The night I told Dad about Kai Rivera, I sat alone after putting Kaiden to bed, sipping a glass of wine. My mind was completely blank for the first time in a very long time.
The growing nervousness I felt every day Kai’s father was out of the office and I hadn't told him had disappeared. He now knew. Dad now knew who Kaiden's father was.
I had written an email to Aria asking her to come to my city at her earliest convenience so that I could confess everything to her and hopefully rekindle the friendship that I had desperately missed.
I had nothing to do as I sat and simply switched off. It was like I was sitting in the eye of the storm. Everything was blowing around me, but I was sitting calmly in the middle.
Just as I poured myself a second glass of wine my cell rang. I answered it quickly, hoping the loud ring tone wouldn't wake Kaiden.
“Lilith speaking.”
There was a pause and I immediately knew who was calling me.
“Lilith, i
The conversation I was just about to have was the most important one of my life. More important than the one where I told Kai he was the father. The way I handled this conversation had the ability to make or break a little boy’s heart and cause irreparable damage if not handled correctly. I was scared shitless for him, but at the same time, I was so excited. My little boy was getting a daddy, and I couldn't have been happier for him. As long as it all went smoothly. That morning, I asked Kaiden to join me in my bedroom. We sat down on my bed together, legs crossed, facing each other. I took one of his hands. “Remember we spoke about your daddy?” I started. "Yeah?" he replied hesitantly. I could tell by the pensive look on his face she knew there was something important coming. "And you know how I said he's been away doing a special job?" His face scrunched up as he tried to remember. “Yeah. You didn’t say what his job was.” “I
Kai was due to arrive at any moment and Kaiden was a ball of nervousness and excitement. He wasn’t the only one. While Kaiden decided to wear his best clothes, I opted for something casual. I had to admit that it was dressier than the worn-out t-shirt and jeans I usually wore. The ones he had seen me in a few days ago. After all, that day wasn’t about me, it was about my little boy. I couldn’t help but hope that Kai Rivera would feel something for me. Not for the girl he once liked but the person I was right now. I had applied a little makeup and donned on the pair of jeans I knew my ass looked phenomenal in. Before I knew it, there was a knock on the door. Kaiden looked up at me with uncertainty. “He’s here!” he whispered before wrapping his hands around one of mine, holding me tightly and preventing me from moving from the living room. “It will be okay, sweetie,” I replied, having no idea if the words would be true or not. We
I prepared dinner. The meal kept me occupied while the only man I had ever loved was upstairs with my son. Our son. Over dinner, Kaiden brought up the inevitable and asked if Kai would take him to school the next day.I knew he was a master negotiator and often used his charms to negotiate his way out of tricky situations, but I was interested to see how he was going to handle an eight-year-old.“You know how I come on the news often?” Kai asked.Kaiden nodded once.“Because of that, there are a lot of people who want to take my photo when I go outside. And if I go outside with you, they are going to want to take your photos as well.”Kaiden looked confused as to why that was a problem.“They are going to want to know who you are, and who your mom is and they are going to put those pictures in papers and magazines.”He nodded, but I could see that it was bothering him.“Now that I have
KAI POV I sat in the back of the car on the way back to my hotel. I pulled out the letter that Lilith had written to me. And in the dim light, I read it. Dear Kai, I am one of the last people you would expect to contact you. I left without a word all those years ago and I would like to start by saying that I would have given anything for our circumstances to be different so that I could stay with you. At the very least, I would have liked to tell you the reason for leaving. Please know that I did it solely to protect myself and my family. I need you to contact me as soon as you are able. I have some important news that you would want to know. At the very least, you have a right to know. This is not a plot to rile you up and I am hoping that you will regard the emotions with which we met each other and contact me despite me leaving. I understand that you have a life and people who may not approv
By the time Eric returned from picking up Luca from the airport, it was almost eleven in the local time. I hadn’t slept a wink in twenty-four hours. Yet, I couldn’t get my mind to relax. I paced up and down the room about a thousand times, thinking and trying to understand, replaying the events in my head.I didn’t realize how tightly I was wound, how ready to pounce I was until I heard my name being called from behind me.I whipped around.“Jesus, Kai!” Luca took a step back, glaring at me with wide and wary eyes. “What the hell is going on?”I tried my best to compose myself, to put on my mask, but it wasn’t as effortless as usual. “Take a seat. We have got to discuss a few things.”He looked anxiously from me to Eric before walking over to the table in the sitting room. I moved across from him and remained standing.“Kai, would you like me to step out of the room?” Er
It was two in the morning when I could muster up enough self-control to place the call.“Kai.”My father said nothing else, and I knew he had known all along. I would bet he knew exactly where I was at that moment.‘Know thy enemy.’It was one of the basic rules of business.‘And you will know how to defeat him.’“I am not going to ask you how long you have known, or why you never told me. I think I can figure that out on my own. For now, I am only going to tell you one thing: stay away from them.”There was no immediate response.“What exactly is that you think you know, Kai?”I clenched my teeth. “I know enough and in the next forty-eight hours, I plan to know it all.”He snorted. “Let me tell you what you know. You know that a woman you spent a short time with years ago, and for whom that time didn’t end as she would have liked.
LILITH POV: My heart thudded ungracefully as I got on the ferry to the island. Not only was I going to see Kai again and meet his mother, but I was back at the place where it had all happened. Since our reunion, we had been on my turf. Now that we were back at the scene of the crime, I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle all the memories. The sound of the gravel crunching under the wheels of the car as it came to a stop outside his mansion made me snap out of my daze. The back door was opened before the car had fully come to a stop, before I had time to prepare to see Kai’s face, peering in at us expectantly. His smile was breathtaking and he looked so excited to have us there. Kaiden was out first, and despite their nightly calls, I could see that he was a little shy around Kai still. I got out of the car after him and encouraged him to say hello. It only took a few moments before Kaiden had his arms wrapped around Kai’s neck. He had spent a few da
Kaiden and I settled into our room before making our way downstairs. Kai had informed us before he left that it was dinnertime, and we were to meet him in the formal dining room that was just off the kitchen. I only hoped that I remembered where it was.We would be dining with Kai and Emma, a very daunting thought. Emma Rivera was the matriarch of her impressive family, albeit a fairly unconventional one, given my experience of her with her on two previous encounters. She certainly did not meet the expectations one would have of a political socialite.Kai was in the dining room, facing one of the windows, hands in his pockets. He turned suddenly upon our entrace, greeting us with what seemed to be excitement before he seated Kaiden and them me for dinner. I could have sworn I felt his hand on the small of my back as he did, but I couldn’t imagine a reason for him to do so.He disappeared into the kitchen as Kaiden and I looked at the impressive spread of f