AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stares at me, expression hard and eyes filled with fury. My heart starts working again, pounding against my chest.
“Rico,” I start unsurely.
“You have a son?” he asks.
And just like that, all the walls I’ve tried to build come crashing down.
CHAPTER 14
Alexander
The world spins as I look up at the ceiling in my office, my mind miles away. I haven’t gotten any work done since I got into the office. I’m too rattled, too confused. My head’s a mess. It has been since the gala two days ago.
I haven’t spoken to Katerina, I’ve barely spoken to anyone apart from Nate. We finally took care of the Colton issue so that’s one problem checked off my bucket list. One I got access to the company’s mainframe it was easy to track the information about the product. From there it was a series of sequences and carefully placed viruses, destroying everything. They’re lucky I didn’t go after their other shit. I wanted to, if not for anything but the way that bastard had stared at Katerina. But it would have been a bad idea.
And irrational. My every thought when it comes to her is irrational.
I still can’t believe I agreed to let Nate see her. Days later and I’m half sure it’s a bad idea but then there’s a part of me that can’t help thinking about what she and Graham revealed. She came to see him. Even if it was once, five years after he was born, she came.
That more than anything lets me know she cares. But it still doesn’t make me feel reassured enough to expose her to Nate. I have no idea how he’ll react, what truths to tell him.
How do I let a nine year old know that his mother’s alive when he thinks she’s been dead all this while?
I also can’t stop thinking about the other thing she said.
You hesitated.
I had no idea she had listened in on that conversation. No clue that she heard the ultimatum my father gave me. And despite how much I want to deny it. I did hesitate. Because after so long struggling for my father’s approval, it was hard to throw it all away.
But I would have. For her. I would have done it for her.
I’m suddenly jolted from my thoughts when the door into my office slams open. My dad walks in, the physical embodiment of anger. I raise both my eyebrows, slowly getting to my feet.
“When did you arrive, father?”
He doesn’t reply, shutting the door behind him. He approaches my table and slams something down onto it. A picture. There’s two people in it, a man and a woman, wearing masks. Two very familiar people in each other’s hands. My stomach churns.
That’s Katerina and I at the masquerade party two days ago.
I look up at my father. “What’s going on?”
“You incompetent fucking child, do you have any idea what you’ve done?!” he yells.
My fists clench. I’m thirty one years old, my father calling me a child is an insult that cuts deep. But that’s how he’s always been. Using malicious words to tug people down. It’s a wonder I’ve survived living with him for so long.
“Instead of yelling how about you tell me what’s wrong?” I ask calmly.
“You’re asking me what’s wrong. Look at that picture, Alexander.”
“I’m looking,” I say dryly. “But I don’t see a problem. Yes, it’s me and Katerina but our faces are covered. It’s nothing to be so angry about. You’re the one that asked me to work with her to get to Colton. I did that.”
Who the hell even took the picture?
My father looks on the verge of pulling his hair out of his head. Seriously, he’s completely overreacting. I tilt my head to the side.
“Is the picture about to be released to the press? If yes, there’s plausible deniability, because our faces aren’t in it,” I say reasonably.
He scoffs, “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
