•SASHA•“Welcome to Airbyte, Miss Hall!” The board and staff members congratulated me after I had been announced as the new owner and CEO of Airbyte.I felt so proud of myself. I was on top of the world, and everything finally felt like it was falling into place.Though I gained nothing from my marriage with Lucius, the company was enough to compensate for everything I lost.“Thank you, everyone, for the warm welcome. My God, I love you guys so much. You’re like my new family now, and I hope we will work well together.”They clapped their hands before they all dispersed to get food and drinks that were prepared for the function.I walked to the refreshment table and grabbed myself a bottle of orange juice.Things were turning around for me, and when Cora approached, grinning from ear to ear, my heart leaped with joy.“Sasha! My goodness, you did it!” She beamed as she wrapped her arms around me. “I am so proud of you.”“Thank you so much, Cora. I’m so glad you came.” I stepped back fr
•SANTINO•“I’m sorry, Mr. Banks, but I’m in Chicago. Something came up. I don’t think I would make it on time in New York. I can arrange for someone to fill up for me.”“Ugh,” I groaned as I walked to my bedroom to change. “It’s okay, Leonard. I’ll do it myself.” I hung up the call and got dressed.I had to be there and stop whatever madness Camilla wanted to do.“Daddy?” Nico called behind me when I walked down the hallway, and I stopped, turned around, and faced him.“Hey, bud. I thought you were sleeping.”He walked toward me and pouted. “I can’t sleep. Are you and Mommy okay? I don’t want that guy to take me from you. I don’t want another father.”“Nico,” I crouched to his level. “No one will take you from us. You are and always will be our son. Mommy and I won’t allow Lucius to take you from us.”“Is he really my father? Why didn’t you and Mom tell me about him?” His eyes filled with tears, and my heart broke when I saw him like that.“Your Mom and I wanted to do that, and we did
•CAMILLA•“Miss Ross,” he took my hand after I hopped out of the car. “You look beautiful. Thank you for accepting my invitation.”I warmly smiled at Wyatt as he led me inside the building. The function was lovely, and it wasn’t as crowded as I expected.Most attendees were nominated invitees; the others, myself included, were simply extra guests.“Are you comfortable? Do you want a particular drink to be served to you?” He asked when he had helped me sit.He was such a gentleman, and I appreciated that. I needed to be out of the house and socialize, and I didn’t want to ruin my evening with thoughts of what happened earlier when I saw Santino.The idiot knew how to ruin my day nowadays. I couldn’t believe his nerves when he told me he didn’t want us to break up.Well, tonight, I wanted to show him I didn’t care about him. He meant nothing to me. If he liked, he could suck his own dick.“I’m fine with the water bottle, Mr. Francis. Please don’t bother yourself. I’ll call the waiter ov
•LUCIUS•“Lucius?”‘You filed for divorce without telling me because you wanted to marry Sasha, so I did the same thing. You mentioned you didn’t sign your parental rights away on the phone, but according to this document, you signed them away to Santino Banks. He’s Nico’s legal father, and if you want to dispute that, my lawyer and Santino’s lawyer will meet with yours.’“Lucius? You’ll burn yourself!” Olivia’s voice snapped me to reality, and I jumped when I realized my cup was running over in the coffee machine.“Are you okay?” She asked after I turned off the coffee machine and spilled the coffee in my cup into the sink.The heat would have burned me if I’d stayed a second longer. My mind was so disoriented that I couldn’t feel the coffee spilling over my shoes.Camilla’s threats were the only thing ringing in my mind. I felt like a failure and didn’t know what to do after ruining my chances of having a family.I was a father without a son. It made no sense. She made me sign away
•SANTINO•“Well, I didn’t think I’d find you here.”I rolled my eyes, picked up my glass of whiskey from the counter, and sipped.“Did you come here with Marco and Mario?”Mario hated me, and I understood why. I was angry, and if I knew his wife was around, I wouldn’t have said what I said. I knew they were trying to protect my family.“No, they are at Mario’s house celebrating his anniversary with Gia. I thought I would be the only one here. Shouldn’t you be with Camilla?”“We broke up, remember? I told you it would take me years to get her back again. I kinda feel stupid that I listened to you when you said I should break up with her. Now, she would never trust me.”“We were trying to protect you and your family. We didn’t want Vin and his men to come after them. Not after you almost lost your life in the shootout.”I single-handedly killed Vin. What could’ve stopped me from being with Camilla? There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done to protect them. They are my life, Cole."“I can hel
•CAMILLA•“Sakai?” I answered the phone on my way to my car.The hospital called to tell me Roy was being discharged, but Francesca had a seizure and they scheduled her for surgery.I was asked to sign documents to complete her surgery preparations.“Do you remember what we talked about? The people in the library before Dad saw them and collapsed?”“Yes?”“I think it was Cecilia and Xavier. I know it sounds crazy, but Casey told me everything. She saw them together. She didn’t give me much information, but I believe her.”“Casey?” I gasped, and the car took off.Casey was working with Cecilia. Why would he believe her? Unless Cecilia broke their arrangement and Casey spilled everything to spite her.“Yes, and she told me Cecilia had been planning to vote you out of the Ross companies. Everything she had done to get Casey to impersonate you was all to get you out of the factories.”“Oh,” I scoffed. “That sounds like her. God, I wonder why she thought she could do that. I have shares in