"Keep the change." The customer took the pizza box from Damion's hands.
Damion smiled. "Bless you, sir. Have a good evening."
When the man returned inside the bodega, he checked his hand and realised he had just been tipped a $100. His hand flew over his mouth, muffling his gasp.
Damion glanced at the workers of the store through the glass while they had a late night dinner.
He couldn't contain his excitement about the 100 dollar tip as he picked his helmet.
Across the street, the doors of the luxury fashion store opened. Damion squinted, placing the helmet back on his bike.
He began to wave vigorously.
It was his girlfriend, Maliya, who had just walked out of the store across from him.
"Maliya!" He shouted, but the cars zooming past between them drowned his voice.
Damion quickly dialled her number, excited that he had run into her. They hadn't seen each other all week because both their schedules had been packed.
He watched her phone ring, but his smile slipped from his face when she pressed her phone's power button, ignoring him.
Suddenly, a flashy black car appeared. It drove towards her, and after a few seconds, it vanished from the curb. Damion blinked. Maliya was gone, too.
He jumped on his bike and raced to meet up with the black car.
A while later. The black car drove into a mansion he had never seen before. Damion waited a few minutes down the street before ringing the bell, disguised as a pizza delivery guy.
They let him in, and instantly, he banged on the large house door. This place was magnificent. Grand. Fairytale-like.
"What do you want?" Maliya's stern voice asked, jerking his attention back to the front door.
Shocked, the pizza box he came with fell from his hands, smashing on the ground between them.
"Maliya, it's me..." Damion eyed the white shirt she had on and her shapely long legs bare underneath it. "I—I called you earlier. You didn't pick."
"Can't you see I'm busy?" She crossed her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes. "Leave this place, Damion. It's not meant for people like you."
He frowned at her harsh voice. "Maliya."
Immediately, a man appeared in the doorway. He was 6'4. A foot taller than Damion, and he looked like a foreigner. His ink black beards were healthy and neat. And his bare chest now plastered to Maliya's back.
"Who's he?" Damion asked warily.
"Your replacement. We are over, Damion—" Maliya stopped, letting the man kiss her senseless right before her ex.
She moaned, and Damion fell back a step on this modern porch. Stunned. Humiliated.
"We should talk about...about us first."
Maliya scoffed on an eye roll. "There's nothing to talk about between us, Damion. You are a worthless piece of trash who can't afford my lifestyle."
"But I've been trying for you! Last month, I bought you that couple's bracelet and treated you to an expensive dinner, no matter the cost."
Maliya shared a look with the man behind her, ridicule shining in her blue eyes.
She raised her hand and let the bracelet drop as she held onto one end. "You mean this cheap thing? Show him how a real man treats his woman, babe."
The man behind her obeyed. He moved her hair away and kissed a trail up her shoulder. His hand moved forward, undoing the first few buttons of her shirt.
Damion saw the gleaming stone hanging from her neck. It was a diamond. A pure cut diamond necklace.
He blinked, setting his jaw hard. "I don't make as much as he does to be able to buy you diamonds, but my love for you runs deeper than the ocean—"
The bracelet hit the centre of his forehead. She had thrown it at him.
Damion shut his eyes, mortified.
"You will regret leaving me for him." Eyes still closed, Damion gritted the promise out.
Maliya snapped. She moved closer into his personal space and backhanded him, poking him hard in the chest next.
"Should I tell you what you really are, Damion?" Maliya flashed a sardonic smirk, "A waste of space. Scum that's just existing. You have no one in this world. Everyone left you. Your mother. Your sister. They left you because they realised you are worth nothing!"
The man whispered to her, "Shh. Don't get worked up over nothing. Come here."
He pulled her behind him, across the threshold. Then he stepped forward, kicking the ruined box of pizza down the porch steps.
"How much is your pizza worth, boy?"
Damion couldn't speak. Anger roared like fierce winds inside him. He wanted to burst with heat like a chimney. His fists clenched.
The man laughed. "Look, Liya. He must have forgotten how to use his voice."
"Asshole! I'm too busy thinking of ways I can make you both—"
Cash rained down on him. Hundred dollar bills, causing him to shut up. His chest tightened. They had humiliated him enough.
"Make you both pay!" Damion growled out loud, completing his sentence.
But he was too late. They had already shut the door in his face. Damion wanted to claw through the wood and get to them, but it was impossible.
He returned to his bike outside the gate, tossing the ruined pizza box into the bushes.
He hadn't even remembered to slip on his helmet. Her words played in his head like a broken record.
'You are worth nothing'
Damion couldn't think straight. He went above the speed limit, seething on his machine. He needed to forget everything about Maliya and her new man.
There was a green light ahead.
It turned yellow.
