Project Sky: The Awakening Of The Forgotten Heir

A Crime He Never Committed

"I don't understand, ma’am, please what is happening here. What have I done?" Nathan asked, his voice trembling.

Without offering any explanation to Nathan, the two police officers who had come in with Laura stepped forward and handcuffed him, forcefully dragging him out.

"You are under arrest for the money fraud of twenty million dollars from the company assets. You have the right to remain silent, or anything you do or say will be used against you," one of the officers stated firmly, his face contorted with a heavy glare.

Nathan stood frozen in place.

"Twenty million dollars? What the hell? How?" Nathan muttered with disbelief, completely dumbfounded and confused about the entire situation. It was beyond belief—he had never even seen that kind of money, let alone stolen it.

"I’ve done nothing wrong. Please, you have to believe me," Nathan pleaded, his voice cracking with desperation. But his words fell on deaf ears as the officer kept dragging him out the office.

"After all I’ve done for you, and this is how you repay me, I bet you, I will make sure you rot in jail ?" Laura said firmly, her glare fixing on Nathan then she let out a scoff.

"Imagine if I hadn't found out about this early, you would have run with such a huge amount of money in your possession. Now I see, you have been planning this for a long time, and thank god your plans didn't work," Laura added.

"Please, Laura, explain what's happening. I’m so confused right now. I’ve never done anything to this company that could be considered fraud, my effort and hard work has increased this company stat in the market, how on earth will I think of something that evil, let along commit it?" Nathan protected his words itching with innocence but Laura cared less.

Laura instructed the police to stop dragging him outside, then she moved closer to Nathan.

“So you still don't know what you have done or how you have done it, you liar," Laura glared at Nathan with her hands crossed across her chest.

"Yesterday, while going through company transactions, I discovered a huge sum of money had been siphoned from the account—and it traced back to you. I guess you failed to clean the tracks as well, luckily you can't you bastard. Why do you think your computer disappeared? It was seized by the police for investigation and that's why they saw the proof of the missing funds which you have embezzled," Laura explained coldly.

Nathan's heart pounded in disbelief. None of what Laura was saying made sense. He hadn’t done any of it. He was completely innocent.

"I swear, I haven’t done any of the things you’re accusing me of. Please, you have to believe me," Nathan begged again, but Laura turned her gaze away.

Laura raised her hand dismissively and gave a sharp command to the officers. "Take that criminal away."

Nathan was locked in a cell for days. They fed him only once the entire time. He felt like dying, his stomach starched with his intestine and his bones show from his skin.

After some days, Nathan was seated on the bed of the cell and his back relaxed hopelessly on the dirty wall of the prison, the cell door creaked open, and a policeman—accompanied by Laura and her mother, Jessica stepped in.

Nathan rose from the bed he was seated on and staggered to the bars, gripping the cold iron with trembling hands. His voice was hoarse.

"Please, I swear I haven’t done any of what you’re accusing me of. You have to believe me," he pleaded.

Jessica's eyes burned with fury. "How do you expect us to believe you when the evidence is right there? Everything leads back to you. And don’t you dare call it coincidence—it’s not," Jessica snapped angrilly.

"You’re not getting out of this cell unless you return the money you stole in full," Laura added, narrowing her eyes. But before Nathan could respond, Jessica cut in.

"Shut the hell up. This is the perfect time to divorce this bastard. He’s of no use to us anymore."

"Yes, Mother. That’s exactly what I was thinking. And fortunately, I brought the divorce papers with me," Laura said with a smirk.

She reached into her luxurious High fashioned hand bag then pulled out the divorce papers, wrapped in a ribbon. She shoved them toward Nathan.

"Sign the damn papers. I’m done with you. Let’s see how you survive out there without my financial help. After all I’ve done—sheltering you, feeding you—and this is how you repay me, didn't blame you anyways, I blame myself towards everything," she hissed.

"Sign it before I tell the officer to beat you again," Laura added, her tone loud.

Nathan, who was dumbfounded and confused with a broken heart, took the papers with shaking hands and signed them. He handed them back in silence, and Laura collected it in a scornful way as if the spot at which Nathan had touched would affect her with a zombie virus.

"Good. Now listen, I don't want to ever see you anywhere close to my house again, that's if you come out Alife from this prison," Laura sneered then laughed scornfully.

Jessica, her mother nodded in agreement. "Who knows if he’ll ever repay what he stole, indeed he's gonna rot here, hehehe" she said, laughing cruelly.

After the scornful words from their mouth that had shattered Nathan's heart into pieces, the two women turned and walked away.

Nathan stood in silence, watching them leave, something gnawing at his gut. They were far too composed for people who had just lost twenty million dollars, and they were acting like it's just ten dollars missing. Immediately Nathan senses something off.

“Could I have been framed?” he thought to himself.

“But why?”

Tears slid down Jordan cheeks.

The next day, Nathan sat hunched on the cold floor of the cell, his stomach growling, a warning for staving. He clutched it weakly, his voice barely audible as he yawned in pain and hunger.

"Even a glass of water... anything…" Nathan begged, his voice below his chest.

Just then, the door creaked open, and a police officer entered the cell.

"Hey, you. Get up. You've been bailed. Take this food and eat it, so you won't die here, even though you wanna die, die somewhere else," the officer's commanding tone sounded, throwing a loaf of bread and Nathan’s shirt on the floor.

Nathan scrambled for the bread, grabbing it with both hands and devouring it like a starving animal. It was dry and tasteless, but he didn’t care. He just needed something in his stomach.

After eating, he picked up his shirt, put it on, and stepped outside the cell.

"You’re lucky the money was recovered. Otherwise, you'd still be rotting in there," the officer said casually.

Nathan’s eyes narrowed. Something didn’t add up. Recovered? How?

“There’s no doubt... those bastards planned everything,” Nathan muttered through clenched teeth.

"What did you say?" the officer asked, turning, after hearing some whispers from Nathan's mouth.

Nathan forced a grin. "Nothing, sir."

Nathan wasn’t ready to risk being tossed back into the cell hellhole by repeating what he had muttered.

Nathan was discharged soon after and wandered through the dark streets of Atlanta. Rain began to fall as storm clouds gathered above him, the rain got worse and Nathan's body was entirely wet, the cold creeping into his bones.

"Shit... I’ve got no place to go. What now?" he muttered, his voice lost in the wind.

Soon Nathan found shelter under a bridge. Soaked and shivering, he hugged himself tightly to warm himself.

And just then, Nathan heard a speeding sound of a vehicle from a distance and when he turned, he saw a black SUV speeding toward him and stopped within a short distance away from him. The doors burst open, and three masked men jumped out, their hands tightly gripping a raffle.

Nathan bolted upright as soon as he noticed this, his body frozen in fear.

As he tried to run, the guns were cocked and aimed at him. Nathan stood motionless, his whole body trembling.