Page 32

Mikhail

I paced my office, blaming myself for the turn of events. I should’ve left her dancing with Antonio. It wasn’t my business how firmly his arms gripped her waist or how loudly she was laughing at his jokes. I should’ve turned a blind eye to all of it.

My phone chose the exact moment to go off, and I almost tossed it out of the window before I caught a glimpse of the caller ID.

“Good evening, Don.” David greeted me the moment I clicked on the receiver. He was one of Enzo’s men, but he has worked closely with me for a while, and he currently reports directly to me instead.

“What is it?”

“Following your request to run a background check on Miss Kincaid, we found her with a little boy. We had our doubts, but we were able to take a lock of his hair after she dropped him off at school yesterday and ran a DNA test on him. The result just came out. He’s yours.”

My blood ran cold, and my grip on the phone tightened. The world came to a slow stop as the weight of his words sank into me. I have a son. I have an heir somewhere.

“Sir?” David’s voice pulled me back into the present, and my shock was immediately replaced with anger.

How many layers were there to her lies and betrayal? Every time I felt I had her figured out, she pulled up with a brand new skin. She worked in this office with me for months, looked me in the eye every day, and argued with me some days while completely hiding a whole son from me. Not once did she slip or give away anything that indicated she had a child.

Her constant need to return home early finally made sense, and I wondered what she must’ve told him about me.

“Send me her address,” I ordered, grabbing my car key and rushing to the elevator. I was supposed to be the one to present the awards to the employee tonight, but none of that weighed anything at the moment. I had a feeling that if I wasted a minute, I’d arrive to find her gone with my child.

I broke every road traffic law and had both pedestrians and other drivers hurling curses at me on my way to her house. A drive of thirty minutes became fifteen minutes, and I was parked in front of her apartment in no time.

I marched up the stairs, rage cursing through me as I rehearsed everything I was going to say to her the moment she opened the door. I would expose her for who she is, and no court would allow someone with a double identity to take custody of a child. I would take him from her and throw her to the wolves to devour.

Coming after my business was one thing. She wasn’t special in that sense. Breaking my heart was quite the achievement, but hiding my child from me was something else entirely, something I would never forgive. I wasted no time banging my fist on the door once I got to her apartment. I didn’t care if her neighbors woke up. I’d be glad if they did so. They would be witnesses.

I lifted my arm to strike the door again when it cracked open, and a strawberry blonde woman appeared at the doorway. I opened my mouth to apologize, but a mop of black hair appeared next to her, and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen stared up at me, knocking the air out of my lungs.

The woman looked at me and back at the boy then looked at me again. “How can I help you?”

“Is Ari— Is Cara home?” I asked, forcing my voice to remain calm.

“No, she’s not,” she replied, observing me with caution. From the way she was acting, it was obvious Arielle had told her nothing of her past, and she knew nothing about me.

“Are you my mummy’s friend?” The little boy asked, and I felt my heart crack a little. “Yes,” I answered, swallowing the lump forming in my throat. David was right. He looked so much like me. I wanted to scoop him into my arms and tell him I was his father.

“Do you mind coming back in the morning?” the lady asked, tearing my attention from my son. I had almost forgotten about her until she spoke.

“I’ll wait. My purpose is a bit time-sensitive, and it can’t wait till dawn,” I said with a tone of finality, making sure my insinuation didn’t fly above her head.

She looked like she was lost in having an internal struggle before she finally removed herself from the doorway and made room for me to step in.

I walked into what looked like a Lego party with blocks scattered all over the floor. My son immediately settled into the sealed building blocks and proceeded to stack them unevenly. I couldn’t look away. Everything he did held my undivided attention.

“His name is Jason, and I’m Annalise. Can I get you anything?” the lady asked, standing awkwardly.

“I’ll take peanut butter and toast!” Jason called out from the floor, and I felt my heart twist slightly, realizing how much time I’d missed.

He probably had a favorite color, favorite food, and a favorite place, and I was not a part of them. I was sitting in the same room with him, and he was ignoring me to play with Legos. I asked myself to hold back my anger till Arielle got home.

“I’d like the peanut butter toast too,” I said to Annalise, and Jason’s eyes immediately snapped to me.

