CHAPTER 1

Leon sat at his desk, eyes glued to the computer screen as he typed furiously, racing against the clock to finish the report before lunch break. 

But all of a sudden, his hands flew to his chest due to a sharp, stabbing pain. He clutched at his chest as his body was shaking due to a fit of violent coughing. He grabbed his handkerchief, bringing it to his mouth to stifle the noise, not wanting to disturb the others. 

When he pulled it away, Leon spotted stains of blood on the handkerchief. 

"Shit!" 

He muttered under his breath, feeling a wave of dizziness.

The next moment, he stumbled out of his cubicle, making a beeline for the washroom. Once inside, he splashed cold water on his face, trying to steady his shaking hands. 

Leon lifted his head and found a pale face staring back at him, eyes sunken with fatigue.

"I just have to get through the day…" 

He whispered to the reflection, giving himself some sort of motivation.

Leon cleaned himself up as best he could and made his way back to his desk. Just as he rounded the corner, Mr. Cooper emerged from his office, his face twisted into a scowl that had almost become a permanent feature of his face. 

"Oh, welcome back! Your Highness! Are you finally in the mood to work?"

This was Leon's boss, who was talking to him with fake sweetness dripping from his voice.

"Sir, I –" 

"Shut up! Do you think you own this office? Where the hell have you been?" 

Mr. Cooper barked. His voice echoed through the nearly silent office, attracting the attention of the other employees. 

"I was just in the washroom, sir. I wasn't feeling well."

"Not feeling well?" Mr. Cooper sneered. "That's the excuse you're going with today?"

"It's not an excuse, Mr. Cooper. I—"

"Save it," Mr. Cooper interrupted, waving a hand dismissively. 

"You are always full of excuses. Do you think this company pays you to take leisurely bathroom breaks whenever you feel like it?"

"No, sir," Leon gritted his teeth. 

"I understand, but—"

"But nothing," Mr. Cooper snapped. 

"Look at you! Taking any and all excuses to slack off from your job, don't you have any shame? You can't even be grateful that this is the job that pays your bills and puts food on your fucking table?"

Terrence Cooper's face had turned red with anger, as he screamed, 

"Well I've had enough of your laziness! Your work has been slipping, and we have no use for freeloaders like you."

Leon felt a lump rise in his throat, but he forced himself to meet his gaze.

"Sir, I just got up for a few moments, I have even finished my repor–"

"Keep your bloody mouth shut! You have the balls to lie to my face after I caught you red handed! That's it, I'm cutting your salary again. Consider yourself lucky if you see a thousand dollars this month."

"But, Mr. Cooper, please give me one chance to explain–"

Mr. Cooper's expression didn't soften. If anything, his eyes grew colder. 

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you decided to roam around on  company time. Consider this a lesson in responsibility."

Leon felt anger and helplessness churning inside him. This wasn't the first time that something like this had happened. In fact, his cruel boss often unfairly deducted his salary, for some excuse or another. 

Even though Leon's salary was around $1500 on paper, his boss made sure that he never got more than $1000 at most. 

Leon clenched his fist tightly, his knuckles almost turning white. But somehow, he was able to tame the overwhelming impulse to punch his boss in the face.

If he had his way, he would have pummeled this asshole manager, who seemed to get some twisted satisfaction from insulting the employees under him. 

However, the truth was that he needed this job, no matter how much he despised Cooper. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to speak calmly.

"I'm sorry for letting you down, Mr. Cooper. It won't happen again."

Mr. Cooper scoffed before returning to his office, muttering;

"Let's see how much you mean that…" 

Pretending that he hadn't heard that, Leon turned back to his desk, wiping the blood on his desk with a napkin he kept in his drawer. 

He stared at the computer screen, trying to focus on his work, but he couldn't concentrate because of the stress and frustration.

Just then, his phone rang, jolting him from his thoughts. He glanced at the caller ID and saw it was his doctor's office. His heart skipped a beat as he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Mr. Leon Jenkins?"

"Yes, this is him."

"Mr. Jenkins, this is Dr. Walter." 

The doctor's voice was grave, 

"I'm afraid I have some serious news regarding your recent tests."

Leon felt a cold dread seeping through his veins.

"What is it, doctor?"

"Mr. Jenkins, the results indicate that you have lung cancer."

Leon felt as if the ground had been pulled out from under him. 

"Lung cancer?!" 

He repeated, as if he wasn't even able to believe the words.