Damion didn't want to stop. He amped up his speed, gunning for the crossroads.
3, 2, 1!
Red-light.
But he didn't stop. He kept going, and when he finally dived past the light. The headlights of an incoming vehicle blinded him.
Something crashed into him. His delivery bike flew, throwing him on the hard asphalt.
The last thing Damion saw before blackness was the boxes of pizza splattering down on him.
Beep. Beep. Beep.Damion felt groggy as his eyes opened. A haze cleared from his eyes, and he registered with his surroundings. This was a hospital room.He winced. The ache in his head was out of this world. When he touched his head, it had been bandaged, wrapped all the way around."Mr. Damion, how are you feeling?" He met the kind gaze of the doctor standing at the side of his bed. A few nurses had accompanied him."Tired. My head hurts," Damion croaked, mouth dry.The doctor scribbled down something on his notepad. "Yes, that's normal. You sustained a head injury from the impact of your fall, but I'm glad to tell you that you are out of danger.""When do I get to leave?""In a few weeks. We will have to monitor you for the time being."When the time came for Damion to leave the hospital, the accountant had prepared his bill, and the amount almost gave him a heart attack."$5000?" his eyes popped from their sockets.Damion didn't have that kind of money.But the nurse delivering t
Blinking hard at his phone screen, Damion peered even closer at the figures showing in his inbox as a credit alert. He laughed, his chest shaking with amusement as he scrolled out of his inbox, dismissing the alert as a spam message possibly from scammers. He went to drop his phone, but something clicked in his head. The credit alert was from his actual bank account. The one he used for all his transactions.He turned on the phone again, unlocking it with a swipe. He pulled up the message again.It was there for him to see. A credit alert : $100,000,000,000.What in the absolute hell?He dropped his phone beside him on the bed in disbelief. After a few breaths, he picked up the phone again, pausing for a minute to wipe his eyes with the back of his hand. Maybe he was feeling so tired and sleepy he was seeing things.Or maybe he was already asleep and fucking dreaming. He pinched himself. He felt the pain. Alright, yeah, he was awake.He went to his inbox, fully expecting to see n
Damion watched as his phone smashed against the hard wooden floors and bounced, sliding across a few feet away. He raised wide, furious eyes to the sales rep. “Are you insane? What the hell did you do that for?”He rushed to pick up his phone, his heart thundering in his chest furiously. This phone was one of his most cherished properties and he couldn't function properly without it. He didn't have any money to replace it if anything happened to it even. He snatched the phone from the floor, and stared at it, turning it over in his hand. Only half the screen was cracked and the light still worked. He glowered at the sales rep again. “What the fuck man?”The sales rep walked in a threatening stride ro Damion. “Excuse me, Sir,” he sneered, “Pearla is not a place for low life wannabes to come in and fucking take pictures of the clothes without buying anything.”Damion gestured widely at the suit he had his sights set on. “What the fuck do you mean? I was just about to ask about the s
The sidewalk was a little hot and Damion drew himself up sharply, cursing repeatedly at the world and at himself.“Should have known better than to go in there,” he swore, dusting his jeans which had now collected a little dust from the sidewalk. He picked his phone up and tapped at the screen. It was worse for wear, but amazingly, it still came on when he tapped on it. The time was almost 10 o'clock in the morning and he still hadn't gotten to Lance Towers. He also hadn't been able to change into an appropriate outfit. He had managed to get a tear on his jeans now. Damion didn't want to go anywhere at all, anymore. He felt very reluctant to head to Lance Towers, seeing how badly today was already going. If he just hadn't done what the woman had told him to. If he'd stayed on his decisionDamion didn't feel like going anywhere else after being treated poorly. If that woman hadn't suggested that he do this, then he wouldn't have been humiliated like this. He was a lowlife, a dirtb
Damion startled, backing up a few steps. The bodyguards still looked as astounded as Damion felt. Why was this woman calling him young master?“Lady, were you the one that called me last night? What do you want from me? What's that money in my bank account?”The woman raised her head a little to peek at him, before bringing down her head again. “I apologise for how you've been treated so far, young master. Please allow me to make amends.”Amends how?Damion stood there, glaring at the lady. If she would just tell him that all that money was his, he would forgive everything and be glad to go home. “If you would follow me, young master, we can go up to my office. I'll tell you everything.” the woman gestured with both hands in front of Damion, waving him to the elevator how Damion often saw rich men and politicians directed by their subordinates.If this was a scam, a thieving scheme, then it was a very elaborate one to rob him of money he didn't even have.He impatiently followed the
Damion stared at the old man in bemusement, more than a little taken aback by the man's familiarity with him. He took a step back from the old man.The man arched his brow, letting his hand drop in disappointment. He looked sad for some reason. Damion looked around the room, finally taking notice of a girl, a few years older than him, standing by the old man's desk. He remembered he'd been brought there to meet his supposed “grandfather”. He laughed. "Are you people alright in the head?" Damion blurted out. "Excuse me?" The young girl spoke up, arching a well carved brow in a show of arrogance that was second skin to those filthy rich people Damion always saw in the movies. “Why send me that ridiculous amount of money and then you,” he pointed at the man, “even call me your grandson?" Damion continued, completely ignoring the girl and glaring daggers at the man."We are your family, Damion." The old man answered, taking a step closer to him."No, you are not." Damion replied."I a
