Rodney was tired of his horrible life, and he was going to end it. He couldn't bear the torment anymore as his life continued to spiral out of control. Whenever he thought it was about to get better, it became worse.

He had been walking for seven minutes when the tallest apartment building came into view. It was long and run down, in one of the most dangerous parts of the neighbourhood. The building itself was a disaster waiting to happen given its inclined state. It was leaning to the right, but people still lived in it because rent was cheap and most of them had nowhere to go.

Rodney glanced up, took a deep breath and entered the building. As he trudged upwards, he thought of his mother. He knew that she was going to be hurt, but he was sparing her extra expenses. He was tired of being hungry all the time, and lacking basic needs. He could barely sleep due to the crippling depression he battled.

Soon, he reached the last floor. He could hear his heart pounding in his chest as he climbed up the last steps. He finally got to the rooftop and looked around. His eyes went wide when he saw Sean and Killian who constantly bullied him because he had refused to join them in their drug dealing business. They had even threatened to kill him because they thought he would snitch on them to the police.

“What do we have here?” Sean said, standing up with his friend.

Immediately, Rodney ran back down the stairs while the two young men chased him at breakneck speed.

The bullies did not stop when he exited the house. They continued to chase him down the street. Rodney’s chest was burning and his legs felt weak like they were about to give way, but he continued to push forward. His breaths were coming out in gasps and he almost fell, but gained energy when he saw his house.

Rodney pushed the door open and fell into the room, staggering back when he saw strangers in the living room. There were three big men standing behind the couch where his mother was seated.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?” Rodney asked as his breaths came out in short puffs. Some of the curtains had been drawn together making the room fairly dark.

“So, this is my son?” A man said, stepping out of the shadows. He walked towards Rodney whose brows were furrowed in confusion. The man was his father?

Rodney stared at the tall, muscular man with a stern handsome face. The middle aged man was wearing a black shirt with gold embroidery near the top buttons, black trousers and a brown leather jacket. He wore a black hat over his head and black belt with a gold buckle. Rodney thought the man looked great and would be proud to call him a father.

Growing up, he always wondered what his father looked like. As a child, he compared him to action heroes and thought one day he would return to save his son from the harsh world he lived in. But as years passed by and he never showed up, Rodney began to hate the man who had fathered him so much that he did not want to ever see him again. And he thought he wouldn’t because his mother claimed not to know him. When Rodney was of age his mother had told him about her dark life before she became the most holy Christian of Seventh Street.

It was why he was dumbfounded when he heard the stranger claiming to be his father.

“Mom, is he my father?” Rodney asked.

His mother, now with tears rolling down her cheeks just nodded.

“You said you didn’t know who my father was,” Rodney accused his mother, his heart aching because of the betrayal. He had suffered in poverty all his life while he had a rich father. It was unfair.

“I’m sorry, son. It’s just that he is not a good man. He is only here to take advantage of you. He will bring us trouble and nothing else.”

Rodney turned to the man claiming to be his father. “What do you want now? After years of abandonment, why are you here?”

Rodney wasn’t sure if he was angrier at his mother or the stranger.

“You are f*cking rude,” the man said, stepping closer. “I see your stupid mother did not raise you well.”

Suddenly, Rodney’s fist connected with the man’s face.

The man started laughing. “How weak. You wouldn’t be like this if you had grown up in my house, and now you have a chance to. Pack your bags, boy. We are leaving this dump and you will learn to respect me.”

It seemed this man had come to infuriate Rodney. After the insult towards his mother, Rodney did not want anything to do with him. His mother was the only person who had cared for him, treated him like a prince despite having barely anything. She was the one person who believed in him when the world was constantly trying to tear him down.

“Get out of our house,” Rodney said to the tall, imposing man. He may have looked intimidating but Rodney was not scared. Besides, he didn’t need a father. He had survived for eighteen years without one.

“I want you in my life, son. Our first impressions of each other may not have been ideal but I need you in my life.”

Rodney’s mother stood up, but one of the men pushed her back onto the couch.

“Don’t dare touch my mother you idiot,” Rodney went and sat with his mother. “What’s going on, mum? What does this man want?”

“He is a selfish bastard. The fool drowned himself in drugs and alcohol. Now he’s dying because of a kidney problem. Son, he wants to steal your kidney and will do anything to get it. Promise me that you will never consent to something like that.”

Rodney chuckled and stood up, facing the man. “You deadbeat. So that’s why you remembered that I existed after eighteen years of silence. Now that you need me, you want me. I will never give you my kidney, you’d have to kill me first.”

The man tilted his head, a smirk on his handsome face.

“Andrew, get him.”

Before Rodney could do anything, the man called Andrew had appeared by his side. He tried to fight him off, but Andrew shot the young man with a stun gun, making him unconscious. Dropping his body on the floor, he turned to the mother who was screaming loudly.

“Quick, we need to get away before some nosy neighbour calls the police.”

The two men carried the limp bodies while the father pulled out a gun from his pocket which he wanted to use to scare nosy neighbours.