"Look, the loser is here."
Alves entered into the funeral hall to those words. But the haste and horror which followed the news of his grandfather's death couldn't let him care less about the insults. After all, he was used to them.
"I'm glad that Laura didn't marry him yet. He would had jinxed our family."
"Who knows, the delayed contract signing with AUSTRIX group was because of his bad luck."
Alves ignored the side talks and whispers meant to deride him. His heart was shattered. He knelt at the front of the coffin. The coffin of the man who always spoke up for him. The man who had made sure he remained in the CASPER'S MANSION. The only person who was nice to him.
"Grandpa, why did you go this early? Why did you leave me alone in this cruel world."
A tear strayed from his eyes. He made to clutch at the coffin to bowl out his eyes, but suddenly he felt two hands on his back. He looked up, it was Michael and his immediate younger brother, Simeon.
"Stop making a scene, loser."
Michael, the man who cussed at him when he entered, pulled him up roughly, but when he looked at some of the influential men present, he feigned a sad smile. He needed a good charade, because not only did he need the help of the CEO's, but he also needed to be comported before the father of his wife.
"Where are you taking him to?"
Alves stood in the way of the four men in black tuxedo suits who wanted to take his grandpa away.
"I know how you feel, but Grandpa deserves to rest. He can't possibly be comfortable in the coffin."
Simeon, sweet talked before the people. He leaned closer to Alves,
"You better respect yourself now and don't ruin the remain few minutes you have left."
Alves matched up Simeon's face, they were pretty much of the same height, 6"3.
"Few minutes?"
But Micheal didn't let Simeon answer the question, he shoved Alves to one side stylishly and nodded at the four men.
Alves watched as they carried Grandpa away. At this funeral, it seemed that he was the only one who was sad. Some people wipe away their tears, but they can't hide the smiles on the corners of their mouths.
In the city of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Alves clenched his fists. He was filled with sadness and anger, but nothing could be done. but w What Simeon said kept replaying in his mind.
FEW MINUTES?
He swallowed the thoughts.
"I'm so sorry Mrs Casper. The death of your husband's father must really affect you. When we had talks about family, you wouldn't finish a sentence without mentioning him."
Manuel walked to Mrs Casper and hugged her. Mrs Casper feigned tears. Alves watched them closely. He knew all the cards they were playing.
Alves knew that Mrs Casper had an eye on Manuel. Mrs Casper was the madam of the CASPER'S MANSION, meaning the mother of the three men: Michael, Simeon and the last born, Gareth.
And Manuel? He was the CEO of the automobile industry whose net-worth was $250 billion.
Michael already married the only daughter of the Manuel, and now Madam has an eye on Manuel himself. How greedy the Casper family could be, Alves thought.
"I'm so honored that you stopped by as soon as the news got to you. You must be very busy."
Madam had pulled away from Manuel. Manuel smiled sheepishly, he had such a beautiful smile for a middle aged Spanish man.
"Casper was a great man. My father owes his luxury to him. He wouldn't help but make a hymn of how innovative Casper was during their young days."
Madam traced Manuel's silvers eyes to his fine lips. You could tell how obvious it was that she was ogling him. Wow! On such occasion? Alves shook his head. But there was nothing he could do.
"I should get on my way now. When will the burial ceremony be?"
Madam got a hold of herself and cleared her throat,
"If there will be, we'll let you know."
"What do you mean by if there will be? You are not thinking of burying grandpa as a dog are you?"
Alves stomped forward. Manuel gave him an interesting look. Manuel was kind but thorough. To everyone.
"That's true. After all it's all Casper's wealth. He should have a befitting burial ceremony."
Manuel acknowledged him. Then he added,gazing upon Damien kindly. He was one of the few people who had gazed on Damien like a human and not a piece of trash, like the Casper family.
"Who are you? I'm not sure I've seen you around... not in any of the meeting of the company."
Alves wanted to tell Manuel as much as he could. About how he has been deprived of every right in the house. About how he was made to live like a dog and barely noticed. Often talked down.
But Madam laughed out loud,
"Oh, he's Alves, our gate man's son!"
