Necessary Evil

Johnny Price never expected to be in a dead-end job at the age of thirty-two, nor did he expect to be nursing a terminally ill wife and caring for two small children while trying to keep that job just to pay bills. Every day was a battle, and he was losing the war. Then one day the war ended and a new one began. Left alone with two motherless children, he suddenly comes face to face with his worst fears - and his most coveted desires. Overwhelmed by a golden opportunity to completely change his life, he uproots the children and accepts an offer from a small group of businessmen in New Orleans to become president of a company they are about to start. It doesn't take long for him to get caught up in the glitz, power, and glory, and despite his unfaltering love, the children begin to take a back seat to his desires. He rationalizes the long hours away from them, but in his heart he knows that something is wrong. He allows his ego and drive to blindly overpower his instincts until cold reality slaps him in the face. One of the partners privately tells him that he plans to take his money out of the company and warns Johnny to be careful. The partner swears him to secrecy and offers a financial carrot to guarantee it. Suddenly his lofty pedestal turns to sand - if he says nothing, all his hard work could go down the drain, but if he tells the other partners, the carrot could rot overnight and he would still be left with nothing. He is about to make a decision, when he hears that the partner has been killed. Now caught in a dark maze of suspicion and doubt, Johnny is forced to grope his own way back into the light, a process that puts his children in jeopardy and endangers his own life.