Rise Of The True Heir

The exam hall door slammed shut behind Richard as he rushed in all sweaty causing all the heads in the hall to turn and the condescending whispers started. 

"Look what crawled in."

"Slum rat's back."

"Did someone forget to fumigate?"

Professor Hayes looked up from his papers, and his lips curled instantly into a sneer

"Mr. Chen Richard!" The frown on his face deepened with each passing statement. "You're late again. "

Richard kept his head down, walking to the back row. His uniform was clean but faded. The scholarship badge on his chest felt like a target.

"Rough night in the gutters?" Hayes continued, drawing laughter from the front rows. "Or did you have to walk here because the bus fare was too expensive?"

More laughter slithered through their lips.

Richard was popular in school but for the most unfavorable reasons.

Richard pulled out his pen. The exam paper was already face-down on his desk. Three weeks of studying for this moment and it was almost blown up by his employer, Terry Simpson. 

His family always worked with them since he remembered, his father their gardener before he passed and his mother their cleaner while he worked as their driver.

They humiliated them, going even to the extent of beating them with each passing mistake that they made.

But they had to endure because they needed them to survive and when he got his scholarship into the university, he thought everything would end but it was just the beginning. 

Terry, their only son, also got admitted and he had to become a chauffeur and also, a humiliation target for him and his friends.

His phone buzzed, it was Terry with his harsh messages.

"Mr. Chen." Hayes' voice cut through the hall. "Throw that piece of junk away now!"

The screen lit up. Terry Simpson flashed across it like a death sentence.

Richard's throat went dry.

The phone rang a third time.

"That's it." Hayes stood up. "Out."

Richard stared at the screen. Terry Simpson. The young master who owned his life, his mother's medical bills, his future.

He answered.

"Where are you?" Terry's voice was lazy, bored. Like he was asking about the weather.

"I'm in my final exam—"

"I don't care about your little scholarship games, I need a ride now and your scholarship wouldn't exist to anyone if I don't get one right this moment. Besides, you also have a wretched piece of junk you call mother."

The line went dead.

Richard sat frozen. The entire hall was staring at him. Hayes was walking toward his desk, red-faced and furious.

He thought about his mother, what they did to her the last time he disobeyed, putting the poor window in coma for weeks.

His hands clenched tightly and rage burned deep into his spine but he was helpless. 

Richard stood up.

"I have to go," he said.

Hayes laughed. "Of course you do. Once a servant, always a servant."

His steps were followed by laughter as he stepped off from the hall and got a cab towards the address that was just beeped to his phone. 

******

The Meridian Hotel's side entrance reeked of expensive cologne and expensive suits.

It was obviously a place that someone like Richard didn't fit in with his faded outfits. And with his person that passed by, he got a disgusted glance and a glare of irritation but he didn't care. 

Terry Simpson leaned against his black Porsche like he owned the street. Designer suit, perfect hair, the kind of smile that had never been told no and standing next to Terry was Bella.

Hi Bella. Ex-Bella. 

The girl who'd broken up with him two weeks ago because she was "tired of eating instant noodles."

She was wearing a red dress that cost more than Richard's monthly salary. Her makeup was flawless and her hands tightly wrapped around Terry's spoilt prick. 

"You're late, dog." Terry tossed the car keys at Richard's feet. "Pick them up."

Richard stared at the keys on the concrete. His hands clenched into fists almost instantly and then he bent down and picked them up.

"Open the door," Bella said. She didn't even look at him.

Richard walked to the passenger side and pulled the handle, the picture of his mother still firm in his mind.

Bella approached, then stopped. She looked down at her designer heels, then at the small puddle near the car.

"I can't step in that." She pointed at the water. "It'll ruin my shoes."

Terry grinned. "Richard, be useful. Get down."

"What?"

"You heard me, hands and knees. She needs a stepping stone and you could be useful with your life for words."

Richard's blood turned to ice. "I'm your driver. Not your furniture, I could easily get you a stool if you need one!" Richard flashed a frown at them, unmoving. 

Terry's smile disappeared. "Where do you buy your audacity from, Richard? Do they sell it in the slums now?"

Bella laughed. "He thinks wearing a clean shirt makes him equal to us."

"Your mother," Terry said quietly. "Room 302 at City General. The machines keep her alive. The Simpson Medical Foundation pays those bills." He stepped closer. "How long do you think she'd last if I made a phone call?"

Richard's breath caught.

The image of his mother's pale face flashed in his mind. The beeping machines. The monthly bills with numbers that made his head spin.

