A part of me wanted to burst into tears, to lash out, but I tried to toughen my core while sitting still in front of Dad. As much as I wanted to, he didn't deserve a single drop of it. I took a deep breath, composed myself, and calmly explained the situation. "Clark and his friends visited me in that fucking holding cell despite the non-disclosure agreement you let them sign," I added as I grit my teeth to surpass the pain that lingered on my wounded lips from talking. "And they bribed the cops so they could beat me up to death again." I looked deeper into Dad's sky-blue eyes to see if he had the slightest clemency for me at least. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not see any feelings of understanding or love for his son. "Of course." I continued, "How could you know all that? You protected them instead of me, your son - your family. You would rather see me being beaten to death than see them rot in jail because you were more afraid that your noble name to get

Ellaine attempted to defend someone, either her dad or Clark, but Van, played his part in this family gathering well as he stopped her from meddling. "I'm not gonna say it again, Clark. Apologize to Mr. Fisher now." Mr. Cedrick added, however, this time, his voice becomes more terrifying and condescending. "Come on, Compadre," Dad said before he looked me in the eye. "It wasn't me to whom he should apologize, but Mr. Llamas. Perhaps if he could drop to his knees in front of Mr. Llamas, we don't know, he might not sue him for attempted murder and for bribing the cops. And I'm afraid that's a long way to live in jail." Instead of apologizing, everyone, including Mr. Cedrick was taken by surprise when Clark ran away faster than the speed of light and never came back. One down. That's my cue that I just had my first unanimous win against one of those people who ruined my life for the first time. "We're so sorry about that, Mr. Fisher." Mr. Cedrick bent half of his body

After throwing that one hard punch and letting out those threatening words, I evacuated the toilet room before anyone could see us, and before Sebastian could follow me to the lobby where Jennie had been waiting. "Is everything alright, Mr. Fisher? Did something happen to you in the toilet room?" she asked as she scanned my entire face which was filled with sweat, her voice laced with concern. "Do you think this kind of face looks fine to you?" I defensively replied as I walked straight to the exit as if a hungry dog was chasing me from behind. "Just walk faster before Sebastian can follow us to the parking lot." "Wait. Did you do something bad to him?" She asked again. "What do you think of me?" I debated with her assumptions. "Do you think I could do something to that bastard? He choked me first, so I punched him in return and told him to be ready because I was going to make his life like a living hell." "Can you do that as Zachary Llamas?" She asked, this t

The next day, I woke up with my grandparents already gone from the mansion. What we talked about last night was still fresh from my clouded mind. They were the ones I had left who supported me unconditionally since then and I believe were true to themselves. On the bright side, Dad let them go, not knowing it was I who begged him since their names were already freed from his accusation that they had something to do with the kidnapping. "Young Master... Here's what I got from Ms. Pineda so far." Mr. Logan, my driver, slid me a brown envelope on our way to work. "She will turn thirty in three days. Single and only child. Ms. Pineda has been working as the Chairman's secretary for the past eight years. Her parents died when she was ten years old. She's an orphan." I removed the seal from the envelope and took the documents out. "What about the place where we dropped her off? What did you get about her permanent address?" "That's the most confusing part, Young Master. I co

I looked into my class schedule and the door number above us one last time, thinking I might have stood in the wrong classroom. No. The room number was too large not to notice it. My eyesight was still at 20/20. There was no chance I could be mistaken. This room in front of me was my first subject, and Celestine would be my first-afternoon professor. We will see each other five days a week for the entire semester. Could this be just a coincidence or is fate trying to bring us back together? "Can we talk for a second, Celestine?" I begged, ignoring the fact that she, being one of my professors, was news to me. "Don't worry, this talk won't take long. It's about our son." My instinct could sense that she started getting uncomfortable talking with me. "I wanted to have custody of Noah, Celestine." I added, "With all the evidence we gathered against you, Sebastian, and even your parents, there's a higher chance that I would win the case. So, before we could go that far an