CHAPTER 4: ENEMIES AT THE TABLE.
"Dinner is ready," Mrs Adams said, calling the attention of everyone, as she and Samantha were done setting the table.
"Alrighty! It was about time," Joey said, all excited. The father-son duo got up and headed to the dining table. They were seated at the living room chatting away just between the two of them.
Justin was seated in the living room as well, but he seemed to be invisible to them, as always. He didn't mind though, that was normal. At least, he wasn't being beaten anymore. He was way too grown for that now.
The twins, Geoffrey and Juliet both exited their rooms and headed to the dining table. Justin was the last to get up and head to the dining table. Immediately he stood up, he saw Joey smacking Samantha's butt and winking at her.
She gave him a look of disapproval, but he smirked instead and took his seat. Justin furrowed his brow, wondering what the hell that was all about, but he said nothing.
Justin took his seat beside the excited Geoffrey who beckoned on him to come sit beside him. He happily obliged.
"After dinner, I'll show you my collections," Geoffrey whispered excitedly.
"Okay buddy," Justin smiled at him. Lifting up his head, he saw that Samantha took her seat right next to Joey. This still made Justin wonder what was going on with those pair. But he kept his cool, and didn't bother about it.
With everyone seated at the table, Mrs Adams cleared her throat and said, "Shall we say grace?"
Everyone bowed their heads, and she recited the usual words that Justin had heard more than he could count, wondering if they actually believed that whom they prayed to heard them at all.
She ended her recitation saying, "Amen."
They all chorused in unison, "Amen."
"Alright then, let's eat," Mrs Adams declared. The twins gladly grabbed their cutleries and began serving themselves some food. They passed round what wasn't close to the person who hadn't served his or herself yet.
For just a moment, while they served themselves portions of the food prepared, Justin noticed the atmosphere seemed to have been depleted of prejudice. His heart found it peaceful.
But that all changed, the moment everyone was done serving themselves, and began munching on their meals. Derogatory looks were thrown from every corner at Justin. Except Geoffrey.
Justin could see that they obviously didn't want him there. 'Was I just being childish to expect more from these folks? How pathetic of me.' He said, somewhat regretting he came there in the first place.
"So, Justin, you're finally done with college I see," Joey asked, with his loud annoying voice, that he loved using to overshadow folks.
"Yeah," Justin replied, not bothering to look at Joey. Joey scoffed, provoked that Justin paid him no attention.
"Heard you even graduated with honors huh?" Joey asked, trying to seem unimpressed.
"It couldn't be any less," Justin replied.
"Mm. That's good. But gotten any job offers yet?" Joey enquired.
"Yeah, I got. But I turned it down. Wasn't what I wanted."
"What was it?" Joey asked, picking his tooth with his tongue.
"It was a lecturing job at my previous school."
Joey laughed out loud mockingly, causing Mr and Mrs Adams to join in, along with Samantha and Juliet. They laughed him to scorn, but he just smiled.
"So you refused becoming a teacher huh? I know you're trying to be like me? Financially free, living life at my own terms. You wanna be like me huh?"
Justin just smirked, saying nothing, looking at Joey.
"Well, you can never be like me," Joey said. "You wanna know why? Hmm?"
Justin gulped down some water, and relaxed his back on his chair and said, "Please, do tell."
"It's because I have and will always be better than you. So you better go beg that they give you back the teacher job you stupidly turned down. How ridiculous of you," Joey snorted, shaking his head.
"Yeah, you'd better," Mrs Adams concurred. Justin said nothing back in response. He simply played around with his fork. He had began losing his appetite.
They all went on eating their meal, chattering, unperturbed as though they had done nothing wrong.
As they were about rounding up from dinner, Joey raised his glass of wine, using a fork, he hit it against the cup, calling everyone's attention.
"There's something very important I'd like to do, at this moment, since we're all here, together, as a family," he said, chuckling. Everyone paid attention to hear what he had to say.
"I know this may come unexpectedly to most of us here. Even I too, am surprised am about to do this, but, what the fuck."
"Language Joey," Mrs Adams warned.
"Yeah yeah. I know the kids are here," Joey said disrespectfully. He reached into his pocket and brought out a ring box, and went on one knee, opening it, facing Samantha.
Justin's eyes widened in utter shock, with his heart racing. 'Nah, this must be some prank. It definitely is,' Justin's thoughts spiralled.
"Samantha, you know I love you. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?" Joey proposed.
