Return of the hidden heir

chapter 3: Adopted

"Sir?" Harlan asked in confusion, he stopped walking and held the phone closer to his ear.

"Ever since I adopted you, you have brought nothing but failures and misfortunes on me. So, I am ending all those failures and misfortunes now. If you go near my house, you will be arrested because there are policemen there."

"Dad… what… what are you telling me, dad?" Harlan stuttered.

"Don't call me your father again. I am only the father of my Myzska and Justin. I adopted you, you know that much, and I have disowned you. Don't call me again. I am sick of you already!"

"Dad…?"

"Even your father disowned you. Your rich father sold you to me because you were an unfortunate child, I don't want you again. What I want now is the refund of the money I have used in feeding you all these years. You have grown up to be a fool, I don't want you infecting my children with that foolishness of yours; the earlier the better."

"Is that Harlan?" A background voice asked at the other end. Harlan's Mom.

"We have done our best for you, but we are starting to realize it is all a waste now. If you can refund the money we have spent on you till now, it would be really good," his mom said and hung up on him.

Harlan was dazzled. He walked the rest of the journey to the house dead to his surroundings. What his parents told him echoed in his ears. He knew fully well that he was an adopted child and that his parents never really did like him, but he had tried to get their affection by having high grades and securing scholarships. All the funds for his schooling till now has been scholarships.

He had thought he would be able to live with the cold attitude of his parents to him, but now it turns out that they are tired of him already.

He stared at the gate of the house which used to be his parents' house, it was guarded by policemen like his father had mentioned.

He blinked back the tears in his eyes as he trekked to the one room that has always been his house from the time he started college, since his parents' house was too far from college.

Harlan inserted the key in the door and sighed. Things were bad as they were, he needed to think, but not now. He already had a spinning headache.

He pushed the door open and turned on the light. A gasp escaped his mouth as he stared at the figure sitting on his tattered bed.

"Welcome home, Harlan. I have been waiting for you," the man said with a grin.

"Who are you?!" Harlan yelled.

"I am sorry if I startled you, Sir. My boss is waiting for you outside," the man said, standing up from Harlan's bed.

Harlan looked at the man suspiciously, he was dressed richly. It would take Harlan all his yearly pay from four jobs to buy a similar pair of ties that the man was using. Instead of being scared, he got curious to know who the man was.

"Who is your boss?"

"He is Mr Smith, Sir," the man said.

Harlan stared at the man, unbelieving. There was only one Smith he knew, and that was the billionaire law firm owner in the city. Why would a man like that be looking for him?

"After you," Harlan muttered.

The man smiled and went out. Harlan carefully followed him. Outside the compound where he lived, he stopped walking, dazzled at the number of expensive cars parked there. He didn't see the cars while he was coming, why would cars as expensive as these be somewhere like this too?

"Sir, Mr Smith is in the third car, you can go meet him." The man Harlan has saw in his room said, making Harlan to snap out of his thought.

He glanced at the man, he could really not make out his features again in the dark. Harlan nodded and went to the third car. There were about ten of them there.

Just as Harlan neared the car, the door opened and a man came down from it. Harlan held his breath… Maybe… maybe Jason had finally filed a suit against him. Damn him! He panicked as he waited to hear Mr Smith tell him the worse.

"Hello, Harlan. I want to adopt you, what do you think?" Smith asked.

Harlan looked at him sharply. He couldn't have heard rightly.

"I don't think… I mean… Sir?" Harlan stuttered.

Smith smiled and reached into his pocket, he brought out a card and waved it in Harlan's face.

"I would love for you to think about it before tomorrow. Meet me in my office tomorrow and tell me your conclusion. Meanwhile, here is a debit card, you can use the money for your transport," Smith said and stretched the card to Harlan with a paper with the password.

Harlan looked, eyes widened at the man in front of him. This must be a dream. He shook his head and bit himself in the tongue. He felt that sharp pain. Definitely, he thought, this isn't a dream.

He collected the card from Smith and felt it. It seemed real. Very real.

"I will be expecting you tomorrow, Harlan… son." Smith said and got back inside the car he had come down from.

Harlan watched as the cars left. The man who had been in Harlan's room too entered one of the cars, and soon all the cars were gone.

Harlan stared at the card in his hand. If it was just for transport fees, it would be just a few dollars. Notwithstanding, since he didn't have any money on him, he decided to go withdraw the money.

When Harlan got to the bank, he checked the amount in the card. He wiped his face severally to be sure he was seeing well.

He had only seen figures like this while doing arithmetics!

$5,000,000

He counted the zeros several times and checked the balance over and over again to be sure the machine wasn't making a mistake. It was just the same!

He smiled first. He checked the balance again and covered his mouth. This is too much isn't it?

"Are you not done?" Someone asked behind Harlan.

Harlan turned to look at the woman's whose voice he had heard.

"Huh?"

"It's taking you ages, just remove your card from there if you have no money left," the woman said in disgust.

"I am sorry for taking your time," Harlan said and turned back to the machine to withdraw the money.

"If you are sorry, leave the place, I want to use my card too." The woman snapped.

"I will Soon be done," Harlan replied.

"Damn it. Do I have to wait here till tomorrow when it is obvious that the amount in your account isn't going to magically increase, you this filthy rag?" The woman said angrily.

Harlan stared at her. She stared back at him.

"You can't just conclude without…"

"People like you are all over the city, you come here and keep on checking your account balance, wasting the precious time of people like us who have important things to do. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" The woman said in disgust.

"I am going to pretend as if I didn't hear that, ma'am," Harlan said quietly, trying to control his anger.

"If you don't get out of here at this moment, I will teach you a very important lesson." She snarled.

Harlan took a deep breath, the last thing he wanted was to cause a scene. He waited for the machine to process his request.

After Harlan had gotten the money he needed, he turned around to go. He noticed that the woman was no longer there. He shrugged and walked off.

Two men stopped him from going further. One of them gave Harlan a blow in his face. Harlan held his face in pain, it had been totally unexpected and he had been unable to defend himself.

"So, you are the stupid idiot who has kept Miss Maria waiting?" One of the men accessed Harlan as if he was a piece of disgusting material.

"Who is Maria?" Just saying that earned Harlan another punch, this time, in his abdomen.

"Idiot, how dare you pronounce her name without regarding her with the due respect?"

Harlan groaned, "get out of my way, you punk!" He shouted.

"Well, shouting is all you can do, isn't it?" The other man sneered.

"Next time, when you come across important people, you will hide your face." With that, the two men plunged at Harlan.

Unable to take it any longer, Harlan blindly threw blows at them too, but they were no match for him, they seemed to be professional boxers. A few of his blows hit them, but Harlan got more blows.

"Stop right there." A voice ordered.