“Where am I?” Rome mumbled, staring around the room, then his sight rested on an elderly-looking man with smoky-grey hair and a white goatee.
With calmness in his eyes, he smiled at Rome and said, “You are at my house. I'm Mr. Ford by the way.”
“Mr… Fo-rd. I…”
“It's okay, kid. You don't have to fear me.”
Doubt clouded Rome’s feature when he stared at Mr. Ford and thought, 'Don't fear you! You order your men to beat the crap out of me! Do you take me as a fool!’
For a second, Mr. Ford took his gaze off Rome and placed his focus on a picture frame. Then he took it off the dresser and showed it to Rome.
“Do you know the person in this photo?” Mr. Ford asked.
“Why do you have a picture of me as a kid?” Rome mumbled, feeling goosebumps on his skin.
“My son!”
“Your what?”
Thinking Mr. Ford had gone mad, Rome began running over escape plans in his head.
“You don't remember your father?” Mr. Ford asked, smiling brightly with tears in his eyes.
“I have a father, and he's not you. Now with that said, I will be on my way.” Rome intoned, throwing the blanket off him.
“How come you remember your name and not me?”
“Because of a stupid recurring nightmare that I have every night from the time I was a boy till now.”
“What nightmare?”
“Everything is fuzzy in the dream except the person's voice, and I think they were talking to me. They kept shouting, ‘Run, Rome! Run, and don’t look back! So I decided to call myself Rome.”
Watching Mr. Ford burst into tears, Rome felt awkward seeing a grown man cry, and he didn't know if he should comfort him or take the chance and run. But he didn't have the guts to do either of those things, so he sat there, waiting for Mr. Ford to stop crying.
“That was me! I was the one telling you to run, Rome. On an unfortunate night, my enemies storm this very place and murder your mother.” Mr. Ford said, clutching his fists.
For an unknown reason, Rome felt his heartache when he heard those words, and even though he still had no memory about Mr. Ford and this mansion, he sensed a feeling of familiarity.
“Your wife is dead. I am so sorry.” Rome mumbled.
“She's not only my wife. She's your mother. We fought a great fight that night, but your life would have gotten endangered if you had stayed in this place that night, so I told you to run away.” Mr. Ford said, staring Rome in his eyes.
Yet he could tell that Rome was still in doubt about the words he had said, but Mr. Ford was sure that he had found his long-lost son.
“This father that you speak of is he your biological father?” Mr. Ford asked.
“No, he found me after I got hit by a car, and the driver drove off, leaving me there to die,” Rome said, realizing that there's a possibility that he could be Mr. Ford's son.
“This is all my fault. I have failed you as a father. I tried finding you after I had destroyed the ones who took your mother's life, but my search was in vain. Son, let me make it up to you!”
“DNA test,”
“Huh?”
“I want a test done to clear my doubts since I still don't have memories of you and everything you just said.”
There was an awkward pause, then Mr. Ford burst into a peal of laughter.
“Yes, I will go call Dr. Lincoln right now!” Mr. Ford shouted.
Then he patted Rome on his arm and ran out of the room.
“What a cocky old man. One minute he's trying to get me killed, and the next, I am his son!” Rome mumbled, getting off the bed.
Feeling a bit curious, he went around the room, searching the drawers and cabinets, then he came across a picture frame hidden in one of the dresser drawers.
“Who is she?” Rome mumbled, staring at the lady in the photo.
Then the frame dropped from his hands and smashed onto the tiles.
Tears began to roll down Rome's eyes, and his hands started to tremble uncontrollably.
When Mr. Ford returned to the room, he met Rome sitting in the corner, crying bitterly. Then he looked away from the picture and stared at Mr. Ford.
“Mom has died. I saw it all that night. She laid in a pool of blood. Why did I have to remember? I don't want to remember her in that state!” Rome mumbled, hugging himself tightly.
A while later, Dr. Lincoln came to the mansion and did a thorough checkup on Rome.
“He suffered from Dissociative amnesia. Rome's brain blocked out the memory of his mother's death, leaving him unable to remember important personal information.” Dr. Lincoln said, staring at Mr. Ford.
“You must have suffered so much. I am a terrible father.” Mr. Ford said, tearing up again.
‘Why does he love crying so much? It's so weird. I don't remember him being this pathetic when I was little.’ Rome thought, darting his eyes around the room.
After Mr. Lincoln had taken a sample of Mr. Ford and Rome salivas, he left the room, leaving them alone.
“My son is finally back! I have an heir again. I think it's time for me to retire.” Mr. Ford said.
“What?” Rome asked.
“Well, you don't expect this old man to continue running the companies at such an age. I want you to take your rightful place as my heir and manage my multi-billionaire dollars businesses.”
“I…”
“I know you still have a lot to catch up on. But you are a fast learner. I can't believe you still know the moves that I taught you. Takeover from your father, huh.”
After an awkward silence, Rome glanced up at Mr. Ford with a mischievous smile.
“Okay, but under one condition,” Rome mumbled.
“Anything. Name it.” Mr. Ford said.
“Do not make my identity public.”
“But why? I have hoped for this day for so long. Why can't I tell the world that you are my son?”
A sly smile crept upon Rome's lips as he stared at his father and said, “I still have a few scores to settle.”
The car was silent as Orlando drove Rome back to the Barlow mansion.A few distances away from the fence, Rome tapped Orlando on his shoulder, and he jumped in fear.“How can I help you, young master?” Orlando shouted, hunching his shoulders.“Stop me here,” Rome mumbled, leaning back on his seat.Without any hesitation, Orlando stepped on the brake and turned the car off.When Rome got down, Orlando pushed the car door open and rushed out. Then he got down on both knees and rested his forehead against the ground.“Young master, forgive me. I was stupid for attacking you in the past. This humble servant needs to be punished!” Orlando cried out loud.“Punch me and we can call it even,” Rome said, staring down at him.When Orlando lifted his head and saw in Rome's expression that he wasn't kidding, he felt even more afraid.“Young master, I can never lay a hand on you.
