Gaining wealth and having everything you ever wanted at such a young age was not really heaven when you needed to deal with your past trauma and intense fear of abandonment by your loved ones. Because money might allow you to impress someone temporarily, but without commitment, the other person might suffer and leave. That was the case for Nathaniel Anderson (Niel), a narcissistic young billionaire who became the sole heir of his late grandfather's inheritance, making him richer than his own parents who abandoned him when he was just a baby. He had a long crush on Haylee Johnson, his classmate during high school. During senior year, she got into trouble and her mother chased her away from home. Being deeply in love with her, Niel rescued her and sheltered her, giving her everything he could, except for one, his love. He couldn't give his love to her for fear that she might one day abandon him. So, to make her stay, he gaslighted her unintentionally, making her thought that she would be an ungrateful person if she ever leaves him. However, being young and wild, Niel couldn't resist the temptation of having a good time and playing around with the other girls. He dated a lot of them, but nothing lasted, which convinced him even more, that the same thing would happen if he ever date Haylee. So, he decided strictly to not date her despite knowing that she loved him too. Would Haylee stay inside such a painful meaningless relationship and convinced Niel to commit to her? Or would she leave and find a better man for herself?
View MoreHaylee's POV:
"Get out from my house! You stupid bitch! Don't come back here! You're not my daughter anymore! Such an eyesore!"
I felt like that was the darkest day of my life. It was raining lightly and I was standing on the street right in front of the gatehouse looking at my furious mother. It was just a small old house inside the neighbourhood.
She turned her back on me and closed the front door leaving me outside without anything. I cried my heart out begging her to let me back in. I called her out so many times but the door won't open. She left me there in the rain, to die.
How did this day ended up so badly? This morning, my stepdad tried to molest me before I went to school. My mother had left the house earlier to do her cashier job at the supermarket. I was left alone in the house with my drunken stepdad. He was drinking last night.
The living room smelled alcohol as I walked past it to exit the house. But my stepdad grabbed my hand and dragged me to the dining table trying to take advantage of me. I was so scared of his action that I grabbed a porcelain plate on the table and hit it on his head. The plate was broken and there was some blood coming out from his head. He stopped what he was doing and touched his head. When he saw the blood in his hand, he turned into a beast and trying to attack me again violently.
Fortunately, I managed to run straight to the main door and left the house. I ran as much as I could towards the bus stop and luckily I managed to catch the bus I usually took to go to my high school.
I was completely unsettled the whole day at school. But I managed to hide my problems from my friends. None of them seemed to suspect anything. Actually, none of them knew how broken my family was.
My real dad died due to an accident when I was fifteen. We were real closed, that when he died I felt like my whole world was collapsing right before my eyes. My mother was devastated, she never worked when dad was still alive. So when he was gone, mom was put under pressure to try raising me alone. She did multiple jobs to feed the two of us. She was in her right mind until about a year ago when she met my stepdad.
They got married so suddenly and he moved into our home. That's when the nightmares happened. He was an abusive husband. He didn't want to work and he just kept my mother did all the things for him like he was a king. He drank beer a lot and he too managed to turn my mom into an alcoholic.
When I came back home from school, mom was already at home. She looked furious. Seemed like my stepdad called her to come home because I hit his head and cause it to bleed. Without asking me for an explanation, mom accused me of trying to seduce my stepdad. How could she? How could she do that to her own daughter that she had raised for more than sixteen years? Why couldn't she trust me?
She chased me out of the house immediately. I was still in my school uniform when she chased me out. She didn't give me anything. No money, no food, not even my school bag and no clothes. She did want me to die obviously.
Crying in the rain, with my mind almost gone insane, knowing that I was helpless, knowing that no one could save me, I just stood still there like a statue. Looking at the house that used to be a home for me, but not anymore.
At first, I thought that was the darkest day of my life. It did until I saw him there, walking closer towards me and stood erect right in front of me. I was so startled by his presence that I took two steps backwards to see the guy. But my vision was blurry due to the rain and because I was crying.
He was holding a black umbrella in his right hand, while his left hand was holding his cellphone. He stared at me intensely as if he was wondering why I cried so much.
"You're drenched," he said to me with his hoarse voice. Why did his voice sound familiar to me? Did I know this guy?
I carefully took a look at him. He was wearing a black Armani wool peacoat and matched it with black trousers. His noble temperance spread across the street as he took a step closer to me again. He covered me from the rain using his umbrella. He stood so close to me because he didn't want to be drenched by the rain too. He put his cellphone in his peacoat left pocket and scanning me from top to bottom, then to top again.
"Your eyes were red," he said again.
Without warning, his large hand reached my face and he wiped my tears away. He leaned his head closer to mine and examined my eyes. Strangely, his touch managed to comfort my heart. Within minutes, I stopped crying and suddenly my heart was invaded by various questions and uncertainties. Who is this guy?
