Chapter 5

Both mother and son rose to their feet, Slowly smoke began to fill the room as it drifted to th ceiling creating a thick crust in the air. Both their eyes were filled with panic wondering what to do. While Felicia reached out for the fire extinguisher in her room, she could not find it as she struggled to breath with the smoke becoming thicker.

Alex reached out for the door struggling to break it free but to no avail, he hurried over to the window but they were all locked which made him realize that this was a deliberate act on theri lives. Felicia was becomymore weak, coughing out so loud as she struggled to find a way, but the smoke seem to have clouded her lungs and she could not breath properly.

"Mother! mom!!" Alex called out in the midst of the smoke as he struggled to find her, but the room was filled with thick air and there was no way that he could see her.

He was becoming weak and weaker. His body heating under the fire. He was burning in pain but more than the physical pain, Alex his heart crumbled at how much had been taken away from him. Even while they reduced him to nothing, they did not stop there until they murdered him.

He fell on the floor, lying on his back and staring at the house reduced to nothing. But just then, a female figure appeared right there which he thought was an angel. All the pain seemed to have disappeared that moment wheik staring at her and she stretched out her hand to him. He reached forward to it, held her firmly like she was all he had left and did not want to give up on it.

She struggled to get him up on his feet as they both leaped out of the fire, but the fire had consumed the entire house, that they was no way to escape and at that moment where he could no longer endure the pain, he shut his eyes as everything became blank to him where he finally had some peace.

Felicia stood with a smiling face at him all dressed in white, Alex struggled to reach out to her but it felt impossible untill she waved him goodbye and started walking away as she faded away.

"Mom! Mom wait!!" Alex screamed at the top of his voice and jerked up, he was sweating profusely with trickle of tears in his eyes and then he realized that he was at the hospital and an IV was inserted through his vein.

"Calm down, you must be having a nightmare" A deep male voice spoke. Alex turned around to stare at the figure amd realize that it was someone he knew. That was Mr. Jackson who was the personal assistant to his father when he was alive.

"Where am I?" He barely managed to speak although he had put the pieces together that he was in a hospital. Alex stared at his hand and realized that theu were covered with bandage, he touched his face and could also feel the bandage knowing at that point that the fire had ruined his entire body.

"You are in a hospital Alex, I don't know who save you, but whoever did never came out alive"

"Someone saved me?"

"That is what I suspected but considering how massive the fire was with the doors shut from outside, there is no way that you would have escaped alone without any help"

"Are you saying that the fire was deliberate?"

"That is the only explanation that we can think of untill we have investigated further"

"What about my mother, how is she doing right now?" He asked and Mr. Jackson was silent for a while as he lowered his head. "Your mother died in the fire, whoever tried to save you, I think that she went back to save your mother and did not make it out alive"

Alex felt all his bones shattered into tiny pieces, he has lost everything and even his will to leave, but he still wanted revenge that felt like the only thing keeping him going at that point. His entire body was burnt and his face ruined, he was poor and now he was ugly, there is no need for him to be alive.

"I guess that I was born with such a bad fate, nothing has ever worked well for me, first I was born as an illegitimate child that never got anything handed out to me, I still struggled through life and thought that I had hit a jackpot when I married Anna the woman that I loved so much, but it only turned out that she married me because she thought that I had influence in the Anderson family. When she found out that I was just a. Illegitimate child of the Anderson family that had been chased away, she begin treating me like my existence does not matter and now, I lost the family I have left to a fire that might have been caused this same people that called me worthless all my life, my face ruined and so is my heart"

Alex went ahead to explain so bitterly that tears were almost rolling through his eyes but he barely managed to pull through as a question struck him.

"Why are you here Mr. Jackson, you worked for my father and now that he is gone, I know that you will be working for my stepmom, how did you find me and why did you save me?"

