CHAPTER 15: HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE THEIR FATHER!

"And the shares?" I spun around, my hands mid-air with my glass slightly raised.

"They remain yours," Cleo replied with a proud smile.

Mrs. Adams stared, with a hint of confusion and something like admiration in her eyes.

I needed no one to tell me that her head would probably be filled with questions already.

Just as expected, she voiced it out.

"What's happening?" she asked with genuine confusion and curiosity.

"Well, this is what I meant by killing two birds with one stone." I giggled, but her eyes still held confusion.

I released a deep sigh, that one you draw when someone refuses to get your point. Slowly, her wrinkled eyes grew bigger and bigger, as if she was recollecting data and reconnecting them together.

"You're a badass! You paid her a billion for the shares in her possession, and she was fined a billion dollars for violating the marriage law. The money was paid to your account, and in the end, you now own the shares and the money!?" She rapped through her breath.

I nodded after waiting patiently for her to finish her rapping.

"Emma has been given a little dose of the humiliation she gave me... Ethan is next," I said simply, but I noticed something flicker like fear laced with pity in Mrs. Adams' face the moment she heard my last phrase.

I had noticed it, that each time I mentioned Ethan's name in my revenge plan, she didn't always feel comfortable.

I adverted my gaze back to Cleo.

"Is there anything I need to know?"

She shook her head.

"Nothing..." But she strayed away with a loud gasp for a second, like someone who had almost forgotten something important.

"Ma'am, your name was mentioned as the special guest who would open the new building of Tomorrow's Greatness Orphanage, which is to be opened next week in LA."

My stomach dropped. I lost my speech for some seconds immediately she announced it.

Tomorrow's Greatness Orphanage was the orphanage I grew up in. After the success of my business, and with the guidance of Mrs. Adams, I became their top investor.

I was told that the building was funded by me and one generous man whom I pray I meet one day... This isn't the right time to visit LA.

I can't risk it for anything because it would affect my plans.

"Tell them I won't make it," I replied flatly and turned to my phone.

"It can't be cancelled. Your visit has already been confirmed."

My head snapped.

"What do you mean by that?" I questioned, my eyes already burning red.

Did she approve my meeting without informing me first?

Cleo has been working with me since the very day I took over the Adams company from Mrs. Adams. She has been faithful, so she shouldn't make me believe she's working on the other side.

I waited for some seconds for her answer and explanation, but none was given.

She just slowly walked to Mrs. Adams' back and hid there like a cat that had been caught stealing.

My hands clenched into fists that instant.

"What's wrong..."

"I confirmed it myself," Mrs. Adams cut me off.

My jaw dropped as I stared.

How could she do this when she knew fully well about my revenge plans?

"Come on, don't give me those looks," she said nonchalantly, like it was no big deal.

"I confirmed it based on the fact that you really loved that orphanage."

"But you should've told me first," I said.

"You were on a business trip; that's why I didn't want to bother you," she said, calmly and carefully, but no matter how calm the words sounded, the single word 'bother' stirred something in me.

Like she didn't want to bother me with something that could ruin me?

My head started to ache... Right now, I'm so annoyed. I glanced at her. She had already started fiddling with her fingers like a cute little child that was scolded.

My eyes softened. She knew exactly how to calm me down.

"I didn't mean to make you this mad... It's just that I wanted to ease you of work," she whispered low and calmly.

I chuckled softly.

An outsider can be fooled by her act; only I knew that she knew what she did there.

"Fine, I'm not mad... Cleo, leave us." I nodded at her. She didn't even let me finish before she fled.

I turned to Mrs. Adams and walked slowly to her.

"What are you hiding?" I nudged her.

She gave a slow laugh. There, I knew she had something to say.

"Ethan... don't you think the children deserve to know their origin... at least who their father is?"

My stomach turned, my face turned sour.

"They don't need to know anything else apart from the fact that their father is dead!" I exclaimed calmly.

"But he's alive!"

"Yes, he's alive but also dead to me and them!" I held her gaze.

"How do I tell them that their father is Ethan? The same man that humiliated me right in front of people? He made me look like nothing even in the sight of his workers... Or should I go to them and tell them that their father almost killed me? Do you think they will think of him as a father?" My voice choked out as I said those words.

Slow fragments of the memories came rushing in.

The humiliation, the pain, the starvation of care, the fall! How does she still expect me to tell them who their father is?

"Calm down." Her hands found mine as she slowly caressed them.

"I understand he hurt you so much, but I think those things he did weren't entirely his..."

"His fault?" The little walls keeping me from exploding broke that moment. I slipped my hands from hers.

"He did those without being forced... That's why I will make him pay and regret..." I barely finished venting out my anger when she burst out laughing.

I turned.

"You want to make him pay with those eyes?" she asked amidst laughter.

My forehead wrinkled into a deep frown.

"What do you mean?"

"Your eyes say the opposite of the things you're saying towards Ethan. Your heart still wants him even..."

Now it was my time to laugh.

"Want who? Ethan?" I laughed.

"Never! We never had any connection... He's the pest in my past that I need to disinfect." I said beneath my breath and turned to the door... I needed to end this conversation and focus on my journey to LA.

But her words stopped me cold.

"I hope that pest shouldn't be the first person you meet on your arrival."