SEVEN

Benson stopped the car and turned to Justin, whose was staring open-mouthed. He couldn’t help it. The house they had pulled into looked nothing like he had imagined. The Bensons were also wealthy, and their house had surprised him the first time he had seen it, but his parent's house was several levels higher.

He had finally decided to refer to them as his parents after the Andersons had called and expressed their happiness over him finally reuniting with his parents.

The house was huge, that was the only adjective available to describe it. It was both wide and, from the looks of things, it looked to be about five storeys. He turned to Benson, who was watching him with a smile.

“Was this place really theirs?”

“Yes. And now it is yours. Don’t worry. Mr. Justin, I was also shocked when I first saw it, even though I had been serving your parents for two years then.”

“Please call me Justin. How many floors are in the house?”

“There are five floors. Let’s go inside so I can give you a tour.” Justin smiled gratefully and came down the car, following Benson into the house.

The house had a long and beautiful archway that commanded whistles of appreciation. He looked at the living room which had high ceilings, magnificent crystal chandelier. It also boasted several paintings and sculptures placed at intricate places in the room. Justin wondered who had decorated the house. It looked amazing in the best way possible.

Benson noticed him studying the paintings. “Your mother painted most of these pieces. Are you also interested in art?”

Justin shook his head in amazement. “I didn’t know that. I appreciate art like the next person, but I’ve never been artistic. I prefer tech.”

Benson cocked his head. “That was a reply I’d heard from your father a long time ago.”

Benson gave him a minute to study the living room more before taking him into the kitchen. “This is the kitchen.” The kitchen had a steel glimmered island that made it look more like a professional chef’s dream. Since he was interested in cooking, he almost drooled. The kitchen boasted an amazing collection of plates, pans, cups, he was sure were original vintage.

“Let me see the rooms.” He followed Benson as he started giving a brief descriptions of where they were going.

“On the first floor, we have the living room, the kitchen, the dining and three bedrooms. The staff quarter is also located on the first floor. The second floor and third floor has the same layout. There is also a living room, four bedrooms, a dressing room, a shoe room and a cloth room.”

Justin could only look on and nod in amazement as Benson took him round his new house. The tour, even though it was brief because Justin still planned to go out, took them over forty-five minutes with how big the house was.

Benson gave him a new laptop, iPad, all in the latest models and took him to his dressing room which contained a lot of clothes. Clothes that Justin had never imagined he would ever wear. He was further shocked when he was taken to his shoe room. He hadn’t understood what Benson had meant by a shoe room earlier, but he understood perfectly after seeing what the room meant. It was filled with different types of shoes, from sneakers to dress shoes. It even had running shoes and hiking shoes. Justin, still overwhelmed from everything that was suddenly changing in his life, was just taking it in.

An hour later, Justin dressed smartly in a blue suit and dress shoes directed Benson to a restaurant and stared at the restaurant. He was finally starting his revenge on everybody that had treated him like trash.

The restaurant was one of the first places he had worked, and he had been belittled and insulted there both by the owner and his colleagues. It wasn’t really about him being poor. His parents, the Andersons, were average citizens but unfortunately, in the eyes of everyone he had met, that meant he was on the level of the dirt under their shoe.

Benson looked at him curiously. “Did you wish to have your lunch here? The staffs had already started the preparation of getting food ready for you.”

Justin shook his head, took a deep breath and stepped down from the car. He stopped Benson, who was also coming down.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll handle this myself.”

Benson looked at him carefully, so Justin smiled, “I've been taking care of myself before you found me. I'm not a kid.”

He nodded and returned to the car.

Justin straightened and saw that the car he had been driven in had garnered attention from the diners in the restaurant. He straightened his suit and entered, feeling the familiar unease and fear he had felt so many years ago.

He noted the fact that the restaurant was nearly full. That was perfect. He could remember being ridiculed and insulted in the presence of other customers, it was only fair he made them understand the same feeling.

He went towards the stairs where the office was located. The restaurant was one that provided to high profile customers. The owner, Mr. Stanford, was a proud man who knew nothing about how to run a restaurant and if he was left to his own device, he would have run it to the ground. He started climbing the stairs when one of the staffs came to meet him. He looked at her and remembered who exactly she was.

From the way she was fawning over him, she obviously had either forgotten him or his dressing had made her unable to recognize him.

“Sheila” He called to stop her rambling about what he was allowed and not allowed to do and watched in fascination as her eyes grew wide in shock.

“Looks like you remember me. I just need to have a talk with Mr. Stanford. I'm not leaving you behind, I will come back to personally deliver my message to you too. You can tell Ted and Andrew that you saw me.”

He didn't wait for her answer and left her gaping at him. Ted and Andrew were also staffs that worked in the restaurant with him. When he had still worked there, the restaurant wasn't as big as it was, and it was just the four of them that were in Stanford's employ. That made it even better since Justin was now in the mood to run a restaurant and what better way to break a man than to take what he considered the most precious.

Since he has been fired after humiliation and belittlement from four of them, he had decided to come back and take his revenge from all of them. The restaurant was one that he was sure Mr. Stanford held in high regard, especially since it brought him in proximity to high rollers, and Justin was determined to take it from him.