Nathan Montgomery Rise To Riches

Chapter 4

Nathan turned around and saw his worse nightmare standing in front of his car, as always, he had men with him, Trent, the service boy of Dylan Russell, the man who is mom had borrowed money from, the same person who had worked her to death, his hand coiled into a fist as he walked towards Trent, not like he could avoid him, one would think after his mom died after being brutalize by them, they would leave him and his sisters be but that wasn’t the case, when he had gone to get his mom’s remains five years ago, Dylan had looked him in the face and told him he had to pay back what she still owe him, at first, Nathan had thought he was joking, not until the month after he buried his mom, Trent had showed up at there house threatening to take his sister if he doesn’t pay up, he had asked the amount she owed and they had mentioned an impossible sum, he gave them the money with him that time and five years later, he was still paying them every month, and it didn’t look like the debt was ending anytime soon.

The bitter part of the whole thing is the money his mom had originally borrowed had been just one thousand dollars but she had not been able to pay it back early and they waited until the interest was going into the ten thousand before they came to ask her for it, their interest rate was ridiculously high and his mom had tried to pay up while still feeding his sister and paying some of his bills, at a point, she had to start walking as a call girl in one of Dylan’s bar and that’s where they had overworked and beaten her to death.

Until her death, his mom never had an easy life, she met the wrong men only, his and Nora’s dad had run away after Nora was born and no one knew who Nelly’s dad was, not just the men she met, everyone was mean to his mom, even after she died, he buried her with just him and his sister with a few of their friends and teachers from the school, no relative showed up and that’s how he became Nora and Nelly’s sole parent.

“Trent,”

He voiced when he got to where Trent stood, the fact that he used to see Trent as a friend until he found out what the bastard had done to his mother.

“Hey, there, old friend, long time no see,”

Trent said placing his hand on his shoulder, Nathan shook his hand off him and took a step back.

“We are not friends,”

Nathan fired at him and Trent laughed.

“Right, I bet you thought we have forgotten right? I bet you thought we won’t come for you again, but what to do? Today isn’t your lucky day loser, where is the money,”

Trent asked.

“Trent, I told your guys before when they came, I don’t have any money to give you this month,”

He explained.

“You are joking, right? You have been giving the same excuse for a while now but your luck has run out now, where is the money? I don’t have all day.”

Trent barked at him.

“I don’t have it, I don’t have any money, right now I need money but I don’t even have what I need, I don’t have any money to pay back any debt, I am currently looking for money because my younger sister’s very sick, I don’t have a means of paying back any debt right now,”

Nathan let out, he was tired already, Trent could do his worse because he had no money to give him.

“You are months late, you haven’t deposited in months, unless you want what happened to your mother to happen to your sister, you need to pay up, I saw her earlier when I stopped by at your house and she has grown into such a fine young girl, she would make a good profit for the boss and do a lot of good in my bed too,”

Trent said. Nathan lost it at the thought of what he suggested about his sister, even though he knew he had no chance of winning against Trent with his men around, that didn’t stop Nathan, he lifted his hands and formed a fist that ended up in Trent’s face.

“Don’t fucking talk about my sister like that you bloody bastard,”

He yelled and punched him again, he was going for a third punch when one landed on his own face, and he felt himself being pushed down as punch after punch landed on various parts of his body, he could hear Trent's voice yelling at the men to beat him up real good, he struggled to get up and put up a fight but there was only so much he could do against four other men, and before long, he was bleeding and all his body hurt, but they didn’t stop and he just had to bear the beating.

“Enough,”

Trent yelled after what seemed like forever and the men finally let him go, he lay there in pain and his pool of blood, he couldn’t even open his eyes properly as they hurt so bad.

“You bastard, if you don’t have the money ready when I come back, you and your siblings will be as good as dead.”

Trent said as they all go into their cars and left him there laying in pain, he stayed there for a couple of minutes and struggled to get on his feet and walked the remaining distance home in pain. when he got to the entrance of their apartment, he stopped walking as he stared at his sister Nora, who was standing outside, he walked up to her in fear as he knew what happened even before he asked, she wasn’t just standing there, she was outside with their properties.

“Nora,”

He called and she turned to him, she had tears in her eyes.

“Nathan, what happened to you? You are hurt,”

She cried coming to him.

“It’s nothing to worry yourself about Nora, did he?”

He asked and she nodded.

“Yes, the landlord threw our things out, he said he can’t keep letting us stay for free, I begged him but he didn’t listen and just had them throw our things out,”

She informed in tears.

“Stay where you are and I will go talk to him,”

He said wiping the tears that formed in his eyes, his whole body hurt and was on the brink of shutting down, he had thought he would get home, take some painkillers, and rest before he would go find money now he doesn’t even have a place to stay, this day just keeps getting worse for him.

