Sixty SixNathan "Benjamin!" Silver space director, Mr. Hinawa yelled, clapping a hand on my back. It was funny how people still called me 'Benjamin', especially after the whole fiasco with my Family. What else was there to call me? To them, the whole Benjamin family kicked me out and perished immediately. I was the only one remaining to keep the name going anyway. I nodded at Hinawa, a smirk on my face. That was as far as he was going to get. Smiling in public, for me, was wrong and prohibited. I shouldn't be allowed to do so. I shouldn't be allowed to smile after my parents and brother were murdered in cold blood because of the bastard sitting a few tables away. Eduardo. The short bastard was dressed in some silly sequined suit, laughing at something the mayor said. Of course, he would try to win the mayor over now. Anything to get the mafia in and out of South Carolina with ease. "Stop glaring at Eduardo and listen to the poor old man standing before you," Cameron's grumpy vo
Sixty Seven Chloe. "David, I can't go out every single day. Adele rarely sees me. I had to leave her with a stranger yesterday! Did you see how scared she was when we came home?" "I checked the CCTV, the nanny did nothing wrong," David defended. "I don't care. It is perfectly okay for children to be afraid of strangers, yes. But not Adele. She smiles at everyone else! I don't want that nanny ever again." I snapped, cradling Adele in my arms. When we had come back from the ball, she had been huddled up in a corner of the house, crying. Adele was a free-spirited child. If she doubted anyone, then I doubted them as well."Fine, I'll screen for another set of Nanny," David mumbled. "I want to be involved in the screening," I deadpanned.He shook his head in protest. "You can't be. The whole of Carolina knows your face. You can't show you have a daughter in the open yet because Tristan will use her as bait for you. We can let any of the candidates know Adele is your daughter unless
Sixty EightChloe."Yes, it is," I mumbled."How?" "When did this happen?" "Tristan stole their daughter?" "Is this real?" I waited for them to calm down and then continued. "I hadn't believed it at first either. I was raised as Chloe Tristan. He raised me as his daughter just so he could marry me off to a wealthy family and get a lot of money in return.""If what you say is true, how come we've never heard of you from Tristan either?" One of the directors quipped and the others nodded like a bunch of idiots. I had to hand it to Tristan though. He certainly knew how to choose men who were loyal to him. They were having a hard time doubting him even after seeing a video of his wife stealing a baby. Fucking wonderful. "I could show you all the family pictures and videos I took with them, growing up," I said, clicking on a folder on the system. The look on their faces as I swiped from picture to picture and video to video of me growing up with the people I had thought were my pare
Sixty NineNathan Another day, another series of meetings that required my attention, another round of people thinking they could outsmart me but ended up getting fired. Why would anyone in their right fucking senses, try to cavort millions of my money into their account and think I was going to let them go Scot-free. And they say I'm the devil. Hilarious."I'm sorry... Please spare me, I swear I will never repeat it," the man before me begged on his knees. Oh, the old Nathan may have felt pity. He may have thought, "This man must have a family at home, I can understand why he'd try to steal, okay, I'll simply fire him."Pfft. Well, old Nathan got shot in the alleyway with his brother. The new me wasn't going to allow a mere fly to slip past me. I watched the man placidly from my seat. He had worked with me for two years. To solid fucking years. And yet he allowed himself to become greedy and tried to fucking stab me in the back. There was no room for that in my company. Simply fi
Seventy Nathan"Lily, you ready?" I called from the living room. Why were women so darn slow? I had told her to get ready by seven! I had a long day at work. I had hit the gym with Cameron. My muscles were fucking sore and I was damn tired but I had made a promise to myself the day before to do something with Lily that day. So I couldn't back out. I sat on the sofa, wearing a plain tee and cargo pants. There was no way I would wear a suit again. I was too tired to try. Lily finally stepped out of her room. She wore a short gown that flared from beneath her breasts. I had no idea what the dress was called but I was sure it had a name. Women liked to name dresses. "Ready?" I asked, rising to my feet. "How do I look?" She asked, turning around so I could see her. "Good," I replied and made my way to the door. She had said she wanted to go to the movies. I hadn't gone to the movies in a long fucking time, but since she wanted to, there was no problem. She could have anything she w
Seventy-OneChloe"Della, we've seen all the nannies right?" I asked, pausing the video on the screen. Because I had asked to be involved in choosing a nanny, David recorded a video of the interviews he conducted with all the candidates and sent it to me. Adele and I had just finished watching all of them a third time so that she could remember all their faces. We sat on a sofa in the living room while Addison splashed around in the pool pretending she was some sort of mermaid. "When you guys are done choosing a nanny? Can we get a cook too? I'm tired of eating out and you're never home to cook anymore." Addison whined. "Cook your meals, Addy," I said dryly and turned to Adele with a smile. "Which lady do you want as your nanny, baby?" Adele turned her big brown eyes to the TV screen, her eyes scrutinizing the pictures of the candidates. There were five of them in all and for a second, I thought she would reject them all. She stuck a finger in her mouth, wiggled off the sofa, a
Seventy-Two Nathan"That's it?" Cameron asked, I sighed, leaning in my chair, and rubbed my jaw. Was that all? I was trying to piece all the clues together. Eduardo and theafia supposedly killed my parents and Brother. My brother however had said something else. He had mentioned Chloe. I could hear Cameron sigh through the receiver, "What are the chances that this Chloe person, didn't try to kill your parents and brother?""Zero," I said without giving it a thought. Chloe would never kill anyone. She simply didn't have it in her. And there was no way she would have been in South Carolina all these years and I wouldn't have found her. "Why are you so sure? People change," Cameron muttered. "Not Chloe," I whispered, images of her flooding my head. "God I haven't thought about her in a while. A fucking long while." "She sounds like she got you good," Cameron taunted. "You rarely mention other women aside from Lily," My chest tightened uncomfortably and I sat upright. "It's not a p
Seventy-ThreeNathan"Chloe," She was here again. It was a dream, I knew that. A dream I had not dreamt in months. I missed her. I had shoved and pushed at the gnawing emptiness that only she could fill. I had hidden it for too long and now she was resurfacing as always. Teasing me, taunting me with things I ached for, but could never have. Her fingers caressed my skin in seductive whispers, I laid still on the bed, pulsing with desire. But I was afraid that if I tried to hold her, she would disappear. "Nate," she murmured. "Nath,"I used to love it when she couldn't make up her mind on what to call me. I wanted to tangle my fingers in her hair and draw her on for a kiss. That tart sweet mouth. Lips that spewed fury whenever she was mad but a brewed passion. I wanted to wrap my hands around her waist, gently guiding her as she slid down my cock. But Fuck, if I held her she would disappear. I didn't want her to. I wanted this dream, the haze of unreality to last. I needed her so ba