CHAPTER 6

Nathan is my best friend but I swear if he doesn’t shut the hell up, I just might gut him. “how many times do I have to tell you, no damned pickles in my bloody burgers!” I screeched while spitting the half chewed burger back into the brown lunch bag. At least he had the decency to look terrified, “oh come on, it can’t possibly be that bad” he muttered while obviously trying to hold in his laughter, his brown eyes crinkling at the sides,  the moron had done it on purpose. “is this payback? For disappearing to Hawaii? Because trust me you took the worst routes by messing with my burger, would you blame me for attempting to get a natural tan for myself? You have it oh so naturally” I muttered under my breathe.

It was a sunny afternoon and I had decided to invite Nathan over to the park during lunch break, considering he hadn’t seen me since I went to Hawaii on a whim. To say he was upset was an understatement, he was outright pissed, let’s just say the burger has made us even. “you’re mean” I mumbled in annoyance. Turning to face him, I noticed his expression had turned serious and I knew that shit was about to get real “you need to call your father Devonne, I’d hate to have to block his number on your behalf” he said, his mouth drawn into a thin line, he’s upset “he wants me to bring Bri and Josh to him on my next visit and I can’t do that, my mother is gonna shit a brick if she finds out” “you could easily just tell them not to tell her, I think they’re old enough to keep one secret from their mother, especially since it concerns their father” “you say it like its so easy, you underestimate my mother if you think she isn’t keeping tabs on her children”

Our voices had risen at this point, but I couldn’t bring myself to give a damn “you and I know very well you’re just making excuses, they’ll have to know about it at some point, give the man hat he wants before he does something stupid like showing up at your office, or worse at the house” he said, a little too calmly for comfort “well……” I started before the ringing of my cell phone interrupted me, I stared at the caller ID and frowned before excusing myself to take the call.

“Sansa? What’s wrong? Its still lunch break and I’m pretty sure I don’t have any meetings or appointments for the next hour or so…..”     “Devonne I think you need to see this, someone is here to see you” she said, cutting me off, she sounded distressed, which is very much unlike Sansa even when she was just a newbie who’d just started working for me.

I went back to where I’d left Nathan so I could tell him that I had to go, only to find his seat empty. I frowned again, today has just become automatically weird. Driving at breakneck speed, I arrived at the office just in time for the clock to signal the end of lunch break. I didn’t bother stopping by Sansa’s table before barging through the doors of my office, knowing she’d follow. What I saw, or rather who, I saw sitting behind my desk, on my chair, had my hands going slack at my sides.

After I’d mastered myself enough to conceal my shock, I scowled at him “what are you doing here dad?” I asked him, my whole body trembling from restraint, he was gonna get me in trouble, judging by the smirk he was sporting, he already knew that. “that’s no way to talk to your father, Devonne,” I’d always liked the way my name rolled off his tongue in that rich Italian accent, but right now I was too angry to care or even notice. And that was when I noticed the next thing that tilted my whole world upside down.

12 years ago

Third person POV

Alejandro had just returned from his late nights at work again and she had decided that she had had enough, the whistling kettle on the stove was loud enough to raise the dead, but all she could focus on,…… all she could remember, was those glowing green eyes, his eyes, the eyes of a monster. She finally turned off the stove and reached for the blowtorch she had kept hidden in one of the kitchen drawers, he’d tried to explain, she had pretended to understand, but what she had seen was against everything she had ever believed was possible. if he was exhausted as she’d gambled he’d be, then she should succeed. She had already sent the children to their aunt “for a sleepover” she had said, only one had objected, one who looked just like him. Devonne. She thought better and grabbed the lighter instead, she went outside to the garage. She didn’t let herself feel remorse as she flicked the lighter open and set the gas drenched building ablaze.

Back to present day

DEVONNE’S POV

My father’s face and skin was as smooth as a baby’s. With all those burn injuries gone, our resemblance was even more striking, the green eyes and the defined jawline, the dark silky hair, the only thing I was missing apparently was his height. I swallowed audibly as he stood slowly and gracefully from the seat.   

“I finally agreed to get that plastic surgery and to put the horrible past between me and your mother behind us. You would’ve known that if you had just picked up your phone or at least come to see me” he said, fixing his gaze on me. I had the vague sense of another person entering the office.

I had no words for what I was looking at.

“there is a whole lot that you do not know Devonne, time is not on our side, I’d prefer it if you let me see my children. Now”

Josh’s school had no qualms letting him off for the rest of the day, and Brianna hadn’t gone back to New York just yet, so I called them both in to the office, this was going to be ugly……..and I couldn’t do a darn thing about it.

“call your mother too, I think its about time she explains to me why exactly it is she’s been trying to get married without properly divorcing me first” my father added after I was done making arrangements for my siblings to come.

“like hell I’d do anything like that, if you want to set my building ablaze with family issues, bear it in mind that I will not allow it, you guys will take it up somewhere else!” I said in almost one breathe.

“tsk tsk tsk, why Devonne, you could give your mother a run for her money when it comes to your tempers” he chuckled before adding “since you’re not going to call her, I’ll just do it myself” he had his phone to his ear before I could do so much as to protest.

************ 

I paced in my office, unable to sit still, my father on the other hand and….. Nathan just sat calmly, watching me move back and forth in front of them. How could they be so relaxed, this is a disaster waiting to happen. How Nathan had known to come here was just beyond me. Few minutes after I had arrived here, I gave Sansa an order to evacuate the building, just in case my mother was considering starting a fire again, for unknown reasons.

My mother was the first to arrive, I watched as she paused, and then watched as her face crumpled and she tried to walk back out the door, but was interrupted by the shocked expression on the faces of Brianna and Josh behind her. I, just masked my face with cool indifference before kicking off my shoes and lying down on one of the couches in the office, using a cushion to keep my head elevated, I laced my fingers behind my head. Well… we might as well get this all over with.