The Worthless Son-In-Law's Trillion Dollars Secret

Romeo's Point of View

The soapy water was cold. The past two decades were cold, but I continued scrubbing because Mrs. Chen was against dirty grout. My knees would be resting on the roughness of the tile in the bathroom, and there was a piercing pain in my lower back, which I had been taught not to complain about. No one was engaged in the sufferings of Romeo.

I slipped the brush again into the bucket and struck the grout line between the floor tiles. Mrs Chen, In an hour would visit this bathroom, and in case she spotted a single spot of dirt, she would force me to repeat the process. The three years of married life had taught me what perfection just precisely resembled in her eyes and it was something I was never able to achieve. Still, I tried.

This morning it was quiet in the mansion. Mr. Chen had been at his office trying to turn around his crumbling company, Margaret had been at a costly salon getting her nails done and Emma was still sleeping in the upper bedroom. The bedroom was the opposite end of the hall of mine, except that mine was not a bedroom. It was a closet where somebody had hid a mattress and it was the type of room where I felt as if I was fading away a little bit each day.

There was a vibration called out in the bathroom. I was a second to know that it was my phone ringing. I tumbled to get it in my pocket and I wet the garment of my old jeans with bubbles of soaps. Nobody ever called me. My phone was not functioning much, just a backup that I needed in case of an emergency that never materialised. I did not recognise the number displayed on the screen.

I was not sure how to respond, then my wet finger was floating above the phone. There was something within me that told me against taking this call. But I was curious, and curiosity was one of those few things that I possessed.

"Hello?" It was not as deep as I wished it was.

"Romeo Martinez?" The other man was the one with the calm and firm voice. He was like a person who was accustomed to giving orders and people listening to what they have to say. "Is that you?"

"Yes," I said slowly. "Who is this?"

"My name is Vincent Shaw. I have something to tell you that will alter your whole life. He stopped, and the silence increased the heart beat. It is your birthday to-day, isn't it? Your twenty-eighth birthday?"

There was a tighter grip on the phone in my hand. How would this stranger have known my birthday? How did he know my name? Interrogatives burst out like shots in my mind. I got up on wobbly legs on the floor of the bathroom leaving wet footprints on the tile.

"How do you know that?" I asked. My voice was barely a whisper.

Since your grandfather has informed me. He had informed me himself when I was to call you, before he died. The man took a breath. Romeo, you are not really Romeo Martinez. Or is it, but that is not all you have to tell. Your life has things that you do not remember. Objects that were stolen from you.

The bathroom began to feel as though it was too small. I got out into the hall and my wet feet left footprints on the expensive carpet that Mrs. Chen was likely to reprimand me on in the future. But that sounded like a minor thing before the words this man was uttering.

I do not understand, I said, but I was lying. A part of me knew quite well. It was something that I always knew was wrong with my memories. At times I would experience flash images of images that did not make sense. A small boy playing to fight in a big room made of wood. Men consuming costly suits discussing money and power. One of the gentle-eyed men who addressed me differently. I had always believed that the pictures were dreams or fake beliefs my poor mind had created in a bid to avoid my reality.

I was calling to tell you that your life as you know it is over, Vincent Shaw said. I would like you to meet me at the headquarters of Phoenix Empire downtown in eight hours. You will see it all when you get there. You will remember everything you have forgotten.

"Phoenix Empire?" I had heard that name before. The Phoenix Empire was well known to everybody in the city. It was a billion and billion-dollar company that was the strongest in the whole region. The type of joint Romeo, the janitor, would never dare enter, all but to clean the bathrooms.

"Yes. Take a taxi. Ask for the penthouse floor. Ask for me." He paused again. "And Romeo? Get rid of that ancient phone when you get off the phone. You will get a new life after to-night, and you will not need the old one any longer.

The line went dead.

In the corridor, I was holding my phone which was dead and it was dripping the water onto the floor. It was as though my brain was going in ten different directions. Was it some sort of a sick joke? Was someone fooling the useless son-in-law? Vincent Shaw had known about my birthday, however. He was privy to things that no one is.

"Romeo?" It was the voice of Emma, coming down the stairs. She expressed an irritated sound, such as she ever had when forced to address me. Why do you make so great ado? Some of us are trying to sleep."

I am sorry, I called back automatically. I had already apologised numerous times that it was as though it was my real name.

I looked down at my wet hands. The soap bubbles had not disappeared. I had just a few minutes ago been cleaning a bathroom, and now a stranger was informing me that none of the things in my life were real. That I had lost the knowledge of my own identity. The fact that I had a deceased grandfather. It was that I had something to do with a company that was worth billions of dollars.

My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might break through my ribs.

The clock on the wall showed it was 9:47 in the morning. Vincent Shaw wanted me to meet him in exactly eight hours and thirteen minutes. At that time, I had to figure out how to leave the mansion without anyone stopping me. I had to somehow get to Phoenix Empire headquarters. I had to prepare myself for whatever came next.

But as I stood there, dripping and confused and afraid, I realized something else. Something that Vincent Shaw's phone call had awakened inside me. Deep in my chest, underneath all the fear and doubt, there was a tiny spark of something I hadn't felt in three years.

It felt like hope.

I walked back to the bathroom to finish cleaning, but I left my phone on the shelf. I wouldn't need it anymore. Everything was about to change, and I was about to find out who I really was.

Tonight, at 5:47 PM exactly, my real life will begin.