“Come on,” Jesse said. “It’s quite a way to go until we reach the Bentleigh sector. First, we have to pass through a few offices for conveyancing lawyers close to Carlton.”

“See, this is what I mean,” Redman said. “The fact that virtually every suburb you have said is the name of a place in Melbourne is a bit of a red flag. I might even start to suspect that you’re actually planning a complete takeover of New Melbourne.”

Jesse slowed his steps, then turned to face Redman. “Alright,” he said, “I’ll level with you. I’ll tell you why we have entire sectors and offices for Melbourne conveyancing. Malvern, Carlton, Bentleigh and the rest? It’s because we need experts in that area to get people out of New Melbourne. The housing contracts there are insane. You won’t be able to move from New Melbourne to New Adelaide unless you have a conveyancer on your side who knows the suburb you live in like the back of their hand. Is that a good enough explanation for you?”

Redman shoved his hands in his pockets. “I suppose so. I won’t question it any further, then.”

“Good,” said Jesse, continuing on. “Get it out of your system before we meet with the Director. He won’t like such questions. But for what it’s worth, taking over New Melbourne isn’t something we have any interest in. Gideon wants to topple a society. We want to create one – a new utopia. If you can get on board with that, we shouldn’t have any problems.”

“No problems here,” Redman said. “I’m just trying to get an understanding.”

In reality, however, Redman had to admit he was more than a little suspicious of both sides here.