"Yes. I'm really sorry about the news. It is in the advanced stages. I'm afraid you may not have much time left."

Leon swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "Doctor, how… how long do I have?"

The doctor paused for what felt like forever. 

"At most, three months, Mr. Jenkins. Again, I'm sorry to have to tell you this over the phone."

But Leon couldn't care about any of that… 

Three months. The words echoed in his mind over and over again.

"Is there anything that can be done?" 

Leon asked, clinging to a shred of hope.

"There is a possibility of surgery, and although it is a high-risk procedure, there have been some promising results. The estimated cost is around one hundred thousand dollars, and it would need to be paid upfront."

Leon felt his hope slip through his fingers like grains of sand.

"Thank you for informing me, doctor," Leon said, struggling to keep his composure.

"Of course, Mr. Jenkins. I wanted to inform you at the earliest, so you can make the necessary arrangements. Please come to the clinic as soon as possible, so we can conduct some more tests and get a better idea of the situation. Then, we can discuss all the treatment options you have."

"I will. Thank you again." 

Leon managed to reply absent mindedly even as he stared at the screen of his computer… suddenly, all the words he had typed up turned into gibberish.

Nothing made any sense to him, and it felt like nothing even mattered anymore… it was like his world had collapsed around him, leaving him numb and lost in the midst of this bustling office.

His body was completely stiff and frozen in shock, with one hand still holding the phone to his ear, without even knowing if the call had been disconnected or not. Meanwhile, his mind was racing fast, trying to make sense of everything. 

In the end, he decided he needed to leave work right now and head home first. That way, he could take the money and reach the hospital by this evening. 

But the timing couldn't have been worse, because right this moment, Mr. Cooper stormed over and snatched the phone from Leon's hand. 

"Just like I had expected! Stubborn and disrespectful people like you will never change, am I right Jenkins?!"

Mr. Cooper snarled in anger.

Leon looked up, startled. 

"Sir, it's not that, I just… I had to take an important call–"

Terrence Cooper scoffed, interrupting him in the middle. 

"Important call? You know the rules about personal calls during work hours, and still, you found a way to waste time! Tell me, are you the President, Jenkins? That the whole country will stop functioning because you missed one bloody call?"

Leon was trying his best to stay calm; he was already dealing with one setback and really didn't have the strength or sanity to deal with this. 

But Mr. Cooper assumed his silence to be an admission of guilt, and taunted further;

"Don't just stand there dumb, answer me! Was it a call from the White House, that you couldn't let it go to voicemail?" 

"I'm sorry, Mr. Cooper, but it was an emergency."

"An emergency! Care to share with the rest of us?"

Leon naturally stayed silent, and Cooper shouted;

"See? How can anyone trust a single word out of your mouth? Rascals like you don't deserve to have any opportunities! Not only are you wasting our company resources, but there is a deserving candidate out there, who can't get this job because a useless trash like you is sitting in this office!"

"I sincerely apologize–"

"Then go and apologize to your mother for being a worthless son! Because I'm not hearing anything else from you now! In fact, I'm cutting your salary even further, for making private calls in the office. You clearly don't understand the concept of company time."

Leon felt a wave of despair wash over him. He couldn't afford another cut in his pay. At this point, he was basically slaving away at this job in exchange for a few pennies!

But he couldn't say anything… Whatever he said, it would only make the situation worse. So, he tried to be diplomatic. After all, he couldn't afford to lose his job, not now of all times. 

"I understand, sir. I sincerely apologize, and you will never find my phone outside of my pocket during working hours."

Leon bowed sincerely, hoping that his boss might soften his approach a little. And then, he would explain the situation regarding the diagnosis and ask for a day off to visit the clinic. 

But Mr. Cooper eyed him coldly like a bug under a microscope. And then, a maniacal smile appeared on his face, as if he had just thought of the perfect way to quash that bug. 

"Well as I said earlier, just an insincere apology won't cut it this time. As punishment, you are going to work overtime tonight. You can't leave this desk before 11:00 pm."

Leon's heart sank. 

"But, sir, I—"

"You ungrateful brat! How dare you argue with me right now? Do you know who I am?! Just consider yourself lucky I'm not firing you on the spot! Damn these youngsters, you really need to learn some discipline!"

Leon stood there, stunned. He opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it, knowing it would do no good.

"Now get back to work!" 

Mr. Cooper ordered, throwing the phone back towards Leon as he turned and walked away without another word. 

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