Chapter 3

The white-haired man exhaled, turning his gaze towards the River. "I know all about you."

Hearing that made Elliot frown even more deeply. "How do you know that?" Elliot paused, thinking that the old man before him was a bad person. "You're a stalker?"

Marcus shook his head. "No, Elliot."

Elliot's face showed even more confusion. He even wondered to himself, how did the old man know his name, when they had just met.

Elliot's pupils widened as a terrible thought crossed his mind. "Are you a depkolektor?" That was his first thought.

He thought that the old man in front of him was a depkolektor from an online loan application that had to be reimbursed many times, but he had never borrowed money from any bank.

Elliot shook his head in a low voice. "I never borrowed money at all."

Elliot wondered if it could be Hani who borrowed the money? If so, it would be a very hard thing for him. Who knows how many debts he had to pay off. Just thinking about it made her head feel like it was going to explode.

"If you're a depkolektor, give me some time to pay because right now, I don't have any money." Elliot breathed heavily and tightly as if all the oxygen surrounding them was not enough for him.

Elliot's deep breath made Marcus silent. He noticed Elliot's face which looked sour and troubled. It showed how hard the young man's life was. He knew everything.

"I'm Markus Rodriguez." Marcus opened his voice again after Elliot looked calm.  "I came here to find you, but not as a collector, but because you are an important person."

Marcus' words made Elliot look back at him with a furrowed brow. What kind of important person the old man meant, Elliot really didn't understand. Then how did he know Elliot's identity? All the questions filled Elliot's head again.

Seeing Elliot's confused reaction, Markus opened his voice again, explaining it to Elliot. "I am your grandfather, and you are my grandson, Elliot."

Suddenly it made Elliot surprised. "Huh, grandpa?" His forehead was deeply furrowed with his eyebrows knitted together. "I don't have a grandfather. I was raised by both my parents."

Elliot had been living alone after his parents died when Elliot was 14 years old. And since then, he had been living such hard days alone. Now before him, stood the old man who claimed to be his grandfather. Elliot, on the other hand, never heard his parents talk about their family.

Marcus nodded his head. "Yes, my son-Jonas, he ran away from home because I didn't approve of his marriage to your commoner mother."

At that time, Jonas came to the Rodriguez family home with a woman named Maria - Elliot's mother. Jonas asked Mark for his blessing, but the obvious difference in status between them made him angry and unwilling to accept Maria. The old man even asked Jonas to leave Maria and threatened to remove Jonas' name from the list of successors and heirs of the Rodriguez family, if he still insisted on being with Maria.

But as it turned out, Jonas preferred Maria. The man ran away from home without taking any of the property owned by the Rodriguez family. Marcus thought that Jonas and Maria's marriage would not last long, but it turned out that their love was so great that they were inseparable, until death finally separated them.

"I know how you guys live and all this time, I've always been around you. Take care of you. Help you." Marcus' voice sounded low, but it was clear to Elliot's ears. The old man raised one eyebrow. "Made you get the lottery a few times, but unexpected things happened." He walked slowly around Elliot. "You chose to give it all to Hani, you didn't even take a bit for yourself."

Hearing that, Elliot fell silent. His memory was spinning. He had always gotten sweepstakes ranging from tens of thousands of dollars, up to the 300 thousand dollars he had just gotten these past few days.

"No way." Elliot couldn't believe that it wasn't a coincidence, but rather a set-up.

His brow furrowed deeply as all the events spun rapidly inside his head making him feel dizzy. He looked at the old man in front of him with both eyebrows knitted together when he saw Markus staring behind him as if someone was there. Without realizing it, Elliot turned his head.

At the same time, it turned out that Marcus was looking at a figure that Elliot knew well. The arrival of that figure made Elliot even more confused.

"Mr. Dony, how did you end up here?" I don't know what kind of coincidence, Elliot couldn't guess anything that happened at this time.

"Good afternoon." The man who had just arrived suddenly bowed politely in front of Elliot. "I am Dony, your servant, Master."

"Servant?" Elliot frowned, not really understanding the situation.

"Yes, since you were 14 years old, I ordered him to watch over you." Although he rejected the marriage between Jonas and Maria, Marcus could not bring himself to let his only grandchild suffer.

Elliot's thoughts focused on Dony. The man with the black beard was a very good neighbor. Dony was a friendly person and liked to talk to him. A man who was wise and always ready to help Elliot whenever, whatever and wherever.

Now it all made sense. No wonder Dony always came on time when Elliot needed someone to help him. Back then, Dony was like an angel without wings in little Elliot's life.

Elliot looked at Dony with an incredulous look. Suddenly it made Dony feel bad. The bearded man immediately bowed. "I apologize for hiding my true identity from you."

Now Elliot's head felt tangled. Quickly his brain gathered all the information conveyed by Marcus and digested it well, then the look in his eyes instantly turned cold.

Elliot looked at Markus with a stern face. "In that case, then why did you just find me and show your face in front of me now?"

The disappointment in his heart appeared. If his grandfather had been watching him all this time and knew how his life was, why didn't he look for him since the death of his parents?

Marcus nodded his head. He thought it was natural for his grandson to question that. "I wanted to see your progress first to make sure that you were worthy of being my successor."

Elliot lowered his gaze. The Rodriguez family was a great family that controlled the business holding market and had a great influence in controlling the economy of three countries at once. Elliot had even heard the news that the family had just been named the tiger of the company, where almost all the major companies in various countries were chosen by the Rodriguez family.

This was really very surprising news for Elliot. It turned out that he was a successor to the great family. Feelings of joy, disappointment, shock, and sadness, merged in his heart, mixed together to cause a reaction of tightness and heat in his chest.

Marcus lifted his head up to look at the sky. "Actually, it's not time for me to show my face in front of you. But because of the past year, I've become uneasy because my condition is not as healthy as it used to be." His eyes dimmed as she gazed at Elliot calmly. "I don't want you to suffer any longer, especially after you finally found out about your wife's affair today."

Both pupils of Elliot's eyes trembled. He didn't know the extent to which his grandfather knew about his life even to the extent of knowing about Hani's affair which even he himself only found out about today.

"That's why, I decided to tell you the truth that you are the rightful successor of the Rodriguez family." Marcus' smile was etched on his wrinkled face. "There will be no more people to insult you because you will have a lot of money even more than that 100 million dollars."

Marcus patted Elliot's shoulder lightly. It woke Elliot up in deep shock. The man fell silent with a shocked face and wide eyes.