CHAPTER 7

As soon as he returned from school, all the information he'd requested for in the morning was in his hands.

There were a lot of orphanages with the name Safe Haven (which was very much expected), but with the description he'd given, the results had been narrowed down to the barest minimum; down to the orphanage he remembered.

With a smile he skimmed through the pictures, the smile widening every second as his joy could not be contained.

It soon vanished, however, when he stumbled upon a channel later that day as he switched television programs. On the screen was a headline depicting an orphanage's need for financial support, and he was horrified to find that it was no other institution but Safe Haven.

"The Proprietor, Sophia Poe, is here with us, and she'd be speaking more on the situation at hand."

Vincenzo sucked in a breath when he saw the former headmistress' face appear on the screen. Despite her trying to appear calm, a glance into her eyes revealed a storm brewing. But her voice was clear as she took the microphone.

"Good day. Just as it has been mentioned, I am Sophia Poe, the proprietor of Safe Haven Orphanage, Brookinson, Newsfield. I..."

He didn't wait for the rest of her statements.

"Mr. Bradley!"

The butler came in not long after, his face passive as ever.

"Young Master."

"Arrange a car for me as fast as possible. I need to go to the orphanage."

Bradley nodded. "I'll have one brought around in a jiffy, sir."

Within minutes he was seated in a black sedan, and he worked his jaw, looking through the glass as the car exited the premises.

He'd check out the orphanage, see how bad the situation was, and do damage control. After all, he had the money now. It was only fair to spend on good people who really needed it, right?

"We're here, Young Master," the driver said after a while.

"Oh...alright. Thank you."

"No problem sir. When should I return?"

"You could...cruise around the neighbourhood for a bit. I won't be long."

"Alright, Young Master. Have a good day."

"Yes. Thank you. Bye."

He walked briskly into the establishment, not wanting to stand for long so he didn't have to notice the paint peeling off the walls and the ivy growing on the fences for too long.

Still, he couldn't shake the image of the orphanage from his head. The outlook was beyond terrible.

Inside, however, everything was almost exactly the same. He sighed, reminiscing the memories as he walked to the office.

He was just about to enter when he heard a female voice speak.

"I understand, Mr. Keith. But you have to understand, we can't just...hold on, please, listen to me, I...I cannot agree to those conditions, Mr. Keith! I've sent all the youths to the site as your boss has said. How can I agree to the use of children as laborers? That's inhumane!"

Vincenzo's hand tightened on the doorknob.

Laborers?

He raised a brow, but knocked on the door anyways. And when he entered after her permission, his former proprietress' eyes widened.

Vincenzo forced a smile on his face. "Mother Sophia. Hello."

"My my."

"I was expecting more of a chide as to why I haven't been around much."

Mother Sophia smiled. "Well, that was going to come no matter what. But what's important is that you're here. Where have you been, Vincent?"

And so, he sat and told her his story, except the part where his life had changed for good.

She'd had to take out a tissue and dab her eyes a couple of times, even after he finished.

"You...you were so little," she choked, and he could feel tears building up in his eyes too.

He'd never fully told his story to anyone, and it was almost therapeutic to pour it out like this, especially to one of the most important people in his life.

"It's alright, Mother," he said with a small smile. "I'm here now, aren't I?"

She let out a chuckle and smiled back, albeit weakly. "I guess so. I guess so."

They chatted a bit more about their lives, occasionally bursting into laughter. But soon enough, Vincenzo sobered up, and Mother Sophia knew he had something important to talk about.

"What's the matter…Vincenzo?" she asked.

"I overheard what you said on the phone, Mother Sophia," he answered in a low tone. "And I...I would like to know exactly what happened."

"W-what are you talking about, child?"

He sighed. "The laborers. I overheard what you said. What's going on?"

She turned pale. "You don't need to worry about it."

"It's concerning the orphanage I was brought up in, Mother Sophia," he said. "I have to worry about it."

"Vincenzo -"

"What's going on, Mother Sophia?"

There was silence in the room for a short moment, before the older person sighed.

"We've been...in debt for a while now."

"In debt?"

She nodded. "We've had very little funding for the past year, thus we've been unable to pay the rent for this place. Because of that, the owner forced us to send people from here to his building site every day as laborers.

Obviously, we do not have a lot of able-bodied men, but the oldest youths and a couple of staff gallantly took up the job and have been visiting the site everyday. But now, he's asking for more people, else he'd sue us."

She teared up again. "We can't lose this place. These children have nowhere to go, no sponsor since a two years ago."

