The Wrath of a Son-in-Law: Stand Up, Fool!

Reward

Harvey was led to the second floor of the mansion, it was a lot of walking and a lot of steps on the twisted grand staircase. All the time that he was walking, he was being very careful about walking, he was only looking at the floor. He could definitely see his reflection while he was walking on the impressively immaculate white, tiled floor that he feared his worn out, holed, and dirty shoes would leave dirt and gems. He could even feel the maids looking at his feet and every step with glares. Well, they should have given him plastic to cover his shoes at least. It wasn’t his fault that the Vice President wanted to talk to him.

The whole place was so bright. He even thought he was in heaven with how bright the surroundings were, even when it was only in the middle of the day. He felt like he was surrounded by gold. There were a lot of expensive paintings and collections displayed all over the house, and they were meticulously well-taken care of. There was nothing that was out of place. He couldn’t help but compare it to his house that seemed to have been struck by a tornado every day with how everything was sprawled and littered on the floor.

He was taken into a spacious, cozy room with a couch in the middle. It was a home-office with nothing but brown color. From the huge L-shaped couch where he was seated, placed in front of a brown table where he guessed Mr. Klein’s position every time he was busy with work. Harvey couldn’t see anything but brown, there was a huge lamp at the side, and there were a lot of paintings on the wall behind the table. He couldn’t think of anything but expensive and classy. Oh, also do not break anything.

He was just seated on the couch at the side with his hands on his lap, like a well-mannered man, except that he was just pretending and he didn’t want to break anything because it seemed like it was worth more than his whole being. The Vice President and the two men, one wearing a police uniform and one in a black outfit, were talking in front of him about what happened. No matter how much he wanted to mute them and didn’t want to snoop, it was an impossible task, especially since he was just in the same room as them.

“Do you have any idea who might be those men who tried to get Alyanna?" The Vice President spoke, standing in front of the two men with his arms closed, posing power with just his gesture as he looked at the two men part of the police with a serious, quizzical look. "Are they the same people who tried to assassinate me?"

"According to the report of our men, unfortunately, it is another group. Their vans are not the same as the vans your assassination used. We have an assumption that it might be the detached faction of those indigent groups of people you have hurled out from immigrants who were furious about what you did to their dwellings," the man in police uniform reported.

The Vice President scoffed in disbelief. "Those foolish people… How could they have the audacity to do that? They are in an illegal settlement and I have offered them money to get out of there. They are pigheaded."

"We will make sure that this won't happen again. Our team is on the run to investigate them. We will relay every move and detail to you as soon as we get something," the man wearing black asserted. "We will also let you know once we know who has committed this."

"You should," the Vice President said with finality. "This should be done as soon as reasonably possible. I do not want a repeat of this. Give the hardest punishment you could ever give to them. Are there enough people outside the subdivision?"

"Yes, sir. The President has heard about this, and requested better security."

The President? Harvey thought. He had never seen the president upclose before, and had never heard anything about him before. But as far as he knew, from Mrs. Crew, whom he regarded as someone who knew a lot about the issues in politics and the politicians themselves, the President hadn’t had any wrongdoing hidden in his sleeves. He was pure, that was why he won and got a lot of people’s hearts.

While he was Vice President, there was a rumor about him that there was a fraud that had happened. The opposing team was the one who was leading the voting but suddenly, there was a massive power outage, then soon after, the leading votes lessened and completely took a turn until they won. Though it was not proven yet, they said that there was election manipulation in the second-highest position. But no recount happened. Might be another doing of the VP.

The Vice President scoffed as he muttered, “He should not be meddling with things like that. He should focus on his lost son.”

“Son, you say, sir?” The police officer asked, confused by the gender he had given. "From what I heard, there is no lead about the gender of the President's child, that is why he can't start searching because he didn't know any single thing about the baby."

"Oh? Is that it?" The Vice President reacted, but spending too much time outside and frequently observing people, Harvey already knew that his expression became stiff and he had become uncomfortable, almost as if he was hiding something. "I didn't know about that. I was just wild guessing. Anyway, you should go. Make sure the press won't exaggerate things. Tell them that I won't be giving a press release, but someone named Harvey Clarke is the hero of the day."

