Chapter 12: Lucky Sleeper
Derek had been having trouble sleeping since he was twelve years old. At the age of sixteen, he'd made the decision to lie about being cured. Doing so to spare his mother the constant stress of running a multi billion dollar company while worrying about her son at the same time.
So from then on, his struggle had been a private thing. He had waited until he was eighteen and gotten his hands on some of his inheritance before he had started looking for treatments on his own. Each doctor's visit disguised as being for something else.
Even back then he had known how the world worked. It was one thing for a young child who had just lost a parent to have trouble sleeping. But for the future leader of Haven Group to still be having that problem, that was a big no-no.
The business world was full of cutthroat sharks in expensive garments ( his uncle one of them). They would have torn him apart, rendering all of his mother's hard work useless.
So Derek had quietly packed away his problem and suffered in silence.
And since the problem was on and off, he had been able to keep it under control for a long time.
But now something had changed.
This was the longest bout of sleeplessness he had ever had, and his iron clad control over himself was starting to slip. Bit by bit, he could feel his ability to focus, to figure out complex situations at a glance leaving him, but he was helpless to do anything, only able to just sit there and watch it all fade. He had even noticed that his sense of taste was suffering too, everything tasting bland even when his mother was singing the chef praises.
It was draining.