Nothing But The Truth

14: Buried Beneath Ground

*A month ago*

Derrek's POV

I smiled as I spotted the familiar olive skinned, middle aged man dressed in a chauffeur uniform. He put on a smile as he spotted me in the group of people making their way out of the airport terminal.

"Welcome home, Mr Dune." He greeted, attempting to take my luggage off my hands. I politely declined his help, despite his protests. He didn't need to take my luggage like he was just some regular employee of my father. He meant much more to me than that.

"It's good to see you again, Felix. How are the wife and kids?" I asked as he lead me towards my designated car.

"They are doing very well. The twins are preparing to leave for the university in a week. They are very excited to get away from their old troubling parents." He laughed.

"You must be happy to finally get rid of them." I teased and he laughed even harder.

"Those troublemakers can finally be someone else's problem. I would be a liar though if I said I wasn't going to miss the noise every now and then."

I could see the fondness Felix had for his sons. They were quite the troublemakers but they loved their parents dearly and their parents loved them unconditionally. It was something I had always envied.

Felix had been my family's chauffeur for more than a decade. He had been specifically assigned to me, growing up and he had been the nicest man I knew. He had cared for me and treated me like I was his own. He understood me and sympathized with me. He had housed me whenever I had run away from home and he had done his best to be there for me whenever I needed him. He wasn't just an employee to me. He was more of a father to me that my own father was.

"I'm sure you will. The twins are quite entertaining." I could remember playing with the twins as toddlers in their little cottage house. It wasn't nearly as huge as mine but it had been more homely to me. I enjoyed spending my time with the toddlers everytime I had skipped my after school lesson. My father's employees had searched for me for hours but never thought to look in Felix's house. No one ever thought the Chairman's over pampered son would be hiding out in a little cottage on the other side of town.

"Here we are." Felix announced as we came to a stop by a gray Range Rover. He unlocked the car doors and came for my luggage.

"No, Felix. I'll put it in myself." I insisted but he stubbornly shook his head.

"Are you trying to get me fired, Sire? The Chairman would have my head if he saw his child handling his own luggage." He stated and I couldn't help but scoff. He was right. My father made sure his staff treated his family like royalty. Some would have thought it a luxurious life but I felt constrained. I felt trapped. Decisions were always made on my behalf; from the clothes I wore to kind of friends I kept. The freedom I experienced in Nigeria further convinced me of how trapped I had been all those years in my father's house. I couldn't go back.

I let Felix handle my luggage and got into the backseat, letting out a heavy sigh. I wanted nothing more than to get on the next flight back to Lagos but I had to sort things out with my father once and for all. I was going to make my father understand once and for all that he had completely lost me and I was never coming back to him, ever. I didn't want his wealth, I didn't want his status and I didn't want to take over D-Tech.

Once upon a time, I had wanted to inherit my father's company but it wasn't because it had been my life's dream or anything like that. It was just expected. That position had been mine since I was twelve years old.

After my father had deemed my older brother, Johanson unfit to be the heir of his multimillion pound company, he had passed the baton down to me and made well sure I never went astray like my brother had. He controlled everything I did, every book I read, every friend I made. There was no room for error. There was only success or punishment.