“Wait a minute,” Damion shifted back, his hands running over his face in jerky motions. “I can't be your grandson. I was raised in an orphanage and I grew up with nothing. I have never before heard anything about a family of my own. I don't even know how I came to be in that orphanage. I've never…I've never had a family.” Damion stuttered out, his heart stuttering, because did they really mean that he had a family? The lady smiled for the first time, also moving closer to Damion. “That's because we lost you. Uncle can explain everything to you later…cousin.”Damion laughed then, shaking his head in disbelief. “This can't be true.”Sensing Damion's frustrated disbelief, the doctor took the files from the desk and crossed to Damion's side, handing them to him a little too respectfully. Damion's eyes read the words slowly, over and over again.A 99.9 percent match to Lance Ericson.That was the old man. They were saying that man was Damion's father and it sounded like something out of
Damion jumped off the couch where he was sitting. He massaged his forehead as he paced around his grandfather’s office. He was so in a hurry this morning to get out of the house and come to Lance Towers because of his curiosity that he had forgotten about the most pressing issue in his life at the moment.As he paced around, his cousin approached and tapped him on the shoulder, mouthing ‘what happened?’ to him but he just shook his head and walked out of the office.He was glad he finally had a family, people that will care for him no matter what. It felt nice actually but he didn’t want them all up in his business. At least, they hadn’t reached that stage yet.“I’ll be right there, Daniel. Thanks for calling to notify me,” he finally replied to his friend on the phone and hung up.He walked back to the office and just when he was about to open the door, he sighed. This whole situation felt like a fairytale and he still felt awkward and out of place around them.At the moment, he was
It was funny how time flies. Within a twinkle of an eye Damion's much-anticipated wedding was here, this was going to be a wedding that would be talked about for generations to come. Although, right now, many were confused as to which of the weddings they would be attending, this was due to how close the venue of Damion and Wes' wedding was. Of Course, given that Wes was the CEO of W&S holdings, everyone would prefer to attend his wedding instead of that of a common man like Damion. Most people thought that the only reason Damion's wedding was promoted and popular was due to Bianca's status as one of the most popular models in all of Gold City. Right now the whole venue was flooded with people, different people from different places around Gold City, they had all come for Wes and Malika's wedding. The wedding was to be held at the largest event center in the city. While that of Damion was in the second largest, which was just a stone's throw from that of Wes. At the venue
It's been over two months since the incident at the Lance Towers, Gerard has been sentenced to prison together with Mr Smith who was guilty of being an accomplice. Although his father was found as an accomplice, this has not affected Wes's status; he had resigned from the Lance Medical Hospital and decided to begin work as the CEO of W&S holdings. The bitterness in Wes' heart was still there, and since his father was in prison, he decided to ruin Damion's life, although he knew that harming Damon was out of it as he didn't want to end up like his father. However, he vowed that he would make sure he embarrassed Damion in public, belittling him to the point where he would see himself as a low-life pauper with no place in the affairs of the rich. Bella was already well and strong, she had already resumed her acting career which seemed to be soaring higher with the help of Scott. The two had become the talk of the town as their movies broke the internet, any movie they acted tog
Damion watched as the police huddled the already paralyzed Gerard into their vehicle together with the Anslem soldier who was just regaining consciousness. “Dr Damion, we meet again" Detective Reeves commented as he approached Damion, stretching out his hands for a handshake. “You are here just in time detective" Damion replied as he shook the man's hand. “Just in time? Doesn't look like it” Detective Reeves answered. “How did you know about this?" Damion inquired out of curiosity. “Jack called, he also sent a text, summarizing all that was happening, all about the bug and all that" Detective Reeves revealed "I see, this is all Jack's doing," Damion smiled. “Why didn't you report this to the police earlier?" Reeves questioned. “The reason is best known to me" Damion smiled as he turned around and began to walk away, leaving the detective standing with his gaze on Damion. A vehicle suddenly pulled up in front of Damion. “Need a ride?" A voice came from the vehicle and
Immediately the shit was fired, the whole place went into a frenzy and some of the Anslem soldiers rushed to protect their leader, gunshots sounded everywhere. “Are you ok sir?" One of the Anslem soldiers asked Mr Gerard as he helped him back to his feet. “Get the van ready” the man instructed another soldier who quickly ran into the van and started the engine. All this while Damion still had his eyes locked on Gerard, he wouldn't let the man out of his sight, never, he wasn't done with him yet. Damion was about to attack again when fleets of cop cars drove into the place, and as the doors opened, Detective Reeves together with his partner Helen and other police officers stepped out. This was the handiwork of Jack, the person whom he had spoken to on the phone a while ago was none other than Detective Reeves, after the call, he had texted me Reeves, explaining every single detail of what was happening, although it was a summary, it was still enough for reeves to comprehend.