"I work for your late father and has never worked for Mrs. Clara, after you left the Anderson mansion, I have been searching for you and had no idea that you lived with the Sutton family until yesterday when I met you at their daughter's birthday party, I went ahead to make inquiry and found out that you were married to their daughter but I guess you have a bad luck because just when I went to find you there, I was told that the Sutton daughter divorced you and you were chased out of their mansion"

"So you traced me down to my mother's apartment?" Alex asked while trying to put the pieces together.

"Yes?"

"And why have you been going through all this stress finding me, I am worthless and it is not like I can be of any use to anyone, you have seen how ruined my skin has become"

"You can't be too sure about your future" Mr. Jackson explained while his eyes drifted to the large document that he placed on the table.

"Your father left you a huge inheritance after this death, heade certain that it was hidden away from his wife, so during the will reading, I made sure it was exempted and none of them knew about it"

"What? Father never loved me or considerede as his child, why would he go through all that stress just to leave me his inheritance?"

"That is not true, he loves you so much and even on his sick bed, he regretted the way he had treated you and your mother after he found out that his illness was due to a toxic substance that his wife Mrs. Clara fed him for an entire year just so that he wouldn't suspect while she went ahead to take over the company"

"What! He was her husband, why would she go as far as doing something so brutal to him?" Alex asked as he was stunned by this piece of information that he had just been told about.

"Because she wanted her son to take over the company and she was scared that he was going to hand it over to you, so she acted so fast but as soon as your father found out, he began stashing out some funds from the company away and that was how he was able to come up with your inheritance"

"All of these feel like a dream to me, because never have I ever imagined that my father would leave anything behind in my name since I was an illegitimate child"

"Yes he did, and he wanted you to take over the company because he believed that you were the one who was truly capable of handling the company, and on his sick bed, he regretted that he never fought for you or your mother"

Cold shiver ran down Alex's spine while he listened to this, the pain in him had just grown more intense knowing that all the suffering that he went through all this years could have been adverted, but they were all because of Mrs. Cara's greed to have everything for herself.

Alex believed that his inheritance was just a tiny amount taken out from the company but no matter how small it was, he was determined to make them all pay for the life of his mother and all the pain that they caused him.

"Here is the document containing your inheritance and list of all the assets handed over to you?" Mr. Jackson handed the document to him, but Alex struggled to sit upright. His entire body was hurting so badly that it felt like he could not move even an inche.

Mr. Jackson comes over and assisted him in sitting upright, then he began to go through the document, half way through it, his eyes popped out wide and his jaws dropped to the ground.

"Fifty trillion dollars!! This is some sort of a joke right, there is no way in the world father would leave such huge amount of money to me"

"Read further and then you can see list of all your asset, he believed that this is the little way he could ask for your forgiveness for all those years that you and your mother went through severe pain"

All the tears that Alex had been holding up all his life trying to be a man all filled his eyes that he welled up but Mr. Jackson did not bother consoling him knowing that this was as a tears of joy.

"All this asset belongs to me now?"

"Yes it does and from now on, I will work for you because that was your father's last wish, that is if you are interested in wanting me around and you can be more familiar with all of your wealth"

"Of course I want you to work with me, I wouldn't know what to do about anything. But… my skin is damaged now and I do not know what to do about it"

"You do not have to worry about that aspect, I have spoken to a doctor in England and he has assured me that through plastic surgery, you will be back to normal infact more better that you use to be"

Alex exhaled loudly like a burden had just been pulled off his neck hearing about this piece of information, he went ahead to keep fiddling through the pages of the document while Mr. Jackson had his gaze piercing at him before he asked.

"Now that you have acquired wealth, what are you going to do about your wife?"

"I still love her so much and it was not her fault that she could not accept me the way that i was, now that I have acquired my inheritance, I will go back to her and tell her about it, I believe that now we will be able to walk through the inheritance"

"So you mean to say that you still want her back after everything that she put you through?"

"She is my wife, I love her and can't let her go just like that, I have to give it a try again"

Mr. Jackson opened his mouth again to reveal some information to him regarding Anna, but he kicked against it knowing that it was going to break his heart. This was a happy moment for him and he did not want to ruin it.