Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 97: His Name Was Rick Miller

Chapter 97: His Name Was Rick Miller

Upon returning from his week-long venture, he discovered her dead in her bed. According to the doctors, she died of a stroke. The body had been cold for three days.

In other words, nobody had checked on her. Nobody even noticed her.

After that, his world went dark. A strange pair of hands weighed down on his shoulders. Some nights, when he was tired, his mom would massage them.

Not anymore. Now, Rick was alone.

His dad didn’t learn about her death until half a year after. He called Paul, muttered his apologies and condolences, and invited him for a private dinner. Just the two of them, no older brother or trophy wife involved

From the start, it was a tense, stupid affair. What else did his dad expect?

Rick sat across from his father, his gaze fixed on his plate and his clenching. His dad had gotten old over the years, almost as old as his mom. The towering power he had simmered. Lines went down his face and he struggled to find the right words to bridge the chasm that had widened between them.

His dad cleared his throat, the sound echoing in the strained quietness of the dining table. "Rick, I notice you have a job."

Rick’s grip tightened on his utensils, his knuckles turning white. His eyes flickered up briefly. "A truck driver."

"A...truck driver." His dad swallowed hard and looked away. "I’m sorry."

"What’s so wrong about that? I live my life, you live yours."

"I...it’s not about that. I just want forgiveness—!"

The remark got on his nerves. "You don’t deserve it."

"Don’t I? I’ve been working day-in, day-out, standing proud, while you...you’ve been driving trucks! Our family does not do truck drivers." There it was, the prickly attitude of a high-class man. His brows furrowed, his voice roaring, he added, "I wish I could change the past, but I can’t. Ricky, why don’t you come with me? I can take you under my wing. I can give you money, and with money comes a good woman and a family. You know I’m right."

"Are you?" Rick muttered. "You had all the money in the world yet you still managed to screw up our family."

His dad grimaced. "Always with that. Your mother was a sickly, lazy woman—"

"Who you could have helped but chose not to!" Rick retorted. In the past, he was meek and pathetic towards his dad. A wimp. Not anymore, not when he had nothing to lose. "You abandoned her!"

His dad didn’t speak. Instead, he narrowed his eyes deeper and judged him deeper. "You think you’ve changed, don’t you? But I know you. I’ve seen you when you were at school and at home. You’re just angry. You’re like your mom, pretending you can be normal but in actuality just a ticking time bomb."

"I’m proud to be like mom—"

"As if. You know her. You’ve lived with her now. She’s a leech."

Rick stood up. His dad did the same. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. She was a lazy, dumb bitch that never once had to work in her life. I didn’t even know someone could be so ungrateful until I met her—"

"Shut up!" Rick slammed the table. The room went silent. His heart started to race. "You’re just making excuses!"

"Am I?" His dad sighed in the way that he hated most. In a way that caused visceral hatred. In a way that looked down on him, his mom, and everything he had accomplished in life. "You’re always like this, huh? Too damn proud and too damn stupid. Just like your mom. No wonder she died. With a son like you..."

He trailed off and shook his head. Rick couldn’t believe what he had just said. He couldn’t believe that a man so heartless could exist.

Why? Why did he get to exist when his mom didn’t? How come he received all the glory and money, while he and his mother were left to rot?

It wasn’t fair. It was so damn unfair!

His breathing accelerating, his mind in a swirl of hate and frustration, Rick picked up a nearby utensil and threw at his father’s chest.

Squelch! His dad went wide eyed. A crimson red liquid dripped down to the plate on the table. "R-Ricky...?"

His eyes followed and saw the knife lodged into his heart. Thud! His dad fell on his back, too old and withered to fight back. To live on.

’Oh, god.’

Realization dawned too late as regret and horror flooded Rick’s being. With panic coursing through his veins, he fled, his footsteps pounding against the pavement. The same lonely feeling pressed on his shoulders as he started up his truck and drove. That same loneliness persisted as dread seeped into his heart.

His foot pressed on the pedal through the anger, the rage, and the regret. He went faster, faster!

Tears streaked his face, mingling with the rain that lashed against the windshield, blurring his vision. ’The knife, the damn knife, I didn’t...I didn’t mean to! B-but he deserved it! He did!’

His focus wavered. He hit something and the car swerved, tires skidding against the slick pavement.

BANG!

A blur of lights and screeching tires, the world spun out of control as Rick careened down a dark, deserted road. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the car plummeted down the embankment, a heart-stopping descent into darkness. The sickening crunch of metal against earth reverberated through the night.

Silence descended, broken only by the pitter-patter of rain and the haunting stillness of the wreckage. Rick Miller, doused in his own blood, shards of glass piercing his face, stared into the darkness ahead. He could not look back from it.

A tear ripped from the corner of his eye. "I really wish...I got to spend...more time with everyone."

He was the servant of the greatest monster the Heavenly Games had ever seen. A calculated evil that burned whatever it deemed unworthy.

Rick Miller was unworthy. Paul was unworthy.

Everything seemed so cold, but then a glimmer appeared in his vision. He cried.

"I need that..."

A small, insignificant glimmer of light. An image of what could have been. His friends, his mother...

Even his father.

"I need it! Please...!"

He reached for the light. He yearned for it, wanting it to melt away the coldness that was gripping his chest.

He kept reaching, reaching, reaching, till he touched it. He felt a mellow warmth and grasped it. A small smile spread across his lips.

Only for his world to fall. Only for him to find that it was his own beating heart. His hands wet with his own blood, his world turned to complete darkness.

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