Page 7 of The Tempo of Truth
Helio grumbled as soon as I was close enough to hear.“I told you to keep some distance from him.We’ve got a photographer in the hotel across the street with a telephoto lens, a couple of kids on the street with cell phones, a news outlet in a van that rolled by three times, and an unmarked helicopter overhead.There’s no way to stop the images of the meeting between the two of you from leaking.There were several moments I wanted to intervene because he got so close to you.”
I waved a hand dismissively.“Don’t worry too much.Eventually, the news that Ky and I were friends when we were younger and the baby I brought back from overseas looks just like him will make the rounds anyway.There’s no way to prevent salacious stories from spreading.Ky’s always been a magnet for trouble.He’ll have people digging into his background for weeks, discovering all sorts of things they use to make clickbait headlines as they try to tie me and him together.”
“Are you sure you want a guy like that around Lowe?”Helio had been through a gauntlet of rigorous training before my family sent him overseas to stay with me in Ponza while Lowe was growing up.He was only a few years older than me, and he was there every step of the way when I struggled with adjusting to being a single mother.We’d grown very close during my preparation to return home.The reason I got photographed and followed from the airport was that I sent Helio back to the city to make sure the brownstone was secure and to begin figuring out logistics with Lowe’s primary school before classes began.We often interacted more as friends than as boss and employee.However, there was one thing in my life that I would never let anyone question.
“He’s Lowe’s father.If he wants to be involved in his son’s life, I will make it happen no matter what.It’s the least I can do after keeping his child a secret from him for so long.Plus, I know what kind of man Ky is better than most.He might seem like a trainwreck on the surface, but underneath…” I trailed off because the truth was, Ky was a bit of a mess through and through.But that never stopped me from seeing him as someone special.He was always someone I saw as a hero.
He saved me once.And I saved him in return.In my mind, we were even right up until I decided to keep Lowe a secret from him.
Ky
“You’re in the prime of your life right now.Why would you want to bring a kid into the mix?If you publicly acknowledge that the brat is yours, you can kiss your carefree days of fucking generously endowed reality stars goodbye.”
I grunted as a shoulder slammed into my chest in an effort to throw me off balance and steal the basketball I was getting ready to shoot.I looked down at the aggressive Korean man who was a head shorter than me and smirked as I tossed the ball into the air.It zipped through the netless hoop and bounced on the cracked asphalt.
This court hadn’t changed much from the days when I played one-on-one here as a teenager.Neither had Mino.He was still an opinionated hothead who couldn’t see beyond whatever the latest get-rich-quick scheme he was involved in.He still lived in the neighborhood we grew up in.I made it a point to show up every couple of weeks to catch a friendly game and to keep up with the word on the street.I considered it an open secret that if you could handle yourself in a neighborhood brawl, you would be a good fit for Lev’s business—both the legal and illegal parts.Mino was a key piece of my communication network.He also cheated at basketball and slept around much more than I did when I was famous.His morals were questionable, but his loyalty was as rock-solid as it had ever been.When I came back to the States after losing everything, Mino was one of the few people who didn’t wash their hands of me.
He continued his diatribe about my newfound father status.“If anyone can handle being a single parent, it’s someone with the last name Halliday.That kid is going to grow up with nannies and butlers galore.He’s going to have the best education money can buy.Whatever he wants, it’ll be handed to him by his mother or any of the other obnoxiously wealthy Hallidays.What good would it do for either of you for you to be a part of his life?Especially if you plan on agreeing to the terms that the heiress laid out.All you’re going to be to him is an example of whatnotto do, and you’ll have jack to show for being nothing more than a bad example.If you’re really thinking about playing the doting dad, you should get paid for it.Having aliteralbillionaire tell you that the only way you can be in your kid’s life is if you agree to do it for free is some fucked-up elitist shit.”
