Chapter 8 ANDY BEHIND THE CURTAIN

A smile brightened Dr. Brown's face. Brown made his way around the table to come and give him a tight hug. "You've grown up so much, Andy." The old man's eyes started to get teary as he broke the hug. "I am so happy for you, my boy." Andy giggled as the old man pushed the chair for Andy to sit. "I cannot express how much I miss you. Every day, I pray for you." The old man started to cry as old childhood memories of Andy flashed up in his mind. "You went through a lot, didn't you?"

Andy's eyes started to warm up as he saw the old man break down and cry in front of him. Andy gulped and blinked a few times to hold his tears back before he nodded and replied at the same time, "It was a bit of a struggle." He bit his lip as he told a lie.

Everything started with a man named Alvin Chester. He married a woman in Chicago who was Sylvester's mother, a woman named Amari Chester. Without knowing that his wife had gotten pregnant, Alvin Chester had to fly over to China for a business meeting overseas. In China, he saved a woman named Xiu Ying from a thief who was trying to rob her while she was walking at night on the street. Alvin didn't stop there; he continued on seeing Xiu Ying even though she told him countless times that she already had someone she liked, which was Dustin Roo.

Dustin Roo and Xiu Ying promised to marry each other after graduating from college. Unexpectedly, Dustin Roo was forced to go live in America by his family in order to separate him from Xiu Ying. Though Alvin Chester knew the feelings that Xiu Ying had for Dustin Roo, he still didn't give up on trying to pursue Xiu Ying's heart. Until one night, Xiu Ying lost herself to Alvin Chester, whom she thought would be a better loyal man than Dustin Roo. That was when an incident turned into a life mistake and brought an unwanted child into the world: Andy. Soon after that one nightstand, Alvin got notified that his wife in Chicago was carrying his first child. The butterflies formed in his heart with excitement. He couldn't help but return to Chicago, leaving Xiu Ying alone.

A few years have passed since the news of Andy carrying Chester's blood got out. Alvin wasted no time in flying back to China. His one and only goal was to get his kid back. He knew how dangerous his kid's life could've fallen into. With the fact that he was the boss of a Cobra mafia clan, enemies were always ready to cut off all the ties that related to the bloodline of Winchester.

Alvin Chester, a half-Chinese and half-Canadian mafia member who lived in Chicago, soon came to take Andy away from his mother in China. Andy's life has changed ever since that moment. Even his last name, which used to be Roo from his mother, got stripped away from him. Since the day Andy was born, his mother has never once treated him like he was her son. "You should've never been born!" That sentence scarred Andy's heart forever. As a kid, Andy always wondered why his mom always hated him. He tried to make himself perfect, but he was never able to become one. Being the top student in the class and in the school was still not enough to make his mother love him. He saw his friends' parents hug and kiss their kids, while his mother never once did any of those things. As a young kid, he wondered again and again, How come everyone has a father and I don't?'. The question was repeatedly asked by the young boy, even though there was no answer to be found.

At the age of eight, a man appeared at Andy's mother's house, declaring that he was Andy's father. On that day, Andy could never forget the image of his mom heartlessly giving him away to his father. 'How could she leave me with a stranger?' A young boy wondered while he was crying and sobbing uncontrollably. 'Am I still not good enough to be qualified to be your son?' The young boy asked himself as he was forced to get in the car with a strange man who smelled of cigarettes. The young boy looked out the window, but he found no trace of his mother. She wasn't even there to say her last goodbye to her only son. Andy cried in agony, wishing he could perhaps see his mother for one last time. Unfortunately, wishes were meant to never come true, just like dreams and nightmares.

Coming to America and living in a strange place with strangers who speak a whole different language, Andy had never felt so lost and isolated until that moment. Living in a big house with wealth, Andy could still not find happiness. The little boy cried every night and demanded to see his mother, or he would rather starve. One night, Alvin Chester came to see his son sitting in the corner of the dark bedroom. His anger rose before he gave the order to his men in black to take his son out, and he tied him up against a tree until he surrendered and listened to him.

"How could he be so stubborn?" Alvin groaned in annoyance before he said, "Nobody is allowed to come near him until I say so!" Alvin hissed in anger, then returned back into the mansion. Everyone left little Andy alone. Until two nights later, Andy no longer had the strength to cry or keep himself awake. His father, who was always glaring through the window from his workroom to watch his son, decided to come out of the house and gave the order to release Andy. "Call a family doctor."

A week later, Andy gained his conscience back and found himself inside that same big bedroom. "Mom," The little boy's voice began, followed by tears running down through his eyes. A few weeks later, Andy's father forced his son to go to school. Andy's stubbornness caused him to argue and never listen to his father's words.

Two years later, Alvin Chester killed a man in front of his own son. "Did you see that?" He asked a boy who was crying hard while he struggled in the grip of a man behind him. Alvin's hand grabbed Andy's arm and swung him forward towards the corpse of an old man in front of him. "Let me teach you a life lesson, Andy. In this cruel world, you do what you can to survive." Alvin patted Andy's head gently with a smirk and continued, "Only those with a lot of power will live. Being a coward and weak like you will not last long in this type of world. You are my son; you ought to be strong like me, not a weakling like your mother. Your name is Andy Chester, and never Andy Roo." Ever since that day, his father has always taken Andy with him to witness countless deaths and brutal abuses of people.

As the news got out that Andy was actually Alvin Chester's son, Andy's life fell into danger. One day, while Andy was in the hospital getting mentally and physically treated, an anonymous man showed up in his room disguised as a doctor, pulled out a knife, and wanted to kill the ten-year-old boy. Andy screamed for help, but the men in black who were guiding the door outside the room ignored him, thinking that Andy was just scared of the doctor. Andy was panicking at the same time when his father's words were recalled in his mind: "I will hide the gun underneath your pillow just in case anyone wants to hurt you when I am not here. Don't be scared that you'll hurt them. If you are scared, they'll be the ones to hurt you."

Andy pushed the disguised doctor with full strength. Throwing his pillow at the doctor, he grabbed the gun to aim at the doctor, who was about to run back to grab him. The man in front of Andy paused and chuckled, saying, "Little boy, you won't dare to shoot. Put it down, and Andy's small finger pulled the trigger just like he saw his father do. The bullet flew out of the gun and pierced the disguised doctor right in the neck. The sound of the gun echoed the hospital, causing the two men in front of the room to rush in. Their eyes widened at the scene of Andy holding a gun while a man in front of him lay flat on the floor in a pool of blood. Andy turned to glare deadly at the two men who were rushing in to check up on the doctor's body, then looked at Andy with a horror expression.