His fists clenched so tight his nails drew blood.

"Don't bring my mother into this."

"Then know your place."

Richard closed his eyes. Every muscle in his body screamed resistance but his mother i***a to cause them to release, pain arched deeply into his chest.

He dropped to his knees.

The concrete was cold and rough. His uniform pants soaked through immediately.

"Good boy." Terry patted his head like a dog.

Bella stepped forward. She placed one heel on his shoulder blade, digging in as she climbed into the car.

Richard bit his tongue to keep from crying out.

"Drive us to Club Neon," Terry said, sliding in beside her. "And don't scratch the paint."

Club Neon pulsed with bass and neon lights.

Richard waited in the parking lot for four hours. Watching rich kids stumble in and out. Checking his phone for updates from the hospital.

His mother had sent a voice message earlier.

"Don't work too hard, baby. You're going to be somebody important. I know it."

He played it three times.

At 2 AM, Terry and Bella stumbled out, reeking of alcohol and expensive perfume and the obvious stench of stupidity around them as always. 

"Give me the keys," Terry slurred, holding out his hand.

"Sir, you've been drinking... it's not proper for you.."

"It's my car!" Terry snatched the keys. "Get in the back!"

Richard had no choice.

Terry gunned the engine. The Porsche screamed out of the parking lot, moving dangerously into the lens.

In the front seat, Bella unbuckled her seatbelt while Richard was made to watch and shift multiple times uncomfortably on his seats.

He could hear the slumps of his hard d**k in her mouth, the girl that told him she was a virgin and was trying to keep it that way until her wedding day.

Terry's moans filled the car, his sensing reaching a climax at the detriment of their lives. And then it happened, what Richard had feared the most.

The car swerved violently.

"Terry, watch the road!" Richard shouted.

Through the windshield, he saw an old man crossing the street. Grocery bags in his hands.

"STOP!"

Terry looked up from Bella's head in his lap. His eyes went wide.

He yanked the wheel violently but it was already too late.

The sickening crunch of metal hitting bone echoed through the night.

The old man crossed over the hood, smashing into the windshield before tumbling onto the asphalt.

The car screeched to a halt and the silence that followed was deafening. 

But Bella's screams broke it.

Terry sat frozen, staring at the cracked windshield. The alcohol seemed to evaporate from his system, replaced by pure terror.

"I... I killed him."

Richard jumped out, running to the front of the car. The old man lay motionless in a spreading pool of blood.

"Call an ambulance!" he yelled.

Terry climbed out of the driver's seat. He looked at the body. Then at Richard.

The terror in his eyes vanished, replaced by cold calculation as he heard the hums of the police sirens from a distance. 

Terry grabbed Richard by the collar.

"You were driving," he said.

The words weren't a question. They were an order.

"What?"

"You killed him, Richard." Terry's voice was steady now, authoritative. "Everyone saw."

"Are you insane? I was in the back seat!"

"Who's going to believe you?" Terry smiled. "You're a slum rat. I'm a Simpson."

Before Richard could even think, two police crowd pulled over, and two police officers walked onto the scene

A crowd was already gathering on the sidewalks, cameras flashing to take records of the events, reporting as live journalists. 

"What happened here?" The lead officer demanded.

Terry pointed at Richard, his face a mask of traumatized innocence.

"My driver," he choked out. "He was speeding. I told him to slow down, but he wouldn't listen!"

Bella caught on immediately. "It's true! He's a maniac! He hit that poor man!"

Richard turned to the crowd of witnesses. "Tell them! You saw who was driving!"

The bystanders looked at Terry. At the Simpson family crest on his jacket. At the Porsche with its custom license plate.

In this city, crossing the Simpsons meant losing everything.

One by one, they lowered their heads.

"The kid's right," a man muttered, pointing at Richard. "The guy in the cheap clothes was behind the wheel."

"Yeah," another voice chimed in quickly. "I saw it too."

"His poverty must have got him thinking.". Someone added.

"For me, I think he was jealous and tried to kill the rich kid."

The live streams were blowing up at the moment, comments piled on comments. 

"I can't believe that...I. have always said that people with poor backgrounds shouldn't be allowed on our streets."

Richard felt the world tilt and his eyes almost rolled off from their sockets.

The officer pulled out handcuffs. "Hands behind your back, son."

Cold steel closed around Richard's wrists.

Terry watched with satisfaction as they loaded him into the police car.

Through the rear window, Richard saw his phone light up with another message from his mother.

"Sweet dreams, baby. Tomorrow will be better." A future that was about to be snapped away from his hands forever.