Prologue

Prologue

“Start packing your things. I want you out of my office by the end of the day,” The obese man in front of me said, as he took a swig from his whiskey glass.

He had called me into his office first thing in the morning and had dropped this on me all of a sudden.

“Sir? What is this about? You had just given me excellent reviews on my work last week.”

The man adjusted his glasses while he whirled his glass around, “The past isn’t something you can fix. If our company had known of your history, we would not have hired you.”

“...What do—”

“Enough, your gang relationship has come to light. While I have found no problem with your work so far, if it got out that we had someone like you in our company, it would ruin our reputation. The decision is final.”

It had been devastating.

After my termination, I refused to give up and took several part-time jobs in retail, aiming to save up enough to start my own business. The small amounts I could scrounge up into my savings each month were depressing. With rising food prices, rent, and inflation, it seemed like some force was out to get me.

It took three years of diligent saving, but I was finally ready.

“It was nice talking to you today, Mr. Halls. I will have the documents emailed to you soon. Once you have signed them, we should be able to incorporate your business. Hope you have a great rest of the day. See you soon.”

As I exited my attorney’s office with a hop in my step, I put on my earphones and started humming happily to a tune as I made my way to the bus stop. From now on, I no longer had to juggle between my part-time jobs and could wholeheartedly focus on my business.

I watched the light change before crossing the street. Just as I had made it halfway, car horns rang out from all the surrounding cars. I turned, only to see bright headlights rapidly growing in size.

I had just enough time to make out the terror on the truck driver’s face before everything turned dark.