He narrowed his eyes. "Who is the person, and how much do we owe him?"

She looked up at him in surprise. "What?"

"How much is it?"

"Vincenzo, you don't need to -"

"Mother," he interrupted firmly, and she barely held herself from shrinking back when she saw the flames in his eyes. "Who is the person, and how much is needed?"

"It's... It's a man named Anthony Stewart."

The atmosphere became thick with silence again, as Mother Sophia watched little Vincenzo of yesterday typing on his phone and pausing before typing again and focusing back on her.

"Where's the site, Mother?"

They arrived at the site soon enough, and the first thing Vincenzo laid his eyes upon was a young boy struggling to lift a heavy bag of what was most likely cement.

He swallowed, and without giving it a thought, immediately ran to assist the fragile boy, who looked at him with extreme gratitude as he dumped it where it was supposed to be.

"Thank you so much, sir. I -" the boy broke off when he noticed the proprietress. "Mother Sophia!"

As he watched the boy run towards the older woman, Vincenzo felt his anger bubble to the surface.

"Where is Mr. Stewart?" he promptly asked one of the elderly laborers who'd paused in his work to look at him in awe.

The elderly man blinked, then shrunk under the strong aura that the stranger was giving him. "He's in the small shed at the back."

Thanking him, Vincenzo sped to the back of the site, where he saw the shed as described. A man with the same facial features as the Stewart he'd seen in a picture earlier and his right hand man, Kevin were exiting it.

Kevin's eyebrow raised in question when they sighted him.

"Who are you?"

"Let's not bother with that," replied Vincenzo with a wave of the hand. "I'm here for one reason alone. I'd like to talk about the orphanage's debt."

"What orphanage?" Kevin said, though his face held recognition of the possible establishment. Vincenzo schooled his features into neutrality, despite his blood boiling.

"Safe Haven. I'd like to pay off their debt under a condition, and buy the land from you."

Hearing the offer, Stewart leaned forward. "That's about half a million, young man. Even more. Are you sure you're willing to pay?"

"Yes. On one condition."

Andrew Stewart inwardly rolled his eyes and almost scoffed. "And what's that?"

"You'd stop demanding that they send child laborers. After which I'll pay."

"Who the heck are you? You do not get to negotiate."

"Stop asking for laborers to come here from any struggling orphanage, and I'll pay you all your money. And more, if you want."

"Afraid not." The statement fell out of Andrew Stewart's mouth very easily. "I won't have some poor and hopeless boy tell me what to do."

Vincenzo's eye twitched.

Poor and hopeless?

"Mr. Stewart, I'm warning you, if you don't listen to me, you're going to regret it-"

"Vincenzo!" Mother Sophia's came from behind them. He turned to see he rush in, and he was touched when he noticed her eyes run over him as some form of check up before accepting that he was well enough. "Oh, Mr. Stewart, please -"

"You brought this piece of trash, Sophia?"

She swallowed. "I -"

Andrew stalked up to her. "You did, didn't you?"

"He's...he's not a piece of trash, Mr. Stewart. He's one of my sons," she gritted out.

The man's expression got even more furious. "Then why didn't you school him well enough for him to know his place?!"

And with that, he shoved the woman hard so she hit a wall.

Vincenzo's blood boiled, and his ears began to ring. Kevin noticed this behavior and was about to call him out for it when he realized that the aura the supposed 'young boy' was emanating was almost deadly.

"Mr. Stewart, how dare you?"

The man in question turned to him and raised a brow, obviously not being intimidated unlike Kevin. "You, shut up. And get out while I'm still being nice."

"You pushed an elderly woman," Vincenzo said through gritted teeth. "Don't expect me to go soft on you now."

With that, he placed a hand over Mother Sophia's shoulder, guided her away, but not without giving the two men a death glare.

"Imagine that miscreant thinking he can command someone like me," spat Andrew. "Foolish!"

When Vincenzo had Mother Sophia safely placed in a cab and on her way back to the orphanage, he pulled out his phone and went through all the information Bradley had drawn up on Stewart when he'd asked earlier at the proprietor's office.

Stewart was a contractor for Sky-High Enterprises, one of the biggest construction companies in the city. And, coincidentally, one of the companies in Inzaghi group.

Setting his mouth in a grim line, he dialed the butler's number.

"Sky-High Enterprise is his biggest client, yes?"

Bradley responded in the affirmative.

"Cancel all contracts between him and the company. Now."