RISE OF THE FORGOTTEN HEIR

Chapter 2 - Rock Bottom

The rain had finally stopped by morning, but the weight on Ethan’s chest remained heavier than ever. He woke up on a cold concrete bench in a deserted park, his clothes still damp and soaked with mud from the night before. His body ached from the fall outside the hotel and from sleeping in an awkward position. The small velvet ring box sat in his palm, the diamond inside now dull and scratched. He stared at it for a long time, remembering every sacrifice he had made for Sophia.

Three years..Gone just like that? He asked himself.

He slowly sat up and looked around. The city was waking up. People in clean clothes hurried to work, cars honked in the distance, and the smell of fresh coffee drifted from a nearby stall. Everything looked normal. Yet for Ethan, the world had ended last night.

He checked his phone. The screen was cracked but still working. Dozens of notifications flooded in. Most were from strangers. The video of his humiliation had gone viral. Someone had titled it “Delivery Boy Proposes to Billionaire’s Daughter – Epic Rejection.” It already had over two hundred thousand views. Comments poured in.

“Bro is delusional.”

“LMAO look at that cheap ring.”

“Poor guy thought he had a chance.”

Ethan’s stomach turned. He closed the app quickly. His hands shook as he opened his banking app. Balance: forha three dollars and twelve cents. That was all he had left after buying the ring.

He forced himself to stand and began walking toward the delivery company warehouse. His shift started in thirty minutes. Work was the only thing he had now. If he could just keep moving, maybe the pain would stay buried.

The warehouse smelled of diesel and sweat. As soon as Ethan stepped inside, the manager, Mr. Reynolds, called him over. The man’s face was cold.

“Cole. My office. Now.”

Ethan followed him, heart sinking. The small office had a desk covered in papers and a wall full of security monitors.

Reynolds did not waste time. “I saw the video. Everyone has. You made the company look like a joke. Customers are calling, asking if all our drivers are desperate clowns.”

“I can explain,” Ethan said quietly. “It was personal. It will not affect my work.”

“It already has.” Reynolds slid an envelope across the desk. “You are fired. Effective immediately. We cannot have someone like you representing us.”

Ethan stared at the envelope. “Please. I need this job. I have rent due in three days.”

Reynolds shrugged. “Should have thought about that before embarrassing yourself on camera. Security will escort you out.”

Two guards appeared at the door. Ethan took the envelope and left without another word. Outside, the morning sun felt too bright. He walked to his tiny apartment building on the edge of the old district. The landlord was already waiting at the door.

“Cole. You are two months behind. I gave you extra time because of Sophia, but after that video last night, I cannot risk it. Pack your things. You have until tonight.”

Ethan did not argue. He went upstairs to the single room that had been his home for four years. The space was small: a worn mattress on the floor, a broken chair, and a few clothes hanging on nails. He packed everything into one old travel bag. When he finished, he sat on the mattress and looked at the photos on his phone. Pictures of him and Sophia. Smiling. Happy. Or so he had thought.

Tears came then. Hot and silent. He cried for the boy who had grown up in orphanages, always unwanted. He cried for the man who had believed love could change his fate. He cried because he had nothing left.

By evening, he was on the street again. The old travel bag felt heavy on his shoulder. He wandered aimlessly until night fell. Hunger gnawed at him, but he had only enough money for one cheap meal. He bought a stale sandwich and ate it on the curb.

That was when the debt collectors found him.

Three men approached from the shadows. Ethan recognized the leader immediately. He owed them two thousand dollars from an old loan he had taken for Sophia’s birthday gift last year.

“You thought you could hide forever?” the leader growled. “Time to pay up.”

“I do not have it right now,” Ethan said, voice tired. “Give me a few more weeks.”

The first punch came without warning. It landed hard on his jaw. Pain exploded across his face. He fell to the ground. The men kicked him repeatedly in the stomach, ribs, and back. Each blow sent fresh waves of agony through his body.

“This is interest,” one of them laughed.

They took his travel bag and the little money he had left. When they finally walked away, Ethan lay curled on the dirty pavement, blood trickling from his lip. He could barely breathe. The pain in his body was nothing compared to the emptiness inside.

Why keep fighting?

The thought came uninvited. Dark and tempting. He had no family. No friends. No future. Sophia’s words repeated in his head. “You are poor. You have nothing.”

He stared at the night sky. For the first time in his life, Ethan seriously considered ending it all. He could walk to the bridge a few blocks away. One jump and everything would stop. No more humiliation. No more pain. No more pretending he mattered.

He closed his eyes and let the tears flow freely.

Minutes passed. Maybe hours. The cold eventually forced him to move. He pushed himself up with great difficulty. Every part of him hurt. But something small and stubborn refused to die.

“Not tonight,” he whispered to himself. “Not like this.”

He limped through the dark streets, searching for any dry corner to sleep. His mind drifted back to childhood memories from the orphanage. The older kids who beat him. The couples who never chose him for adoption. The constant feeling of being forgotten.

Was this his entire life? Just one long cycle of pain?

He found shelter under an old bridge. The ground was hard and cold. He lay down, clutching the scratched ring in his fist. Sleep came in fragments, filled with nightmares of Sophia’s laughter and Daniel’s sneer.

When morning came again, Ethan woke up feeling empty but still alive. His body was bruised and swollen. Hunger clawed at his stomach. Yet a tiny spark of anger had begun to grow beneath the despair.

He did not know it then, but this was the lowest point of his life. The moment just before everything would change.

For now, all he could do was survive one more day.