CHAPTER 1 GENUINELY HAPPY

(ATTY. ELTHON  POV)

I didn’t know if James’ family could really be called a family.

He was a college mate to me and Eriez. Back then I was in the College of Law, he a Business Administration guy, and Eriez a medical student.  Among us three, only he married. And he’s the busiest on top of it.

His wife, Mitchelle, gave birth to a healthy baby boy called Rhio but passed away right after her delivery. James was suddenly left with the responsibility of being a sole parent and a director of a company in place of his late wife.   

Rhio grew up without James often at his side. It was me and Eriez who filled the fatherly role when he wasn’t around. Until one day, James suddenly got ill and spent a few days hospitalized. I still remember him being extremely grateful to us for looking after Rhio when we met him after his three-day confinement. It was supposed to be a normal happy day until things took downright worse.

James passed out at a conference held that same day. Unexpectedly, he was declared brain dead. Alive but never to wake up.

Rhio was suddenly handed the obligation of running the company that his father left behind. Eriez and I stayed at his back, all the while helping him with corporate responsibilities a seventeen-year-old couldn’t possibly handle with ease. News spread like wildfire about him, the scion to a conglomerate giant called the Cryzastic Corporation.

It was a curse to the rich to make sudden sacrifices in the face of business. To Rhio, it was his youth. All the glimmer of adolescence has passed him by as he was bounded to the corners of a company that was facing its struggles. I used to watch him with worry that he was wasting away his life for the sake of his father’s legacy. After all, at that age, he should be making memories, not paper works or conferences.

Five years had passed since he took over and made the company thrive. The bigger the company has become, the smaller the smile that he has. He came to understand the industry so well that he even removed the sycophants, the flirty women, and the gossipers from work. He hardly expressed emotions, rarely talked, and was dead-set on making the business even more successful. He’s become an enterprise robot that even his father wouldn’t hope he’ll be. James only wanted him to be happy.

Genuinely happy.

Sympathy poured in as I looked at James’ body laid on the hospital bed. It has been years since he was put on life support. He was no more than skin and bones begging to be laid to rest. He’s our friend and I wanted him to finally have peace.

Eriez held the folder tightly. We’re both queasy knowing how hard it would be for Rhio to be reminded of such a document over and over again. It was the Health Care Directive that was created and signed by James after the three days he was hospitalized. We both knew it was crucial in case anything happens to him.  It states that James is willing to be taken off the life-support, in case he falls to a vegetative state, at the time Rhio accepts and signs the document.  Eriez and I have signed it as witnesses the moment it was created. The final decision lies in Rhio’s hands.  

He looked at us with fiery eyes when we handed him the document. He’s always been that way when we talked about his father’s condition. He’s just too sensitive about it. He crumpled the folder and flung it in the trash.

“Nobody touches my father,” Rhio tried to keep his voice from breaking. “How many times do I have to remind?”

“For the past five years, your father showed no signs of improvement,” Eriez spoke. His voice always had that power to convince, like a natural paternal talent “He’s just suffering even more. And as a dear friend to him, we feel your grief.” 

Rhio remained looking at his father’s limp body.

“You’ve been a good child. You’ve been exceptional at running the company. You have proven us your prowess and as the sole heir to Zel Cantheliz and Cryzastic Corporation, all you’ve got to do now is heed your father’s will,” Eriez continued on. “It’s up to you to decide if you’re letting your father free or prolong his restless sleep.”

All eyes were on Rhio in that cold room as we waited for his decision. The quietness grew longer until he told us to give them some privacy first.  Eriez nodded in approval and before we left, I saw the first tears Rhio has shed for years. All the pain he had kept behind that steel mask has finally been released. It was heartbreaking. But I was a little glad that I saw his human side again.

The Rhio we knew…

( Rhio POV)

I didn’t quite understand before why my father used to leave and go out then back to the country often. I am left in a huge mansion where every corner was heavily guarded or secured by cameras. It was frequently quiet and had no one to ever talk to.

I was usually confined to the corners of my room, sat by the window as I watch my father go after we had breakfast together. He’d usually disappear for a month or how long his business trip would take.

I was always alone…

Life was a cliché. I am homeschooled so books were my constant companions. If not, I was out to wander the meadows of Zel Cantheliz Villa atop my white stallion. Of course, my father’s men followed suit.

While I was out by the little bridge one day and spacing out in the nothingness, my father’s voice boomed behind me in the distance.

“The sole Zel Canthel that will be left alone someday,” he teased. I didn’t turn to see him and kept quiet. “Is already always alone.”

He stepped closer and handed me a fishing rod, “You shouldn’t grow up like that Rhio, I’m about to leave you a huge responsibility in the future…a family and a company.”

I took that rod and gave him a short smile. He sat beside me on the wooden bridge’s floor and spoke, “I used to fish alone when I was a kid. That way the catch is often plenty.”

He threw the tipple with the bait on the water and I did too.

“I often got none when I fish with my three older siblings so I decided to fish alone after ever since,” father’s face fell a little. His eyes were downcast and his mind was somewhere back in the past. “You were aware of the Zel Cantheliz massacre, right?”

I nodded although it wasn’t really a question.

“I’ve gone fishing just to see everybody dead when I got home. All of the Zel Cantheliz lineages were killed, except me and grandpa, the eldest in line. He helped me escape.”

The lake remained calm for a while but I felt a little tug at the hook of my fishing rod.  Eventually, a hungry fish bit my bait and struggled against being pulled off the water. It was a moderately big one. I smiled at my catch but instantly felt bad as I watched it pathetically wriggle for its life and was slowly dying. Our family has been shrouded with death and father has been its witness.  

“Scared and confused, I asked him why something as terrible as such did happen,” father resumed with his story. “Greed. It was about greed all along, he explained to me with conviction. Our family initiated the killing of its own bloodline. It has been a gladiator battle where the strongest gets to live and amass all the wealth of Zel Cantheliz for his own.”

I looked at father blankly and he smiled back with concealed brokenness. “I was your age that time and clueless about the power Zel Cantheliz held. I’ve been left alone often, like you. And before my grandfather passed away, he bequeathed me everything that the Zel Cantheliz family owned. The only words he gave me before dying were that it’s hard to run a company alone.

The fish has stopped moving in the bucket. It has died sooner before I even released it back to the lake. I averted my gaze to the sky and tried to understand my father’s words. He has always spoken to me like I am an adult capable of the burdens of adults. And all of it made me lonelier.

“You’re my only son, Rhio. Whether you like it or not, you will bear all the responsibilities I will leave you with when I die. Firstly, don’t let our company taste its first failure. Secondly, fulfill grandpa’s will for me. Promise me that you will marry and make the Zel Cantheliz bloodline flourish again. Do something that I failed to do.”

@DEATH WISH 

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