Love and Banitsa

Chapter 1: Bulgaria's Billionaire

The bus screeched to a halt. People were talking, shouting, and laughing. Some people were on their phones. Some people were talking to others. Some people were staring into space. Some people were reading. This was Chicago.

I didn't always live in Chicago. Dad, Mom, Vali, and I used to live in different places near Dayton, Ohio. Dad "worked" there, but we couldn't find a suitable house for our family. Needless to say, I didn't have a home.

Dad started his own company, which manufactured hardware and software for important technological companies and organizations, such as Cisco and Apple. Because of this, I grew up in a family with a multi-billion dollar net worth (and bank account). Even though we had money, no one really knew that we had that kind of serious wealth. We lived like average, middle-class people. Mom even worked as a neurologist, only adding to our massive yearly income. Despite all of this, I rarely acted spoiled. In fact, Mom and Dad had very harsh rules about how much we could spend. We talked about money a lot in our house, but we were strictly forbidden to talk to anyone else about it. For some reason that I could never guess, Mom and Dad kept our massive wealth a secret from the outside world. When someone asked about Dad's job, My parents would quickly change the subject.

Because of his job, Dad would usually stay in Bulgaria for a few months, and come back to the States for a few months after that. Every time he got home from one of his extended trips, he would say "Ru, you are going to go home with me some time. Would you like that?" I would enthusiastically nod and happily laugh. But we never did. I never went to Bulgaria.  

Now, we lived in Chicago, and I hated it. I hated everything about it. The cars, the people, and the urban atmosphere absolutely disgusted me. To make matters worse, Dad left for another business trip right after we moved in. He still hadn't  come back. Life in Chicago was miserable.