CHAPTER 8: THE WOMAN WHO FOUND THE FORGOTTEN BILLIONAIRE
1462 Words
John sat down near the car.
His eyes were still frozen on the reflection in the glass.
The face he saw was his own...
But it wasn’t his.
He touched his cheek again with his trembling hand.
He tried to search for memories.
He tried to understand.
But his head felt heavy.
“What happened to me?”
His voice was barely a whisper.
“Who did this to me?”
A gentle breeze passed by.
For a moment, he even forgot the pain from his injury.
Because the greatest pain wasn’t in his arm.
It was in his heart.
Inside the house...
Johana was standing near the window.
She was watching John outside.
She felt uneasy.
Something was troubling her.
That man was a stranger to her.
But the way he talked about their lives...
It was not normal.
He knew her child’s name.
He knew things about their marriage.
He even knew things that only a few people knew.
Johana held her chest.
“Who is this man?”
She whispered.
Amara was in her arms.
The child looked at her mother.
“Mommy...”
“That daddy is outside.”
Johana went silent.
Those words confused her.
Because her child had called another man “daddy.”
But at the same time, she had run into that man’s arms inside the house.
The man whom the whole world knew as John.
Johana closed her eyes.
“No...”
“I can’t be confused.”
But her heart refused to agree with her mind.
Outside...
John heard a small sound.
He turned around.
Through the space in the gate, he saw them.
Those three people.
The tall one.
The thin one.
The short one.
They were still there.
They had not left.
They had not run away.
They were watching him.
And at that moment, John understood one thing.
Even if he managed to convince Johana.
Even if he managed to prove himself to Amara.
He was still in danger.
Those people had not come only to separate him from his family.
They had come to make sure he disappeared forever.
John tried to stand.
His legs trembled.
He held onto the car to keep from falling.
His eyes fell on the house again.
His house.
His family.
His life.
Then he looked at the man inside who was wearing his life.
Anger began to rise.
But beneath that anger was an even bigger question.
“How could you?”
He whispered.
“How could you take everything that belongs to me?”
Suddenly...
The gate opened slightly.
John was startled.
He thought maybe Johana had come out.
But it wasn’t her.
It was one of the guards.
He approached him carefully.
“Leave this place.”
John looked at him.
“I have nowhere to go.”
The guard didn’t answer.
“You heard me.”
“Leave.”
John looked back once more.
The three men were still there.
If he went one way, he had enemies.
If he went the other way, he had lost his family.
But something inside him refused to die.
He slowly stood up.
“Don’t think I’m finished.”
The guard looked at him in surprise.
John looked at his house for the last time.
“I don’t know what I have lost.”
“I don’t know who I have become.”
“But I will find the truth.”
“Before I die.”
He turned around.
And began walking.
Every step was heavy.
But this time, he wasn’t walking toward home.
He was walking to find the answer to his life.
Behind him...
Inside the house...
Johana was still standing by the window.
And for the first time...
She asked herself a question that frightened her:
“Could it be possible that the man outside...”
“Was truly my husband?”
John walked away from the gate without even knowing where he was going.
Every step was painful.
He had been removed from his own home.
The house he had built with his sweat.
The place where he had lived with Johana.
The place where he had played with Amara.
But now...
He had been thrown out like a stranger.
He walked without looking back.
He didn’t want to see the man who had taken his face.
He didn’t want to see the window behind which his family remained.
But deep inside his heart...
The image of Amara calling him “daddy” continued to hurt him.
“Daddy...”
The word kept repeating inside his mind.
He held his chest.
“My daughter...”
“I will come back to you.”
“I don’t know how I will do it...”
“But I will find the truth.”
He walked along a narrow path behind the buildings.
That was when he remembered something.
Years ago, during the construction of this area, he had learned many routes that others didn’t know.
Service paths.
Back entrances.
Places an ordinary person would never think about.
He suddenly turned and entered a narrow passage between the buildings.
“If I use the main road, they will see me.”
“I have to disappear.”
But he didn’t know...
That the people following him were still nearby.
Some distance away...
The tall man stood, looking at the footprints.
“He passed through here.”
The thin man looked ahead.
“Let’s go.”
The short man sighed.
“This man is becoming a problem.”
The tall man said nothing.
He was observing carefully.
“He knows this area.”
He looked toward the path ahead.
“That means...”
“This man is not as ordinary as we thought.”
They began moving.
But John had already gone another way.
He reached an old path behind the buildings.
A place he used to pass through during inspections.
He continued walking.
But his body was beginning to fail him.
His injured arm felt heavy.
The loss of blood had weakened him.
His vision started becoming blurry.
He stopped and held onto a wall.
“No...”
“Now is not the time to fall.”
He lifted his head.
He tried to move forward.
One step.
Then another.
But his legs were no longer obeying him.
He reached an area with a few trees beside the road.
He sat down for a moment.
He thought he would rest for only a few seconds.
But his body was more exhausted than he realized.
His eyes began to close.
The sounds of cars became distant.
The image of Johana passed through his mind.
Then Amara.
Then the man with his face.
“Why...”
He asked in a weak voice.
“Why me?”
And before he could find an answer...
His body collapsed to the ground.
He lost consciousness.
Several minutes later...
The sound of a motorcycle was heard on the road.
A woman was riding carefully.
It was Zelishi.
Her eyes were alert, like someone trained to notice everything around her.
She didn’t simply travel along the road.
She was the kind of person who saw things others missed.
As she approached that area...
She noticed something beside the path.
She slowed down.
“Is someone there?”
She stopped the motorcycle.
She quickly got off.
She walked toward the person lying on the ground.
When she saw him clearly, her expression changed.
This man was badly injured.
His clothes were dirty.
His arm had a wound.
But what caught her attention the most...
Was that he was still holding a piece of cloth stained with blood.
Zelishi bent down.
“Oh my...”
She checked whether he was breathing.
He was alive.
But his condition was serious.
She took out her phone and looked around.
There was no one else nearby.
She knew she could continue her journey.
But her heart wouldn’t allow her to.
She remembered her mother.
She remembered her younger sibling.
She knew how difficult life could be for someone with no one to help them.
“I can’t leave you here.”
She said softly.
She tried to wake him.
“Hey...”
“Can you hear me?”
He didn’t respond.
Zelishi took a deep breath.
She made her decision.
She would take him to the hospital.
She didn’t know who this man was.
She didn’t know what secret he carried.
She didn’t know that this small act of kindness would change her life too.
She carefully helped him up and placed him on the motorcycle.
“Hold on.”
“Don’t die before you tell me who you are.”
Zelishi started the motorcycle.
And rode away toward the hospital...
Carrying the man whom the entire world had forgotten.
John Jacob Diksoni.
- Writer