"Yes! Yes, I'll marry you," Samantha ecstatically agreed hastily, stretching out her fingers, as Joey fixed the ring on it. She couldn't wait for Joey to get up from the floor as she hugged him.
Everyone clapped joyfully, except Justin. He still couldn't fathom what was going on. Shaking his head forcefully, he voiced out his questions.
"What's all this? What's going on Sam?"
"What does it look like? Joey proposed and I agreed," she replied derogatorily.
"But- But I proposed to you, two months ago. So when did you and Joey date and got to this point?" Justin asked.
"Watch your tone boy," Mr Adams warned.
"No dad, it's cool. Let him talk. He feels his now a man to question me," Joey said, stepping forward threateningly towards Justin. Justin didn't bother paying him any attention. He was speaking to Samantha.
"We uh- Joey and I-"
"How could she have accepted you, with such a lousy proposal? I mean, for real Justin?" Joey scoffed.
"Well, just so you know, after she called it off with you, on her birthday, she came running into my arms and gave me the best ride of my life. Well, that wouldn't be the first time, now has it honey?"
Samantha shook her head in agreement, holding Joey tightly.
"That's a lie," Justin refused to believe Joey.
"You want proof? Here, have a look." Joey scrolled through his phone and played Justin a sextape of himself and Samantha, turning down the volume.
Justin closed his eyes tightly, as though pierced through his heart with a sword, having seen what he saw. It was the pain of utmost betrayal, not just from Samantha, but from family.
Opening them, tears ran down his eyes.
"How could you Sam? How could you?!" Justin yelled advancing towards her.
"Don't you dare," Joey snarled, after he punched Justin in the face.
Justin stood straight, seething with rage as he looked at Joey, clenching his fists.
CHAPTER 5: NOT MY FAMILY."Smack the shit out of that ungrateful moron. She's made her choice. Be happy that she chose someone like Joey," Mrs Adams said. "Language Magdalene, language," Mr Adams cautioned his wife this time. "Oh, whatever," Mrs Adams snorted disrespectfully at her husband. Her attention was on her favorite child, Joey.Joey and Justin stood, glaring at each other. As face off was imminent. Justin peered hatefully at Samantha and Joey, but refrained from swinging a punch at either of them. "Because you're all grown now, you think you can take me on? Huh? I don't need all that muscle to beat the living day light out of you," Joey snarled.Indeed, Justin who was once little had grown up to have a moderately muscular build on his six foot body frame, which appealed to most folks who beheld him. He was a good looking young man, but he lacked the things that would make that handsomeness of his stand out from many.Justin suddenly chuckled, shaking his head disappointedl
CHAPTER 6: THE BIG APPLE."Dude, what those folks did is outrageous. Jeez," Duke said over the phone, speaking with Justin. He had arrived his shared apartment at SJC a day after the altercation he had with his foster family. "Tell me about it," Justin retorted, snorting detestably."It makes me wonder how you were ever raised by those maniacs.""Point of correction, I wasn't raised by them, I only lived with them," Justin pointed out."That's about right," Duke agreed. "So what are you gonna do now?"He sighed, and replied, "I don't know man. Well, am thinking I should just take up Professor James' offer. What do think?" "Hmm," Duke pondered for a bit. "You have big dreams man, and I know you have a shot at pulling it off and getting your footing in the big apple, unlike some of us who've been tied down to run the family business. So I think you should give your dreams and aspirations a shot.""You really think so?" he asked."Mm-hmm. Despite all that you sacrifed for that self ce
CHAPTER 7: THE INTERVIEW.Justin hurried to his apartment and locked the door behind him. He leaned on it as he inhaled and exhaled, doing his best to calm his nerves down as his heart raced. He quickly went to his window which faced the street and hid by it's corner to have a look at the street. From the angle he stood, he didn't see the vehicle. So he went to the other side, and slightly parted the curtain. Peeking through, he found no trace of the car that followed him.He sighed in relief, and sat on his bed. Anxiety had made a bit sweaty, so he wiped it off his face. "What the hell was that? Am I being followed or what? But- But, I didn't offend anyone. Did I?" Justin questioned himself, trying to be certain he wasn't just being paranoid."Could it be the pick pocket?" he pondered. "Or, could it be the Adams?" Those were the two folks that he could come up with in his wildest imaginations that would want to hurt him. But he did nothing wrong to them, so that made him even the