Early that morning as the Barlow family sat at the dining table, having breakfast, Roland remained standing likealways.He wasn't allowed to eat with them since Madame Rosey considered him to be a worthless son-in-law that didn't deserve to eat expensive meals that he had not workfor.“Catherine,” Mr. Barlow said, gently laying his fork down on the plate.“Yes, grandfather,” Catherine mumbled, looking away from her food and focusing on hiseyes.“Take your husband to the company and find something useful for him todo.It will diminish the Barlow family reputation if people find out that your husband is nothing but a househelp.”“Yes,g
Although Rome wanted to walk over to Catherine, he remained in his seat and patiently waited without taking his sight off her.After crying in silence for a while, she wiped her face, grabbed her purse, and approached Rome.“Let's go,” Catherine said, softly sniffing."Are we not waiting for Mr. Jeffrey?" Rome asked, staring into her watery eyes.“No,”“What about the contract?”“I didn't get it, okay! Can we just go home?”Inside, Rome felt annoyed that Catherine was hurting, but he kept a calm expression and slightly nodded his head.Then he left his seat and both of them walked out of the hotel.When they got to the car, Rome offered to drive, and even though Catherine felt skeptical, she allowed him to.They drove in silence the entire ride, and when they finally reached the Barlow mansion and the car came to a stopped, Catherine suddenly covered her face w
The morning breeze blew the leaves of the sidewalk as Blake walked to the bus stop. The moment he sat down on the bench, three black Limousines drove towards the bus stop and stopped in front of him. Then Mr. Orlando got out of one of the first cars and approached him. “You are Blake, right?” He asked, sitting down on the bench. “Yes, is there a problem? Did I offend Mr. Ford?” Blake mumbled, hugging his bag tightly. “Why would you think that?” “Because there are rumors that say, ‘if Mr. Orlando visits you then you are in trouble with Mr. Ford.” “Well, that's true. But I am not here because of my master.” “Huh?” The color drained from his face as he stared wide-eyed at Mr. Orlando and saw that he had a smirk on his lips. “My young master wants a word with you.” Mr. Orlando said, with a straight face. “Who? Mr. Ford has a son?” Blake asked, sounding more afraid than shocked. “Y
When Mr. Orlando, Blake, and Rome arrived at Mr. Jeffrey's office, his secretary gazed away from the computer and stared at them with an unbothered expression.“Mr. Jeffrey is busy. So expect you have an appointment, you guys should come another time.” He said, placing his focus back on the keyboard.Anger settled on Mr. Orlando's face, but when he gazed at Rome calm expression, he knew not to act without an order for his young master, so he kept silent.“Hi, I know we don't have an appointment with Mr. Jeffrey, but I have something urgent to tell him. So can you inform him that Lady Catherine's husband is here to see him?” Rome said with a half-smile.“Seriously, I'm not going to repeat myself. So you guys should leave.” The secretary said, typing aggressively on the keyboard without staring at Rome.A soft sigh escaped Rome's lips as he gazed at Mr. Orlando and slightly nodded his head.“Excuse me,
The evening at the Barlow mansion was calm, but there was so much tension around the table as the family sat down for dinner.“Grandpa,” Catherine said, barely able to contain her excitement.“What is so important that you can't wait for dinner to be over? Can't you see that father is eating?” Dana, Chloe's mother said, glaring at Catherine.Gazing at Dana and her daughter, Rome faintly smiled when he saw the rage in their expression.It was clear to him that Mr. Jeffrey had turned Chloe down and given the contract back to his wife.“I just wanted to tell grandfather that Mr. Jeffrey came to my office today, and we signed the contract for the five million dollars projects,” Catherine mumbled, sighing softly.The fork fell from Mr. Barlow's hand and he gazed at his granddaughter, smiling with his eyes.“But how? He sounded so mad yesterday when he called me.” Mr. Barlow mumbled.&l
Two months went by naturally and during that time, Rome had watched Catherine's cousins avoid her, treating her like an outsider just as their parents did to her.But she found a new friendship with him, and both of them became a bit closer than before.Although they were far from acting like a married couple, she felt a bit at ease around him and that was more than he could ask for.That morning when Rome rolled over in bed, his hand touched Catherine's arm, and he slowly raised his eyelids and stared at her.‘I can't believe we've been sleeping in the same bed for a week now. All thanks to that cold I caught last week.’ Rome thought, staring at her long lashes.Suddenly, Catherine's eyes opened, and they stared at each other for a while. Then she got out of bed without saying a word to him.“Good morning, wife,” Rome shouted, staring at her back.Without replying, Catherine rushed into the bathroom and
The taxi stopped at the old railway on lane street, and Rome got out of the car. Then he waited for the driver to drive off before he approached the black Land Rover Defender and got in. “Good morning, young master.” Mr. Orlando said, gazing at Rome from the front seat. “Morning,” Rome absentmindedly replied because his entire thought was on getting Catherine those accounts and figuring out a way to go about it. The driver drove off, and a few minutes later, they made a stop at “Entourage Men Wear,” and Mr. Orlando and Rome headed into the building. The clerk rushed over to them and slightly bowed. Then he raised his head and said, “Your father had already made a call to us. Your outfit is in the VIP room. Please follow me, sir.” “This is Jerry. He has been responsible for master wearing for a long time, including yours, when you were little.” Mr. Orlando said, staring at Rome. “I can remember.” He replied, smiling at Jerry. Th