The Abandoned Son

"You are sixteen years old now. During the summer break, you're able to start working full-time. I have found a job for you. You'll start work next weekend." The speaker was Zoe Torres, the aunt of Demetrius Goodwin.

Demetrius had no parents.

Zoe Torres told him his parents abandoned him. The man Jerome Brewer was kind enough to adopt him when he found him lying in a blanket on a park bench.

When Demetrius was seven, Jerome Brewer died suddenly from a work accident, and Demetrius was brought by Zoe Torres, Jerome Brewer's wife.

She is a woman whose life of poverty has been tormented, and she has become harsh.

Since Demetrius was ten years old, he had to work various jobs to help financially support this family.

She cut the cake, fed it to her son, and cut it for herself, then pushed the rest, sneered, and said: "Today is your birthday; I reward this cake for you."

Demetrius Goodwin did not eat. He knows she's not nice enough to buy him a cake for his birthday, it was the birthday cake for the neighbour's boy this morning, and she left it in the fridge.

He doesn't want to eat other people's cake and then fool himself into that he is like so many children loved by their families.

For the past ten years, he had never known what it was like to celebrate a birthday.

It was strange that she remembered his birthday.

Demetrius asked what full-time job she mentioned and what time it started.

"Make shoes ten hours a day." Zoe Torres calmly said: "It takes a long time to convince people to agree, don't be picky. Work well for me. You don't have a bank account, so I use my bank account, and the money is paid into mine. This is how you pay for my upbringing. After all, you've been eating and drinking at my house for many years."

Demetrius Goodwin did not speak, returning to his room.

The night was the same as usual; he cooked dinner and then slept in the storage room.

In the room was an old and pitifully small wooden bed. When he lay down, his legs were wholly left out. Besides, there was only a closet and a table and no windows.

He called this the storage room because it was used to store things when he was a kid. At that time, inside the room were styrofoam boxes piled on top of each other. Later, those boxes were moved outside.

Early the following day, Demetrius went to the construction site to work on clearing bricks.

He is paid fifteen dollars for an hour of work, but not every day is there brickwork for him to do. It takes a few days for a project to be built, and they want to hire him, a cheap source of labour.

No one knew that Demetrius had cherished the dream of becoming a doctor because Demetrius did not want to reveal it. With his current living conditions, it was just a distant thing. It is not necessary to tell others to receive ridicule.

When Demetrius got home, he was drenched in sweat, and he thought to himself how much money he should keep before giving most of his earnings to Zoe without letting her get mad.

Now, he needs money to buy a new bag and glasses. His bag was tattered and almost unusable, and his glasses were broken a week before the summer break.

He felt very distressed because of what happened.

Demetrius had a girlfriend named Acevedo, a pretty girl, and he fell in love with her at first sight.

Fortunately, they progressed to a smooth relationship for half a year.

Last month, a rich guy appeared unexpectedly at the gate of Demetrius' high school. Then he starts actively flirting with his girlfriend.

Demetrius and Acevedo began to conflict, and quarrels ensued. Their relationship showed signs of fracture.

One day, Demetrius was walking home from school when a group of people stopped him. He saw Finlay, the rich man who hired thugs to beat him.

Finlay stepped on his hand, saying: "Let go of Acevedo, nerd; she deserves a better person like me! You're just trash!"

After saying that, he and the other thugs started laughing. Words of scorn and contempt that Demetrius couldn't quite remember began one after another. Then, they left Demetrius with his pale hand and broken glasses. And the very next day, Demetrius received Acevedo's breakup.

The first love that he thought would last forever ended like that.

Thinking about it, Demetrius approached the house door, but he found there were whispers of many people who surrounded his home. Demetrius faintly heard two words supercar.

And through the gap in the crowd, Demetrius saw a car that, as he knew it, was a Rolls-Royce. At that time, he only saw luxury cars on TV or in magazines; in this poor town, no luxury car had ever stopped by.

A man in a luxurious suit was talking to Zoe Torres. And then, he handed her a bank card, haughtily: "Here are a million dollars for his upbringing. From this day on, Demetrius has nothing to do with you, understand?"

Zoe Torres took his bank card and couldn't stop smiling, "Understood." As she turned her head, she saw Demetrius, her face beaming with joy, "Demetrius, you got a godsend."

The man saw Demetrius' figure, his brows furrowed tightly as if he didn't expect Demetrius to be a skinny boy wearing an old, faded shirt, and his body was covered in graves smelly, unspeakably dishevelled, in his eyes a glint of disgust so evident.

He opened the car door, trying to hide the contempt in his eyes, "Young master, let's go home."

But that disdain was not hidden in his tone.