He knocked on the landlord’s door and the old man opened as if he had been waiting for him to show up.

“Good evening sir, I saw you brought our things out, can you please let us off this once please, now is not a good time to throw us out,”

Nathan begged as the old man let him into his sitting room, he had to sit down because his legs were burning, not just his legs, his whole body was burning, and he was drained both mentally and physically.

“Did you get into a fight and what do you mean by now is not a good time to throw you out? When is the good time?”

The old man asked pointing at him.

“I didn’t get into a fight, I got beaten by Trent and his men,”

Nathan revealed, everyone living around this area knew who Trent was and must have encountered him one way or the other.

“Well that’s on you, unless you have my money right now, you are not welcomed here,”

The landlord said and Nathan got on his kneels in front of him, yes, the old man has been understanding, he hasn’t been able to pay him rent in a while so he understood why he felt the need to throw their things out just that now wasn’t the time.

“You can’t do this to us, please not right now, we have nowhere to go and my sister is at the hospital sick, I don’t have the money to pay you now but I will definitely pay you back,”

Nathan pleaded.

“You have been saying that since forever, my house is not a charity home, you are owing a full year's rent and there seem to be no way of you paying, every month you come up with one excuse or the next but still no money, the new tenants are moving in already and they paid in full, I am not letting a paying tenant go for a debtor like you,”

The landlord stated, yeah, another rejection and now he and his sisters have nowhere to sleep, even if Nelly gets discharged tomorrow, there won’t be a roof over her head, he couldn’t even cry anymore, his tears seemed to have dried up, he stood up and he walked away from the landlord’s house and went to meet Nora who looked at him in expectation, he watched as disappointment settled in.

“I am sorry Nora,”

He said as he watched his sister tear up again, he felt like a complete loser for failing his sisters, he couldn’t get money for Nelly’s treatment now he couldn’t even give them a place to stay.

“What do we do now Nathan? Where do we go from here?’

She cried, he walked up to her and pulled her into his arms, his body hurt but he couldn’t watch his baby sister cry, she hugged him tight and lamented their misfortune, if only the universe would be kind to them and send a miracle their way, if only their mom would look down on them from her resting place and send some sort of help to them.

Nathan had no other choice, he took the things that the landlord had moved out of their apartment and packed them in a corner, after that, he took Nora with him and went back to the hospital where Nelly was, paid for her to be moved to a room where they could use too, he asked the nurse for methanol and cotton wool to clean up his injuries and Nora helped him dress them, they all slept in the hospital room and the next morning, he was up early, he still had to find the money for her surgery and he already used from it, he spoke with the doctor when he came in to check on her that morning and the doctor told him he had just a few hours to find the money else she would be discharged.

“Nora, you stay here with Nelly and I will go find more money so that she doesn’t have to be discharged today, I still have a lot of hours before twenty-four hours is done and I need to find the money because we can’t let her be discharged,”

He explained and Nora nodded.

“How will you work when you look like this Nat? you need to rest too,”

he said but there was no rest for him, if he doesn’t provide money for them he might lose custody and he didn’t want that, the foster care was shitty and he would rather have his sisters with him, if there was even a slight chance that their life would be better in foster care than it was with him, he would have sent them himself but he knew it would not do them any good.

“I am okay Nora, you just watch Nell and call me if anything happens, I will answer okay? I need to leave now,”

He said.

“I am sorry you have to go through all this for us, I wish there was something I could do to help,”

Nora said. She was crying again even though the day just started.

“Don’t feel sorry Nora, I am your big brother, of course, it is my job to look out for you, I will find a way to get us out of this dilemma okay?”

He said as he hugged his sister, went over to where Nell lay, and pecked her pale cheek.

“I will be back soon baby,”

He said rubbing her forehead softly before leaving, he had an odd job that he got last week that pays hourly, after that, he would move to the other site, the manager still owe him for the work he did for him last week. because he didn’t want to waste the money with him, Nathan walked the distance to the site instead of taking a bus, he got there after about an hour of walking, he had to start working immediately because he came when the other had already started.

By three pm that day, Nathan was beyond exhausted from climbing up and down a three-story building with heavy bags of grains, he took only a fifteen minutes break and ate pancakes he got from one of his coworkers, it was finally time to receive his money, he walked to the supervisor who verified the hours he worked and the job he did in that time before he paid him, of course, the money was not enough for the work done but it was still better than nothing, he left that site and walked towards the other side to get his money, he felt dizzy and stopped to catch his breath and gather strength.

Nathan tried to steady himself but he couldn’t, he tried blinking a couple of times to clear off the blur that gathered around his eyes, but the more he tried the dimer the whole place became until he felt himself falling, he tried to stand up but he couldn’t he just falling with the whole place spinning and soon there was only darkness…