“Hey, man, what have I got to do with this conversation?” Weston asks.
“I'm sure she's telling you stuff behind my back. I'll wipe ‘em too,” Santiago says, his eyes on Lorette.Weston notices Lorette roll her eyes, her lips form like she wants to say something but she looks away from Santiago.“Let's get a cab, my legs are aching,” Lorette mutters.Santiago stops a taxi pulling over. Again, the two argue on who is going to sit at the front seat.Weston can swear he's never felt so embarrassed in his life.The taxi man clears his throat. “The seats are pretty much the same.”“They are not the same. Only the boss sits in the front seat,” Santiago says.“And who's the boss here?” Lorette asks.“Bitch, I was born two seconds before you,” Santiago says.“That doesn't count. We were both born in the same minute!” Lorette fires.Having enough of it, Weston grabs the person closest toRelated Chapters
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“Let go of my hand, you stupid idiot.” “This is going to get all serious if you try to use physical assault,” Weston says.By now, a few people are starting to gather. “Give me my money!” The woman shouts.“I will give you, just tell me—”“Give me my money, you scam!” She shouts. “Give me my money today!” Weston looks around helplessly. Who the hell carries ten million dollars around? Why the hell won't she just tell him her account number? “Give him his money, mister,” a nosy woman in the crowd says. “Please tell him to give me my money!” The woman shouts.“Damn. To think men are going around destroying our dignity,” a man spats.“Very soon, people are going to start saying we men are scams,” another guy says.“Why won't he pay her money?” Weston just stands there hearing the insult going in and out of his ears. A few people are dragging his clothes. It feels like it's
I Am A Multibillionaire Dad 96
Inside the restaurant, Santiago and Lorette keep trying to avoid making eye contact with Weston. Weston bites on his lower lip. He picks up the menu and looks at it. “Salmon looks good,” Santiago says. Weston glances sharply at Santiago. “Salmon?” He's sure Santiago mentioned once that the worst food anyone can ever offer him is salmon. No matter how great it's cooked. “Huh, yeah. Salmon.” Lorette glances at Santiago. Santiago sighs and drops the menu. “I give up. I'm no match for you two. Okay, Weston, you caught me. What the fuck is going on?” Santiago asks.“I'm so sorry, guys. I didn't mean to embarrass you two,” Weston says.“That's not what I asked, bro. Anyone who thinks of you as an embarrassment is living with zero point two percent of his brain.” Weston smiles. “I…um…I had a girlfriend, something like that.” “A girlfriend? Not a wife?” Lorette asks.“We didn't get mar
I Am A Multibillionaire Dad 97
Mateo smiles. “First off, I'll love to say I owe women everything I am today.” “Oh, why do you say that?” The interviewer asks.“My mother is a woman!” The interviewer laughs. “Of course. My mother is a woman too.”Mateo smiles. “So, right from the moment I was a kid, I had always wondered how I could pay back womanhood for bringing me to a great world like this and then…I got this idea twenty years ago and my life has never been the same.”“Fuck you,” Santiago swears. “Wow! That's…” the interviewer in the video says, “that's breathtaking.” “Thank you.” “So…” the interviewer adjusts on his seat in the video. “There have been rumours flying around, perhaps you have heard about them. Um…so people are talking about how women have been dying in your community, can you say something about that?” Mateo smiles again. “Thank you so much, sir. I have done more interviews like this than I can count and ther
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Lorette shakes her head and stands up. “You two are…” she shakes her head again. “I'm short of words.” She walks off. “Where is she going?” Santiago asks.“Okay. I think that's enough. She might really get mad,” Weston says. They both laugh again.Weston taps on the play button. A guy in a lab coat is standing by a table. “What you're seeing on the table is the human long and short intestine,” the guy in lab coat says.“I think I'm going to puke,” Santiago mutters. “You've got that stuff in your stomach too,” Weston says back.“Mr Mateo,” the guy in the video continues, “have donated a lot of these intestines to our laboratory. And they are the ones that the owners gave to him.” “Mr Mateo donated a human brain to us!” Another guy in a lab coat says.“Without Mr Mateo, I wouldn't have seen a human brain in real life!”“Kudos to Mr Mateo!” “Science is nothing without Mr Mateo!”
