“Use your brains, will you? The Wilson Family’s great-grandfather would be what—eighty or ninety years old? This kid hasn’t even grown all his hair yet and you believe he’s that guy?”
Of course he didn’t recognize me. Only the innermost circle of the Wilson Family had ever seen my real face. This steward was new. A nobody. Hope crashed to the floor like shattered glass.
Tommy sneered, hocking up a glob of phlegm and spitting it straight into my face. Then he turned and gave the steward a thumbs-up. “Smart man. That’s my dad right there.”
And just like that, everything made sense. Tommy’s arrogance, his recklessness—he wasn’t acting alone. He was hiding behind the steward’s authority the whole time. A blaze of fury ignited in my gut. My vision turned red as I glared at the man who dared stand in my house like he owned it.
“You let a stranger into the Wilson estate without the master’s permission? You’ve got some nerve.”
SMACK! Another slap from Tommy. More blood, more teeth gone.
“I am the future master of the Wilson Family. I go where I want, when I want.”
“Now shut your damn mouth. You’re ruining the vibe.”
They tied me up again—tight this time. Duct tape wound around my mouth, layer after suffocating layer. I couldn’t move. My head was shoved down, humiliated beneath their crotches as they laughed and rubbed against my face like animals.
Then something caught Tommy’s eye. My phone. He picked it up from the floor and used my bloody fingertip to unlock it. His face twisted with disbelief as he opened the photo gallery.
“You’ve got some imagination, don’t you? You actually Photoshopped yourself into pictures with Sandra?! You’re fantasizing about her this hard?! Even I haven’t gotten this close to her and you made it look like you’re her boyfriend?”
“Wait, wait, look at this one—a whole family photo and this clown photoshopped himself in the center. Playing make-believe in his little billionaire fantasy!”
He swiped through more images, then turned the screen to his friends.
“Who knows how much other perverted crap he’s hiding in here. We have to teach this sick creep a lesson.”
The goons gathered around him, whispering, laughing under their breath. Planning something even worse.