Her eyes found me for exactly one second before shifting to Dmitri. He stood beside my chair with one hand resting on the backrest behind me, his posture relaxed enough to look casual. It wasn’t.
Akim slipped back out and closed the door behind him.
My mother remained where she was for a moment before approaching the desk. “I wanted to speak with you privately,” she said to Dmitri.
A quiet scoff escaped me. I turned my attention toward the window, suddenly fascinated by the view outside.
“She’s the reason I let you in at all,” Dmitri said. “Whatever you want to say to me, you can say here.”
I pushed back my chair and stood. “I can leave. Looks like I was wrong to think this would be different.”
Dmitri’s hand settled on my shoulder and guided me back into the chair before I could take a step. “She’s the one leaving if anyone is.”
My mother exhaled. She set her handbag on the desk, opened it, and removed a thick envelope. She slid it across towards Dmitri, but he didn’t reach for it. His hand stayed on my shoulder. My mother reached into the bag again and pulled out a flash drive, placing it beside the envelope.
“This flash drive contains a list of people who may come after my children.” The words landed in the room, pressing into my chest. “I’m not asking you to act on it now,” she continued. “But if something happens to me, I need to know they have someone.”
Breathing felt difficult at the moment. Years of absence and unanswered questions, this was what she chose to say about our situation. It was like she came to say goodbye and expect life to align.
“Those documents hold all of my father’s properties. Over the years, while managing the family business, I arranged for him to sign them without his knowledge. They’re in Grace’s name.” She paused. “She doesn’t have to worry about my father anymore. He is dead.”
Those words replayed in my head. Did she just say Iker was dead?
“I killed him.” My mother added it the way someone might mention they had taken someone for a walk. What the fuck was this life? “But he had associates. People who have been working with him for years. They will come looking once they understandwhat happened. They don’t know yet that he is dead. When they find out, they will come.”
“Iker is dead?” Dmitri asked. I also wanted to confirm that.
My mother lowered her eyes to her handbag. “He found out that Reed and I have been lying to him about Cole. I won his most trusted man over. He has been reporting everything to me. The meeting Iker arranged with you was intended as cover. He was planning to attack this mansion and take Cole.”
Dmitri’s hand shifted on my shoulder. “What exactly were you lying to him about, Cole?”
My mother looked at me, then back at Dmitri. “I left to keep my children safe. He planned to force me into a marriage so I could produce a male heir for the organization. When he found out about Cole, everything changed.” She exhaled. “When he kidnapped Reed, he could have killed him immediately. He kept him alive because Reed lied to him that Cole wasn’t my son, that he had switched them at the hospital. After all, he knew something like this would happen. My father sent someone for a DNA test. By that time, I already had his man working for me, so the results that went back to my father were false. My father spent years looking for a son that didn’t exist in the direction he was searching.”
I listened. What I was hearing was that my father had been keeping in touch with my mother all along.
“He told me he wanted Cole. He sounded certain about it, like he already knew he was his grandson,” Dmitri said.
My mother shook her head. “No. He realized time was moving and that it was better to train an heir while they were young. He would have erased every record and raised Cole inside the family. That was his plan.”
This was a messed-up situation, and I hated Iker so much.
I watched my mother. She was looking down at her hands, deep in thought.
“I ran from my father because he murdered my mother. I didn’t want that world anywhere near my children.” Her eyes finally found mine across the table and held there. “They were safer with Reed. They would have been happy.” She looked back at Dmitri. “Since she’s already in this world now, all I’m asking is that you do me this favor.”
She picked up her handbag, ready to leave.
“Take care of her and Cole.” She didn’t look at me again. She waited a few seconds, then turned to leave.
That was all?
Was she leaving now?
That couldn’t be all.
She stopped in the middle of the room and stood there for almost a full minute before she turned back to us. Her eyes were wet. The composure she had walked in with had cracked.
“If you ever stop wanting her,” she said to Dmitri, her voice breaking on the last word, “don’t hurt her. Let her go. Don’t hurt my daughter. That’s all I’m asking.”
