Chapter 4

Unexpected Fortune 

Brian's blood pressure shot up after seeing Aleya's photo upload and reading her humiliating chat which caused his injury site to begin bleeding. 

A lady nurse leaning against the reception counter noticed his bloodied gauze and hastily walked up to him. 

"How may I help you, sir?" she said. 

Brian shook his head, not knowing where to start. 

The tears that had gathered in his eyes found their way down his cheeks. 

"This is a hospital and we're here to help those in need of medical care," the nurse prodded him. 

Brian heaved, dabbed his eyes and narrated his ordeal. 

The nurse listened patiently, not interrupting him until he was finished. Afterwards she said, "Give me a few seconds, I want to check our records." 

She walked back to the counter and imputed Brian's details into one of the computers. Staring at the screen awhile, she finally nodded. Apparently satisfied that he was telling the truth. Then she marched back to where Brian was seated. 

"I will help you,” she began quietly, “but only for tonight. By morning, you'll have to fix yourself up. Is that fair enough?" 

Brian nodded desperately, "Y-yes it is, thank you," he stuttered. 

"I'm taking a lot of risk doing this.” Brian heard her mutter under her breath as she started down a corridor on her right. 

When she realised Brian wasn't following suit, she paused and beckoned to him. "Please follow me.”  Her eyes darted left and right to make sure no one was watching. 

Brian was taken to a room that looked a bit different from the previous ward he was admitted to. It had a nice cosy bed with two pillows, one sizable sofa at the corner, and a large reading lamp by the side. The nurse asked him to relax while she went out to get him some food. She ensured he took his medication after eating and helped to change his gauze. Lastly, she checked his vitals. 

"You should try and get some sleep to bring down your blood pressure," she instructed him. 

"I will. Thank you again, ma'am," he said with gratitude. 

***

It was a little after 10 pm that same evening when the beeping sounds coming into Brian's phone woke him up. He had fallen into an exhausted sleep shortly after the kind nurse left. 

Thinking it was daybreak; as Brian usually set his alarm to wake him at dawn, he fumbled for his phone from under the pillow. The headache was gone and he felt so much better. 

He rubbed his eyes and proceeded to turn off the alarm when he realised it was still night. "Ah, it's not even morning yet," he sighed. "So why did the alarm go off?" 

Then something else on the screen caught his attention. 

A message alert from his bank. 

Brian's heart did a flutter. He had recently completed the payment for a loan he took for his rent, so why was his bank still sending him random messages? He wondered. 

Since he got the job at The Presidential Villa Hotel, any alert that came from his bank was always a debit alert. It was either a loan debit alert, tax debit alert, utility bill debit alert, etc. 

Brian sat up. "Perhaps it's a debit alert from some creditor," he mumbled, feeling overwhelmed. 

"When will all this debt be over?” Brian blurted in anguish. “If there was ever any credit alert, it was payment for my salary. And now I've just been sacked…” his voice choked and he began to cough.  

 

In that frustration, he tossed the phone aside and sobbed. 

After a while, he remembered the text message from the unknown number he got earlier. 

His anxiety increased. 

Brian was worried that it might be a court summon from his landlord. 

"If my landlord decides to sue me for the outstanding debt, I might as well willingly hand myself over to the authorities and end it all," he thought. "I'm tired!" 

Reluctantly he picked up the phone and opened his message box. 

"I know this message may come as a shock to you. Well, I'm just as shocked myself to have finally found you. You will receive an important alert from your bank in a matter of hours. This is to give you a heads up so you won't get alarmed when you see it," the content of the message read. 

"What?" 

Brian reread the message, but this time slowly to be sure he didn't misunderstand a word. 

"...to have finally found you," he repeated. "Who is this that found me?" his mind kicked into an overdrive. 

"I didn't meet any stranger today, or did I?" Brian tried to think back. 

Then his mind wandered to the cab driver. 

"How is that possible? he said with a frown. "We didn't exchange phone contact, nor did he accompany me into the hospital to check my record." 

Instinctively, it occurred to him to check the time the message was delivered to his phone. It was 11:49 am. "That's about the same time I was still unconscious," he reasoned. 

"...an important alert from your bank." 

Brian's fingers began to fidget as he reread that line. Nothing positive ever came from his recent bank alerts. His forehead became covered in beads of sweat as palpable fear enveloped him. 

After so much contemplating, he summoned up courage and opened the message from his bank. 

Boom! 

"You have been credited with $10,000,000. Available balance is $10,000,057." 

Brian cleaned his eyes and read the bank alert again. 

He read it out loud in words. "Ten million dollars! A credit alert with seven zeros is in my account!" 

"This is unbelievable!" Brian shrieked, unable to contain himself. Then he recollected where he was and lowered his voice. 

"Ten million dollars when I didn't play any lottery or sign up for a multi-million dollar contract?" he queried amidst bated breath. 

"What an unexpected fortune!" 

After reading the message for the umpteenth time, Brian stood up and began pacing about. 

"Who could this strange benefactor be?" he wondered, a wave of both excitement and apprehension hitting him. He looked at the number that sent him the message, it wasn't the usual eleven digits. It seemed like some computer-generated code with six digits. 

133114

“What kind of number is that?” 

He attempted to dial it, but the line didn't go through. 

Brian was starting to feel anxious at this point knowing he couldn't yet touch the money until he confirmed its authenticity from his bank. If it turned out that some of these internet fraudsters were using his account for their illegal transactions, his name and image would be dragged and littered all over the media as a fraudster. 

"But what if it turned out to be real?" another thought in his head said. 

Slowly, a smile of self-aggrandisement spread across his face causing a flicker in his eyes. "I'd make Aleya Noah pay for her painful betrayal!" he murmured. 

Still restless, he checked his balance using the bank app. 

It remained the same. 

Prior to tonight, he had only fifty-seven dollars in his account; the money he'd been saving up to buy an engagement ring for Aleya. 

The image of Aleya lying by the poolside with Felix flashed through his head that moment causing him to feel dizzy. 

He toddled back to the bed and sat down. His body began to have rigours. Brian looked at the time on his phone, it was almost eleven o'clock. 

"I should get back to sleep since I'll be having a long day tomorrow. My first stop will be at the bank," he reasoned. 

But another thought struck him. 

"I can't go anywhere in this security outfit." Brian raised his gaze to his work clothes lying on the sofa where he left them after changing into the hospital gown the nurse got him. 

He knew he would have to change into normal clothes. Sadly, all of his clothing had been seized alongside his house properties. Not that he had any good clothes in his wardrobe though. 

The only ones he could boast of were the faded blue jeans and navy blue T-shirt he'd worn to work that morning before changing into his security uniform. 

"I'll ask Melvin to bring my clothes from the changing room while coming to see me in the morning," he decided. 

Satisfied with his decision, he laid back on the bed. 

*** 

The sound of persistent knocking on the door woke Brian up. He had stayed awake until the wee hours before sleep overtook him. 

Still groggy with sleep, he turned on the switch by the bedside and made to stand up. That's when he heard the jangling of a key into the keyhole and the doorknob turned. Without warning, the door swung open. 

Someone stood arms akimbo at the entrance, in a black high-necked gown and white covershoes, glaring wide-eyed at him.