Wishes and riches.

Taa!

Taa!!

Taa!!!

"Haven't I warned you never to touch anything that belongs to me or my husband?"

The sound of the slaps echoed throughout the half-empty hall like a thunderclap, causing everyone to look in their direction.

This was the seventh time Alex Waynee, the family maid, had been slapped today.

His face burned red hot with anger as he glared viciously at Iris Douglas.

"What do you want to do..uh…do you want to slap me back?" Iris Douglas's voice is heard as she holds Alex Waynee by his shirt and lands him another hot Slap."

Taa!

"That serves him right…beat him up… that good-for-nothing bastard." The voice of Lady Karen Douglas was vehement as she ran towards the scene with Donald Douglas, her favorite grandson.

Iris Douglas was pulled away from Alex Waynee by her husband. Alex Waynee stood up, his shirt all rumpled from the struggle, and he gazed around, as tears wells down his eyes.

Shit!

He couldn't find Sandra Douglas, his fiancée, anywhere around.

"I have told you several times that you are no longer welcome here…go back to the orphanage you came from." Her eyes glinted with venom as she spoke viciously.

"Alexander!" Donald Douglas' voice breaks through. Since he was the eldest son everyone respected him, and silence came upon the room as his voice came through.

"I will advise you to do as my grandmother said…Janet rejected you for Tyler Wells and soon your Sandra…will also leave you for either Jose Louis or Jack Osborne…truly you have no place here."

He said as he twitched his nose in irritation.

Alex Waynee gazed at everyone, he was like a lone sheep surrounded by many hungry wolves, each person's gaze piercing through him like a predator sizing up its prey. 

The weight of the world seemed to press down on his shoulders, making him acutely aware of his vulnerability in that sea of unfriendly faces.

"The man who adopted you is dead and long buried…so go back to the slums he picked you from."

"You are really a loser… you know that… how did you ever think you could come from nowhere and become part of this highly esteemed family… I mean look at you, you are nothing but a poor bastard."

Lady Karen's voice was hoarse, her face laced with disgust.

That last statement shocked Alex Waynee to his bone marrow, he couldn't take it as tears well down his eyes controllably.

He ran out towards the door, his eyes darted on the one he first loved, Janet Douglas, she immediately turned her eyes away, and he sped past her and ran to the only place he found peace in the whole of whistling meadows.

"Wait!!! You forgot your smelly handkerchief. Iris Douglas holds his handkerchief up with the handle of a mop stick, with a peg on her nose.

Everyone bursts into laughter as she mocks poor Alex Waynee.

—------------------------------------------------------

Stopping fast in his track, Alex Waynee yanks on the gate of the garden park.

Shit! The gatekeeper was gone.

With tears in his eyes, he retrieves a spare key and opens the garden park. He had made a spare the day Mr Parker left him the keys and went home.

The garden was serene, only the harmonious sounds of the birds filled the air, their melodies weaving together like a soothing lullaby that transported anyone who listened to a tranquil dream-like state.

Rushing to the wishing well, he gazed into it, teardrops from his eyes falling freely in the deep well, rippling the water's mirrored surface as though each one had a wish in it.

"I really don't understand why Lord Jerry Douglas would take me off from the orphanage and bring me here, I was better off at the orphanage."

"I wished I was really rich and influential… I will step on all who humiliated me." His voice was laced with sadness.

"All this wouldn't have happened had my parents not died in that accident that night."

"Master Alex Wayne!" A voice suddenly broke the silence in the garden.

"I have been searching all over for you."

Alex Waynee turned in shock. Standing before him was a man whom he only had childhood memories of, he was dressed in a black Saint Brioni suit, his cover coat flickering in the wind.

"What are you doing here? haven't Lord Luthor caused me enough pain already… and don't pretend, I know all the story." Alex Waynee's voice was hoarse, his eyes gazed at the man standing in front of him.

"Master Alex Wayne, I brought bad news…Lord Luthor Wayne is dead." 

He said as he knelt, removing his cap, he bowed down to Alex Waynee.

"Wait! grandfather is dead?" Alex Waynee says tears welling down his cheeks.

"His last wish was that you return to the Waynes immediately for your safety."

"A good friend of yours leaked your whereabouts to me…I and your grandmother, Lady Margaret Wayne, have been searching for you since the day we found your parent's body at the site of the accident." He sighs deeply.

"Am deeply sorry for your loss…but…you must return with me at once to the Wayne's for your protection." He lifts his face and gazes straight into Alex Waynee's eye.

"What do you mean, my protection?" Alex Waynee says, his voice tremulous as he paced around the garden.

"The same night your dad and mom fled the mansion… all your uncles and their sons were assassinated, making you the only…"

"Living heir to the Waynes global empire's wealth," Alex said, still pacing around, his face smeared with trepidation. 

"Master Alex! You really have to come back to the Waynes…"

"No way… the mansion where my uncles and my cousins were murdered…what of Ray, was he killed too?" His voice was tremulous.

"Sadly! Yes… not a single heir survived."

"I really can't go with you back to that house, not until I have found the one who is behind all this." His voice is Ortund.

Eric Raymond, his grandfather's butler stood up.

"Lady Margaret Wayne said you wouldn't agree to come…at least not yet… so she insisted you have your grandfather's premium elite card… it has access to over 100 million dollars…" stretching out his hand to Alex Waynee.

Alex Waynee turns his back on him.

"What's the meaning of this… is this Lady Margaret Wayne trying to make up for all the years the Waynes had left to suffer…to be humiliated like a dog by nobodies?" Anger reeked all over him.

"I assure you that is not the case… master Alex… but you need these funds to survive while you and I figure out the culprit behind the murder of the Wayne's…I suspect the accident that took your parents lives was planned?" Eric Raymond is now sitting on the well.

"But by who?... You know what, I will have the access card… I have some payback to do." His face glinted as he smirked.

"Not just that, Lord Luthor had purchased almost all the companies back at Beethoven clove and the popular Elvis global empire was purchased 2 days ago by Lady Margaret Wayne in your name… these are the documents." He says as he hands over a file to him.

"Also, Lord Luthor Wayne insisted you have his Elite smartphone, it's the only one in the country, it has all the number of the most influential people in whistling meadows, Beethoven clove and across the country… any call placed from this phone is treated with utmost urgency and respect."

"I also came with a VIP pass to the best hotel, where you will now be living and some Rolls Royce just in case you want to travel.." 

"How many Rolls Royce did you say you came with?" Alex Waynee asks, his eyes furrowed in astonishment.

"Just 14, Master Alex."

"Just 14, Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to do with 14 Rolls Royce…open a car stand?… that wouldn't be necessary…I will just keep the elite card, the smartphone and the documents."

"Your number is here right?"

"Yes sir."

"That would be all, I appreciate… Who did you say, told you about my location again?"

" A dead man." Eric Raymond said laughing as he made his way out of the garden park.

Moments later…

Alex Wayne is running towards the venue where the Douglas family had their end-of-the-year party, he could hear the voice of Sandra Douglas screaming, it was as though someone was beating her.

Oh my God!

Sandra, what have they done to you?