The Faceless Billionaire Celebrity Wife-Chapter 228: Twenty Years Ago.

20 Years Ago.

Ten year old Ethan’s looked around the dark hall he was in, his eyes frantically trying to make our the slightest shape of any object in the hall. He lost hope already that his father would be here, for that was what the man was used to doing.

Chris would take him from home every Saturday morning for ’training’, and would take him to different places to exercise. It could be a gym this week, a park the next week, a board meeting the week after that, and sometimes, a university convocation ceremony. When they arrived at this places, Ethan was mostly asked to do things that most children his age could not do, to garner the attention of the press and the well to do families present in the location.

He was already used to this and he strived to be perfect in all areas of his life. But never had his father brought him to somewhere like this where there was no press or high-class people. He was not sure what he or who he had to prove his skills to in this dark hall.

"President DeLoach?" he called out loud, as he had been directed to do whenever he went on weekend outings with his father, trying to check if the older man had gone back or if he was still loitering around the hall.

Instead of the answer he expected, he heard a flick sound from one corner of the room and the light in the ceiling flashed on. Ethan’s gaze swept around quickly, wanting to use that opportunity to look around and see what his surroundings looked like. But before his eyes could accustom to the light, the light dimmed and the screen on the podium, which he had failed to notice previously, lit up.

Slow paced tense music, which instilled apprehension in his heart, began to play from the background and it was all the young Ethan could do not to burst out in tears. After all, he was still a young boy of ten years.

"Are you alright, Ethan?"

The sound of his father’s voice from a speaker which he didn’t know was in the hall, sent waves of relief rushing through Ethan’s heart. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"I’m alright, Father," he replied, his voice without a hint of fear.

"That’s good. You are growing stronger day by day, Son. Now, there’s something left for you to do. Are you ready?" Chris asked from where he was at the security room of the large center, where he was watching Ethan in the dark hall.

"Yes, Father," Ethan replied without hesitation.

"Good. You are to stay in that room for six hours without making a single noise. I’m trying to train your mind against—"

"I understand, Father. Do I start now?"

Ethan knew his father’s words would not change even if he refused this training, so he agreed as soon as possible. He hadn’t even used up to an hour alone in this room and he was already feeling scared; so he had to complete six hours as soon as possible and not waste any time listening to his father’s reasons.

"Good, I’ll be back in six hours."

Then the light switched off and the hall went back to it’s former, dark status.

Ethan endured it, even though the voices in his head and the eerie ones from the speakers refused to give him rest. He endured because as he knew, his father would always keep his promise no matter what it was.

When he got tired of waiting, he began to count the numbers until he counted up to an hour. His mouth was beginning to dry up so he stopped talking and began playing in the darkness. He made up his own companions and they played for hours, creating their own world amid the scary situation.

After playing for a long while without anyone forthcoming, Ethan instinctively knew he had been abandoned. Why that had happened, he did not know. But he was sure that the promised six hours had passed and no one was coming to pick him up. He forced himself to sleep, ignoring the biting hunger and scorching thirst that were beginning to bother him.

When Ethan’s eyes opened again, a small ray of light streaking in from a hole in the ceiling caught his attention. He scampered close to it and examined it, recognizing it as the light from the moon.

And that was the instrument he used to calculate the number of days and nights that followed.

On the fourth day, he was lying on his back on the ground, all hope lost that he would get out of this dark all. And worse, he was struggling to keep the voices away from his head. The friends he created in that short six hours then, who refused to let him go.

The sound of a rat squeaking in the distance did not move him the least bit as he was used to hearing that these past few days, but when he suddenly felt a bright ray of light hit his eyes, his eyelids fluttered open.

He rose up suddenly with strength which he didn’t know he possessed, and called out with a hoarse voice,

"Father?!"

"Hey, Ethan! How’re you doing?" A voice rang out loud, which Ethan recognized as not his father’s. Then who was this person?

"Who are you?" he asked in a displeased tone.

"Gosh, it seems our Ethan DeLoach isn’t that happy to see me here after being abandoned by his father for days. I won’t hold that against him though, since he’s just a kid," the man paused for a while before continuing, "Do you want to get out of here, Ethan?"

"Yes!" Ethan jumped at the opportunity. If someone was going to save him, why should he mind who it was?

"Really?" the man exclaimed. "But you will have to do something before I help you out. What do you say, Ethan?"

"What do I have to do?"