"Is it true that we were fooled earlier?" One of the attendees, I believe, was one of my classmates asked in the group chat. "The man who announced the winners was not the Young master?" "Didn't you recognize him? That was Zachary, our new classmate." "The audacity. Is it true that he was pretending to be the Young Master?" "It was no longer new to us that Zachary was that kind of person. A troublemaker. We hated him to the deepest part of our bones. You, guys, should, too. You were already part of his life as his new classmate. He was like a contiguous disease. Better expect all your lives would get ruined, too." "He was once a member of this group chat, but he voluntarily removed himself from the group. We don't need him here. You, guys, better be prepared. We're done with his ugly face. He's an ungrateful bastard who had no shame. After everything we did to him. You should find a valid reason to kick him out of the school." The audacity to claim such words. I could barely remem
The weight of my attorney's words cut deeper into my heart, mind, body, and soul. He used my son to provoke my decision-making. I needed to choose between Celestine and Noah, but both of them were too important for me. His disappearance from the meeting room put me into a deafening silence, but the remnants of his heavy words remained, dominating all the corners. All I could hear was my heartbeats racing, bothered and helpless. I looked into the documents in my hands, trying to read and understand them one by one, but my worries and fears were more bothering me as they surpassed my ability to think straight. One of the duly signed testimonies was from Adeline. It states, "The Lincolns were the worst among the family I have worked with. Divina Lincoln is a monster you should avoid. Every time I committed a mistake, despite being small, she would penalize me by hurting me physically instead of correcting me or at least giving me another chance to correct my mistake. Lo
Startled, I bolted to the exit but when I reached the doorway, our next professor blocked me from skipping his class. "Skipping is strictly forbidden in my class, Mr. Llamas. Get back to your seat or I'll drop you from my class." I attempted to reach out to the doorknob but he slammed the door closed and stood still in front of me as if he had no plan of stepping away from his spot unless I stepped back to my seat. "You're a new student, Mr. Llamas," he added. "Among your classmates, you are the one who needs to catch up on a lot of things, don't you agree with me? I'm not gonna say it again." Then he stepped away from the doorway. "I'll give you two choices, Mr. Llamas." he continued. "Your first choice would be. Once you get out of that door, I highly suggest you should drop off the class. Your second choice would be, if you stay, I'll consider giving you a chance to catch up." Considering how late I am for the semester, indeed, I had a lot of things to catch u
But it made me wonder why of all the days they could visit New York City, could have been on the days when I was faced with issues and problems. Why? Is there any agenda for this unexpected visit? Did they have me followed behind my back? As far as I can remember, Dad didn't like his brothers and sisters. That's why he settled in New York instead of in Europe. In the middle of my journey to the airport, Celestine's image suddenly popped out of my brain. She was the main reason I depleted my body from boxing and wrestling with my bodyguards last night instead of playing ball games. They suggested doing boxing and wrestling if I wanted to have a perfect distraction. So, I followed their piece of advice since they all agreed in unison. It was already a quarter before dawn when I got back to my condo unit. I was supposed to visit her today since her entire family is busy during the daytime, but Dad's call was more crucial. Five minutes later, I stood near the arrivals gate anxiously sc
"But before that, I would like to you meet your first-degree cousins." he added." And guess what? All of them were very successful in their respective field of careers..." He first introduced to me the eldest of my cousins, Lucas Fisher-Dela Cerna, thirty years old, happily married with two kids. Lucas was Aunt Roselle's first-born son. Proudly, if I may describe how Dad said those words. The man was a doctor of Business Administration. At the age of eighteen, even in the middle of his studies, he already earned his first million dollars. And he was the head of the financial department of the bank he was currently working on. Mr. Perfect. That's how I can describe him. "We've heard a lot of wonderful things about you, Zach," Lucas said as he smiled at me. "I was hoping you could teach me more about your missions and visions for the future. We are at the same age, right? So, can I call you brother?" "Zach would be better," I replied without considering how he woul
It did not even bother me when I just realized that my feet were wearing one shoe as I hurried toward the operating room where Celestine was admitted. Luckily, the hallways near the operating room were already empty. None of the Lincolns stayed late, giving me enough view of her body lying on the bed from the glass window. The sight of her was nothing but awful. I stood silently in front of the glass window, watching her still figure connected to an array of tubes and wires. There was once in my life when I experienced the same thing - that night after they kicked me out of the mansion. With those wires and tubes attached to my body, I could barely imagine how Celestine unconsciously battled for her life to save the baby in her womb. "Celestine... Babe," I softly breathed out her name and our old endearment. "Please, stay strong for our baby, Noah. He still needs you as his mother, remember? Besides, I still have a lot of things to confess to you." My heart
All the memories of my past with her, were they still worth it to remember and acknowledge? That was one of the questions that kept running wild inside my brain on my way to my condo instead of the mansion. The atmosphere of the mansion was already polluted by our relatives' appearance. And I had enough on my shoulders at the moment. As I passed the park where Celestine and I used to spend countless evenings, I couldn't help but smile at the memories flooding back inside my heart and brain. We had been so young and carefree then, experiencing the boundless joy of first love. "Do you like it?" I asked Celestine the second she reached out to the bouquet of fresh red and white roses from me. She took a sniff at the flowers in her hands before she smiled back and nodded her head. "They're pretty, Zach. These are some of my favorites. Of course, I like them." "But I like you more, Celestine," I whispered in her ears, my hands wrapped around her waistline. "Yo
"What is that bastard doing here? I thought he was forbidden to step anywhere into the building! What's going on, Mr. Chairman?" I blurted, my deadening stares fixed at Dad. "Watch your mouth, Mr. Llamas!" Mr. Cedrick growled back while pointing a finger at me which surprised my cousins. They exchanged intrigued glances with each other. Lucas lifted the tip of his shoulders when Mark Joseph fixed his eyes on him. "Know your place." he added, "You're just a mere employee in our company who we can fire any time." "Of course, I am just a mere employee to you, Mr. Cedrick!" Clenching my fist, I hissed frantically, "But for the record, I am also the chairman's son and only heir of his empire unless he is going to give up his reign and let my cousins inherit everything he built for the past sixty years." "What?" Cedrick and his father blurted in unison. "Did you just claim again that you are the Young Master even if we already saw and met him at the family dinner?" Mr. C