I Am A Multibillionaire Dad 99
Santiago inputs the passcode and opens the door. The three of them go inside. Weston goes over to the projector in one of the bedrooms, he turns it on while Santiago prepares the guns they need to carry along. About ten minutes later, Lorette displays what she found out so far on the projector.“He loves to get a massage every time he just arrives at his house,” Lorette says. “So far, he hasn't employed the help of a therapist twice.” “So…you're saying one of us should give him a massage?” Weston asks.“Whosoever that person is, it must be someone who is strong and quick and sharp…” Santiago says. “So…Weston, you do it.”“He doesn't do male therapists,” Lorette asks.“Then the idea isn't going to work,” Weston concludes. “You two, have you forgotten? I'm a woman too,” Lorette says.“We can't allow you to do something as dangerous as that,” Weston says.“What?” “I know you want to
I Am A Multibillionaire Dad 100
He dials Santiago's number. “Where are you?” He asks when Santiago answers the call. “At the balcony.”Weston hangs up and goes to the back of the house. Santiago is lying on the grass under a decorative tent, his face up in the sky. Weston clears his throat and goes beside Santiago. He lies beside him. “When we were kids…we used to stare at the sky together anytime we were angry and frustrated,” Santiago mutters. “You have quite a history together,” Weston mutters.“How could she come up with that plan, Weston?” “She's one of the few people I can't read their minds.”For a long time, they both stare at the sky in silence. “We have to do this for us,” Weston finally breaks the silence. “If we force her to change the plan, she might think we don't respect her decisions.”“You know Mateo, Weston. You know him better than all these.”“I bet you know Lorette more
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“You're surely a dick head,” Santiago mutters.“Thanks for the compliment.” She grabs the shopping bag and goes to the front of the mirror. “You guys should start preparing. I'll be done in no time. San, you can check up on him to see if he's arrived home.” “Are you our boss or something?” Santiago grumbles.Weston sighs. All these don't seem like a good idea. There is little or nothing he can do with Lorette hell-bent on going. Some minutes later, they are in the car, Santiago is driving. Weston holds tightly to the seat. “Can you add a little more speed? We have to be there before another therapist goes in to him,” Lorette says. “He adds more speed to this and some damn cops will be pulling us over,” Weston says.“I'll be happy if that happens. At least, we won't have to go and the bitch won't have to get herself killed—”“Write a good epitaph for me. Tell everyone how good I am,” Lorette says.
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“How may I help you, sir?” The security man asks Weston with nothing more than a bored tone.Weston smiles. “I'm here to see Mr Mateo.” “No such person lives here,” the gate guard says. Weston bites on his lower lip. “Can you…” The gate guard doesn't wait to hear the rest of Weston's words, he slams the gate in his face. Santiago is already out of the car now. He's pacing around, cussing under his breath. “Let's go with the second plan,” Weston says. Santiago looks around. He walks over to Weston and looks him in the eyes. “Lorette is obviously dead.”“She's not dead.”“She is!”“She is not, San.” Weston is starting to go when Santiago pulls him back.“She's dead all because of her stubbornness.”“Will you just stop talking like this and let's find a damn solution to this?”“Suppose you go there, what happens?” Santiago asks. “Suppose you manage to get past the
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“Well…” Santiago runs his hand through his hair. “You could be lying. I need to go inside and see that you really had an appointment.” “You lost, huh? Is it so hard to admit it?” Jose taunts.The three of them go inside the tattoo gallery. Again, Weston is met with another shock. The room is just the moderate one with sofas for people to sit on, a few mirrors here and there. What's even more surprising are the two men Weston sees there. They look more…well…they look more like janitors of the place. But again, he is more surprised to see Santiago going to one of the guys and asking for a handshake.“Hi, Jose. Thought you said two of you are coming,” one of the men says.“Yeah. We were supposed to be two but you know there are some people whose daily job is to mooch off people all over the campus,” Jose says. The man walks over to Jose and gives him a hug. “Nice to see you again.”“Me too. Meet my friend. His name is We
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“As long as I didn't come to see you, I don't think you should be asking me questions,” Santiago says carelessly. “Weston, did you invite this twat here?” Jose fumes. “You must be really nuts. Can't you see he's sad?” Santiago snaps at Jose.“What did you tell him to make him sad?” Santiago scoffs. “So I'm some kind of guy that goes about planting sadness in people's lives?” “I can't put that past you. The Weston I know is never sad.”“All the Big Boys are delusional—”“You guys too—” before Jose can finish talking, Santiago rushes to him and closes his mouth with his hand.They both stare at each other for minutes. Jose jerks Santiago's hand from his mouth and hisses. “You're too fake.” “Mind your fucking business.”Jose lowers his voice and whispers in Santiago's ear, “that's just one of the attributes of the Achievers…you're all cowards.”“I'll tell him when I want to
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“Okay. Was trying to save your damn self before but now I see you don't deserve an inch of my pity. Let's facetime so you don't think I'm playing a record for you.” She hangs up. It seems like eternity before she calls again. His daughter's face comes on the screen. Weston's hand is trembling, the phone almost falling from his hand. His daughter looks kind of…pale? She's wearing a head warmer. She's grown slightly compared to the last time he saw her. He can't form any words as he stares at her. She's looking at him. No smile on her face. His heart sinks. Normally, she smiles at him. Did…did she overhear him shouting at Ivy over the phone? “I'm sorry,” oddly is the first word that comes out of his lips. She doesn't say anything. She's just staring at him. “Happy birthday,” he says.She doesn't say anything. “You're cool?” He tries to ask but again she doesn't say anything.“Remember our
