The sun shone brightly through the windows. The sun rays hit Derek's eyes so he had no choice but to wince and blink.
'A few minutes more please.' thought Derek. With good reason too. He slept like a baby for the first time in his life, on his king size bed.
"Oh S***!!! I'm late for work!!"
Derek jolted himself awake and for a brief moment, he was in a cold sweat. In that moment, it had not dawned on him that we was no longer Derek Smith; he is Derek Quinton. He thought he was going to be late for work and get bullied by his boss and colleagues.
But he soon recalled the events of the day before and quickly calmed down. He remembered that he was fired from his job, thrown out of the Smith mansion, then picked up by Owen Beck to be reunited with his biological parents, the powerful Peter and Lea Quinton.
'That's right. I'm Derek Quinton now. No need to worry about an unrewarding job full of corrupt managers and ass-kissing workers. Nice.' thought Derek.
At that point, heard a knock on his room door. He went to answer it and found one of the mansion maids standing there.
"Young Master Quinton. Your parents are expecting you to join them for breakfast in the dining room." said the maid.
"Thank you. I'll join them shortly." replied Derek, before asking further, "Oh by the way, what is your name?"
"Sandra."
"Ok Sandra, thanks again."
After washing up, Derek wore a casual polo T-shirt and jeans before proceeding to join his parents for breakfast. He felt that now he is a Quinton, that should be the minimum dress code once he steps out of his room.
"Morning mum and dad." Derek greeted.
Peter looked up from reading his newspaper and gave Derek a smile.
Lea replied to Derek's greeting, "Morning son. Did you sleep well last night?"
"Yes, mum. It was the best sleep I've ever had." replied Derek.
"Come, son. Have breakfast with us as a family. Our first family meal together." Lea urged excitedly.
"Yes son. What would you like to have? We'll get our chef to cook for you." asked Peter.
Derek gave that question a little bit of thought before replying, "Well it's my first proper breakfast with my family. Let's have some fluffy pancakes with scrambled eggs."
"No problem, son." Peter then called for the chef. "Chef Marcel, you heard what my son wants. My wife and I will have the same too."
"Oui, Master Quinton."
As the chef proceed to prepare the Quinton family's breakfast, Peter, Lea and Derek continued their family conversation.
"Mum, dad, I like to know.... what is Owen's position in the family?" asked Derek.
Peter explained, "Well, Owen wears a lot of hats. You could say Owen is our right-hand man. When Owen first started with us, he was our butler. Through his dedication, loyalty to us and his hard work, we then promoted him to our chief of security."
"When he fended off those thugs on that fateful night, we knew we could trust Owen for life. So, he joined us when we left Townsville and over the years, we entrusted him with running our business. I must say, Owen had a really good business acumen. He is just as important a part of our Quinton Consortium's success, so much so that we made him general manager."
At that time, Chef Marcel approached the dining table with the family's breakfast. The Quintons decided to pause their conversation and enjoy the chef's wonderful pancakes and scrambled eggs.
Derek was very impressed with the food. He complimented, "This is the best meal I've had ever. Nothing I've eaten has come closed to this. The best I've eaten back at that damn Smith house was a leftover steak that was cooked like crap."
Hearing Derek say that, Peter started getting angry.
"That b**** Louise is going to pay. Just say the word son and your mother and I will bury them in a snap!!" growled Peter.
"Honey, please. We just got our son back. Let's enjoy this moment and not ruin it by thinking of them." Lea pleaded.
Derek understood his father's intentions; and quickly tried to calm his father down.
"Mum's right, dad. Let's ignore them for now. They'll get what's coming to them. Besides, now that I know I'm your son, I'll have no problems taking most of them down."
"Most of them? Shouldn't it be all of them?" Peter was puzzled.
"To be honest dad, there is a saving grace in that house of horrors.... Uncle Raymond's second daughter Madison. She has always been looked down upon by her sisters Chloe and Juri, as well as her cousins Charles and Mason. The only reason why she was not treated any worse was because I was the punching bag. I'm kind of worried for her now that I've been kicked out of that house."
"I see. So, what is your plan for that family?" asked Peter.
Derek replied, "I don't know yet. All I know is that I want Madison to be the shining star that I know she can be in life, while the rest of that sh**** family can rot away for all I care."
Lea stepped in to assure Derek, "Whatever your plan is son, we will support you all the way. We promised to make it up to you, not just for the time lost but also for the hardship you had to endure; and we will keep our word."
"With that said son..." continued Lea. "...We also want you, when the time is right, to take your place as the heir the Quinton Consortium."
Morning bombshell.
Derek's eyes widened up.
"Wow that's a big responsibility. Thank goodness you said, 'when the time is right' mum."
"I got a lot to learn. First question, what is the Quinton Consortium and it's worth?"