Chapter 2: Prologue part 2

(Damn, I have such bad luck, damn it!)

In a sparsely attended bank branch, an event is taking place that has inspired many stories: a robbery. This is a rare occurrence in the city where this bank is located to the point that if you asked 100 people about a similar event, they could only respond with fragments from movies and books.

In the middle of this extraordinary event is Daniel, an average-looking guy with light brown hair and honey-colored eyes, who was wearing evidently new clothes from a rather expensive brand.

Daniel was a guy whose intelligence could at best be considered above average, which in his youth led him to be terribly arrogant, convinced that he was an uncommon genius because he could do and understand things not only faster but also better than everyone around him.

But like anyone who has lived long enough, at one point in his life he learned that nothing hits harder than life itself. When it was his turn to receive a reality check, it shattered the self-declared pedestal he had placed himself on in one fell swoop.

When he was young, Daniel refused to be like the others in his humble surroundings. He wanted to be rich and successful, so he used all his intelligence and skills to develop a project that would lead him to prosperity, and despite his mother's murder in the process, he managed to push it forward.

To confirm his genius, Daniel's project worked on his first attempt, and suddenly, he was respected, had money, and lived the life he always dreamed of. He had the prettiest girlfriend, lived in a relatively exclusive area, and his company was making more money every day. But when he least expected it, he lost everything in a single day.

On that fateful day, Daniel left his office early because one of his meetings was canceled, so he decided to visit his girlfriend, only to find her naked in bed with her "gay friend", whom she swore was just another "girlfriend".

After his heart was shattered, Daniel returned home heartbroken, filled with anger, and decided to ensure that no one else was betraying him. He began reviewing every document in his company, discovering the worst, something he never expected to find.

His best friend, the one who had risen from poverty with him, who had always been there through thick and thin, who always accompanied him, the brother he never had, who, despite not being the smartest or most useful, he brought into his company and gave a managerial position to as a thank you—that 'brother from another mother' was robbing him.

But he wasn't just stealing money; without Daniel noticing, the company that had cost him so much, for which he had sacrificed so much, for which he even missed his mother's funeral, convincing himself that she would prefer to see him succeed rather than cry at a burial, especially since the son of a bitch who killed her was already dead and there was nothing more to be done—no longer belonged to him.

Upon learning this, Daniel went mad with rage and ran to demand an explanation from his 'brother', always believing it was a mistake, a misunderstanding perhaps. But all he got when asking for explanations was being thrown out of the house he had helped pay for his 'dear friend', and then he was banned from the office building where his company was, a place he could never enter again.

Because of this, Daniel decided to prove to his former 'brother' and the bitch of an ex-girlfriend what he was made of, that he was the reason they escaped poverty, that he was the only reason they were where they were, and that without him, the only thing waiting for them was failure.

After all, the company was built on his skills, a large part of it depended entirely on him, so it was logical to think that without him, the company didn't have much time left, and bankruptcy was the only thing that awaited them. Not to mention that his 'friend' wasn't particularly intelligent or skilled, so the only thing waiting for him was to starve under a bridge full of debts.

Moreover, nobody would want that bitch, as he made sure that what she was capable of became public knowledge. So, no one with any success and the freedom to choose any woman would risk being with her. Although she was pretty, she wasn’t the only beauty out there, so at best, she would end up as a replaceable mistress until her looks faded.

With a goal in mind, Daniel started working on a new project, a better one, something he had been thinking about for a while, something that would make him much more successful and richer than they would ever be.

Just like the first time, he gave it his all and more, working tirelessly 18 hours a day, risking everything, and gradually selling everything he had left to invest in his project. But in the end, he failed miserably.

Still, Daniel didn’t give up and tried again. He started a new project, barely sleeping and eating scraps, but he failed again shortly afterward. Yet, this did not stop him; he kept trying again and again, for several years, until one day, in the house his grandmother had left him when she died, realizing he had nothing left and could only eat because he rented out extra rooms to students, he saw the reality.

He was nothing special. The first time had just been a stroke of luck, one he lost by being too confident, by underestimating others, by believing he was smart enough to know if someone was deceiving him, by thinking he was too valuable for anyone to dare betray him. That day, perhaps for the first time since his childhood, he cried and gave up.

After that, Daniel spent several years in depression, fluctuating between the liberating thought of suicide, absolute apathy even towards eating, and self-loathing for his naive ideas in his youth, while he watched the lives of his 'ex-brother' and ex-girlfriend, whom life, as if not satisfied with the beating it was giving him, still rubbed their success in his face.

