Aiden’s birth was not met with the joy and happiness like most babies are welcomed with. His looks made his parents hate him on sight, causing them to dump him years later. He paid them a disturbing visit.
When Aiden was born, Klo and Derek were shocked when they saw what he looked like. They couldn’t believe that he could be related to them. Aiden was born with a hunchback and a lot of facial hair. He also had the brightest smile ever, and his skin felt soft to the touch. But his parents noticed none of that; all they saw was that he was ugly, and they couldn’t accept him as part of them.
As a result, they made an outrageous decision that would begin the tragic journey of the poor infant. A week after delivery, the couple left the hospital with their baby. However, they didn’t go home; they went straight to an orphanage. When no one was watching, they dropped the boy at the doorstep and ran away. Not once did they even look back. They had a future to work towards, and having an ugly baby was not going to help them get it. Good looks had always been of paramount importance to Chlo and Derek.
The couple had always wanted to become actors, so dedicated were they to their craft that they went to live in Hollywood, hoping it would bring them closer to their dreams of getting on screen. They worked multiple jobs just so they could keep up with the demands of the highbrow area. They also never missed the chance to attend auditions. Sadly, neither of them could land major roles; they were consistently being cast as extras and minor characters for which they were paid next to nothing.
After a few years, they realized that acting was probably not for them. If they continued like that, they would never get rich and famous. They needed to try out another tactic. They decided that their child would become rich and famous in their stead. From infancy, they would groom him and teach him how to become a successful actor. Since they both looked good, they never doubted that their child would as well.
And even before Khloe got pregnant, they were already making plans for their baby to be a child actor so he or she could push them all into stardom. When Khloe finally got pregnant, they were ecstatic with joy; their plans were finally coming together, and it was only a matter of time before they became famous. They bought books and tutorial CDs on acting in preparation for their baby’s arrival. The poor child already had his life laid out for him even before he was a fully formed fetus.
The day Aiden was born, everyone within miles of the labor room knew it. Khloe clutched at the sheets as she screamed her lungs out while Derek held her damp fingers in a tight grip. He used the hanky to wipe off the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead; he whispered words of encouragement to her and told her he was proud of her. She kept on pushing with every fiber of her being until the baby came into the world crying shyly. She then fell back to the bed panting for breath.
It took a while for the ringing in Khloe’s ears to subside, and when it did, she realized that the labor room was unnaturally quiet. No one was congratulating her, and she could tell that Derek was no longer by her side. She became terrified that something was wrong; she wondered if she had given birth to a stillborn, but immediately put the thought aside when she heard the cries of her baby.
Unable to hold it in any longer, she opened her eyes and pushed herself up a little. None of the nurses or doctors were smiling, and even Derek was standing against the wall, looking at her as if she had fallen out of the sky. She demanded for her baby at once, and as a nurse brought the infant wrapped up in silk blankets, Chloe’s eyes widened in shock as they fell on the baby.
Her baby was ugly; that was the first thought that crossed her mind, and the reason was so obvious. He was the exact opposite of what they had expected, and as he was handed to her, Chloe recoiled. She told them there had to be a mistake; there was no way she could birth such an ugly-looking baby with a hunchback.
The nurse placed the baby in her arms, and at once his crying ceased, as if realizing that he was finally home. But Chloe was not comfortable with him at all; carrying him felt like she was carrying a plague, and she didn’t want it to infect her. Derek was outspoken about his distaste; he demanded to know why they didn’t detect a hunchback sooner. If they had known, they would have gotten rid of the pregnancy and saved Khloe the pain of going through labor. They would never have gotten their hopes up only to have them dashed in such a tragic way.
The doctor humbly apologized; he said it was due to the baby’s positioning in the womb; they couldn’t have known it was a hunchback. But Derek was adamant; he wanted a perfect baby, and what they ended up giving him was gravely flawed. They were highly disappointed; they had placed so much hope in the baby, but with his looks, they knew he could never become the successful actor they wanted him to be. No one would pay money to watch a hunchback in the cinema, and his hair made it even worse; the baby was just covered in hair.
They couldn’t keep him; they decided they would have other kids that would live up to the legacy laid out for them, while the hunchback would have to go. So they took him to an orphanage and left him there without a second thought.
