Chapter 23

Max Thomas was an only child who never knew love from either of his parents. He never knew a father's love because he never had a father. A mother's love is said to be the perfect example of unconditional love, so it's logical for a single mother to take it upon herself to give both father and mother's love to her child.

Max's mom, Elizabeth Thomas was not that kind of a mother though. She doesn't have it in her to be a mother at all. Reflecting on his childhood, Max knew his mother never loved him one bit. Not when he practically raised himself since when he was old enough to tell his right hand from left and not when she has constantly tortured him, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

She would lock only him inside their apartment and go out to party all day and night. When she eventually comes back, she would be drunk and in a foul mood, then the beating would start and would continue for hours non-stop.

Many times he had to sleep at his cousin's house just because she never bothered to come to pick him up from school. Max couldn't recall any single time when she was ever sorry for her behavior.

She doesn't feel remorse when she put him in a dangerous situation that almost took his life. She wasn't sorry when her cruel words made him cry and suicidal.

And she wasn't sorry when he finally summoned up the courage as an adult to let her know how she has been hurting him. She just screamed instead, calling him all sorts of names that hit all of his insecurities all over again.

One would think she would stop with the name-calling at least. After all, he is now a grown man, but no, she didn't. She still says stuff that made him hates her even more. The tiny respect that he had left for her was out of the duty of her being his mother.

~••~

Parenting life was not for Max's mother. She never wanted the responsibility of a child, at least not without servants that would take care of the child's every need. Watching her own mother toiled and slaved away for rich families till she withered and died in the name of taking care of her kids made her arrived at that decision.

She will never be like her foolish mother. She won't even marry a poor man talk less of suffering for any children. While she was dating the late Lionel Salvador, the former heir to the Salvadorian Empire. She envisioned herself living the life of the queen of the empire.

She thought about the respect that comes with the status of being Mrs. Salvador, the numerous servants that would be at her beck and call that she could command at will and she thanked her lucky stars because all of her dreams were finally coming true. She was doing far better than her mother.

As an expert in the act of deceit. She almost got what she wanted until Lionel took her home to meet his parents. The old man took one look at her and said to his son in her presence:

"This woman is not the right one for you, Lionel. She is evil and full of deceit! Take her out of here right now!"

Listening to what the old man said crushed her. Indeed, she never loved Lionel. She never even loved anybody but herself because she's incapable of such emotions. But how could the old man have found out by mere looking at her?

After Lionel broke up with her, It was certainly not her intention to be a single mother, but she needed a trump card to counter the decision of the old man.

She planned to get pregnant and the child would be her trump card. When it was the perfect time on her calendar, she lured Lionel and asked for farewell sex. Three weeks after, when she discovered she was pregnant, she traveled to South Africa and stayed there till she gave birth Max.

She was surprised that even after the paternity test, the old man still insisted that she would never be part of the empire. He offered her money to disappear with the child

Lionel offered her five times the amount his father offered for the child. She took all their money and went back to South Africa with the child, who knows, she might need to get more money out of them.

Nineteen years later, she has squandered every penny and came back to America for more.

***

The now fifty-five years old Elizabeth Thomas was now very desperate. She would do anything to get what she needed in life, which is money and power. After she had rendered her son speechless with her hateful statement, she hurried to her room and slammed the door with so much force that threatened to bring the whole of their four-bedroom duplex house down.

"Uggghhhh!" She grunted loudly into the empty room.

"He's just so useless! He can't take any initiative by himself unless you remind him over and over, and then tell him what to do word for word! So useless!"

She ranted to herself while pacing the length and breadth of her room like a person who has just been possessed by evil spirit. Her phone suddenly started ringing and she hurried back inside the bathroom to get it from where she left it by the bathtub. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the picture ID flashing on her phone screen.

"The death man!?" She whispered questioningly to herself and shivered with fear.

"How did he get my number!? And how did it automatically save itself on my phone" She wondered. There's something about this particular person that made her quivered with fear.

She started calling him the death man from the first time she laid her eyes on him because he looked like death itself. A ghoul would have been the perfect word to describe him.

He was thin. So thin he appeared skeletal. His skin had an unhealthy pallor to it, greyish, scaley, and flaking off. His eyes were the most unnerving thing about him. They were huge like a bulb and sunken deep into their sockets. They were also out of focus and expressionless like a dead man's eyes.

The first day she met him, she was at a party organized by a senator's wife who was a friend to a friend that she didn't even know. She heard about the party from a friend and it promised to be interesting with the movers and shakers of the society in attendance.

That was why she decided to beg and almost grovel in front of the security men checking the invitations against the list provided them. While still begging, the security men received a call from an unknown person and she was finally allowed to enter.

The party was at its peak and she was enjoying herself. Moving around and introducing herself to the guests like she was somebody important, while sneaking pictures here and there with the celebrities when she heard a deep voice whispered into her ear...

"I could make you so rich, you would get first-hand invitations to parties like this..." She sharply turned around to looked at the person that whispered into her ear.

"You won't ever have to grovel in front of anybody again for the rest of your life." The unknown man said and smiled with a wink at her. He was as young as her son, maybe younger, and very handsome too.