THE UNDERDOG BILLIONAIRE

knock knock

Dominic nervously knocked on Mr. Gregory's office door. His heart raced with anxiety as he did, not knowing what to really expect. He had been thinking about this moment for weeks but never had enough courage to do it. He stared at his shaky hand and held it down, his heart pacng irregularly as he struggled to settle down his breathing.

"Come in," came the rapsy irritated voice of Mr. Gregory, Dominic's boss. Dominic took a deep breath as he entered the office. He walked further in and met with a pair of brown eyes. He averted his gaze from them and kept his eyes to the ground about five meters from where he stood. "G-... good morning, sir. May I have a word with you?"

Mr. Gregory looked up from his papers, a hint of annoyance in his eyes. "What do you want, Dominic? Make it quick."

Dominic swallowed hard, cold sweat slowly appeared on his forehead as he managed to say his next words. "Well.... sir, I-... I need to ask for a pay raise." he blurted out with as much courage he could muster. "What?" 

Mr' Gregory replied with a hint of amusement in his tone. "Well sir, as you may know... my mom is quite ill, and the medical bills are piling up. I need to help her and my pay check isn't quite cutting it right now."

Mr. Gregory snorted. "A pay raise? You think you deserve one? You're barely doing your job as it is."

Dominic felt his face heat up with shame but he fought through it and continued speaking. "But, sir, I've been working hard for three years. I gave my all to this job and there has never once been a complaint of negligence or laziness from my side. I deserve a chance—"

Mr. Gregory cut him off, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, poor little Dominic. His mom is sick, and he needs more money. Well, let me tell you something, kid. Life's not all sunshine and rainbows. You're lucky to even have a job at all."

Dominic felt his anger rising, but he bit his tongue burying the anger as deep as possible. He needed this job, no matter how much he hated it. 

"Please, sir. At least just consider it for now, you are literally my only hope. I'll work twice as much if you want but i need that raise," Dominic pleaded.

Mr. Gregory leaned back in his chair, a smirk on his face. "Tell you what, Dominic. I'll give you a pay cut instead. And if you don't like it, you can leave. Right now."

Dominic's eyes widened in disbelief. "What? A pay cut? No, sir. Please—"

Mr. Gregory had enough of his sulking and angrily slammed his fist on the desk. "Enough! Enough of your whining Dominic. You are lucky I don't fire you on the spot. You should be on your knees thanking me for not firing you. Now get out of my sight before i change my mind!"

Dominic felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes as he left the office, his head hung in shame. He couldn't believe his boss had humiliated him like that. He already predicted the refusal but had chosen to hope that his predicament would at least give him a bit of empathy from Mr. Gregory.

He was now in an even worse mood as he got a pay cut instead. Dominic finally got to his desk and leaned back in his chair, his mind drifting back to about two weeks ago when he had suddenly found his mom passed out in her room, her fist tightly gripping her chest.

Dominic rushed her to the hospital where she was diagnosed of Restrictive cardiomyopathy. A very rare heart disease and would cost $30,000 for her treatment. "Where the fuck am i gonna get $30,000?" Dominic whispered under his breath, depression slowly seeping in. 

He decided to brush the depressive thoughts away by delving his mind fully into his work. And after about a few hours, it was lunch time and he decided to go over to his fiancee's desk and invite her to have lunch with him. Sophia is truly the only person keeping him sane at this point.

As he walked over to her desk, he saw his boss talking to Sophia. His brows creased as Mr. Gregory actually seemed to be with flirting her. His heart sank. What was his boss doing with her? And when did they even get this close?

Suddenly, his boss laughed and put his arm around Sophia's shoulders. Dominic's anger boiled over as his possesive side subconciously kicked in, clouding every other rational thinking of his.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Dominic demanded as he hastily approached them, his fists clenched. Mr. Gregory sneered at him. "Oh, Dominic. Sophia and I were just discussing business and i stopped to admire the beauty that has been around me for so long.... how have i not noticed it?."

Dominic's eyes narrowed as his jaw worked, trying to control his rising anger as his boss gave Sophia looks that annoyed him. Sophia on the other hand was obviously uncomfortable but didn't move away from Mr. Gregory shocking Dominic. She knew she couldn't exactly go against Mr. Gregory as she also needed the job. "Business? but it's lunch time now and i don't think it's appropriate for you to have your arms around MY fiancee"

Mr. Gregory just chuckled. "Jealous, Dominic? You should be. Sophia is a really beautful and yet hardworking young lady. I actually came here to invite her to join me for lunch, I bet she'd rather go with me to a high class restaurant than the shabby old joints you take her to."

Dominic's anger was on the verge of exploding but he held back and accepted the jab. Focusing his attention to Sophia, he said, "Soph, come on. Let's go." but Sophia didn't move, instead she slowly averted her gaze from him, to the tiled office grounds. "Ha ha ha. You really think Sophia would go with you? You can't even afford a better life for yourself and you want to take care of a beauty? Your mother is such a poor unlucky woman. She'll die waiting for you to pay off hospital bi—" 

Dominic couldn't bear it anymore and his anger exploded. He lunged at his boss managing to deliver a punch as his fist connected to Mr. Gregory's jaw. Mr. Gregory stumbled backwards and fell to the ground while sophia stood there in shock. Dominic didn't stop there and straddled Mr. Gregory as he continued administrying blows to his face, letting his anger boil over.

"Dominic, please stop this. Dominic." Sophia did her best to stop Dominic but he didn't get off Mr. Gregory and so she called security. They managed to pry Dominic away from Mr. Gregory.

"Beat him up! Beat that fool up! How dare that filthy street rat raise his fist to me. Me!" and with that, they began hitting Dominic, all three security men made sure he was well beaten up and bruised before he was thrown out of the company like a bag of beans.

Dominic was barely breathing at this point as he could only see red. His nostrils was filled with the metallic undenyable smell of blood. As Dominic lay on the sidewalk, battered and bruised, he saw his boss holding onto an icebag which was placed at his forehead, a smug look on his face as he stood by the window, laughing at Dominic.

Dominic felt completly defeated. it'd been over two weeks now since his mom had begun treatment for her restrictive cardiomyopathy and he is yet to pay her hospital bills. 

If he doesn't gather up more money quickly then his poor mother is sure to be thrown out of the hospital. Thinking of this, Dominic had no energy left in him to keep fighting as he had his fists clenced tightly. Mr. Dominic is right anyways. As much as it pains him to admit, he will never be able to gather up enough money to pay off the hospital bills. Unless a miracle happens. 

Now he obviously lost his job and only source of income. What a life. 

Just then, a fleet of black cars surrounded him, and a man in a black suit stepped out and walked over to where he lay. The man crouched down to his level and he could finally see his features. The man seemed to be in his early 50s with a few wrinkles behind that tender smile and no grey hair in sight.

"Young master, I've finally found you," he said, with a bow.