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Weston opens his eyes. It's morning. He stares at the white ceiling. Five years ago, his daughter was born. Five years ago, he became a father. He can still remember how anxious he felt as he wore the disposable surgical gown to see his wife and kid. He can still remember the way his heart felt as he wondered if he wasn't going to hurt his daughter as he carried her in his arms. He swallows hard. If anyone had told him that day that five years later, he wouldn't know where his daughter was, he'd have told the person to stop telling bullshit. He sits up in bed. He glances at Jose's bed. It's empty. Weston grabs his towel and goes to the bathroom to take his bath. Five minutes later, Weston is making his way to the cafeteria to get something to eat. He orders for his daughter's favourite. The meal she always suggests they make on her birthday—chicken and wafflesThe cafeteria is very scanty because of yesterday's incident. Alm
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All the students are gathered there, the seats are all almost filled. Even with all that population, the hall is very quiet like a funeral gathering. Weston sits on one of the chairs at the back, Lorette and Santiago sit in the chairs in front of him. “Mic testing…” echoes around the room. About three seconds later, the VC comes in stage. He has a sheet of paper in his hand which he slaps on the lectern. Without greeting, he gets straight into his speech that seems to have been seething in his head since a million years. “What more can you guys do?” His voice is the normal tone surprisingly. “If you want to die, why don't you go home and do that? If you're tired of your lives, go home and end your lives!” He holds up the sheet of paper in his hand. “Let this be the last time something like this ever happens here. You all have businesses, some of you are already CEOs! Do I have to have reporters lurking a
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Burning with rage, Lorette adjusts her face cap and enters the cyber cafe. She sights an unused laptop and goes there. She pours her heart into the writeup that will end up being Mateo's suicide note. About how he's sorry for pretending that he gives a damn about women, about how sorry he is for killing all those thirty six women, about how there is no best gender…She types until she can't feel her hands as part of her body anymore. Done. She stands up and leaves after sending the letter to the appropriate place. It is not until she is inside the taxi and is going back to the campus that she remembers Santiago and Weston. Damn it. She shouldn't have reacted like that before leaving them. She tries to think…what does Santiago likes the most? She scrolls through her Instagram followers. She nods slowly. Girls will do. By the end of two blind dates, Santiago will forget all about it. “Hello. You're pretty. You're interested in
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“Wait here while I go check what's going on,” Santiago says. Santiago opens the door, comes down from the car. He should be able to negotiate with them. He can't have them spilling that fucking nonsense in front of Weston. This is why killing Mateo in the first place was a bad idea. “You're brave now, huh?” One of the men who is already out of the car asks. “I can explain,” Santiago says quickly as quietly as he can. “What? You can explain?” The man asks, an amused grin on his face. “Look, my guy—”“If you don't shut your mouth, you're going to lose two teeth and I damn well mean it,” the man says.Santiago glances at the car. “They're your priority now, huh?” The man asks, also looking at the car.“I swear it was a mistake.”“If you say that shit again, I'm not going to warn you before I take off the teeth.” Santiago hears the car door close. His heart literally jumps out of hi
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“Wait here while I go check what's going on,” Santiago says. Santiago opens the door, comes down from the car. He should be able to negotiate with them. He can't have them spilling that fucking nonsense in front of Weston. This is why killing Mateo in the first place was a bad idea. “You're brave now, huh?” One of the men who is already out of the car asks. “I can explain,” Santiago says quickly as quietly as he can. “What? You can explain?” The man asks, an amused grin on his face. “Look, my guy—”“If you don't shut your mouth, you're going to lose two teeth and I damn well mean it,” the man says.Santiago glances at the car. “They're your priority now, huh?” The man asks, also looking at the car.“I swear it was a mistake.”“If you say that shit again, I'm not going to warn you before I take off the teeth.” Santiago hears the car door close. His heart literally jumps out of hi
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She puts the gun back in his pocket and starts to ascend the staircase leading out of the basement. “Let's get San and get out of here,” she says without stopping a bit. Wow. Wow. Great, isn't it? She won't say anything for him risking his life to come all the way here to get her? Talk about having dead emotions. She isn't even going to apologize for leading them here with her damn stubborn ideas?Directing all his anger in his legs, Weston ascends the steps with full force that might have broken all the staircases off if his legs were capable of that.“San. Wrap it up with her. Let's go,” Weston says into the covert earpiece. ***“San. Wrap it up with her. Let's go,” Santiago hears Weston say in his ear. He stops walking. The woman beside him…his first love…the only woman who has managed to steal his heart also stops.Santiago pulls her in a hug. He says the words he knows she wants to hear. The words he's been dying