Page 75 of Bittersweet Revenge

“On paper maybe, but we both know this is all pretend. Please don’t try to make me believe you ever thought it was true.”

I did, sometimes I did, and before last night I’d dared to hope. I shook my head. “No, of course not.”

My mother eyed me critically as if she wanted to see the truth behind my words. Ah, it was a good thing we were basically strangers.

She shook her head, taking another sip of her wine. “It’s better this way, Caleb. You should have disowned her when you had the chance. Let her go back where she came from. She doesn't belong here. She never did.”

“She is a Forbes!”

“Not by choice. She doesn’t want to be here and I don't want her here.” She waved her finger in a dismissive gesture. “Let her run back to the miserable insignificant life she wants so much.”

I sneered. “If I didn’t know better, mother, it would almost look like you want to protect her from me.”

“But you know better, don’t you, son?” She finished her glass. “Anyway, I need to go and get a refill,” she announced, waving the glass in my face.

“Ah, yes. Please go ahead. We wouldn’t want to be lucid for too long, would we, mother?”

“Lord no!” she scoffed.

“Why?” I asked when she turned her back to me. “Is the past haunting you then?”

Her stride faltered and she stopped, keeping her back to me. “Past, present, and even future,” she replied barely louder than a whisper before resuming her walk down the corridor.

I’d never noticed until now how frail she’d become since Theo’s death.The only son she’d ever loved.I was not bitter about that. Theo was the light to my darkness, the kindness to my cruelty. It was an easy choice to make, even if the irony of all that was, it had been her who made me the way I was.

I shook my head. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. I looked at Esmeralda’s door once more, but gave up on my quest for now. If my mother spoke the truth, I could find the cufflinks later. First, I needed to speak to Esmeralda. I wasn’t sure where she was going to move in with, so I would need to get to her before school was out.

My father always locked his office when he was away, but he’d given me a key a while ago. I was not naive enough to believe he fully trusted me. I was sure that all of the things he didn't want me to see were locked in places I had no access to, but it still felt like a gesture from the man who enjoyed torturing me in every way he could. A man who’d made it his life’s mission to transform me into him. A mission I’d genuinely thought was complete until Esmeralda had appeared in my life, waking up a myriad of feelings I’d believed were long dead.

I sat on his chair and soaked in the ominous feeling of the office for a minute. It was the throne room of a king, a king I would one day replace.

I trailed my hand on the smooth surface of his desk. He was going to be furious. He wanted Esmeralda and I was taking her away from him. But I also knew that he needed me more than I needed him. He needed an heir and I was it. He could maybe try to have another one, I supposed, but that child would always be the bastard son. He would never have my legitimacy.

He’d forgive me in time. Even if he punished me though, it wouldn’t hurt. Not when compared to the pain of seeing Esmeralda choose an insignificant man and an insignificant life over me and all the treasures I could have given her.

Why did you think she would pick you? You’ve never been picked first, not even once in your life, Caleb Astor. You always were and always would be a second choice,a voice taunted in the back of my head. A voice that sounded just like my mother’s.

I looked through my father's address book on the computer. He had seven law firms on retainers, so it took me over an hour to find the appropriate lawyer, then another fifteen minutes to secure an appointment for later today.

I kept on looking through the files, frowning when I saw one titled ‘ED’ in the annual accounts.

Opening it, I found emails sent by Luke, Esmeralda’s adoptive father, thanking my father for his help with Esmeralda's future tuition. I snorted. The man was so delusional, but now I knew how William Forbes had managed to know about Esmeralda’s existence.

There were photos of her before her world had been turned upside down. Some were of her at school, wearing her football team's colors, cheering with a big smile on her face. She was looking at a jersey that read, ‘12 Deluca’.

My heart squeezed with envy and jealousy as I kept looking through the files. There were photos of her working as a lifeguard, shopping at the mall with a blonde girl, standing with Luke at a barbecue, and hanging out with Ben Deluca at school...always Ben Deluca.

I reached for my phone. Grinding my teeth, I dialed the number I had saved under ‘insignificant’.

“Do you love her?” I asked as soon as he’d answered the phone.

“Excuse me?”

I sighed, keeping my eyes on the photo where he was giving her a piggyback ride. “Esmeralda. Do you love her?”

“Sociopath? Is that you?”

I growled. His lack of respect was infuriating. He was a bug. He knew that I could easily destroy him, yet he stood up to me. It was good though; Esmeralda might need to lean on him in the future.

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