Chapter 69
AIDAN
From the moment I drove through the borders of Attica pack, I got swarmed with work. I could barely see through the pile of documents that had grown up in my office during my absence, so it was only fitting that I spent the next few days knee–deep in work.
I barely ate and had a meager amount of sleep each night, and my routine was working late hours in the office, and returning to my home office to continue from where I stopped.
Thankfully, Vermont pack was in good hands as left things in the care of Jace and Jenna, the lady who didn’t give two shits about me. She was fearless and put the interest of her packmates before others, so I knew that together with Jace, they would be fine until I returned and found a permanent way to run things.
fine.
Coupled with the fact that I suspected something going on between the two of them–Jace and Jenna-, I was sure they were going to work together just
It was a hot Wednesday afternoon, and I was having a meeting with my real estate attorney in the next few minutes for a new building I was signing for one of my projects, so while I attended to the last of my unopened emails, I prepared for that.
The sound of the office door opening signaled that someone was there, but I knew that it wasn’t the attorney because, for one, he would not dare walk into my office without knocking, and two, the choking smell of his cologne was the giveaway.
Even without looking, I knew who it was.
Lifting my head from my work pile, I took him in.
A balding head that had spots of gray hair at the temples, a few wrinkles to let me know that my father wasn’t as formidable as I once saw him to be when I was much younger, and even more reclining body features than I could begin to notice.
son.”
I schooled my features to not show my dislike for his presence, and I listened to him speak before I could, as he was desperate to be heard first.
“Since you decided to avoid all of my attempts to get a hold of you since you left and even since when you got back, I decided to come see you myself,
I hated the way he called me son like he didn’t know my name. Even more, I hated that the demon incarnate standing before me was my father. Too bad
we couldn’t choose our own family.
And yes, it had been a minute since I spoke with my father, and that was because I had nothing of particular interest to discuss with him.
“I’ve been busy,” I said in a clipped tone, wishing that whatever reasons he came here for would be done with fast, and he would be gone.
Sadly, this wasn’t the case as he took a seat across from me, uninvited.
“Well, care to share why you decided to spend close to a month in a rival pack when you could have been doing better things instead? I hope your reasons include that you were getting intel on how to run them to the ground,” he added with a toothy grin.
And there he went. Always looking for the weak spots to strike others even without reason.
What my father didn’t know was that being in Vermont pack for close to a month was better than living with him in this pack for decades.
For so many reasons that I couldn’t even begin to list, I wasn’t going to reveal to my father that Tara and Nadia were in Vermont pack all these while.
There were still some missing pieces to what happened eight years ago, misplaced information that I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around, so I couldn’t trust anyone else with the lives of Tara and our child.
And knowing the things that he had done in the past? Hell no.
I had business,” I replied instead, hoping that he got the memo that this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. “Why are you here?” I asked, not trying to hide the ice in my voice.
‘I just wanted to see how you were doing is all. How about you come by the house for dinner? We will be happy to have you.”
I scoffed, because one, there was no way in hell that this man just wanted to have a casual dinner with me. He always had a motive. And secondly, we?
Who’s we?”
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Chapter 69
“Savanna, my new wife, and 1,” he responded.
Fuck. This prick.
Of course, he got married to the first thing he saw that had two legs. After first chasing my mother to her death and chasing the second woman he married with half her life destroyed, he still didn’t realize that marriage just wasn’t everyone’s calling.
If I were to ask how old this wife of his was, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she was barely old enough to know a snake when she saw one.
I shook my head because none of it was my concern. I had pressing issues to deal with, including finding out what my father had to do with Tara’s disappearance.
I knew his hands weren’t clean. They couldn’t be.
“I won’t be available for dinner. Before he could chip in another remark, I went on. Or any other activity that you will have planned as a family,” I said. The word sounded like sandpaper in my mouth. “I’ll suggest you plan your dinners without me in mind because I won’t be coming to any of them. If you don’t mind, I have more papers that need my signature, and I’m having a meeting in the next two minutes.”
That was his not–so–subtle cue to leave, and thankfully, he took it.
As soon as he was out of the door, I placed a call to Jace. He would be able to fit the
what
needed.
He picked on the first ring.
For as long as I could remember, my father’s sole purpose was to take everything that made my life a little more bearable. From my mother to my birthright, and now I’m beginning to realize that it included my chance at a family eight years ago.
Somehow, I knew he was involved, and I needed to find out why, and I needed to put a stop to him
once and for all.
॥
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