THE RISE OF JAKE MILLER

Chapter 1

Outside the bustling Grandview Hotel in the heart of Riverside City, Jake Miller received a surprise call from an unknown number on his old, worn-out phone.

“Good evening, Mr. Miller, I’m Barrister David Smith, the new lawyer in charge of your inheritance. The previous lawyer had a major emergency to take care of, and as such the case had to be reassigned.”

Jake had an expression of confused annoyance. He was confused because he had no idea that his father had even left a will and annoyed because he was in a hurry—he needed to make a delivery.

“Sorry uhm…Mr…Smith, for what reason have you put this call through to me?”

“Mr. Miller, I’d like for us to meet in my office whenever is convenient for you, You have an inheritance whose details I wouldn’t want to discuss over the phone.”

Jake let out a derisive laugh and assumed they must have gotten the wrong person.

“I’m sorry to put it to you Mr. Smith but you have gotten hold of the wrong person. Do enjoy the rest of your day.”

“Uh…Mr. Miller if only you would meet with…’’

Jake didn’t let him finish before he hung up. His time was not going to be wasted by some person who could most definitely be a crook and posing as a lawyer.

He let out a string of swear words as he looked at the time. Only fifteen minutes left for him to make the delivery.

At least someone was getting takeout, while he was here riding in the hot sun.

He arrived at the hotel room barely making it in time and knocked.

“Who is it?” A voice from inside came ringing.

“Delivery. This is room 306, right?”

The door swung open, and a man was standing beside it. His face was filled with disappointment.

“Good day, sir. Here is your order, you just have to sign here,” Jake said, indicating a spot.

“What took you so long, you idiot?” The man said while looking at Jake irritably.

“I'm so sorry, sir. I…” Jake wanted to explain but was interrupted by a familiar female voice.

“Babe? What is taking so long? Who's making all that noise?” She asked the man.

Jake looked up sharply to see who exactly that was, because that was indisputably the voice of his girlfriend, Melissa.

He saw a beautiful woman wearing a sexy robe on the bed.

She got up and began walking towards them.

Jake was shocked, and he couldn't help but gasp out loud, accidentally dropping the takeaway.

“Melissa!” Jake called out.

“Williams… Babe!?” She froze midway of hugging Williams from behind when she heard Jake's voice. “Jake? What are you doing here?”

“Takeout, your orders I presume. What are YOU doing here, Melissa, and besides, babe?”

Williams quickly realized Jake was Melissa's boyfriend, giving him a thorough look.

Jake, not too big but good-looking, was wearing a delivery guy's uniform. His tan skin as a result of working under the sun, added to his appeal.

Despite their affair being exposed, Williams stayed composed, knowing Jake was just a struggling college student.

Eyeing Jake, he spoke casually, "Delivery guy, huh? Well, you're interrupting something here.” He turned to Melissa and then asked, “Baby, you guys know each other?”

“Yes, we do.”

“OH!’’ William said, turning back around sharply and extending his hand “A friend of Melissa’s is a friend of mine.”

Jake was stuck between a feeling of betrayal and righteous anger. “Friend? It’d really be nice if you stayed out of this and not assume anything. Melissa is my girlfriend or so I thought, but obviously she should belong in the streets.”

Melissa’s head was bowed in shame but on hearing the last words that Jake said, she snapped her head up and flicked her hair.

“Belong to the streets? What a joke. You are the one who should belong to the street because I doubt if you have been able to pay up your rent. You expect me to stick with you when you can’t even take care of me. I have to wait literally a million years to get as little as two hundred dollars from you. How am I supposed to even survive on that?”

Jake was dumbfounded, William just found all of it funny and was stifling a laughter.

“Melissa,” Jake said gently, “ I thought we were in it for the love, I thought you understood what I was going through, you know all about me losing my parents, you were my greatest support or was all of that a pretty show to you? You got to act?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Jake. Is it for love? I’m sorry but this isn’t charity, relationships have to be funded. And besides that is what you get for being a mama’s boy or a daddy’s boy, whichever one you were, you don’t make plans for yourself and depend solely on your parents, now, they are dead, you have nothing else to do right? Poor you, Jake.”

“How could you say that Melissa? How could you be…”

William cut him off mid-sentence and put one hand in his pocket holding the other up in front of him.

“Enough of the drama for one day. If you are too miserable to take good care of a lady like Melissa, then you should let her go for other people like me to do that.” With that he held Melissa by the waist and kissed her, She kissed him back and laughed into his mouth.

“Poor Jake, don’t cry. Can you just let us enjoy our takeout and I’m sure you have other errands to run.”

“Oh! That? He even ruined the takeout by dropping it to the ground.”

Williams sensed the frustration in Jake's eyes, he then turned towards Jake and said, "You messed up my dinner, pal. I could get you in trouble for this." He did that to infuriate him further.

Melissa scolded Jake, "Just say sorry and leave, Jake. It's not worth it."

Unable to tolerate the humiliation, Jake stepped forward with a clenched fist and was ready to beat up Williams.

Williams sensed trouble and backed away nervously.

Melissa intervened and blocked Jake from approaching him. “What do you think you're doing?

“Call the security!” She urged Williams and shut the door in his face.

Jake turned and walked out of the hotel. He was aghast and ever so safely got to the sanctuary of his small apartment. He said work could go to hell and didn’t return there.

He couldn't care less right now. If the last source of his strength and the reason why he went on all this was a pretentious slut, then what was the point of everything?

He was bemoaning his fate and a few tears had begun to roll down his face.

Then, out of the blue, he got a message that shook him. His bank account just received an alert of 5 million dollars! He thought it might be a joke or some mix-up with someone else's money.

He was still deep in thought when all of a sudden, he heard an aggressive knocking on his door.