4. I owe them five hundred thousand dollars

His eyes widened for a second, then he regained his composure.

“Umm, can I make an instalment payment? I do not have the full amount at the moment” He only had ten dollars to his name at the moment. Where was he to get five hundred thousand dollars from? Sebastian thought to himself

“Come with me to the counter to process the necessary documents for instalment payment.” The nurse replied.

They went down to the counter. As Sebastian was filling in the necessary details, a lady walked in, looking in Sebastian’s direction. She looked at what he was doing, wrinkled her nose and asked,

“Who dragged a dead dog in here?”

No one responded or acknowledged her presence. She stomped her foot on the ground and yelled in a loud screeching voice,

“How dare you low-lives ignore me?” The nurse looked up at this point. She didn’t recognise her still but on scanning her outfit, she was donned in limited edition wear from head to toe. If she could afford to dress like that, she must not have a simple background.

The nurse stepped out and apologized politely, “Sorry miss, pardon our oversight. How may we help you today?”

The lady ignored the nurse and looked straight at Sebastian who was busy filling the forms. She continued; her tone condescending,

“Tsk, tsk, tsk such poor reception from a hospital under my dad. All for what? This dog filling in the forms?” She turned to the nurse “Do you not know how to distinguish weed from wheat?”

“Forgive our misstep miss, we are at your service…” The lady didn’t let the nurse finish, she walked straight to Sebastian, picked up the forms he was filling and tore it to pieces!

Sebastian looked up at her with disinterest in his eyes. He had had enough of this cliché drama from the rich. It was the same script over and over again, it seemed they all went to the same school or crammed the same lines and steps of action. Even if they wanted to mock him for being poor, what happened to a little originality? He thought to himself.

He did not regard the lady, he looked straight at the nurse, “Please may I get a new form?”

The nurse glanced at the lady who was glaring at her and remained rooted. She wasn’t sure what to do next, after all a word from the lady could get her fired. Sebastian sighed aloud and rubbed his hand on his face.

“I will return later to continue with the procedure then” Sebastian turned to leave

“Who said you could leave?” The lady said

Sebastian ignored her and kept walking towards the door.

“Where is the manager of this hotel?” She asked with a wild shriek that could wake the dead. “Is this how you let nobodies steal from me early in the morning?”

Someone walked out of an office, bowed deeply to the lady and said, “Good morning miss Anna, welcome to Crescent hospital. How may we serve you today?” The manager recognised her immediately.

She pointed a finger at Sebastian, “Stop that thief at once!”

The manager signalled the security and they stopped Sebastian from leaving. Sebastian turned, he glared at the manager and Anna, whom he was looking at clearly for the first time since she started making a scene that morning. Did they not see he was not in the mood and that he was grieving? He was certain Anna knew, given that she initiated the chain reaction of all that happened yesterday and she was Leonard’s girlfriend, not to mention her family background, which allowed her to know anything in mere seconds if she wanted.

Is she trying to cover the shame of him seeing her making out with some other dude?

He breathed in and breathed out.

He walked to the manager, “May I ask why I am being stopped, sir?” Completely disregarding Anna’s identity.

Anna piped up, “you are trying to run from the hospital bills obviously”

Sebastian spoke directly to the Manager without regarding Anna, “If I were a thief, I would not be filling the instalment payment form with my sensitive details. If I were a thief, I would have moved my family out of the hospital long ago. Why would I run knowing that they would be trapped here?”

Anna spoke up, “If you are not a thief, pay the bills here and now, otherwise the patients will be thrown out of the hospital this instant!”

Sebastian looked at the Manager and the manager sneered at him, “Please kindly pay the bills, sir”

“I do not have the full amount at hand, give me the instalment payment form, and let me fill it. Hopefully, this time it will not be torn to shreds.” Sebastian shrugged.

“Choose wisely Manager, I don’t need to tell you the consequences of crossing me, do I?” Anna crossed her arms on her chest and glared pointedly at her.

The manager swallowed hard and turned to Sebastian, “If you don’t pay the bills right now, I will throw your family on the road, half dead or not. Maybe they are already dead?” Sebastian’s mouth twitched a bit at the last thing he said but the manager continued,

“I will equally call the police. Maybe you can convince them to pay instalment bail” The manager finished with a sarcastic tone.