Mino jogged to the dilapidated fence to grab the ball from where it had rolled.I lifted the hem of my T-shirt to wipe the sweat out of my eyes and bent over with my hands on my knees to catch my breath.The week Winnie gave me to think about whether I wanted to be part of my child’s life in the future was almost up.I hadn’t told anyone the details of our meet-up, but Mino was persistent and noticed I was acting off.I spilled about the ultimatum Winnie gave me, and my longtime friend hadn’t stopped cursing the redhead in both English and Korean for the entire game.
“My adoptive father is on the run because he ripped off a drug dealer.My biological father is in and out of prison because he’s an addict who likes to beat on women and children.”I jumped to block his shot and snatched the ball away.I was pretty good at any sport I tried my hand at, which often frustrated whoever I played against.Mino didn’t care that he was getting slaughtered.He knew he would never win.The only reason he agreed to play with me was that I never failed to pull in an audience of appreciative spectators.He knew if he let me trounce him on the court, there would undoubtedly be a pretty girl waiting in the wings to offer him solace.Today, there were more than a handful of people gathered around the shabby cement.“My mom is amazing, but she’s got a gambling problem.”
When Winnie’s uncle paid me off so I would disappear, he gave my mother enough money so that we should’ve been able to live a long, long time with no issues and no need for her to work.It wasn’t until I started playing football professionally that I realized she was spending money faster than I could earn it.We should’ve been wealthy, all things considered, but somehow we were suddenly worse off than when we lived in the city.
When I got busted for gambling and match fixing, there were threads of truth in the allegations I couldn’t deny unless I wanted to hang my mother out to dry and watch her go to prison.While I was furious with her for having such a debilitating addiction, I was angrier at myself for not noticing she was sinking into the mire right before my eyes.I couldn’t stomach sending her away or letting her take the blame for a failed career after all she’d done for me as a child and the sacrifices she made in pursuit of my dreams.It was my turn to protect her, even if it meant I lost everything I’d worked so hard for.
I sighed and told Mino, “I understand where Winnie is coming from.Suppose I ask her for money to see the kid and to be part of his life.That opens the door for endless handouts in the future.Soon, it’s not about the kid at all.The focus becomes what benefits I will get by simply being his father.He becomes a bargaining chip, a tool to use so that I can manipulate Winnie, which she would never allow.”I knew this because she’d often been cast in the role of leverage between powerful family factions when she was younger.“Winnie’s always been a bit extreme.With her, it’s always all or nothing.Either I want to be his dad, or I don’t.There’s no middle ground.”
“I dunno, man.”Mino grabbed the ball while I was distracted and dribbled closer to the hoop.I jogged after him, squinting into the sun.I heard someone cheer and clap while calling my name, but I never took my eyes off the ball.I was used to having spectators watch my every move, so I’d long since learned to drown out any noise and distractions.“I saw those photos of you and the heiress at the park.It didn’t look like you were trying to get away, or like she was trying to ruin your life by saddling you with a kid you never wanted or asked for.The way you were leaning over her on the swing was romantic as hell.If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were whipped for her.”He chuckled and lifted his eyebrows at me in a mocking manner.“Is she the reason you’ve always preferred redheads?”
I snorted as I stole the ball and made another basket.This time it rolled to the feet of a pretty woman wearing a very short skirt and rocking ass-length boho braids.Any other day, I’d be happy to introduce myself and grab her number.Right now, I felt like my neck was in a guillotine and any minute the blade might drop.Fooling around with a random woman, even if she was a ten out of ten, wasn’t as high on my priority list as it typically would have been.
“It was just the angle of the photo.People are always going to try and make something out of nothing for engagement.”I purposely decided not to answer the question about my taste in women and motioned for him to collect the ball from the stunner holding it.
I also saw the picture of Winnie and me together.If I wasn’t there when it was taken, I might’ve believed it was snapped right before I lowered my head to kiss her as well.It was an alarmingly intimate image between two people who had zero contact in years.The image stirred something inside of my chest and had my mother calling me to demand answers.I promised my mom over and over again that I wouldn’t get involved with the Hallidays after the turmoil and upheaval of our last encounter sent us running as far away from home as we could get.Needless to say, she was less than thrilled to find out I was the father of Winnie’s baby and that I was seriously contemplating whether I had room in my chaotic life for a five-year-old.
