"I loved Adrian..."
The air seemed to pause around them, Eleanor looked at Megan, and Sebastian stopped pacing back and forth.
"I'm just a local prostitute... and one night, Adrian came at first. I didn't expect to be pregnant. But then I suddenly felt sick and later found out I was pregnant... I tried to contact Adrian, but he refused to talk to me. I was advised to abort the child, but i didn't know why... I refused to do it... then I had my son, Theodore. At first, a few years, it was easy to hide the father's identity, but as the time flew, he wanted to know about his father. He was just 7 years old when I had to leave him at the bus stop and..."
FLASHBACK
It was a rainy day, Megan was holding an umbrella, waiting for the bus to come.
she kneeled to reach young Theodore's eye level, "Theo, my son, take the bus and tell the conductor to get you safely down Madrid."
Young Theodore looks at his mother and asks curiously, clenching his rabbit plushie, "Would I find Dad there?"
Megan sniffles and then smiles before saying, "Yes... you would find your father there." Her voice cracks, "You can find peace there." Megan rubs his shoulders.
The bus stops at the bus stop, Megan hugs young Theodore, "Be safe, my son... your Mama will miss you." And Theodore hugs back before getting into the bus, and Megan stood there... tears were rolling down her cheeks as she walked back to the Wedunus district.
PRESENT
The silence was so thin you could cut it with a butter knife.
"This is all I know now..." Megan wipes her tears.
"You don't know what happened after... he left?" Eleanor leans forward.
Megan shakes her head to no.
After another long, deep silence, Eleanor stood up, "Okay... we then... must take your leave."
And as they were leaving, Sebastian was strangely silent. But Eleanor dismissed it by thinking, 'Rich people have complex pasts. He's just processing a generational trauma.'
Sebastian drops Eleanor back at home, and she falls asleep within seconds.
Meanwhile
Theodore was cleaning the blood on his revolver. His room was darker, and smells of gun powder.
After cleaning, he pours himself a glass of wine and slowly drinks it...
FLASHBACK
Theodore reached Madrid, the young boy was too small for a city like Madrid. But he got his way to Alderbury estate by asking local people. He stood in front of the estate, but the security didn't dare to stop him. He looks way too much like Adrian.
He got inside and saw a very beautiful woman with a pregnant belly, Alina Alderbury, the wife of Adrian Alderbury, who got pregnant after many checkups and 8 years of marriage.
Alina looks at the small boy standing in front of her.
"Adrian!" Alina calls out.
Adrian steps out, and Theodore's eyes lit up as he runs up to him and says, "Papa!"
The air turns cold.
Alina turns to Adrian and asks, "What is he saying, Adrian?"
Adrian kneels down to Theodore's height and asks, "Who sent you, dear?"
Theodore beams, oblivious of the tension building in the room, he clenched the rabbit plushie happily, "Mom!"
"And who is your mom?" Alina asks as she steps forward.
"M-E-G-A-N." Theodore spells the name happily.
Everyone in the room pasued except Theodore. Adrian's face pales up. Alina turned to Adrian and grabbed his wrist while dragging him into the bedroom. Theodore could only hear the shouts in the room. He wiped his tears with the plushie's hand.
Alina stepped out and looks at Theodore with rage and disgust. And the after a month later, Sebastian was born...
Theodore used to throw his dirty diapers away and got to eat the leftovers. And after 2 years, Stacey was born.
Theodore's life became more of a hell.
He got hand-me-downs, even the butler's treat him as a servant.
One day, Alina was murdered by a maid, she was stabbed 10 times on her abdomen. Theodore and Stacey were the only witness and they were crying.
The maid was punished.
Theodore used his intelligence to get Alderbury Group in the first spot but Adrian still declared Stacey to be the one who'll inherit.
In the pain, Theodore decided to take a walk to the park and he met someone... it was—