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“How old is your son?”
Liesel’s eyes are heavy. “Three-years-old.”
Fuck.
The child’s mine.
How could she have not told me? How could I have not have been part of his life? Or at least allowed to hold him before she gave him up?
Kai backs away, wanting to give us a moment.
But Liesel speaks up. “The child isn’t yours.”
“What? How?”
“Because he’s your brother.”
My heart stops. I’ve had it up to here with finding out I have half-brothers.
“What?”
She swallows hard.
“Your father. He…again.”
My father raped her again. I couldn’t save her. I can never save the ones I love.
Tears drip down my face.
All I can focus on is the drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
I’m numb.
I don’t move.
I’ve let so many people I love get hurt. I’ve never been strong enough to stop it from happening. Never. It never stops hurting, finding out I failed.
I can’t even apologize for not stopping him. How did I miss this? How did I not realize he raped her again? It had to have happened right before I killed him. Why didn’t I kill him sooner?
Liesel starts talking again, so I do my best to listen. “I don’t want to talk about how it happened. But I didn’t want you to feel guilty. And I also didn’t want you to have anything to do with the child. Not because you wouldn’t have made a great stand-in father, but because having the child was my choice. And putting him up for adoption was my choice as well.”
“Why are you telling me now?”
“You deserve to know you have a three-year-old half-brother somewhere. You have an heir if you need him to be. All I ask is that you do everything in your power to protect him if he ends up in this world.”
Liesel’s on the verge of tears. So I do what I should have done from the beginning—I pull her into a hug.
“Shh, he’s safe. He doesn’t belong here. You did the right thing by giving him up, Liesel. The brave, strong thing. I’m so proud of you,” I say into her hair, as I grip her as tight as I can, trying to take her pain.
“No, put his name down on the contract. You deserve to have control of the Black empire. There is no one better to ensure the technology, the security systems, the bombs, the weapons, the money doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. There is no man I know who would ensure the right thing is done, not just the thing to make the most money. You care about the people who work for you. You care about the people who hire you for security. You care about the women who have been stolen by other criminal organizations you do business with. Put his name down on the damn paper. Win your empire, and then change the damn rules before he turns eighteen,” Liesel says.
I give her a tight smile. I can’t promise her I will or won’t use his name. I don’t like bringing an innocent child into this world, but if it’s my only choice, I will.