After Haylee was done cleaning herself up, Niel finally brought her up to the top floor again. It felt truly uncanny when he saw her smiling, laughing and even making some jokes to him while they were inside the elevator. He felt horrible inside because he remembered what happened to her last night. The fact that she forgot all about it was clear proof that her mental health was deteriorating.They entered the penthouse again and Niel's eyes swiftly went to look at the living room. The television was gone and the mess there had been cleaned up. The food was also had been served on the dining table."Where's the TV?" Haylee asked. She was weird that the television was gone. She tried to recall what happened last night but her head felt hurt instantly. She cried out in pain while holding her head with both arms."What's wrong?" Niel grabbed her body from falling. The woman looked like she was about to faint."Aspirin..." she said and Niel helped her to sit at the dining table first befo
Upon seeing her leaving the open kitchen and entering the bedroom, Niel rushed to the elevator and went up to his penthouse again. He took his spare key card of the condo unit and went down again. He just left his laptop on the floor in front of the condo. It only took him less than five minutes to return and he quickly went into the house.The first thing he did was go to the open kitchen and grabbed all the knives and cutleries. He put them inside a black plastic bag and hid them inside a bin. Then he carried the bin and put it into a cupboard inside another bedroom. He threw a bunch of towels and a blanket inside the cupboard to hide the bin even more.Then he came out to the living room and slowly went to the bedroom that Haylee entered before. He carefully twisted the knob to check if the door was locked. It was and he just stood there thinking about what he should do next. There was not a single sound from inside and that made his heart race. He didn't know if she was okay or hu
Seeing her become speechless, Niel smirked and just walked towards his bedroom again. She was so frustrated that she grabbed an empty wine bottle and threw it toward the television in the living room. The cracking sound of the screen made Niel panic and he ran back to the living room to check on her. He saw her grab another few wine bottles and try to throw them on the television again, just like before. She was acting like a lunatic and so he quickly hugged her body from behind, locking both her arms from moving to stop her violence. "You don't know shit! You don't know what it's like to be me! You don't know shit about me! I'm fucking tired of you! I fucking hated you! I fucking hated living with you!" She shouted frantically while struggling to free herself from him. Niel grabbed her body firm and even tighter, slowly had his eyes reddened and his cheeks felt hot. He didn't know why he was so angry at her yet felt hurt at the same time while looking at her losing her sanity. Hayle
Ashley gasped in disbelief at her words. She stared at Niel and saw the change in his expression. He looked absolutely grim. But Haylee simply looked relaxed as if she was not even in trouble.'So, what would happen if Haylee fails the subject?' Niel thought. Surely, one thing led to another. She would probably deliberately fail the other subjects too so she would need to repeat the first semester. If that happens, she would be moved to a new batch of students next semester and she won't be in the same class with him anymore for the next five semesters. And if somehow Haylee refuses to repeat the first semester and quit Kingston, she could appeal to get into Hudson University for July intake. She was being clever to him. She knew how to threaten him now too. In short, Niel could not afford to kick her out of the group and make her fail the subject, or else he would be the one at loss here. Slowly he released her arm and let her go reluctantly."Exactly," Haylee said arrogantly and wal
Haylee could feel her cheeks turn hot due to the embarrassment. The hall turned silent for split seconds with a lot of eyes staring at her. Niel boldly beckoned her to come to him. Haylee slowly walked down the stair pathway to go to the front. But then she noticed the mad looks Ashley and Linda gave her. She stopped unconsciously, reevaluating her choice whether she should go to Niel or not. It was obvious he wanted her in. In fact, it was not just Ashley and Linda who were looking at her hatefully right now. Haylee noticed that some other students were looking at her disdainfully too, probably those who had asked Niel to take them into his group before but got rejected."Why are you just standing there? Come here," Niel rebuked her gently, beckoning her to come to him again."Niel, how about if we just take Linda? Haylee didn't seem like she wanted to be in our group," Ashley suggested bravely."Why are you deciding for her?" Niel rebuked her coldly, totally a different treatment co
"Do you really think that I won't have a spare key card?" He ridiculed her and took out another key card from his pocket.She scoffed at him instantly. 'I knew it. He would never let me have my own privacy,' she muttered inwardly and just put the key card inside her backpack."That's not fair. I thought it was supposed to be my own place," she said deliberately to show her dissatisfaction."How is that not fair? You had access to my penthouse as well," Niel replied with a chuckle."Is this mean that I'll be living alone for real now? Can Martha live with me?" Haylee asked. Deep down inside, she was anticipating for that to happen for real. "No. I never said that. You're going to still be living with me, in my penthouse, our house. That condo unit was just for emergency. We're going to be studying here for three years. I'm sure at some point your friends or my friends would want to visit our place. So we need a split residence for that. Aren't you the one who didn't want people to kno
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