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2024-10-29 19:42:56The next day, Kyle jumped out of bed at exactly 6am. He could barely sleep throughout the night. He was rich and wild thoughts wandered through his mind. He walked up to his old, shabby wardrobe, picked up a nice shirt, his best and ironed it neatly. He rushed through his morning routine and was set to head out when Callum called out to him.
“Hey Kyle. Where are you rushing to this early?”
“I’m sorry for not telling you about it yesterday. I called BrooksMillions’ support line yesterday and I was told to come to their head office today to sign some documents and redeem my prize,” Kyle responded.
“Wow! You mean you’ll be worth $1,000,000 when next I set my eyes on you?” asked Callum.
“Yes sir!” Kyle returned. Can I leave now?” he asked hurriedly.
“As your lordship pleases,” Callum replied and they both said their goodbyes.
Kyle brought out his phone and checked the address again. He only had a tenner and the distance was trekkable so he got off and in fifteen minutes, he arrived at BrooksMillions’ head office.
A security personnel approached him nicely and said, “Good morning and welcome to BrooksMillions. Are you here to apply for the vacant role of a cleaner?”
Kyle looked at himself and didn’t understand what the security personnel meant. He was putting on his best outfit so why would anyone mistake him for an applicant for the role of a cleaner?
“Cleaner? Not at all. I’m here to redeem the prize I won from the weekly lottery. Mrs Miller booked me for 9am this morning,” Kyle said humbly.
“Mrs Miller? There’s no one going by that name here,” the security personnel replied.
“There has to be a mistake somewhere. I spoke to Mrs Miller over the phone yesterday and she told me to come here today,” Kyle objected.
“I’ve been working here for 5 years and there’s been no Mrs Miller here but to clear this confusion, I’ll take you to the receptionist and this will be resolved,” the security personnel suggested.
“Yeah that will work. Thanks for the gesture sir,” Kyle mumbled contently.
The security personnel took Kyle in and the receptionist directed him to sit.
“Good morning and welcome to BrooksMillions. I’m Ms Williamson. How may I be of help today?” the receptionist asked.
“Good morning. I’m Kyle Hughes and I’m here to redeem my prize,” Kyle replied with an extra layer of confidence.
“Can I have your code, please?” asked the receptionist.
“I, I, I didn’t receive any code,” Kyle stuttered.
“How then did you know you have been shortlisted as one of the winners of our weekly lottery?”
“I received a text message 2 days ago. I called the provided customer support line yesterday and a woman attended to me. She introduced herself as Mrs Miller and she told me to come here by 9am today to sign some documents and redeem my prize,” Kyle chortled.
He brought out his phone and showed the receptionist the text message he received and the customer service line he called.
“Please give me a few minutes,” the receptionist replied.
After a few minutes of tapping some keys on the keyboard of her computer, she looked at Kyle and said, “I’m sorry but this text message is not from us. The customer service lines that were provided here are also not from us. I just checked through our database and you are not even a registered user on our platform.”
“What?! This can’t be true. I spoke to Mrs Miller yesterday,” Kyle remarked.
“Please come see for yourself,” the receptionist said to Kyle. She opened a tab on her computer, typed in Kyle’s name and it returned as “Unrecognized”.
“This has to be from one of those cheap scammers. Please don’t send them any money,” the receptionist advised.
“Like I even have any money to send,” Kyle mumbled under his breath and walked away. He had been fantasizing over being a million dollars rich and now it’s turned out to be a stunt.
“Where did this come from?” Kyle wondered.
Almost immediately, his phone rang and a male voice was on the other end of the call.
“Hello millionaire,” the voice said mockingly.
“Who are you and what do you want from me?” Kyle replied sharply. He could sense another drama brewing.
“How did it feel when you read that you won $1,000,000?” the voice asked.
“I said who are you and how did you know about the $1,000,000?” Kyle asked.
“I have a proposal. Let’s meet somewhere around. I’ll tell you who I am and what I want from you. Deal or no?” said the voice.
“Deal!” Kyle replied in a loud voice and ended the call. His phone beeped and an address was sent to him by the same number that just called him.
“Now let’s finish this whole hide and seek,” Kyle thought to himself as he walked down to the address.
He got to the said address and to his surprise there was no one there. He sensed something was wrong and was about to leave when someone called him back. He turned to see who it was and it was Lewis Harrison.
“Lewis! Is this all your doing?” Kyle asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“This is what you get when you try to go head to head with me. I am Lewis Harrison and no one dares to go head to head with me. When I’m headed one way, minnows like you take another route,” Lewis bragged.
“Beth is all yours now. I’m not in a competition with you. You had your boys beat me up the other day and now this lottery stunt? How can you be so wicked?” Kyle asked
“That was easy. I just pulled a few strings and I was able to put the stunt together. That’s one of the things one can do when he has more than enough money. Sadly, you can’t relate because you can’t even afford nice clothes,” Lewis answered.
One of Lewis’ men joked, “Look at him dressed like a wasteman to redeem a $1,000,000 prize.”
“You think winning a million dollars is that easy, eh?” another added
“Let’s not take it out on him. He’s probably had enough,” Lewis remarked sarcastically.
(Turning to Kyle) “Now listen to me Mr Kyle Hughes, don’t you dare try anything funny with Beth else you will regret it. Have a nice day,” Lewis added, laughing as he walked into his car and left the scene with his men following suit.
Kyle was all alone, thinking about what just happened. He was in the dumps and could not even figure out how to process the whole thing.
“Lewis is really pulling his weight and I hope one day he’ll get a taste of his own medicine,” Kyle thought as he headed back to the dorm.
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Back in his room, Kyle kept thinking about the way things have turned out. Mrs Donovan (his nanny) was the human he trusted the most because she raised him since he was a kid until he left for the university. He didn’t know anything about his parents other than the ghastly accident story Mrs Donovan told him multiple times whenever he asked but it was all still very confusing for him. Mrs Donovan couldn’t have lied to him, could she? She also gave him an old picture of his parents and Dr and Mrs Barnes don’t look anything like them. “How is this even possible?” he thought to himself multiple times. After all was said and done, he fell asleep in his river of thoughts. The next day, Kyle was woken up by the repeating doorbell sound. One of the attendants was at the door. “Good morning Mr Kyle. Sir Kirby said to tell you to please get ready and join him in the dining hall. Breakfast is ready,” he said. “Good morning sir. Got it! I’ll join him soon,” Kyle replied and went back insid
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That night, Kyle was back in the same situation he was in some days ago, this time with a layer of experience and experience, as they say, is the best teacher. He still wasn’t 100% sure about this whole thing because the BrooksMillions stunt was still fresh in his memory. One thing was different this time though. In a way, he actually earned this money unlike BrooksMillions’ where he just received a text message without any previous effort. Also, this time, he’s had a taste of Sir Kirby’s wealth and from what he’s seen so far, this may actually be the real deal. He was put in a luxurious room, one of the best Kyle has ever been in his whole lifetime. The walls were exquisitely adorned with gold crusts and paintings from some of the world’s best artists. “Is this heaven?” Kyle asked himself. Something caught his attention somewhere in his room. It was a cellphone carefully placed on the centre table in the room. He walked up to the centre table and picked it up, checking it out lik
