Rafael called his dad to come over the next morning to discuss something important. Antonio was about to meet with Derek about the hacking incident with their security system and wanted to have everything rechecked and redesigned for his home and offices if needed.
"What's the matter, dad? Aren't you well?"
Antonio looked sick. He had never fully recovered from headaches and poor vision even after the third surgery.
"Just a bad headache... should be gone when I take a pill after breakfast."
"You should just stay home and let Rafael meet with Derek," Ruhi told him, and she looked like she didn't sleep at all to him.
"I'll cancel the rest of my meetings if I continue to feel sick. But meeting with Derek is important, and I want to do it. Tell me first, are you doing okay? Didn't sleep last night?"
"Actually, we both didn't sleep. We had to do some digging. And that's what Rafael wants to talk to you about."
Rafael told him about Dy
FLASHBACKTHIRTY YEARS AGOPerched upon the seventh floor in the middle of San Francisco downtown, Lucifer’s office offered a perfect view of the city, with not too many skyscrapers around. He gazed out of the glass building at the club across the street: The High Dive nightclub, owned by his dad.His dad was the boss of the Rivero Mafia family, and soon he was going to take over the reins. He felt more than ready to rule the continent and add to the chaos and mayhem his dad caused over the last thirty years.He called his stepbrother again, wondering where the hell he was. Gustavo Rivero, the capo, and the most feared man among the powerful crime organizations in North America and Italy.Gus inherited all his dad’s good looks and the intimidating aura, while Lucifer only got the intelligence. He hated Gus to the core, especially when his dad ignored him and called Gus his son a lot more often;asonborn to one of his wh
"Looks like I gave you enough time to finish your breakfast." Dylan held the gun sideways and pointed it at Antonio whilerollinghis sleeves up his forearm."What are you doing in San Francisco?”"You seem to look quite unfazed, Uncle Tony. Is it because you got your bodyguards right outside the door? Or did you expect me here already?"Antonio was sitting over an arm's length away from the bedside lamp. There was nothing in his reach which he could accidentally knock down to draw their attention without getting shot. Dylan moved closer, now aiming the gun directly at Antonio's head."Send your men away. Now!""What's gotten into you? You know I'm your unofficial Godfather and have always treated you the same as Rafael.""Oh, cut to the chase and do as I say. Now is not the time to get huffy." He waved his hand impatiently as Antonio took the phone out of his suit pocket without breaking eye contact with him."Where's
"I fucking hate you!" Fire blazed in Ruhi's eyes as she pushed Rafael's hand off her and slammed the door in his face.Hugging her knees to her chest, she let the tears flow down her face in abundance. The crushing pain in her heart was unexpected. Ignoring Rafael's pleasto open the door, shebroke into sobs until she choked on air."Ruhi, please. We knew there was a possibility that she could be mine."She knew Evacould be Rafael's, but she was banking on the possibility that shewasn't. She didn't want to panic until the test results came. It seemed to her that the universe had conspired against her.What she never expected was the strange sort of jealousy engulfing her. She hated herself for feeling this way against a little girl she had come to love so much, so quickly.'It's not Eva's fault.' No matter how many times she said this to herself, she couldn't help the feelings of resentment eating her up."
Ruhi woke up in an empty bed the next morning and felt miserable. Feelings of discontent from yesterday seemed to have amplified now, and not being able to vent them out made her bottle up a lot of resentment. She had expected to wake up in Rafael's arms and talk to him about what was bothering herso much before he left forwork.Her actual plan was to bringit up before going to bed last night, but Rafael was busy with work until midnight because he was in the hospital most of the day. She couldn't sleep without letting it off her chest but found him passed out on the leather couch in the study room and didn't budge when she tried to wake him up.She couldn't wait until evening for him. Shecalled Lisa instead. With the myriad of strong emotions since Friday, she didn't trust her thoughts and actions to be logical anymore."Am I asking for too much? I feel like a terrible person...like some attention seeking drama queen when he's alre
"Let's go ice skating after this, daddy!"Eva was on cloud ninein Rafael's company all day. He had spoiled her with too many toys and didn't say no to eating as many candies and gummy bears. She was now on her third scoop of ice cream, and it was only four in the afternoon.Ruhi couldn't help but watch the father-daughter duo in awe. Eva was overjoyed to have her join them for lunch and showed her everything she did whenRuhi was sleeping. Ruhi took several pictures of them together, trying hard not to let her jealousy get the best of her."Mom says you are great at ice skating.""Great? I just knew how to and your mom didn't."Ruhi got up to leave, not wanting to hear Rafael reminisce about his dates with his Kimmie."Can we go, pleeease!!" Eva danced in her place while Rafael mussed her hair up."Ruhi isn't feeling well. Let her get better a bit and we will go, maybe next week?""We can go next week with Ruhi
"Oh, my God! This place has my favorite Korean food. Have you tried this place before?""Nope." Rafael said, his lips twitching in a smile when he knew why she loved it so much. Everything on the chalkboard said spicy before the name of the dish."Allow me to introduce you to the best of the best!" She gestured dramatically while she ordered chicken katsu for herself and a beef bulgogi bowl for Rafael. He looked at her in awe when she placed the orderin broken Korean."You love Korean food so much that you even learned to speak their language?""I love Korean food and language because I love K-Dramas. You have no idea how sad I was when Ji Chang Wook had to leave for some mandatory military service.""Who the fuck is that?" He pulled his phone out to see how good the actor looked."Your jealousy fits are quite amusing." She pinched his cheek while he raised his brow at the google image search."Harry and Co. You won't be d
"Ruhi... Eva is here. Calm down.""You should have told her to shut the fuck up when she talked shit about my country."He pushed on the gas, knowing she was scared of speed,but she didn't care how fast he was going. She was throwing daggers at his ex, going on and on about how she should sue the makers of the slumdog millionaire movie for showing a slum in India to make it look like that's how the entire country looked."You are a broke ass charity case who---""Ruhi, that's enough! I don't care what she said. Evie is here and you needto stop, now!""Why the hell don't you care what she said. She started it.""I don't care because I wasn't even listening to her talk. Evie looks like she's going to cry. If you don't shut up, I'll throw you and Kimmie out to finish your argument.""Why am I the one you always ask to shut up when your exes throw insults at me? Alisha called me cheap trash and---""I don't remember wha
Rafael woke up feeling exhausted. His alarm clock said he still had an hour to go, but sleep was an elusive thing. It felt like the longest night in a while. He walked over to Ruhi's room and tried her door again.Hoping that she was getting the much needed rest, he sank into the chair in his study.He then texted Aaron to check if the doctor on call gave him any updates about his dad's condition.He had a lot of things on his mind, but there was a ton of work piled up from taking time off yesterday. Logging into his desktop, the first thing he noticed was the paparazzi's cooked up stories about"The billionaire daddy's outing with his missingwife and the crazy runaway ex-girlfriend."There were way too many articles speculating about his upcoming divorce fromRuhi. Some even went to the extent of saying that he was secretly married to Kimberley and hiding his heiress for safety. There was one appalling rumor that Antonio forced Ruhi to leav