His old company had some problems when he left, but in the end, they managed to solve them. Despite needing several people to do his job, they were still able to replace him, and the company remained relatively successful and stable.

On the other hand, his ex-girlfriend ended up marrying a multimillionaire film producer, something he never thought possible, even in his wildest nightmares. But it happened. While he was there, locked in a room, eating garbage, and sinking into misery and complete loneliness, she was living the high life in places and mansions that, even at his best, he could only dream of.

Some time later, a friend of his mother’s returned to the city. Seeing him in that state, she offered him a job, although in reality, she forced him to work in her family business. Although at first it was torture, the stimulation of learning something new began to distract him, and over time, he started to enjoy what he was doing.

One day, while working as usual, he suddenly had an idea. It wasn’t as ambitious as the projects he was used to undertaking, but if it worked, it could help grow the business of that good friend of his mother who had pulled him out of his misery.

But things were no longer simple for him. Although he refused to accept that he was afraid of failing, he always found excuses to leave it unfinished. He got tired, distracted, couldn’t organize things properly, and didn’t even dare propose it to his mother’s friend, something that had never happened to him before. He had no choice but to accept that he was scared, and the remnants of his arrogance couldn’t allow something like that to happen.

After presenting the project to his mother’s friend and having her accept it, Daniel forced himself by any means he could think of to finish it. When it launched, the impact was so good that the family business grew so much that his mother’s good friend decided to make him a partner. She took him to buy new brand-name clothes and to eat at a good restaurant to celebrate.

The next day, they met with the lawyer to complete all the necessary paperwork to formalize his partnership. Later, they went to the bank to apply for a loan to make some renovations to his grandmother's house, which was in very poor condition due to the prolonged neglect he had subjected it to.

But something Daniel never imagined was that this day, when he finally felt he could move forward again, when he finally felt that depression was a thing of the past, when he could finally understand all his past mistakes and live a different life with more wisdom and experience, would be the last day of his life.

"EVERYONE ON THE GROUND, THE FIRST ONE TO MOVE GETS AN EXTRA HOLE IN THEIR SKULL!!!!"

When Daniel was sitting across from a bank advisor with his mother’s friend, an aggressive shout echoed through the bank. He immediately threw his companion to the ground and covered her with his body in an attempt to protect her, while everyone around them panicked, cried, and pleaded as they lay on the floor. One of the robbers fired a shot into the air with what seemed to be a machine gun.

"I WANT THIS BAG COMPLETELY FILLED WITH CASH, NO TRICKS. I KNOW WHERE YOUR SON STUDIES, MRS. SÁNCHEZ, AND THE SAME GOES FOR YOU, WILSON, JOHNSON, AND LUNA."

The bank employees turned pale at the words of another robber, especially the teller handed the bag, who immediately started filling it with money, terror written all over her face. Meanwhile, the other robbers pointed their weapons at the guards and customers on the floor, alert to any movement.

The process was quick, and within a few minutes, the bag was full. Consequently, the robbers proceeded to leave, but what they didn’t anticipate was a police patrol passing by at that exact moment.

Seeing the police, one of the robbers panicked and fired, causing the officers to call for backup and return fire at the fleeing robbers. Inside the bank, the hostages cried and prayed to God.

When the gunfire finally ceased, people began to calm down and stand up. This prompted Daniel to whisper in a somewhat broken and soft voice to the person who had changed his life, while slowly moving his body to the side.

"Mrs. Eva... they're gone... it's time... to get up."

The scene that met Eva’s eyes was terrifying. She had kept her eyes closed the entire time out of fear when the robbery began, so when she heard Daniel's voice, the son of her dear friend, she opened her eyes and turned to see him. What she saw was something she would never forget.

Eva saw her arms covered in blood and Daniel, that child her dear friend always bragged about, that little genius who amazed everyone with his intelligence, that child who had suffered so much, who was starting over, showing his incredible talents once again, lying next to her in a crimson pool, smiling and slowly opening his lips to let out a faint voice.

"Mrs. Eva... thank you for everything... you are probably... the best legacy... my mother could have left me."

Eva screamed as tears filled her eyes and she rushed to embrace Daniel, begging for help, watching helplessly as that man, the charming child of her best friend, slowly closed his eyes and with a smile, took his last breath.