The General's Forgotten Son

Chapter 2

Benjamin spun to meet his gaze, dauntless.

"No, you're the dog here," he snapped. "hanging around other people's women!

James Sterling's blood boiled instantly. He'd never been insulted like this. As someone from one of the prestigious families in the city, he carried himself with a sense of untouchability.

"Are you mad!!" He bellowed.

His hand shot out like a whip and landed clean on Benjamin's face. The impact thundered across the restaurant.

TAAA!

The Patrons gasped. Securities and staff members were already moving to stop the scene before it would spiral out of their control.

Benjamin didn't take his time to nurse the pain on his cheek before he retaliated.

His hand moved through the air fast, landing on James' arrogant cheek.

TAAAA!!

James stumbled back two steps and paused in shock. His palm pressed on his cheek as though he was contemplating if he had just been slapped.

The restaurant gasped again.

The restaurant fell into a fleeting silence while the tension flared. Red marks slowly bloomed across James face likewise Benjamin.

"Did..did you just slap me?" His voice trembled, anger morphing into rage. His fist trembled at the side, ready to strike at Benjamin. "I am going to kill you bastard!"

"I'm going to kill you bastard!"

Juliette jerked up from her seat. She dashed to Benjamin in anger mixed with concern beneath the surface for James.

'James is going to hurt himself laying his hand on that miserable Benjamin who was used to suffering.' Her thoughts.

"Are you crazy, Benjamin!"

Her arm went up and came down fast, landing on Benjamin's face.

Benjamin stumbled back one step, holding his cheek, his eyes flashing with a mix of shock and disbelief. He looked at her with the same expression still plastered across his face and blinked.

"You..just slapped me? Juliette?"

Juliette loomed over him, panting. Her eyes darkened with anger. "Are you surprised? Or you didn't get it? I will do that over and over again you piece of shit."

She continued, her voice louder.

"Do you know who he is? Do you know who you just slapped? You're finished."

The surrounding noises drowned Benjamin's ear. His ear rang with a disturbing frequency.

His eyes tunneled to the woman he had been in a relationship with for three years, the same woman who had smiled at him during their lovely moments together, the same woman who had looked at him with desire and love burning in her eyes, but that woman was gone, replaced with someone else— cold as ice.

"What..why are you doing this, Juliette? Why? His voice cracked like glasses shattering.

"Why?" She sneered, her lips twisted in disgust. "Because you're broke. You are a living corpse. A living man is someone who has money, fame and connections! But you, you have nothing! Not even a future."

Benjamin's jaw parted in shock, her statement piercing through his heart like arrow shots, stinging more than the slap and the entire rejection of the day.

"Over my dead body will I settle for that kind of man."

Benjamin blinked in shock. "You're.. doing this because I'm poor?" His voice was devastatingly pitiful of a man breaking. "I'm trying.. they're not just taking a chance on.."

"Trying? That's pathetic, Benji." She sneered. "Oh, you really thought I was going to marry you? That I was going to be in that Coop sharing watery soup with you when I have the chance to walk away from your miserable life and live large?"

Laughter rang across the restaurant. Phones were out, snapping the entire humiliation.

Benjamin couldn't speak. His leg suddenly became heavy, his eyes blurred with tears that he held back from dropping.

Smash!

A bottle of champagne came down hard on his head. The bottle burst into shrapnel and liquor, clattering and splashing to the floor.

A sharp pain tore through his head. He reeled backward, planted his palm against the table to balance his posture.

Benjamin stood at the centre of laughter and light and humiliation, cold liquor dripping down his head.

James loomed over him with the broken piece of bottle, his lips curled into a cruel satisfying smirk.

"Look at him dripping like gutter water." His shoulder shook with a deep laughter.

"Babe, Oh my God! Look at your hand." Juliette gasped in panic. She dashed to him, touching all over his body for any sign of injury even when it was Benjamin who was hit on the head with the bottle and bleeding.

"We need to leave, Benji." Desmond pulled his shoulder back firmly. "We need to leave this place."

Juliette cast him aside, hovering over another man. At that moment, he realized Juliette never loved him.

Even when he was struggling, he made sure to give her weekly money. $100 dollars every week—$400 monthly. It was meager but it was everything he could scrap juggling odd jobs together, burning leftover energy working small freelancing gigs at night.

He never left her side when malaria brought her down on the hospital bed. The necklace he gifted her, the one she always said was too cheap and pretended to dislike, was the one around her neck for another man.

Benjamin was living in penury while giving her everything she demanded.

Benjamin wanted to say everything to her face, but It won't only hurt more.

"You will regret this." He swore inwardly, but it tasted like ash.

Regret? How will he make her regret cheating on him when he's just a nobody the city was rejecting.

Without any words, with a wounded heart, with laughter, liquor and blood washing down his head, he turned and walked out of the restaurant.

That was the 11th rejection that stung more than everything.

The evening breeze hit his face like a slap. His face bloomed with finger marks, blood and liquor tangled in his hair.

Desmond was behind him, saying something he couldn't register properly.

Then his voice came with minimal clarity,

"I'm sorry... she's not worthy of you." Desmond said, trying to console him. He felt guilty in one way. He regretted asking Benjamin to come over to the Grand Palace in the first place. Maybe all of this wouldn't have happened. Maybe.

But Desmond understood better that either now or later, Benjamin was still going to find out. The difference is— how deep the hurt would be.

By 8pm, Benjamin was back to his cramped world of a single room with a bandage wrapped around his injury. The door clicked behind him and silence settled around him.

He stepped in further and paused standing a few distance from the bed. A memory flashed in his head.

Juliette's laughter while sitting on that bed with him, she promised their love to be unbreakable while sharing watery noodles with him.

He felt a sharp pang of pain in his chest.

His eyes went to the bed where a photograph was. Benjamin and Juliette were smiling, hands entwined at a beach during a vacation.

Was everything just a joke? Had she not been with him.

The more he looked at the photograph, the more hurt he felt.

He took the photograph and ripped it apart and allowed the pieces to fall to the ground.

Desmond came in at exactly 8:30pm with a food flask.

He sat down on the edge of the mattress, setting the flask on the floor beside his feet. He didn’t force conversation right away... just let the room breathe for a second.

"Eat something, man," Desmond said quietly.

Benjamin didn't answer, his eyes fixed on the wall.

Desmond glanced down at the shredded photograph scattered near his boots.

"She's not worth it, Benji," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "Seriously. I saw everything you did for her. She used you—“

He paused, letting the heavy truth sit in the room before continuing.

"You just have to accept it for what it is now. Take the L, learn the lesson, and move on. She was never good enough for you anyway."

Benjamin stared ahead for a moment, then gave a slow, tired nod. "Thanks, bro." His voice was rough, barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, well, don't go passing out on me," Desmond said, giving him a firm nudge with his shoulder. "I’m not trying to carry your heavy ass to the clinic."

A small, exhausted breath escaped Benjamin’s nose... not quite a laugh, but close.

Desmond reached down, popped the lid off the flask, and the steam from the warm rice drifted into the small room. He thrust the container toward him.

"Here. Eat," Desmond said, setting the flask right on his lap.

"I'm really not hungry," Benjamin mumbled, turning his head away.

"I don't care," Desmond replied, nudging the container closer. "You look like a walking ghost. Eat the food before it gets cold, or I'm eating it myself."

Benjamin looked over at him, one eyebrow pulling up. "You're relentless, you know that?"

Desmond laughed, giving his shoulder a firm shake. "Just trying to make sure you survive the night, man. Now eat."

Benjamin shook his head, looking down at the warm rice as a genuine smile touched his face. "You're insane, man.”

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