Chapter 2

Richardson went back to sit beside his mother after a few minutes and decided to send his girlfriend a text message.

His whole day had been really terrible, from running around to gather money for his mother to getting soaked in the rain, and the amount of degradation he had to go through here in the hospital before his mother finally got attended to.

He wanted to talk to his girlfriend, because she makes him so happy.

Alice was a bubbly girl that was very good looking, and he sometimes questioned himself if he was even worthy to tag himself as her boyfriend.

On getting no response from his girlfriend as well, the dejected feeling only worsened and churned around in his completely empty stomach.

He decided to scroll through his girlfriend’s social accounts because he had nothing else to do right now.

On opening his I*******m, he realizes that she had uploaded a couple of photos of herself in a luxurious looking party.

She looked stunning as expected in those shared photos, and looked so much like she belonged in that kind of atmosphere, with how her choice of clothes didn’t make her stand out.

Richardson puffed out a small breath and ran his fingers through his hair as he kept staring at the pictures she had uploaded.

He hated the fact that he’s unable to give Alice this kind of luxurious lifestyle. He feels sorry over the fact that he couldn’t give her a wealthy life like she obviously deserved.

She deserved nothing but the very best, Richardson thought to himself as he left I*******m and shoved his phone back into his pocket.

Richardson cradled his head in his hands and puffed out a deep breath. He was grateful that his girlfriend was still yet to leave him.

He was glad that Alice was still sticking to him, despite him being extremely poor.

He finally lifted off his mother’s bed and brushed a soft kiss against her cheek, as he made his way out of the ward.

———

Richardson was too poor to afford a car, and had to walk in the drizzling rain all the way to the train station that night.

He suppressed a shiver as a wave of icy breeze swept over him as he waited for the train along with some other people.

A chubby girl slowly approached him, and he tried to force a smile on, because he wasn’t a rude person.

Before the girl could say a thing, her friend was tugging her hand and leading her away from Richardson, but Richardson didn’t miss the girl’s friend’s quiet admonishment.

“What are you doing? Does he look like he has money?”

His heart clenched in his chest and he turned away from their direction to stare down at his worn out shoes, while trying not to let that girl’s comment get to him.

Richardson thought of one of the thousand things his mother used to tell him each time he got consumed with this feeling of dejection.

‘Smile, Richardson. There’s going to be a very bright light at the end of the tunnel.’

She’d say to him while hugging him and pressing warm kisses into his hair until he’d feel all his problems and worries melt away.

His mood managed to lighten a little and he took the window seat in the train while listening to an old song his mother was really obsessed with when they were together.

He wished things would return to the way they once used to be.

Even though they were never rich, at least his mother was perfectly fine.

He thought to himself as he lost himself to the song playing loudly in his ears.

On arriving home, he got stopped by his neighbor who wanted to gush about her crush liking her back.

Richardson felt like he had too much on his plate right now, but couldn’t bring himself to not share in his neighbor’s excited feeling.

After all, his neighbor named Stacy, has talked to him about this same thing a few times when they hung out.

He bid her a goodnight and made his way into his apartment.

He was once again occupied by thoughts of his Alice, his girlfriend when he randomly remembered the fact that he had promised to get her a really expensive bag which she had been vocally obsessing over.

Richardson knew he was nowhere rich to afford that bag right now, even if the price gets divided into ten places.

But, he’s hoping he'll get promoted the day after tomorrow.

He has been working on a project for over six months, and he’s hoping he’d be able to live up to the chance he was given.

If the project ends up being a success, he is going to end up becoming a partner of the company, which is more than huge.

It’s going to completely change his life and he was very sure of that.

That’s why he’s hoping for the very best. He wants to make his girlfriend, who is a trainee in the same company, really proud of him– and getting promoted in the company is a very great start.

Richardson believed everything would turn out for the better for him, if his project ended up being successful, and he headed for his bedroom.

The enlarged picture on his bedside table was of him and Alice, and they both had wide grins on. A soft smile tugged at Richardson’s lips as he reminisced over what took place the day they had taken that picture.

It was one of the countless moments in his life he wished he could relive.

After he managed to scrape a little dinner together, his mind returned to his ongoing project as he got lost in his thoughts.

~~~

Alice was having a lot of fun, her phone was raised high above her head as she recorded herself dancing with her friends, for her to upload on her socials later.

She had no thoughts in her head right now, except alcohol running through her veins and how stunning she looked in the red dress she had on.

The amount of men currently eying her up was proof enough that she was drop dead gorgeous, and she soaked up all the attention.

After all, they could see but couldn’t touch.

She was about to throw another shot down her throat when her phone pinged as a sign of an incoming message, which she decided to check immediately.

Her mouth fell open in shock with her eyes widening comically as she stared down at her phone unblinkingly.