Lauren and Riley were surprised by where I brought them.
"Where are we?" Lauren asked.
"My place," I said, unloading items from the trunk. "Can you help me with these?"
They both helped carry everything inside.
My mother was standing at the door, watching us.
"I didn't give you permission to take my car," she said, eyeing me.
"Yeah, I needed it," I replied casually. "Mom, this is Lauren Blaine and Riley Blaine. And this is Daphne Grace Vale."
I didn't wait for a response, I walked straight past them and headed to the basement with the items.
When I came back up, I noticed some of the remaining bags were still by the door. Lauren and Riley were now in the living room with my mother and grandmother. My mother must've told them to leave the rest.
My grandmother was 54 and retired. My mother had also stopped working after I gave her money.
I carried the remaining items to the basement, then headed to the living room.
My mother and grandmother were making small talk when I walked in. I sat down next to Riley, who was beside her mother.
"You're probably wondering why you're here," my mother said, looking at Lauren.
"Yes. I've been wondering that since I met Felix," Lauren replied.
"To be honest, I don't know why he brought you here," my mother said.
That caught everyone off guard, except my grandmother.
They all looked at me, waiting for an explanation. I just shrugged.
"We want to help you," my mother continued, turning back to Lauren.
She explained everything, how we met Rick at the club, how things escalated into a fight before he ran off, and how he left Lauren drowning in debt while continuing to borrow money from loan sharks just to gamble it away.
One thing she didn't explain, how she knew Rick. Not yet.
"Can I tell you why we want to help you?" my mother asked.
Lauren nodded.
"Riley and Felix are siblings."
Silence.
Lauren looked between Riley and me. Then it clicked, why Rick approached us in the first place.
We talked for a while after that.
Eventually, my mother looked at me.
"You should probably take them home. It's getting late."
I took the same car and drove them home.
While we were on the road, Lauren tried to make small talk.
She noticed my mother looked around her age and asked how old I was.
"I turned 17 last night," I said. "My mom's two years younger than you."
She did the math.
Sixteen.
That's when she realized my mother had me at sixteen, and Rick never paid child support.
She went quiet for a while.
"Do you hate him?" she finally asked, looking at me.
I took a moment before answering.
"I don't feel anything toward him," I said, eyes still on the road.
"How can you feel nothing? He's your father," she said, surprised.
"If I feel hate towards him, that means I care about him. Hate and love ain't that different. You can't hate someone who was never in your life to begin with. If I hate him, that means I wanted him to be in my life which I don't."
I paused.
"What I do hate… is what he did last night. But him? Nothing."
After that, the car went quiet.
We reached her house.
They said their goodbyes and went inside.
Apparently, Rick hadn't been home for six to nine days.
When I got back, I went straight to the basement.
That's when something random hit me, I missed Chapter 1 of One Piece last month. I hadn't even read Romance Dawn or Wanted!.
I'd been so focused on work, I'd basically checked out of everything else.
Then I noticed something else, no Rockstar.
That didn't make sense. Then it did. It probably hadn't been founded yet.
I searched for Take-Two Interactive and found BMG Interactive connected to it. Apparently, Grand Theft Auto was set to release in December.
Figures. GTA is always "about to release," no matter the timeline.
I decided to invest in them, and a few other companies while I was at it.
Then I checked for Monopoly… nothing.
That's when it really clicked.
Some people are inspired by what they read or by those people around them. So, if those people died, then there's no inspiration and creation but if they die, then there's no creation.
No inspiration, no creation.
Simple as that.
I'm not about to recreate everything myself.
…Or maybe I should.
Start my own gaming company. Maybe more.
It's weird that DC went out of business besides but it's not weird because it doesn't have a rivals like Jack Kirby or Stan Lee.
It makes sense.
Crazy how much changes when just a few key pieces are missing.
For the past few days, I'd been scouting locations for Oseong Corporation's headquarters.
At the same time, I kept visiting Lauren and Riley.
Maria decided to enlist in the U.S. military right after finishing high school. That led to the first real fight we ever had.
And somehow… we ended up laughing.
I didn't even know why I laughed. I think I laughed because she did.
When I asked her, she said, "Because I realized you actually care about me."
A tear slipped down her face when she said it.
That's when it hit me…
I'd been so focused on the future that I completely ignored the present.
We'd never gone to the cinema.
Never to the theater.
Not the park. Not the beach.
Every time we spent time together, it was the same thing,cuddling or sex.
Whenever she suggested going out, we'd just end up at the mall, buying things I needed, then heading back home.
Nothing meaningful.
Nothing memorable.
I found a location for my company and hired people to start construction.
Then, one weekend, I decided to do something different.
I took Maria out…properly.
We went to the mall, but this time it wasn't about me. We walked around. Talked. Took our time.
We even stepped into a photo booth and took pictures together.
For once…
it felt real.
We decided to play a machine where you pick dolls from and I'm terrible at it. We did almost everything that couples do.
Then something happened...
Something no one expected.