It was a mistake

“What?” Kan said, looking at me, his eyes wide in disbelief. “You cannot be serious.”

“I have damn too many problems to be with a man who I cannot trust too,” I said. “I don’t need a dime of your money. If you need the shares, I will have them over. I am leaving with my son.”

“How did he get into your head like this?” Kan was descending on me now, his arm wrapped tightly around me.

“Let me go.”

“You think I will just let you walk back to Tucker's waiting arms.”

“You need help, Kan.” I said, “Let me go.”

“No,” he said, and in our struggle something fell that caught my attention. 

I stared at the piece of paper on the floor, and pushed him away to pick it up. 

“Ariel.” Kan began to say hurriedly when he saw me pick it up. And the more he tried to come closer, the faster I backed away, as my eyes scanned the page, and my hands began to shake.

“Was this what you have been up to the whole day?” I looked up at him, shocked to my very bone. “Do you hate me so much, Kan Sullivan?” I asked as the first tear dropped my cheek. “I trusted you.”

“And I trusted you!” He yelled back, startling me into a freeze. “You reconciled with Tucker, what does that make me? Where does that leave me?”

My mouth hung open as I stared at him now, unable to speak or even move. 

With what he had just done, he could have as well taken Ophelia’s hand and all the Tucker's that hated me and led them up to Oliver’s nursery.

I should have known. I should have known that day he took my son out without my knowledge.

“I did not mean to hide it from you,” he said a little quietly. “I just did not understand you anymore. I have dedicated the last two years of my life to this case. Oliver is my heir. I just had to make sure Tucker could not just snatch my son away.”

“So you went to register him?” I said, my voice still only coming out in a shocked whisper. “Is this even legal? How could they even let you do this without me there?” 

This was the thing I hated the most about the rich. 

They were practically gods who no rules applied to. They could do anything and had access to pretty much anything. 

I suddenly felt helpless.

I thought I had gotten past this stage in my life. 

But it seemed I was nothing, still. I was still that poor little girl who had to deal with these trillionaires way out of her league. 

The only difference now was that my position in their lives came with more problems.

All the fight went out of me as I thought what this meant. 

Oliver was no longer a ghost or a shadow, he now existed. 

Anyone could easily look up our family registry, and his name and birth date would be right there. 

At the very most, it would take just a few weeks for one of these media people to casually stumble on it and then everyone would know it. 

And he would be believed to be Kan’s son. 

Although this was what I had wanted in the past, it was now a nightmare.

Kan was now legally Oliver’s father through and through and except I wanted to go through a dirty custody battle, I had to stay with him till Oliver turned eighteen. 

But did I really have to?

At this point I trusted Blaine more than I did Kan, and I knew he cared about Oliver and me. 

I would forever have been blind to Kan if Blaine did not point out Kan’s attitude to me.

Besides being an equal match to Kan, both in wealth and influence, Blaine was insanely smart. 

It had not even been three weeks, and he found his son, where Kan had memory problems.

I could not believe I was doing this again, making this decision between both men and choosing who to cling to. 

Maybe I was a social climbing gold digger like everyone called me. But above all else, I was a mother.

Oliver’s safety would always drive my decisions, no matter what that made me. 

I would not stand for him to get hurt. 

Right then, I wiped my tears and stood up.

“Let’s maintain this goodwill and harmony between us.” I said, looking Kan in the eye. “We both cannot change what you have done, so we will go on like this never happened.”

He was looking at me skeptically, because he was smart enough to know there had to be a catch to all this.

“On the other hand, we cannot undo what I have done either. Blaine knows Oliver is his son. He wants to be in his son’s life.”

“Not happening,” Kan said, his face blank, but his eyes red with rage. “Tucker is not coming near my son.”

“He is his father.” I said, quietly, “I have no interest in Blaine, but after what you have done, I have no incentive to keep Oliver away from Blaine anymore.”

“Do you know what you are saying? Are you no longer scared for our son’s life?”

I laughed at this. “He could be in no more danger than you put him in already. None.”

“I simply listed MY son on MY family registry,” Kan said with force.

“Do you think people are stupid?” I finally lost it. “The Tuckers know I left that house pregnant, and now they see a boy named Oliver with gray eyes show up, and he is fourteen months old”

“You put his details out there, they will compare. When we got married, I was over four months pregnant, and cheating with you is out of the question because a DNA test had already proved that he was Blaine’s baby even then.”

“Does not matter. The law recognizes me as his father,” Kan said stubbornly, his jaw working, and I briefly wondered if he would hit me even though he had said he wouldn’t. 

After all, he enjoyed lying to me.

“You know Blaine. Do you think he will not fight?” I asked. “But I will not let you both tear my child like a rag doll.” 

I was walking away when Kan said.

“Oliver is safer with me, Ariel.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged without turning around. “But two dads are better than one I would believe.”

“The minister’s wife is dead,” he said suddenly. “She died this evening.”