My mom cried and repeatedly apologized for the part she played in my ending up at my lowest point, where I was finally vulnerable enough to ignore every warning sign that kept blaring whenever I got too close to Winnie Halliday.If I wasn’t so down and out, and considering if life would be easier if I just ended it all, I never would’ve ended up in bed with the one woman whom I always considered off limits.
When Mino returned with the ball, he handed me a water bottle with a phone number scrawled on the label.He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and gave me a knowing look.“Maybe having a kid won’t kill your game after all.”
The ball hit the ground, and I put a sneakered foot on top of it to keep it from rolling away.I shoved my sweaty hair out of my face and handed him back the water.“The last thing I need is getting entangled with another woman while I’m trying to navigate dealing with Winnie.”She took every ounce of concentration and restraint I possessed.When we were younger, handling her felt like holding something infinitely fragile and breakable in my hands.Now, it was more like facing off against a fierce wild animal intent on protecting her young.
I tossed the ball to a teenager who asked if we had finished our game.I pulled Mino over to a shaded area where we’d left our gym bags and crouched down to pull a towel out and wrapped it around my neck.Mino poured the gifted water over his head and shook his wet hair out like a dog.
He asked, “What’s your next move?If you’re gonna be in the kid’s life, you’ll have to give up fighting for Lev.There’s too much shady shit happening in the underground circuit.If any of your competitors find out that you’ve got a kid worth billions, who knows how they would use that information against you?I’m sure some of the promoters are salivating over the fact that you know Winnie at all.That relationship stayed a secret until those pictures came out.If you don’t fight, what else is there for you to do?It’s not like you have an accounting degree to fall back on.”
I sighed heavily and squinted into the sun.“All of that is why I haven’t given Winnie an answer yet.If I say I want to be Lowe’s dad, that means I have to stop being who I am.The guy who has always had to hustle and fight for what he wants, and someone with no bottom line isn’t a man a boy should look up to.But I don’t know how to be anyone else.It’s super fucking complicated.”
Mino tossed his sweaty arm over my shoulder, and I shook it off while giving my friend a dirty look.He grinned at me while moving to enter the phone number from the bottled water into his phone.“Let’s be real.That girl followed you all over the place for years.She took advantage of you when you were drunk.She lied to you without remorse and kept such a big secret all this time.She’s not exactly winning any morality awards either.If you were smart, you would keep as much distance between you and her as possible.Every time you get close to her, she ruins your life.You should’ve let those rich kids keep on bullying her at that fancy prep school.Maybe they would’ve taught her how to be a bit more humble.There was no reason for you to involve yourself in the games those rich assholes play, unless you secretly believed the two of you had a shot at a future together.”
It might seem to anyone looking from the outside that Winnie made me suffer, but I knew that if she hadn’t shown up that night in the bar, I had been depressed and desperate enough to take drastic action.It wasn’t an exaggeration to say she saved me from myself that night.I had no doubt I would’ve been dead by the morning if she hadn’t dragged me out of the bar and stuck to me like glue until I sobered up and started to think clearly.
Plus, Mino didn’t know, because I never admitted to anyone other than my mom, that I had ulterior motives for getting close to the Halliday heiress many years ago.
Someone fooled me into believing Winnie’s Aunt Channing was my biological mother and warned me that she and her wealthy husband were going to try and take me away from the only family I’d ever known.I couldn’t abide my adoptive mother being steamrolled and threatened by one of the most powerful families in the world, so I hatched a plan to get close to Winnie.I planned to use her to keep control of the unfolding situation, not realizing that her maternal grandfather was using me as a pawn from the start.He manipulated Winnie through me, ultimately leading to him kidnapping her and setting off a chain of events that would have her forever questioning what type of underhanded dealings I was capable of.
The truth was, I owed Winnie a lot.And I owe it to my son to make choices not driven by selfishness for once in my miserable life.
