FIVE

Justin looked at the message again. “You have been credited with 800 billion dollars to your P****l from Benson Murphy” and truly, his account that was formerly on zero had 800 billion in it. He wasn't sure what he was more shocked at, the amount or the name of the creditor. Even children knew who Benson Murphy was, he was the butler of the most influential and wealthy family in all of America, the Sandlers. There were even rumors that the Sandlers worth in terms of properties could no longer be measured because of how plenty they were.

He remembered where he was and how many minutes he had been given and hurried to his room, going straight to his wardrobe. He removed the file that had all his important documents and looked around the room. That was the only thing that was his in the room, even though he had lived there for the past three years.

He remembered the first time he had been taken to that room. It was the very day Eugene had died. He had formerly being in a guest room and had been surprised when he had been shown to the room. It was small, almost as small as a storage room, and had little to no sunlight that could enter. The room had been fitted with a bathroom when he had moved in, which had made it even smaller.

The bed also was nothing to write home about. It felt like a rock with how hard it was, and he had only been able to adjust to it after three months. Still, it was a place he had built his ambition and written a lot of goals concerning his dream of owning his own tech company. It probably wasn’t going to happen with how shitty his life was, but he couldn’t stop dreaming.

He knew the Romano’s had reached the end of their patience when two of the earlier guards came in and bundled him out. They passed the veranda he had always swept every morning and the garden he had been in charge of, carried him out the gate and roughly dropped him on the floor. The last thought that came to him mind before he passed out from hitting his head on the curb was the alert of the money he had received. Was it real?

FOUR WEEKS LATER

Justin opened his eyes, wondering at the blur. He tried standing up, only to realize someone was holding him down. What was going on? He felt a soft hand caress his brow and he leaned into it and slept off.

The next time he woke up, he was able to open his eyes fully. He looked around and realized he was in a hospital. He turned and saw his big sister Nora and his brother, Nelson, staring at him with concern. Nora had tears in her eyes when she met his eye. She caressed his brows.

“What happened?” He whispered hoarsely.

Nora put a straw in his mouth and he drank the water. He couldn’t remember how he had gotten to the hospital, but it must have been serious if his sister was almost crying.

He turned to Nelson, who was also looking at him with uncharacteristic concern, “Hey bro.”

Nelson smiled at him in his quiet way. “Hey. How do you feel?”

Justin shrugged. “My head is heavy, and I feel like I’ve been sleeping for a while. My eyes also feel heavy with sleep. What happened?”

Nora patted his head. “You’ve been in a coma for a while now.”

Justin cocked his head in confusion, “Coma? For how long? Can you prop the bed for me?”

Nora nodded and pushed a button that made the bed go up on its own. Justin looked around the room in confusion, expecting it to have been done manually. He noticed how big and spacious the room was. He hadn’t spent a lot of times in a hospital, but he knew this didn’t look like a normal ward.

“Where am I? What did you do?” He asked Nora and Nelson, knowing neither of them earned as much as the room would cost.

Nora smiled at him and motioned towards a man he hadn’t seen. “Maybe he will explain what is going to you better.”

The man came towards him and bowed formally, “Hello. Mr. Sandler. I am Benson Murphy.”

Justin looked at the man in confusion. The name had sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it, and what had he called him?

“I’m Anderson. I think you have the wrong….”

Where he knew, the name came back to him in a flash. Was he really meeting the most influential family’s butler? The reason he was so known was because even though the Sandlers were dead, the man single-handedly sponsored a lot of orphanages, and he always said it was his boss last wish before they had died.

Hadn’t he received money from this very man?

“Did you send money to me?” Justin asked cautiously.

The man smiled. “Yes. I was worried you hadn’t been able to see it before you passed out.”

“Wait. Start from the beginning. Why are you here and why am I being taken care of in this big room.”

Nora smiled at him. “You’ve always been impatient, haven’t you? He’s getting there.”

The man nodded. “I am Benson Murphy, the late Sandlers butler, and I’ve been looking for you for a while now?”

Justin looked at him confused. “I’m sorry, I don’t see how any of the information I just got affects me in any way.”

Benson nodded understandably,” You can be confused. You are the biological son of the late Sandlers. I’ve been searching for you since the moment you went missing.”

He looked at Nora who nodded at him with tears pouring down her cheeks, “He’s telling the truth. You were adopted when you were young.”

Nelson nodded in agreement. “You came to us when you were about ten years old, and you didn’t understand anything and wasn’t speaking either, so we thought it best we didn’t mention it to you.”

Justin closed his eyes in shock. Had everything he had known all his life being a lie? Why would his parents lie to him like this? “So, what really happened?”

Benson began narrating what had happened between his birth and disappearance, and how he had gotten to move with the Anderson's. His parents had always been wealthy, and they’d had a lot of enemies, so their lives were always in danger.

It had gotten worse after his mother had gotten pregnant with him and she and his father had been receiving numerous death threats and so the house was constantly being monitored. Unfortunately, despite their best attempts, the house had been set on fire when they were all inside. Benson had managed to escape and save Justin, but his parents had burnt to death inside the mansion.

Justin had been ten years and understood the fear his parents had felt and when his house was set on fire, he had been traumatized and forgotten all his memories of himself and his parents. Benson had trusted the wrong person with Justin while he went to investigate who was behind the murder, and had lost Justin since then. He had only recently found him since he had started his search.

Justin stared at Benson. “Have you found who did that to them? He didn’t remember anything, so calling them his parents was a bit difficult. He’d only recognized the Andersons all his life.”

Benson shook his head,” Not yet. We’ve gotten a few leads but nothing solid.”

Justin sighed, “So how did I end up at the orphanage and with my parents?”

It was Nora that picked it up. “My parents had always been fosters and loved children, when suddenly they were told that there was a little boy that needed a home. It had seemed a little too rushed, but we were told that you had suffered a trauma, and it would be best to place you somewhere permanent, that’s how you came to be with us.”

Justin nodded with tears pouring down his face. It was all so confusing. How was he meant to take it all in? He remembered the money he had received and turned to Benson.

“So why did you send me the money? Also, how did I end up in the hospital? I can’t remember anything right now?”