It was a stormy night in Sunhaven.
The dimly lit room was heavy with the smell of alcohol mixed with the burnt scent of nicotine.
Empty bottles littered the coffee table and the floor, while the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts, forming a small mountain.
On the couch, Gilbert lay with his eyes closed, soaked in alcohol, reluctantly drifting into the realm of dreams…
In his dream, he was Nine Harrison.
Not a nickname, but his actual name – Nine Harrison.
His father, Naylor, despised him so much that he couldn’t even bother to give him a proper name…
Nine Harrison’s mother was more than twenty years younger than Naylor.
Before her, Naylor had been married twice; his first wife had passed away, and he had divorced the second.
Due to the significant age gap, Naylor doted on her.
But gradually, problems emerged.
They had too little in common, and since Naylor was the head of the Harrison family, managing its vast empire, the limited time he could spend with her became even scarcer as family troubles demanded his attention. Eventually, Nine Harrison’s mother had an affair.
Naylor caught her red-handed one evening with one of the family’s drivers!
Enraged and humiliated, Naylor dragged the driver out in front of Nine Harrison’s mother and beat him so severely that the man was left disabled, bedridden for life, dependent on others for the most basic needs. This incident traumatized her to the point of losing her sanity.
She was confined within a small mansion owned by the Harrison family.
In time, she became pregnant and gave birth to Nine Harrison.
Marked as a bastard from birth, Nine was stigmatized because Naylor refused to believe he was his own flesh and blood.
Yet, Naylor never sought a paternity test, fearing the loss of his last shred of dignity if the test confirmed Nine wasn’t his son. Naylor ignored Nine, acting as if he didn’t exist.
The servants, taking pity on the
child, fed him leftovers and whatever y could spare, allowing Nine
little
e.
As he grew, Nine learned that his mother was the “madwoman” locked in the mansion.
Each visit Naylor made to see her left him in a foul mood, often taking his anger out on Nine with a leather whip.
At first, Nine pleaded, “Daddy, it hurts! Please, stop! I’ll be good!”
heart was filled with
But Nayon’t call me daddy! Yout
disgust
just a bastard, how dare you
that?”
So, Nine stopped speaking.
me
Even when the beatings left him bloody and bruised, he never again uttered the word ‘daddy’ or begged for mercy…
…
“Bastard!”
“Just like your whore of a mother, born to be a lowlife!”
“Why won’t you die? Still clinging to life!”
Gilbert was trapped in his nightmare, his brow furrowed, head shaking, “No, no… Ah…”
With a scream, he suddenly woke up, sitting bolt upright on the couch, gasping for air, his heart pounding.
Sweat had drenched his forehead and soaked his clothes.
The old scars on his back, inflicted by Naylor himself, seemed to throb with pain…
His head throbbing, Gilbert rubbed his temples, stood up, and walked over to the liquor cabinet, grabbing a bottle.
He took a few swigs, feeling slightly more awake.
Reflecting on the past, he realized if
he hadn’t met Francis and been taken in by the Johnson family, he might never have known what it was like to live like a human being…
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