Anna smiled, clearly pleased and looked down on Sebastian. Sebastian was angry, a cold air was emanating from him.

Since he was a freshman, Anna had always picked on him for the strangest reasons. When she thought he was a rich heir in disguise, she wouldn’t stop fawning over him and giving him suggestive looks but when she had to face the bitter reality that he was a poor commoner who entered such a prestigious university through scholarship, she made his life miserable any chance she got.

He was half certain that she deliberately lured Leonard to the parking lot to make things difficult for him she slapped him and left, knowing fully well Leonard’s temper.

Anna snickered, “Do you want to hit me, Seb?” Anna stepped closer to him lowering her voice. “If you want to make me regret it, you need to have more going for you than cold stares and washing cars. And this is a warning, if you say a word of what you saw this morning, I promise you I will crush you with my mere fingers” She smiled chillingly.

Sebastian smiled chillingly and fixed a stare at her, gradually throwing caution to the wind, forgetting that this was what led to the fight in the parking lot yesterday - refusing to submit.

Anna was taken aback a bit by the look in his eyes.

Sebastian’s phone rang out with a notification, breaking the silence.

He brought it out, and looked at the message that was displayed on the screen:

“Dear Guerriero, your first task will be assigned after your briefing. The task will be assigned by 2 pm.”

What was it with all the Guerriero messages? Was someone trying to scam him? They sure picked the wrong person – he was poorer than a Church rat. As this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly recalled the credit alert he saw earlier. He hadn’t processed what he was seeing then but if his memory was serving him well, the Guerriero people sent him one million dollars right?

“Let’s test their validity. It’s not like it could get worse than sending me to the station, I can bluff my way out of things if it ends up being fake.” He muttered to himself

He brought out his card from his wallet and spoke to the manager, “Where do I make payment?”

Anna burst out laughing at this point.

“How does one go from begging to make an instalment payment to asking to pay the full price? Did a credit alert come in or what? How much can you even earn in mere seconds?” She kept taunting him

“Manager, there is no need to listen to his nonsense anymore, go ahead and call the police”

“Do you want the hospital bill or not? Isn’t that the reason you stopped me just now? If not, I will quietly go about my business and you have no right to stop me or call the police on me” Sebastian said with a serious look

“How about we see the end of his act? Five hundred thousand dollars is not easy to bring out in the snap of a finger for low lives like him” The Manager coaxed Anna

“Fine.” Anna shrugged, not worried at all because she didn’t believe he had that amount of money.

The manager gestured to the nurse and she took him to the counter to process the payment. She swiped his card and the transaction was successful! The printer printed his receipt immediately!

Sebastian was not the only one dumbfounded, Anna, the Manager, and the Nurse, their eyes went wide and they remained in shock for five seconds!

Sebastian recovered first.

“I take it that we’re done here. I’ll take my leave then”. Sebastian took his receipt in one fluid movement and walked towards the door quickly, leaving the stunned group behind. He had to leave quickly before Anna had the time to think up another excuse to stop him.

Anna stared hatefully at Sebastian’s retreating figure. She hated that he was so poor and so good-looking at the same time. He made her heart race each time she set her eyes on him and that was the main reason she picked on him each time, to satisfy a guilty pleasure of hers.

If only he was truly a hidden heir, she would stop at nothing to make him hers, but alas, wishes are not horses. How did he manage to pay Five hundred thousand dollars though?

When Sebastian rounded two streets and was sure no one was following him, he brought out his phone to confirm what was happening. He was looking at his phone in disbelief. He saw the Debit alert of the transaction he just made and saw he still had a balance of five hundred thousand and ten dollars! He eyed the Guerriero messages again and a strange feeling rose in his heart.

His eyes stayed on this particular message:

“Dear Guerriero, for briefing, come to the Cozy Café at Wall Street by 8 am”

It was 7:30 am at that point. He took a deep breath, “Let’s find out what these guys are about; if not for anything else, I owe them five hundred thousand dollars”.