The orphanage took Aiden in and sent him to school with other children in their care. As he grew, he was quick to notice that he was different from other kids; his facial features and hunchback were always a target of mockery, even from the other orphans. The administrators of the orphanage tried their best to curb it, but the bullying did not stop.
As if all that wasn’t enough, he was forced to watch as every other child in the orphanage got adopted except him. When couples came to adopt children, they wanted nothing to do with him because of his looks. This made him depressed; every night, Aiden cried himself to sleep. He hated his life; he hated the way he looked, and he hated the fact that nobody wanted him. Yet every morning, he would wake up with a smile on his face and hope for a better day.
The day Aiden’s life changed, he hadn’t seen it coming. Devon, a successful actress, had come to the orphanage to make donations. This was something she did regularly to several orphanages and organizations to give back to society. She came bearing a lot of gifts for the children, and while everyone was having a good time, she noticed Aiden in a corner by himself, sad and alone. She asked the administrator about him, and when she learned his story, she was deeply touched.
Nobody deserved to go through such horrid treatment just because of their looks. She didn’t see him as ugly; all she saw was a child who needed love and care like every other child in the world. There and then, she decided to adopt him. When they broke the news to Aiden,he was ecstatic with joy. He couldn’t believe that he was finally leaving the orphanage and that someone wanted him regardless of his looks.
That night, he prayed fervently that nothing happened to Devon that would cause her to change her mind. He promised that if everything went well, he would be the best son in the world. Devon took him home to live with her and tried her best to be a good mother to him. She spent a lot of money on surgeries that got rid of his hunchback; he was able to stand upright like everyone else, and that did a lot to bolster his confidence. However, there was nothing that could be done about the excess hair; no matter how many times he shaved them off, they kept growing back.
Devon told him that his looks were only an issue because he was making them one. She told him that he shouldn’t let society determine how he would live his life; the true beauty of people lay in their hearts and minds, not in their faces.
As long as he saw himself as beautiful, then what the rest of the world thought about him didn’t matter. And he was beautiful; she told him, just because it was a different kind of beauty didn’t make it any less true. Her words were like balm on his wounded soul, and he was grateful for them; he used them as a shield when people mocked him because of his looks.
The bullying didn’t stop, even though he was now in an expensive private school and getting the best education money could buy. However, he didn’t cry in a corner this time around; he had someone that loved him, and he knew he was not ugly, so nothing they said hurt him again. He chose to focus on his studies and made top grades so Devon would be proud of him.
As he grew older, many of his peers wanted to become actors and models, but he wanted something different. While he wanted to work in the movie industry like Devon, he didn’t want to act. Instead, he wanted to become a director and make good movies. He had a very creative mind, and he was sure that if he put his best, he would make it work. Of course, he had Devon’s full support; he went on to college and studied filmmaking.
While there, he made close friends with people who also didn’t care about his looks. Aiden was a jovial person, and conversation with him was so easy, which is what drew people to him like a magnet. And besides that, he was loved for his creative mind. His first taste of fame came when he and a group of friends worked on a short film together. It was a low-budget film, and it was the first project all of them were working on as they were fresh out of college. They worked on the movie for close to a year, and when it was finally released, it was a massive hit.
For months, it was trending all over social media, and it was all people could talk about. People praised his directorial skills, and that solidified his break into the industry. Soon after, he began to get major contract deals; every year, he was directing movies, and almost all of them were box office successes. He became a household name, and fans couldn’t get enough of him.
Whenever Devon watched the movies he did, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was truly the young boy she adopted from the orphanage all those years ago. He had changed so much, and she was so proud of him. As Aiden kept making movies, he became immensely wealthy and decided to open his movie studio. This time, he would only make the kind of movies that spoke to his heart.
Setting up his own company was not an easy task at all; even with Devon’s help, it was still an uphill task. However, he got it done, and to seal it, he decided to make a movie commemorating the momentous achievement. Little did he know that this would turn his life upside down.
In just a chance encounter while casting for actors, an elderly-looking couple came into the audition room. This was odd because the roles Aiden was casting for were for young people. However, the couple said that they were not there for major roles; they were only there for a minor role in the movie or even as an extra on the set. They were willing to do anything as long as they had seen any screen time at all, and that he’d pay them.
