"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 sh
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