CHAPTER 8: OUT COLD"What?!" Justin gasped at what he heard. His name was the last to be mentioned to not have passed the second phase of the interview. The man who had tried to sow a seed of discouragement in him blurted out a laughter, but crossed his hand over his mouth to prevent it from being audible."Am sorry, but it's time for you to take your leave," the interviewer who called out the names instructed, unapologetically. Disheartened and disappointed at the turn of events, Justin got his bag and walked slowly out of the interview hall. Gloominess was written all over his face. He had high hopes, and all of a sudden now, everything seemed bleak.Mr Frank Alvaro watched Justin as he walked out of the interview hall, walking behind all the other disqualified candidates, heading to the elevator. He shrugged, pursing his lips, and faced the remaining candidates who made it to the third and final phase of the interview.Justin disappointedly walked out of the building, wondering
CHAPTER 9: QUESTIONS UPON QUESTIONS.Justin was suddenly awakened as a result of his head bumping hard into the car seat in front of him. Shards of glasses were scattered within the car as the car was ran into by another car as his abductors conveyed him.An unknown group of men had kidnapped him, having paid off the neighbor some reasonable amount of money to have him sedated.Gaining a bit of consciousness, but drowsy still, he could hear an exchange of heavy gunfire for some moment. He could see some figures falling to the ground, as they were shot. But he had no strength, neither was he cognitive enough to do anything to keep himself safe from harm's way.After a while, the gunshots stopped. He saw the figure of a person approach him, flashing a light right at his face. Examining him, the man found that he was okay, except the concussion in his forehead."Wh- What's happe- What's happening?" Justin questioned faintly, squinting his eyes as he blocked off the light from entering hi
CHAPTER 10: MOMENT OF TRUTH.Justin looked at Mr Bishop, wondering why he smirked."Why did you do it, sir?" Justin enquired.The men standing guard were sulking, wondering who the hell that Justin was, that their boss allowed him to speak freely with him."Well, let's just say they were suddenly interested in what I've had my eyes on for a while now," Mr Bishop answered.Justin raised his left eyebrow, looking intently at Mr Bishop. He knew Mr Bishop's answer was way too bogus. He could sense there was more to it than meets the eye."You think I had a hand in your abduction?" Mr Bishop said. "Here. Why don't you have a look?"He handed Justin his cellphone after he flipped through it, showing him a surveillance footage of the rescue. Justin played it and saw that he was actually resued."I truly am grateful sir, for the rescue. But, who are those folks who came after me? Why me, of all people? What did they want?" Justin asked.Mr Bishop sighed softly, and looked at Justin."This was
CHAPTER 11: SETTLING IN.Gomez headed out of the study, in obedience to Mr Bishop's instruction. Making his way through the main entrance, he sighted Justin standing outside the house.He stood there for some minutes, Justin couldn't take notice of his presence. And for a moment, he noticed how Justin was troubled. He had both his hands on his head, squinting his eyes, and sighing frustratedly.Immediately, Gomez returned to the study. He was granted permission to enter the study by Mr Bishop."Anything the matter?" Mr Bishop asked."Justin seems restless and unsettled.""Mm," Mr Bishop sighed, tapping one of his fingers on the table. "Go and get him settled in.""Right away sir," Gomez responded and bowed as he exited the study. He quickly sent one of the guard to go fetch the chief steward of the Bishop estate, summoning him immediately. Shortly after, the chief steward arrived with a sense of urgency. He bowed his head then said, "You called for me, sir?""Yes," Gomez responded.
CHAPTER 12: THE INFORMANT.Gomez walked into a restaurant in Chinatown, alone, while his men waited outside. He was in a turf he had little leverage in. Standing at the entrance, he scanned and assessed the room. It was filled with Asians. They threw stares of disgust at him, but he ignored them. Adjusting his suit, he walked straight to the bar, and sat on a stool. A male bartender stood behind the counter."What can I get you?" the bartender asked."Tequila," Gomez said simply. "Coming right up," the bartender nodded, as he went ahead to serve Gomez the drink. Gomez received it, and chugged it down with one gulp, gently placing the cup on the counter. And took a deep breath.'Where could he be? I've looked round this bar and there is no sign of him,' Gomez reasoned within himself."Am looking for someone, the informant. Do you know where I can find him? Gomez asked the bartender."I don't have any idea," he replied sluggishly."You sure don't know where he is?" Gomez persisted.