Chapter 7

Darius stepped inside the room and entered what seemed to be a study. There was a huge and neat mahogany desk in the room and behind the desk sat an old man. There were some documents littered on the table, and it seemed that the old man was going through them before Bruce knocked on the door.

Darius always expected the master to be someone who was high and haughty with plenty of beautiful ladies hanging around his arm. After all, he knew that the person behind this kind of wealth was far from being a simple person. However, his imagination was a little too wild and completely off the mark.

The master was no high and haughty person, but a simple old man. He was the kind of person you’ll feel obligated to help to cross the busy roads on the street.

As Darius was staring at the master, the master was also doing the same. He narrowed his eyes and adjusted his glasses a few times as if studying Darius like a specimen. After a few seconds of studying Darius he turned to Bruce who had just entered the room and asked him a question.

“Is this Darius Reid?”

“Yes master. He is indeed young master Reid.” Bruce answered, bowing deeply to the old man.

The old man eyes shone and as if he had finally been offered the item of his dream he stood from his chair and rushed over to Darius.

“My God! Is it really young Darius?!” The man said, touching Darius all over his body.

Darius felt uncomfortable at first, but decided not to move the old man away from him. He could tell that the old man was having a moment as tears fell continuously from his eyes.

After a few minutes, the old man was finally satisfied with touching Darius. He held Darius hands, showing no regards for his poor clothes and undesirable outfit. Although Darius didn’t know the old man, he felt really warm in his heart at that treatment. It was nice to see someone not judging him because of his outfit.

The old man led him to a chair in the study before sitting down in another chair opposite his. Bruce followed them and stood behind the old man he called his master.

“After 16 years we’ve finally found you, Darius Reid.”

Darius didn’t understand what they meant. He was never missing, so why would they say that they had found him?

The old man noticed the confusion in Darius face and sighed.

“I know that you are very confused right now. You must have been very perplexed at the phone call you received from Bruce and our current behavior, so I’ll explain what really happened to you.”

Darius nodded. He really needed an explanation for all these. The old man sighed again before speaking.

“You see, 16 years ago, when you were just four years old, my son Tristan Reid and his wife Diana Reid was making a trip to the family villa in Eastgreen Estate with you. We all thought that it would be a very smooth trip, but that was not the case.”

Darius could see that the story the old man was about to tell him was a very painful one for him. But he needed to hear the story, no matter how painful it was for the old man, so he kept quiet.

“There was a terrible car accident, and my son and his wife died in the crash.” The old man said, and Darius could make out tears in the corner of the old man’s eyes. Although it happened 16 years ago, it still seemed like yesterday to him.

Darius had never cared about his parents before. He was too focused on his part time jobs to care about what he thought were trivial things, but when he heard the story of what happened to his parents, he felt a huge sense of loss overwhelm him.

“We thought you died in the car crash with them, but there was no record or traces of your corpse found at the scene. Because of that, I strongly believed you were alive.”

“I had my personal assistant Bruce search the world constantly for you. We didn’t know if you were alive or not. Finally, after 16 years, we were able to find you.” The old man said; tears of joy visible on his face.

Darius looked at the old man with warmth in his gaze now. It turned out that his parents had died in a car crash, and his body was not at the scene of the crash.

He remembered what the matron at the orphanage had told him. She had told him that a middle aged man was the one who brought him to the orphanage, and told her his name. She was repeatedly warned never to change his name for any reason, which she obeyed.

Darius remembered the picture of two people he saw in the hallway and asked a question.

“Then the picture of those two people in the hallway is my parents?”

“Yes. They are Tristan Reid and Diana Reid, your parents.” The old man nodded.

Darius remained silent. Everything was too much for him to take in at the moment. It still felt so unreal to him. After a few seconds of silence, the old man spoke again.

“Darius, I know this is a lot for you to take in, but I hope you can understand. We did want to find you sooner, but we never expected it to take this long. I heard from Bruce about the life you lived. It was solely because of our negligence. I’m sorry.” The old man said with sincerity.

“It’s not your fault, old man. There was no way you could have found me so soon. If anything I should be the one grateful to you.” Darius replied.

The old man nodded. After all these years of shouldering such a huge burden, he was finally liberated. He looked at Darius again before speaking, and there was a different gaze in his eyes as he spoke.

‘Darius, I'd like to ask you something.’