While they were talking, the elderly woman stopped suddenly as she saw his face clearly for the first time. She did a double-take and staggered backward; then, to his shock, she began to cry profusely. Aiden was confused; things had gotten weirded in a matter of minutes, and he had no idea why. As he tried to console her and ask what happened, she told him a shocking tale that sent chills down his spine.
She said that he reminded her of her long-lost son. She told him about how she had abandoned the infant many years ago because he had excess facial hair and a hunchback. She said that she was certain he would be around Aiden’s age, and she wondered what he could be up to. If she had known that someone with excess hair could make it in Hollywood, they would never have abandoned him.
The story was so shocking that Aiden staggered away, staring at them as if they were aliens. As he stared at the man, he realized that the man had an uncanny resemblance to him, and the coincidence was just too startling. He canceled casting for the rest of the day and retired to his office, and even then, he couldn’t get the face of the couple off his mind. He wondered if they were his biological parents because the story they told him was way too similar to his background for comfort.
That night, there was nothing else he could think of, and the next day, he didn’t turn in for work. He realized that the issue of the couple was messing with his mind, so he decided to get to the bottom of the matter. He hired a private investigator to look into the couple, and based on the findings, he would determine his next course of action.
The investigation didn’t even take up to a week; his suspicions were confirmed. The old couple was indeed his biological parents, Khloe and Derek. Although he suspected it, confirming it came with a jolt to his system. He didn’t know what to do about it. These were parents who had abandoned him as a baby; they didn’t deserve anything from him at all. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something he had to do to put everything behind him.
In a dilemma, he spoke to Devon about it. She told him that she couldn’t tell him what to do regarding his biological parents, but since it was preying on his mind, he needed to work on it at once, or it would affect him in the long run. Aiden thanked her for the advice; he promised her that as long as he was alive, she would always be his mother, no matter how the issue with Khloe and Derek went.
With the help of his private investigator, he found out where Chloe and Derek lived, and he went to visit them. The first thing he noticed was that they were living in squalor; they lived in a trailer that looked like it could barely contain one person. It was filled with old stuff, and there was dust all over the place. Khloe and Derek were shocked to find the renowned director at their doorstep and they almost ran over each other to please him. As they saw him, they thought that he had decided to give them a major role in his upcoming movie. They were not prepared for the bomb he was about to drop.
He told them everything about how he was the son they had abandoned at the orphanage because of how he looked. He told them about how Devon had taken him and raised him to become a success. As he spoke, tears fell from his eyes as pent-up emotions welled up inside him. He was so engrossed that he didn’t notice his biological parents were crying as well.
When he was done, Chloe wept uncontrollably as she begged for forgiveness. She told him that abandoning him was the worst mistake they made. They had so many plans for him, and being born ugly ruined it for them. She said that their lives had never remained the same since they left him at the orphanage. Things only got worse for them, and even though they had planned to have other kids, they were never able to. Aiden was their only fruit. Her story broke Aiden’s heart further; learning that they dumped him because they believed he wouldn’t have a future in the movie industry sank his spirits.
He couldn’t believe that his flesh and blood had been so cruel to him. He had been nothing but a means to fame and glory. The more he thought about it, the more he thanked the stars for making him the way he was. He realized that even though he had been born without a hunchback and excess hair, he would have lived a miserable life with them. They would have pressured him to become a star, and seeing how it was never his calling, he could imagine how hellish life would have been.
Khloe and Derek begged him for forgiveness. They told him that they were ready to come back into his life and start over, but he was having none of it. He couldn’t be with people who had knowingly abandoned an infant, and he told them as much. He also told them that he held no grudges against them; if they hadn’t abandoned him, he would have never met Devon, and his life would not have turned out so great. So he was willing to forgive them, not to make them feel better, but for his peace of mind.
He didn’t want to spend another second thinking of them because they were just weren’t worth it. As far as he was concerned, his only parent was Devon, and they meant nothing to him. He didn’t tell them all that because he didn’t see the point of being cruel, but he said enough so that they’d know not to hope for anything from him. Both of them begged and begged, but he got up and left the trailer. He told them never to come to his set again because he would never hire them to work on any of his projects. He wanted nothing to do with them, and that was final.
Aiden returned to his life with Devon and went on to shoot the first movie for his studio, which was a box office success. He was happy that the issue of his past was now gone and he could focus on building his future.
