Chapter 48: He Returns
ALBERT stood in the airport arrival area while waiting for flight 213 to arrive. After several minutes, a familiar figure walks towards him, a man around his 30s, carrying a black backpack while pulling maroon luggage. He was wearing a black jacket and pants paired with white shoes. He has jet-black, clean-cut hair, auburn eyes, a towering height of 6 '2, a pale complexion, as if he hadn't seen the sun for a while, and a face resembling his.
It’s his eldest child, his son, Derek. The last time they saw each other was five years ago when he went to Europe for a business trip. He is happy that, after almost 15 years, he finally coaxed his son to return home. Despite that, there's a part of him that is missing. He was yearning for his daughter. "Derek is finally home, but now I don't have Latton with me." He thought to himself as he stared at his son from head to foot. Observing the changes in how he dresses and looks compared to five years ago.
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Derek is his child from his childhood friend turned lover, Alana Miller. For Albert, she’s the one that got away. He loved her so dearly, that even their parents wanted to separate them. They fought all the odds just to be together. Though both came from prominent families, Alana's parents opposed their relationship as they had an age gap of seven years. Alana was just 13 and Albert was 20 when he started courting her. Alana's parents felt Albert was grooming their daughter. Despite their strong opinion, their love was stronger. The moment Alana turned 18, he proposed to her. They are to be married after she graduates from college, but after her 18th birthday she found out she was pregnant. Their plans changed, and they decided to get married once the child was born. But they didn’t even have the chance to get married, as she died three days after giving birth. It’s Albert's first major heartbreak, and it's the deepest cut in his heart 'till this day.
That is also the reason Derek grew up a spoiled brat that can get away with anything. When he was younger, he stabbed a classmate's hand using a pencil, then pushed his classmates down the stairs. Albert didn’t even give him a slap on the hand, but that classmate was sent to detention for trying to hit Derek, even though it was him who started everything and his classmate was only trying to defend himself.
Albert uses his money, power and influence to resolve the issue. This made Derek a bully at school. He is the worst. He shoves people in their lockers, paints his teacher's car, and he even burns the school library. Things that don't please him will feel his wrath.
But everything slowly changed when Albert got married to his stepmother and soon after that, Latton was born.
At first, he felt the subtle shift of his father's attention from him to his sister and, as his sister grew older. All eyes are on her. He felt an outsider in his own home. He used to be the only child and the center of everything and all of a sudden things changed, and it's as if he was forgotten. Latton has a complete family: a mother and father that treats her like a princess.
His hatred and envy of Latton got even deeper when she started going to the same school as him. The teacher began comparing the two of them and he hated it. His sister is nicer, smarter and polite compared to him, who brings chaos in the class.
One day, his envy got the best of him, and he hurt his sister. He wants her gone. He pushed Latton down the stairs and she broke her leg. Albert not only hit him for the first time, but he was also sent to a camp for troubled children. This is also the reason why he moved to Europe after he turned 16 ; he didn't want to see his father spoiling his sister.
When he heard that his father and stepmother were getting a divorce, he was elated for a moment, but it soon turned to disappointment when his sister stayed with his father in the manor rather than with her mother. From the day he left the manor and moved to Europe, he never spoke or saw his sister again. Hence, the last memory he has of Latton is when she was an 11-year-old chubby awkward kid with braces and pigtails.
The main reason he returns to Los Angeles is that he receives the news from their butler, Garette, that his sister has permanently moved out of Ripley Manor, and she is not on good terms with their father.
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Gleeful, he gave his father a tight hug and said," It’s been a while, I’m happy to be back."
"I hope you stay permanently," Albert replies while gesturing to Kirby, his assistant, to take Derek’s luggage.
Within minutes, they reached Ripley Manor, where a small gathering was held. Few of their relatives are present to welcome Derek home; his childhood friend Steven, and his cousin Lucius are some of the guests. After the pleasantries, he walks upstairs to check his room and sees it looks the same as he left before. Then he goes to his sister's room and when he opens it, it's almost empty. The furniture is covered in white sheets, he walks to the bathroom and the toiletries are empty. No soap, shampoo, lotion. The bathroom looks like it hasn't been used for a very long time. He sneered at the sight, "She did really move out." He said to himself as he opened the cabinet and drawers and found them almost empty.
This sent smiles to his face. When he went back downstairs, everyone could see him grinning from ear to ear.
Catherine observed his eerie grin and felt that Derek was dangerous and didn’t feel comfortable near him. She discreetly walked to the garden to avoid talking to him.
He then walks towards Lucius to bond with him, where he finds out that his sister was staying with him in a three-bedroom condo unit downtown.
"Why didn’t she come?" He asks with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Before Lucius could respond, Steven came to speak to Derek.
Lucius then discreetly left the manor and went home.