THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 53: An Eternal Debt

He had followed the trail of the scent to the kitchen and saw a bowl of steaming hot porridge on the counter.

It was way too irresistible that he scooped a spoon of it and delivered it to his starved mouth without a thought. He had just chewed it and was relishing the delicious taste before swallowing when he heard heavy footsteps behind him.

"And what do you think you are doing?" a deep voice thundered, every word coated in anger. He froze on the spot, not daring to complete his action of swallowing the food in his mouth and didn’t need to look back to know who that voice belonged to.

Like someone controlled by a remote, he turned around like a robot to face the one person he dreaded the most in his life.

"Come here," the voice barked another command.

With faltering steps, he walked towards him, not daring to lift his head to look at his foster father.

"Can you tell me the punishment for your disobedience?"

"Twenty four lashes of horse whip and going without food for two days," whimpered a terrified Spider.

"Hahahaha," his foster father’s deep voice bellowed in mirthless laughter. "What good memory you have there, son. But it’s quite unfortunate, you don’t know how to use it to your own advantage."

His crazy laughter disappeared as suddenly as it came and his face contorted like a monster’s.

"Now undress and meet me at the reward room," he ordered and strolled out of the kitchen the same way he had come in, an ominous air accompanying each step he took.

"The reward room! Even ghosts are afraid of going to that room. I’d better start saying my last prayers or..." Spider had to advise himself on this one.

As soon as he was left alone, he made a daring decision and ran out of the house at the speed of light.

Not long after, he sensed some people coming after him. They were his foster father’s henchmen and he sprinted off with all his might.

After running for more than five hundred meters, he started to lose strength.

He looked back and saw that the men were fast gaining in on him, afterall, he had not eaten anything the whole day, save for that spoon of porridge that landed him in this mess.

With the last bit of strength left in him, he turned into an alley, his eyes darting all around, looking for somewhere to hide before those men caught up with him.

It was at that moment that a young boy with spiky hairs pulled him into a ring of blocks looking like a tunnel.

The men entered the alley soon after, looked around, when they didn’t see him, they continued down the alley and never came back. That was the last he saw of his foster father and his twisted family.

He later found out that Drake, the boy who had helped him was also an orphan and they became friends which later developed into brotherhood.

After some days, they stumbled on some trucks moving some goods to the city and hid in one of them.

They successfully left that village and since then, their lives have been going well.

Though not particularly rosy, they have been living on their own terms, forging a path for themselves just to survive.

He was the older one among the two, and smarter, so the responsibility of major decision taking naturally fell on him and before long, Drake started regarding him as an elder brother and boss.

Now, Drake, the only person he considered as family, was dead.

The melancholic mood hung above him like a cloud and refused to lift. He felt responsible for Drake’s death. If only he had not dragged him into this mess, he would still be alive by now.

Kathleen observed the man before her. She was able to understand from his reactions that he was not completely dead emotionally, he still had some human feelings though he was an assassin.

His grief was real. She wondered what else that other guy was to him other than a partner in crime. Her kind heart was almost moved but she cautioned herself not to give in at this point.

"It is quite a pity I didn’t have the pleasure of killing him myself as he died at the scene of the accident after he rammed into the moving truck.

"But fortunately, in your own case, the pleasure will be all mine. Thanks for granting me this little favour," she wrote in response to his accusation.

Spider’s hands were listless as he collected the paper from Kathleen, after reading it, he saw Kathleen speak and signal at the man with the thick rimmed glasses and two male nurses approached him and started undressing him.

He tried to resist but was still too weak. Kathleen’s back was turned to him the whole time, it was after they had changed him into a gown, that she turned back to face him.

At her signal, a set of men in black suits pushed in a stretcher and left almost immediately as if they never appeared. He was placed on the stretcher and pushed out of the ward. The whole process took less than two minutes.

"What you are doing is illegal and against the ethics of your profession."

"Tell me about breaking the law," Kathleen sneered.

She gave the command and they pushed him to the theater. To stop him from screaming and creating a scene, he was given an anesthesia before they left the ward.

"Why are you helping him?" Doctor Sullivan could no longer keep it in after they had changed to a surgical gown.

Although she wasn’t the one performing the operation, she needed to observe for any complications since Spider just came out of a coma and of course, Dr Sullivan would never miss out on any situation that would afford him the opportunity to observe and learn from his idol.

"It is called owing me an eternal debt." Kathleen checked to ensure everything was set for the operation at the theater.