It came as a huge surprise to Mr Lance, to see Bella held captive by Gerard, Mr Lance hadn't thought of this at all, it had never crossed his mind that Bella wouldn't be safe. As Mr Lance stood there, eyes wide open staring at his granddaughter rough-handled and tied to a chair by this animal of a man named Gerard, Mr Lance gritted his teeth. Now he understood clearly what Scott meant when he said his dad would do things they weren't expecting at all. This was one of Mr Lance's fears, getting his family involved in things like this, Bella was the only family he had left before he found Damion, and now that he found Damion they were the only two family members he had left. His hand trembled as he swallowed hard, his mind calculating and thinking of the next course of action to take. Mr Lance knew that he needed to be careful as one little mistake might be the end of everything. The Anslem group soldiers weren't that much anymore, most of them had died, and some fled while o
As Davina lay there on the ground, she could feel the excruciating pains from her face, a part of her hair and shirt was already stained from her blood. Her breath was heavy and she blinked her eyes slowly, staring above, she could feel the energy in her body sipping out of her, and slowly she was beginning to lose consciousness. No matter how Davina tried to blink rapidly, in an attempt to stay awake, it seemed not to be working at all as her eyes felt heavy and the energy drainage on her body wasn't helping. A lone tear streamed down the side of her face down to her ears, and her eyes finally went shut, her mind went blank, and everywhere was dark. On the other hand, Nelly could be seen staggering towards the gun which was far away in the distance. It was funny how the two women had fought to the extent that they had pushed each other far away from the location of the gun. Nelly could already see the weapon, she couldn't walk faster than the way she was walking right
Back inside the lance towers, just outside the vault, Davina could be seen pacing around, her mind occupied, Jack had just confessed his feelings to her. It was something she wasn't expecting at all, although one part of her was very excited about this, the other part was a mixture of anger and fear. She couldn't help but frown deeply. “Why would he do that now, why would he tell me he loves me and run out to die like that just after telling me, what does he take me for, huh” Davina murmured angrily as she paced around. The gunshot sounds coming from outside the building weren't helping at all as they made her angry and scared at the same time. She cared so much for Jack and now that he had confessed his feelings to her, she wanted him back alone more than ever. “Please be safe” she muttered as she pressed her palms together and gritted her teeth. Davina's eyes traveled to the last place where she had seen the administrative assistant, Nelly. Davina frowned as the la
Mr Lance had expected this, he knew the Anslem group wouldn't stop without putting up a fight, it looked more like history was repeating itself. The Lance family had been in a fight like this with the Anslem group years back, it was in that fight that Mr Lance lost his son who turned out to be Damion's father. Damion's father was killed by the Anslem group, his death didn't happen in battle, it happened outside the battlefield, he was murdered alongside his wife, but that would be a story to tell another day.As the call ended, Mr Lance frowned, his eyes darted to the black man who was standing not too far from him. “Seal the doors and windows” Mr Lance ordered and the man nodded in affirmation as he got to work, sealing the windows. “What do we do about this?” Jack asked as he approached Mr Lance together with Davina and Jeremy. The call had been on loudspeaker so they had heard the message that was being passed to Mr lance. “They came for a fight and a fight is what we would g
Damion had never been so happy to see Jack and Davina, Just when he thought that all hope was lost, Jack and Davina came running to the rescue. While in the vehicle which had driven past the able-bodied men after them, splashing a pool of dirty water on them which was lodged by the side of the road, Damion couldn't help but wonder how Jack and Davina had came to know about this, or rather about his whereabouts or what he is up to. If he could remember correctly, he never told them about his visit to Scott and also his trip to the underground city for the second time, talking more about kidnapping Hakim and taking him to the Lance towers. Damion couldn't hold back the curiosity burning inside of him “Jack, I must say I have never been this happy to see you and Davina around, this was indeed a perfect timing.” Damion paused.“But I must ask” Damion continued “how did you get to know about this?, I mean how did you get to know what I wa