5

London, England ~ Frederick’s POV

I stood behind the closed door, listening in on my son narrating to my daughter the events which led me to hate him. He was right about everything. In the beginning, even when I knew he wasn’t mine, I loved and cared for him like any father would. I continued to provide for him alright, but my love for him now was long gone and replaced with hatred.

His existence almost cost me Ava’s life when I had worked so damn hard to get her. I had never touched my late ex-wife, Beatrice, in any sexual way and she had never given a damn. I was very much aware that she was seeing Andrei even before we got married.

I had hoped that we’d later fall in love with each other and raise a family of our own, but no. Nothing I did was enough for her to consider ending her adulterous affair with the bastard to commit to our marriage. I eventually gave up trying to woo her. She hadn’t been worth it anyway.

Without her knowledge, I had her watched from the shadows as she snuck out every day for her nightly rendezvous. Twice, I had been so close to giving out an order that both she and Andrei be killed on the spot. My lack of a competent heir had been enough reason not to.

She and everyone else thought I only found out about her infidelity after Henry was born, and I preferred it that way. Immediately I laid eyes on the boy, I just had the gut feeling that he wasn’t meant to take my place. Not only that, but he also had Russian blood flowing through his veins. I couldn’t have a Russian running the English mafia after me.

As he grew older, I deduced that he wasn’t meant for the mafia life in general. The problem wasn’t that he was bad at it, for some reason he just didn’t want to put any effort into his training. It was as if he was not motivated at all to commit to this life.

No one else realized this about him but me. Five years of nurturing the kid while his mother whored around paid off. When I got to know what was wrong, I knew I needed another heir. Someone who would be willing to take the burden off him. Beatrice immediately found it suspicious that I was suddenly getting touchy around her and begun to take birth control pills.

When my patience had finally run thin, I had her knocked out for a month, during which one of my personal doctors inseminated her with my sperm. When she was conscious again, she was pregnant.

To prevent her from going through with an abortion, I had a team of guards and maids keep a close eye on her 24/7. When she was in her room or in the bathroom, the maids were there. When she stepped out of her room or the mansion, the men were close behind.

Her every meal was tasted first. Alcohol and drugs were forbidden. It was that way for nine good months until my baby girl was successfully delivered. After all that work, I was seconds away from seeing Ava’s throat get slit by her ovum donor.

A lone tear slid down my cheek as I reminisced that night. Thursday, the first of December, 09:06pm. I was gripped with fear for the first time in my life as it dawned on me that one wrong move and the tiny bundle of human flesh would die.

I wiped away the tear with the sleeve of my coat and returned to my office. It was time I acted, for the sake of my mafia. I picked up my phone and dialed the foreign number I had memorized years back.

“Mi amigo.” He boomed, clearly enthused to hear from me after all these years.

“Lorenzo.” I replied, then continued before he could speak, “I have thought about your proposal, and I would like for us to meet so we can further discuss it.”

“¡Excelente! My territory, tomorrow morning. You know where to find me.”

I slumped down into my chair with a sigh after the call. I hoped I wouldn’t end up regretting this. If I agreed to his offer things could either go according to plan, or not. We were both manipulative jerks, but this time he was clearly the one with the upper hand.

I called my second in command, Elena, to my office. As was typical of her, she barged in without knocking and shut the door behind her.

“Frederick.” She greeted, before taking a seat in the couch to my left.

“I’ve decided to consider Lorenzo’s proposal...” I began but was interrupted by a deep voice.

“What?!” It exclaimed but the word muffled right after.

I shook my head in response to Elena’s guilty expression. Why did I bother sending for one when I knew damn well that the other would follow?

“You can come in.” I stated, glaring at the door that seemed to take forever to open.

My hacker and Elena’s husband, Owen, entered in embarrassment. I waited for him to join his wife in the couch before continuing.

“What changed your mind?” He questioned with genuine curiosity.

“I’m desperate.” I answered truthfully.

They were my close friends, I couldn’t keep anything from them. Even when I was dishonest, they immediately caught on and demanded for the truth. 

I glanced at Elena, “You know what to do.”

She smiled in response. They both seemed glad about this, but I was worried. I was afraid of making the same mistake my parents made when they agreed to the proposal that got me into a loveless and unhappy marriage with Beatrice.

“I’ll have your jet ready for departure tonight. Lorenzo will undoubtedly provide a ride when you arrive there so that’s taken care of. I’ll arrange for enough guards to accompany you as well as Owen. I’ll stay behind to run the mafia in your absence.”

“Good. One more thing though, under no circumstances should any of our children find out what I’m up to.”

“Understood.” She replied.