Face swollen from the hits he had taken, drained and shocked, supposed fortune maker, Thomas Lanoth walked towards the bungalow where he had been staying with Trent.
For the first time in a long time, he began to rethink the choices he had made in his life.
As he watched people zipping by in their cars and laughing gaily as they went about their day, he cursed his luck.
He cursed his choices, including the woman who had been at the centre of all that.
She was the reason why he had agreed to that bet that long time ago.
She was the reason he had lived a lie for many years.
She was also the reason why he had almost died from an ov***ose.
She was also the reason why he was beaten up and sent to Wollongong.
By extension, she was the reason why he was walking aimlessly towards a house where his bad day was going to get worse.
What was he going to tell Trent?
He still couldn't believe that a weak-looking, breathy-voiced lady had managed to trick him into ruining his promising prospects.
At the moment, he was too drained to be mad at how she had skillfully trapped him as if she was out to get him before.
"This must be Karma," he thought fleetingly as he stopped walking when he suddenly realised why she had seemed familiar even though she had the shades over her eyes.
She looked like his ex-wife!
Wincing as he mistakenly touched his face, he started walking again as he wondered if his grief was making him go crazy already.
That woman was a redhead and how on earth would his ex-wife, who had never been to Australia before, be the girlfriend of the CEO?
Even though he had never seen the CEO once since he started working there, he knew the man must be powerful in Sydney for him to be able to own a building in a place like Martin's Place.
"You are lucky that madam decided not to take this up with you. If not, you will be rotting in prison soon enough. Don't be fooled though. Your appointment with us is terminated immediately. You would be a fool to think that any other security agency in Sydney would accept you too. Your image and name will be sent to the employment bureaus and circulated among all companies. You are automatically blacklisted from now on. If you dare show your face anywhere at all in Australia for employment, you will be immediately arrested."
The damning words of the I. S. S boss, who was already waiting for him as the chief security officer and the others took him there rang in his head as he continued his meandering walk home.
Home! He scoffed pitifully.
Where was his home? He wondered in pain.
His mother's face came to his mind and he wished he could see her at that moment.
She might be a nag and always get on his case, but she would never say no to him.
He knew his absence this time around was the worst he had ever done since he started leaving home, and he doubted she could easily forgive him this time after he had left her alone with three kids for almost a year now.
It would have been a different case if he had been able to make his fortune and go back home to her in fanfare.
With the latest verdict, he would be lucky if he could even get out of Australia with the clothes on his back.
Trent will certainly make him pay dearly for coming home with nothing.
Ever since he had been rejected at the bar where he had applied after ISS rejected him, the man had got more drawn more and more to the bottles.
Thomas tried his best to avoid him most of the time and only ensured he went back home when he knew that he would have passed out over some empty bottles.
Thomas had no idea where he was getting the money to keep drinking, and he was not about to ask.
At that moment, though, he cared less about what Trent would say, he just wanted to find a place to lie and forget his shame for a moment.
His mother's face came to his mind again.
What if he could get some of the money that Trent had been wasting so he could go back home?
His mother would not forsake him no matter what.
He was sure of that.
There was a time he could have been sure of another person like that too, but he knew he had no right to even ask anything of her.
For a moment, the selfish, narcissistic and entitled Thomas seemed to give way to the teeny-tiny bit of goodness in him, and he thought of the damage he had done to the woman who had shown him love and unconditional support.
Sadness made him melancholic.
His grief made him remorseful.
Then he saw the house from afar and his mood nosedived even more.
Hoping that Trent would be out of the house so that he could even get some sleep to clear his head, Thomas checked under the doormat without reaching for the door.
The empty spot sent spikes into his heart and sharpened the thought of how pathetic his life had become.
He, who once had a home he could easily go to without a second thought, had now become someone who dreaded entering a house.
He reached for the door and turned the knob slowly.
Maybe if he was…
He realised his hopes were futile when he saw Trent sitting in the grandfather's chair, which he had pulled from its spot.
He was seated in the middle of the room facing the door as he jiggled his feet slowly.
Fuck!
Trent jiggling his foot was nothing but bad news.
It was tantamount to the ticking of a time bomb.
Instead of bottles, Thomas could only see his alcohol flask in his hands, and it was capped.
But then, his nose was ruddy and his eyes as he looked at Thomas was enough to tell him that the man was well on his way to being wasted as always.
"You came back early," he said with a slur.
"Yes, I…" why was he waiting for him like that? Had he somehow found out that... "... Yes," he said as he moved closer.
A spurt of anger sparked in him at how he had somehow become afraid of a man like him.
If it came to a fistfight, he was sure that he could beat the man. After all, he had been a trainer for the better part of his life.
Yet here he was cowering in front of a slobby mess like this because of his circumstances.
With that thought fuelling his courage, he made a move to pass Trent so he could walk to the closet where he was sleeping.
"Who said you could leave, you piece of shit?!" Trent's voice stopped him.
Though he knew the man was just some pace away from violence, he simply said "What do you want? I am just coming from work and I need to sleep."
Of course, the man's intoxication didn't make him notice his swollen face and bruised body.
That was more than fine with Thomas, he just wanted to sleep.
"Who gave you the gut to give my phone number out to someone?"
"What are you talking about? Which…"
"Don't you go lying, you piece of trash!" Trent yelled as he lumbered up from the seat and weaved from side to side. "How dare you give my number to some woman?!"
What woman? Thomas was even more confused when he remembered the woman he had given the number to.
It was….
"There I was minding my business when a woman who called herself Mary interrupted my fun and started asking about you!"
Mary? who…Mary!
"When I told her to piss the hell off, she started talking some shit about how your mother was dead and she…."
Thomas's legs ate up the distance between them in one stride, he grabbed the shocked Trent as he asked "What did you say?! What did you… You said what?!"
"I told you never to interrupt me when I am talking, you piece of…"
"I asked you what nonsense did you just say, you motherfucker?!" Thomas said as he shook Trent violently like a limp cloth.
With widened eyes, Trent tried to push Thomas away. He didn't budge one bit. "Get your hands off me. You are sleeping out tonight."
"Tell me what she said! Tell me!"
Trent's half-raised fist had not covered the distance before Thomas sent a head-snapping fist into his jaw!
*********
Later that night, a man with a small bag came out of the house.
He looked around to be sure he was not being watched.
Then he locked the door behind him and put the key beneath the mat.
And he headed south.