20 years later..."You stupid boy! Is that the way I raised you?! Clean that mess up right now!" Mr. X shouted, glaring down at Samuel."You never raised me. That's the problem, Dad." Samuel spoke back only to receive a thunderous slap from Mr. X."That's right. If I had raised you, you would have had proper manners. Fool." Mr. X replied and walked out of his study, leaving Samuel behind to clean up the broken glass.Samuel bent down to pick up the broken pieces of glass and wondered again if the man who just stepped out was truly his father.Right now, Samuel was twenty-one years old and he never recalled any day when his father, Mr. X, was ever there for him.All that Samuel could remember was being bullied, insulted, cursed, and thrown aside by his father, stepmother and stepbrother.Samuel heard the door behind him open and the first thought that came to his mind was, "Speak of the devils" when he saw his stepmother and stepbrother walk in with smug grins on their faces.Samuel tur
"May I come in?" a woman's voice requested."Come in." Mr X replied from within his study room in the mansion.He lifted his head and saw his wife, Samuel's stepmother, walk in."What is it that you want this time, Felicia? I've paid for your son's tuition this year haven't I?" he asked her, returning his gaze to his work."OUR son." Felicia corrected but Mr. X ignored it."It's been nineteen years since we got married. I remember... You promised me you would get rid of that kid but you keep giving excuses each time I mention it. You never even said who his mother was even when you told me you are not his biological father. How hard can it be to just...""Are you done?" Mr. X asked Felicia, interrupting her in the process.Felicia paused for three seconds and then sighed, "Why don't you want to remove him and allow us to be a complete family? Just you, me and our son, David?""Complete family?" Mr X scoffed and stood up, walking straight to Felicia who suddenly became scared."Have you
"Are those guys still giving you trouble?" Eli asked Samuel. He was referring to the three bullies."I've learned to just ignore them," Samuel answered."When are you going to learn to stand up for yourself? You look even more intimidating than the three of them combined. They're scared of you that's why they are pressing you down." Eli said."Just leave it be. You are aware of my relationship with my family. If I do anything that would touch my father's name then I'm in for it big time." Samuel said and gulped just thinking about it."Sorry to say this but your dad is a piece of shit," Eli stated."Well... I can't disagree. I mean... Others would pick offence but that's when they have a good relationship with their parents or maybe their parents changed but my dad? He was evil to me right from the day I was born." Samuel said, gradually losing his composure."At least we will be graduating by next year so don't sweat it." Eli opened his lunch box, "Want to switch lunches?" he smirked
Lily ran until she lost sight of Vincent and Eli, certain that they didn't follow her.She bent over, placing her palms on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Of course, she didn't live anywhere near that place. She only misled her friends because she didn't want them to know the truth about her.She had followed them to the rich side of town on purpose just to save face. She didn't think any of them would like to be her friends if they found out that she wasn't as rich as they were.Lily stood up straight, stretching her back until she felt it crack.Lily took a shortcut and arrived at her real house. Somewhere among the average people.She pushed the door open and walked into a dirty home. It didn't surprise her at all that the house was dirty, after all, her mother hardly did any chores around the house.Lily kept her school bag aside and went further into the house to search for her mother but all to no avail."Where did she go to this time?" Lily wondered and in that seco
Samuel had always had a difficult relationship with his stepmother and step-brother. Growing up, he had always felt like the odd one out, never quite fitting in with their family dynamics. Things only kept getting worse between them. The older he got, the worse he was treated and the harsher their words against him became.Samuel could recall those early days when it started small. His step-brother, David, would ask him to fetch things for him, and his step-mother, Felicia, would scold him for not doing things to her satisfaction. Then came the insults that followed behind. Those insults began to fly. Felicia would criticize his appearance, calling him ugly and unkempt. She would make fun of his interests, saying that he was wasting his time on things that would never amount to anything. And his David would join in, laughing along with his mother and calling him names like "loser" and "weirdo."Samuel couldn't understand why they were treating him this way. Sure, he had always be
Samuel stood there dumbfounded. Did Felicia just call him from his room to wipe his stepbrother's shoes?For the first time in a long time, while speaking with Felicia, Samuel raised his eyes to meet hers.Seeing that, Felicia raised an eyebrow at Samuel as she was taken aback by his audacity."Got something to say?" She asked as if daring Samuel to speak back.Once again, just as other times, Samuel lowered his eyes and answered, "No"."That's what I thought." Felicia said, "Now hop to it." she added, a smirk curling up on her lips.Samuel bent down to his knees and started to wipe David's shoes.A few minutes in, Samuel was almost done when he felt a hard hit from the side of his eye. He shouted and groaned in pain. David had just thrown a shoe at his face."You missed that one idiot," David said and laughed.Samuel said and did nothing against it. He picked up the show and wiped it as well. Once he was done, he was permitted to return to his room.Samuel slammed his door shut and s
"Guys, I don't think you should go through with whatever it is that you two are planning." Samuel tried convincing Lily and Eli to stop with their plans while all three of them were standing at his gate."We have come too far to back down. And besides, all you need to do is get us in. You can stay out of it afterwards." Lily said to Samuel."I told you I don't want anything to do with this," Samuel replied."That's fine. We can just wait here until it gets dark and we will sneak ourselves in." Lily crossed her arms and grinned.Samuel scoffed and pointed to the top of the fence. Lily and Eli looked to the direction Samuel was pointing and then Samuel said, "Those are not just barbed wires. They are barbed electrical wires. Guaranteed to shock you to death.""What?" Eli looked on with surprise."It's turned on every night after my father gets home," Samuel added."Then I guess we better get in now," Lily smirked."How do you plan on doing that with the security guards moving about?" Sa
Samuel had never been curious about his father's study, and he knew he wasn't allowed to enter without permission. However, Lily has said things to him that only piqued his curiosity and he let his curiosity get the best of him when he brought his two friends, Lily and Eli, into that study room.Samuel sat up on his bed, thinking back to when all three of them rummaged through the shelves and drawers, he couldn't get his mind off the words Eli had whispered to him before leaving."You need to find concrete evidence,"... "Something that Mr. X and his wife can't deny."Although Felicia had kicked Eli and Lily out, Samuel knew he still had to get to the bottom of things. Even if it meant increasing his punishment.Samuel got out of his bedroom and took a look around his floor. Luckily he didn't bump into Felicia or David as he went downstairs in search of a hammer.He soon found one and he made his way to Mr X's study. After opening the door, he thought that maybe this was too dumb of a