Chapter 2 Under Provision

• (Atty. Moss POV)
• I didn’t know if Zade’s family could really be called a family.
• He was a college mate to me and Cox. Back then I was in the College of Law, he a Business Administration guy, and Cox a medical student. Among us three, only he married. And he’s the busiest on top of it.
• His wife, Hyacinth, gave birth to a healthy baby boy called Cullen but passed away right after her delivery. Zade was suddenly left with the responsibility of being a sole parent and a director of a company in place of his late wife.
• Cullen grew up without Zade often at his side. It was me and Cox who filled the fatherly role when he wasn’t around. Until one day, Zade suddenly got ill and spent few days hospitalized. I still remember him being extremely grateful to us for looking after Cullen when we met him after his three-day confinement. It was supposed to be a normally happy day until things took downright worse.
• Zade passed out at a conference held that same day. Unexpectedly, he was declared brain dead.Alive but never to wake up.
• Cullen was suddenly handed with the obligation of running the company that his father left behind. Cox and I stayed at his back, all the while helping him with corporate responsibilities a seventeen-year-old couldn’t possibly handle with ease. News spread like wildfire about him, the scion to a conglomerate giant called the Cryzastic Corporation.
• It was a curse to the rich to make sudden sacrifices in the face of business. To Cullen, it was his youth. All the glimmer of adolescence has passed him by as he was bounded to the corners of a company that was facing its struggles. I used to watch him with worry that he’s wasting away his life for the sake of his father’s legacy. After all, at that age he should be making memories not paper works or conferences.
• But he is the sole heir…
• Five years had passed since he took over and made the company thrive. The bigger the company has become, the smaller the smile that he has. He came to understand the industry so well that he even removed the sycophants, the flirty women, and the gossipers from work. He hardly expressed emotions, rarely talked, and was dead set on making the business even more successful. He’s become an enterprise robot that even his father wouldn’t hope he’ll be.
• Zade only wanted him to be happy.Genuinely happy.
• Sympathy poured in as I looked at Zade’ body laid at the hospital bed. It has been years since he was put on life support. He was no more than skin and bones begging to be laid to rest. He’s our friend and I wanted him to finally have peace.
• Cox held the folder tightly. We’re both queasy knowing how hard it would be for Cullen to be reminded of such document over and over again. It was the Health Care Directive that was created and signed by Zade after the three days he was hospitalized. We both knew it was crucial in case anything happens to him.
• It states that Zade is willing to be taken off the life-support, in case he falls to a vegetative state, at the time Cullen accepts and signs the document. Cox and I have signed it as witnesses the moment it was created. The final decision lies at Cullen’s hands.
• He looked at us with fiery eyes when we handed him the document. He’s always been that way when we talked about his father’s condition. He’s just too sensitive about it. He crumpled the folder and flung it in the trash.
• “Nobody touches my father,” Cullen he tried to keep his voice from breaking. “How many times do I have to remind?”
• “For the past five years, your father showed no signs of improvement,” Cox spoke. His voice always had that power to convince, like a natural paternal talent. “He’s just suffering even more. And as a dear friend to him, we feel your grief.”
• Cullen remained looking at his father’s limp body.
• “You’ve been a good child. You’ve been exceptional at running the company. You have proven us your prowess and as the sole heir to Dela Ventura and Cryzastic Corporation, all you’ve got to do now is heed your father’s will,” Cox continued on. “It’s up to you to decide if you’re letting your father free or prolong his restless sleep.”
• All eyes were on Cullen in that cold room as we waited for his decision.
• The quietness grew longer until he told us to give them some privacy first. Cox nodded in approval and before we left, I saw the first tears Cullen has shed for years. All the pain he had kept behind that steel mask has finally been released.
• It was heart-breaking. But I was a little glad that I saw his human side again.
• The Cullen we knew… The little boy I once knew.
• (Cullen POV)
• I didn’t quite understand before why my father used to leave and go out then back the country often. I am left in a huge mansion where every corner was heavily guarded or secured by cameras. It was frequently quiet and no one to ever talk to.
• I was usually confined to the corners of my room, sat by the window as I watch my father go after we had breakfast together. He’d usually disappear for a month or how long his business trip would take.
• I was always alone…
• Life was a cliché. I am home-schooled so books were my constant companions. If not, I was out to wander the meadows of Dela Ventura Villa atop my white stallion. Of course, my father’s men followed suit.