Alves' jaws dropped. A gate man's son? Was that how they saw him?He didn't know that he had gone past relegation in the house. He couldn't find his words. "Oh, the gate man's son. I thought he's Laura's husband to be, your son-in-law."Manuel looked away from Alves. Madam chuckled,"You amaze me, Mr Lorget. How could I be so tasteless in my choice of Son-in-law?"Alves felt like he had been shut. He looked towards Laura, his potential wife to be. But Laura threw her face away. He was more disturbed by the reactions of Laura than Madam's words. He didn't remember having a fight with Laura. "I'll see myself out then. But I must say, you're such a wonderful woman, Mrs Casper. Not every powerful women give such right to the sons of their gate men."Manuel pecked her on both cheeks and was led out by Mrs Casper. Alves kept his gaze on Laura. He noticed that Laura kept exchanging stares with the son of Manuel who had visited with him. People began to leave the funeral hall one after the
Alves decided to keep quiet all through the drive to wherever the bank manager was driving him to. He neither wanted to be forward nor did he have an idea what to say. It all happened like a total shock to him. He looked at his phone again, making an attempt to count the numbers of zeros behind the one. No matter how hard he tried to, he couldn't say for sure what that range of number is called. He knew thousand, million, billion, trillion and --"We should get you changed first, sir. You must feel uncomfortable in those wet clothes."The manager offered and pulled over at the same time. SIR?It was like a dream. That was the only definition Alves could find. He watched the manager step out of the car and walked towards and into a boutique. To Alves, everything was strange. Ranging from the fact that he was being driven by the manager of Mavelik, and now the manager went to get him a new pair of clothes?!Not only was Mavelik the biggest bank in Grimmings Hills! It's an acclaimed
"We'll love to see you around again sir. Whatever and however little your concern is, you are totally and absolutely welcomed."The manager said to Alves. He had just walked Alves out of the office and was bidding him a goodbye."Is there any other thing you would love for us to do? I mean, we could have a car take you home if you don't mind. And even if you so wish, you could take my own car home."Alves wasn't sure how to respond to the generosity of the manager. Though the manager really appeared kind to him, but he knew too well that it was an offshoot of professionalism. The manager was just working for the money. If Alves had not received such amount of money, he wouldn't have been pampered."No, I got it covered. You don't have to worry."He said and the manager nodded. He turned away from the manager. If he kept looking, the man might keep on the idle talk which Alves was already getting tired of.As soon as he noticed that the manager had left, he walked away from the vicinit
Alves couldn't bring himself to accepting what had just happened. No matter how hard he thought about it, it didn't make any sense to him. There were a lot of things that left him speechless. Just yesterday, she had promised to follow him to a gala event, even though Madam was so much against it. Before the sudden and unfortunate incident of Grandpa's death which pulled all plans apart. He didn't remember having a fight with her. If it was something else he might have been able to stand it and probably ignore it. But that wasn't even the main concern. What struck him to the depth of his conscious was what followed the whole shocking event. She slammed the door in his face!!!He wanted himself to believe so badly that he was held up in some sort of trance or probably a dream. That was what if felt like. Like he was dreaming!LUARA... IS CHEATING ON ME... SLAMMED THE DOOR IN MY FACE. He didn't know which of the two thoughts was the most devastating. All he did was stare, he couldn'
Alves phone started buzzing in his pocket. He brought it out before any other thing; he was still on his knees, in an open place. The hidden exit which he had taken led to an exposed roadside. He looked at the caller. Seeing the caller, he helped himself to his feet. He could see people gazing at him, but he didn't care. If they had an idea what he was going through, they probably would tell him to continue doing whatever he thought right. "Why is Charles calling me?"He thought first, staring at the number for a while. He knew he has to make a decision as soon as possible else the call would fall through. He answered the call. "Hey Charles. I was just about to call you."It wasn't a lie. That was the next thing he had in mind before the whole Laura situation. "Makes sense that I called you first then. But it doesn't matter who calls who first."The husky voice of Charles came over the speaker. Alves could hear a voice underneath, over the speaker. He could tell that it was the v
No matter how much Alves thought about it, he couldn't bring himself to a definite conclusion. He quit tossing the thoughts from one side to the other. He walked towards the open space and stopped a cab."Majood Riverside."He told the driver and the cab zoomed off. It didn't take much time to get there. He got off and paid. He turned at once in the direction of the Riverside.He stood there for a while, doing the last thinking, perhaps he could take a guess of whom the person he was going to meet was.It was only grandpa who would take him to the Riverside on his birthdays when he was younger even up to this day. If it wasn't because of the cold hands of death, he probably would be there next week too. His birthday.He shook his head scoffing,"Impossible. His coffin was taken away."That was the funny thought he had.WHAT IF IT'S THE REAL OWNER OF THE MONEY?That was the thought he had been trying to avoid all the time. He realised finally that he was wasting time standing there. Al
It was hard for Alves to put his thoughts together. It was quite a difficult task to align his thoughts at that moment. There were so many things going on in his mind, but the greatest of them all was,DID GRANDPA KNOW ABOUT THE MONEY?He shook his head slowly. That didn't seat right in his mind. It was as though he needed to make a rethink.IF HE DOES, WHY DID HE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL HIS DEATH TO TELL ME ABOUT IT?He couldn't provide an answer for that question either. He opined that he would be able to answer a question with another one.IF HE DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT THE MONEY, WHY IS THIS LETTER ADDRESSED AS THE ONE I GOT FROM THE MANAGER OF MAVELIK?It was as though his head would explode. He had gone through a lot for that day to be greeted by such a mystery."It's not a compulsion to open it right here. You can take your time. It seems to bring so many memories."The aged voice came from beside him. He had almost forgotten that he had the old man there with him. He had been so engrosse
Alves was quite puzzled by the fact that Madam couldn't tell that he was the one from his back view. If it was the other way round, Alves would had known she was the one. He could even tell by the way she turn her neck whenever she was going to hop into a discourse which she wasn't invited to in the first place. Before Alves could choose what to do; whether to avoid her or turn to face her. He felt a force which shoved him to the side. He crashed heavily into the nearest wall, almost breaking an arm. It was sudden and ruthless. "How dare you stand in the way of our Madam." Came the voice of one of the two bouncers who had thrown him out of Casper's earlier that day. While it was raining. That got on his nerve. He didn't plan to hide his face any longer. There were quite a number of thoughts going on in his mind. WHAT IF I WAS A RICH MAN, WOULD HE HAD SHOVED ME AWAY LIKE THAT? HE HAD NO IDEA WHO I WAS, AND PUSHED ME OUT OF THE WAY IN SUCH A ROUGH MANNER? Then he remembered that i