“You like peanut butter toast?” he asked with a sparkle in his eyes. I couldn’t care less about the food. I had forgotten what peanut butter tasted like. But if it would give me a great start with my son, then it was the best thing in the universe.

“Yes,” I replied, and his smile grew wider. He returned to his Legos without another word, and I found myself lost.

I played with the peanut butter toast in front of me while counting the minutes till Arielle got home.

“Do you build houses?” Jason asked, peering at me from the floor.

“Yes. I build houses,” I replied, coming to join him on the floor. “I’ve built a few hotels for myself.

“Woah! I like hotels too. Let’s make hotels.” He exclaimed, and I found my face breaking into a smile watching him.

We spent the rest of the night building Lego houses till he got sleepy and Anna took him to bed while I remained in the sitting room waiting for Arielle.

“Can you try calling Cara?” Anna asked, worry etched on her face. “I’ve been trying to call her, but her phone is switched off. It’s well past midnight, and this has never happened before.”

I pulled out my phone and dialed Arielle’s number and was met with the robotic voice of the service provider. “It’s switched off.”

“She never stays out late, and today is the first time she’s gone out at night. I even encouraged her to let loose a little, and now this,” she sighed, and I tucked the bit of information into the corner of my brain.

Another hour passed and no Arielle, and I was beyond certain something was wrong. “Annalise, I’m going to be honest with you,” I said, looking at her. “I don’t think Cara is safe wherever she is, and I need you and Jason to come with me till I figure out what is happening. Trust me, she’d appreciate it.”

“You walk in here, and all of a sudden, Cara is missing for the night, and you expect me to pack up my things and hand over her son to you? What if you’re the bad guy?” she said, giving me a look, and I couldn’t fault her for her skepticism.

“I’m not the bad guy, and I believe you must’ve noticed the resemblance between Jason and me. I would never hurt my son,” I said, hoping to soften her resolve.

“It won’t be the first time a father has killed his child. Besides, I’m certain there’s a reason Cara kept you hidden.”

I tugged at my hair in frustration, glancing at the clock. If my suspicions were right, whoever had her would be out for Jason soon if they weren’t already on her, and as smart as she was, I didn’t have the luxury of time, and I had no backup in case we got attacked.

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” I said, turning to her. “You’ll send a message to your local police station, you’ll send one to the FBI, CIA, or whichever one you prefer. You can also share details of your location with them. I don’t care, but I’m not going to sit around and do nothing when I can feel the danger brewing.”

She paused for a while, probably giving a thought to what I just said before picking up her phone and texting rapidly.

“I’ll get Jason,” she said, making her way into the room.

I sent Enzo a quick text to alert him of the situation of things and ask for security to be stationed all over my penthouse before we got there.

*****

With Jason and Annalise safe in my house, I made my way to Enzo to work out the details with him.

“This man has to be the scariest human I’ve ever seen,” Enzo said the moment I stepped into his house, his eyes not leaving the screen.

“How is there something new every time we look into him?” I queried, taking in everything on the screen.

We thought his activities with orphaned kids ended with the juvenile, and apparently, Arielle was one of them.

Enzo moved further, and we soon uncovered the details of her upbringing and the academy. I stared wide-eyed as Enzo pulled every string he could pull to gather more information. My vision was clouded with red the more I read. What kind of monster picked kids from the orphanage and trained them to be killers under the guise of working for the government?

“I need you to hack into every CCTV camera leading from my office to the central train station. I need her to be found as soon as possible.” I told Enzo, urging him to close the files from the past. We can go over those later.

The most important thing was making sure Arielle was still alive. I might’ve let her go scott-free, but there's no telling what Henry would do to her. I just know by the time he’s done, there’d be nothing left of her.

It took Enzo about two hours to locate and hack into the CCTV in the streets, and soon, we caught sight of Arielle’s limp body being dragged into a car. We followed the car to a shady manor on the outskirts of Florence and watched as Arielle was carried into the building.

“Gather all the resourceful men you can think of, people who are well-skilled in combat and extraction. We move at dawn.” I said, my eyes not leaving the building on the screen. I silently prayed Henry Kincaid was in there with her so we could end this once and for all.