"I don't…think that's necessary, sir," Harvey said, for the first time in a while, and meddling with their business. He guessed he had a right. After all, his name was mentioned, and it was him, his name and his face that would be released in the press, something that would be on the television, radio, probably newspapers, too, and, of course, social media. Oh boy, he will be famous! He just realized it!

“Oh, trust me it is,” the man just replied inanely, completely shrugging him off as he looked back at the two men in front of him and nodded at the two men as he offered them his hand for a handshake. “It’s done, just report everything to me. Thank you for your time, gentlemen.”

Harvey blinked and swallowed the lump in his throat upon realizing that he would be alone with the Vice President now after the two police officers were gone. He knew there were far more men outside the door and eavesdropping on what they were going to talk about, or mostly about what Harvey was going to say, because he was unarguably told to be careful of his words because someone was watching and one wrong word, his head would… poof.

“So, Mister Harvey Clarke,” the Vice President started, a ceremonious expression displayed on his face as he walked toward his table and sat on his cozy swivel chair. “From what I heard, you have been an orphan from Sweet Child Orphanage since you were a baby. You were abused by your foster parents whom you had arrested way back before, and right after, you just lived in the street. You were part of the illegal gangsters who were notorious for killing lives. You have been into fights and have been sent to the general hospital once for being stabbed from behind, causing you to stop. You just focus on your work. You are working as a garbage man, eating only one or twice a day, and if lucky enough, three, and just like any other, you are an unlawful resident in an out-of-view community somewhere around the area, am I right, Mister Clarke?”

Harvey was slack-jawed, he was definitely blown by the amount of knowledge the Vice President knew about him from the very start, from when he was a child to the most secretive part of his life, which was the stabbing part. He knew all of this. He didn’t know if he should be scared of him, but his fear-stricken face seemed to have already said it all. He was scared, beyond comparison. The Vice President was powerful, but he didn’t think to a point that he would do all of this researching about him. It was so creepy.

“S-sounds about right, sir…” he answered hesitantly.

“Good. Do you have anyone special in your heart right now? I mean to say a girlfriend, a fling, someone you have your heart eyes at the moment?” Harvey opened his mouth and was about to answer, but the honorable man already spoke and beat him to whatever he would say, “Forget it. Forget your women and focus on my request.”

Harvey closed his mouth and dampened his dried lips. From the time that the Vice President switched his full attention on him, he was already shivering and agitated. He couldn't even stop his knees from shaking and his hands were cold and fiddling with each other because of the eyes that were boring holes in him.

But his question about his love life, he didn’t have any at the moment. He had had relationships before, maybe one or two serious ones that lasted years and three or four flings and those that only lasted months. These were in his teens, both in the orphanage and the streets. He had come to the point in his life where he wanted to find someone he would date and settle down with for the rest of his life at his age now. Someone caring, kind, compassionate, and would love him despite what he was. He wasn’t looking for beauty because he couldn’t be choosy when he himself was not that good looking.

“Do you need something from me, sir? If you worry about not shutting my mouth about what happened, I promise that this will never slip out of my mouth ever again and pretend that it never happened. I am your person, sir. You don’t have to worry about me. If this is about giving me a reward, I am sincerely thankful for the thought, but I don’t really need help, I just did what a normal person would do.”

This might probably be his habit, preceding the decision and mostly explaining himself first just so he could make himself clear first before the verdict, especially when he felt like the verdict would be something that would not be favorable to him. By that, the person would be able to think through the conclusion that he would give about himself. He didn’t know a thing about the Vice President but his sickening reputation and decisive personality, so that once he thought about something, it had to happen. He was very fit for a politician.

“No, no. A normal person would video the whole thing and would cower around, but you are not like any others, you showed what it really was to be brave and you have gotten my approval, and so now, I want to give you a life, mister. A reward that I would never offer to anyone, so you had better accept it without any doubt, would you?” The Vice President said with a dead serious expression on his face that Harvey couldn’t do anything but stare at his face and unknowingly nod his head as if he was just being held at a gunpoint and it was his expectant eyes that was like the gun at this point. “Since you said you are my person, I would explain to you the reward, consider this as one because I would give you my daughter, one of my most precious treasures, it shows how much I trust you, mister Clarke.”

“Wait, sir, what do you mean?”

“Oh, what I mean? I thought you already got it. You will marry my daughter, Alyanna.”