Not friends

“That would be up for a vote, don’t you think?” Blaine smiled at him. “I would like to see how many people would be in support of releasing a car with the possibility of imploding.”

“That’s only a tiny chance, chairman Tucker.” The director bowed.

“You heard the man. What automobile does not have a tiny chance of imploding in careless hands.”

“You cannot promise people speed when there is a risk attached to that speed.” Blaine shot out.

“What the hell is this man saying? Is that even English? There is always a risk attached to speed and that is death.”

“But not by implosion,” Ariel said, and he and she exchanged a glance that Sullivan caught. This seemed to infuriate him, and he wove his hand around her waist and pulled her to himself.

“Okay the car. We will move ahead with the planned launch date,” he said to the director. 

Blaine pulled out his phone and put a call across to Ethan.

“Converge the board for a meeting tomorrow morning,” he said, and ended the call. 

Sullivan turned to him.

“Are you undermining your chairman’s authority?”

Blaine laughed in his face, “What will you do? Sack me? I am not your employee.”

“But you are sure as hell, my subordinate.”

“You seem to forget, despite your sly theft, I still control thirty-five percent of Mõshon. And my grandfather was the brain behind all this. If I say we hold a meeting to vote? We hold a meeting to vote!”

Both of them stared at themselves, the air between thick with tension, till Ariel pulled herself from Sullivan’s grasp and began to walk away without a second look back. 

The director bowed in the background and disappeared too.

“Father of the year.” Sullivan’s face broke out in a mocking smile. “Are you not worried about how your daughter would survive in this cold world if you let yourself get killed?”

Blaine felt a chill down his bones, but he did not let it show.

“Planning another assassination, I see.” Blaine chuckled. “Are you trying to provoke me to strike back. The Sullivans have still not recovered from the only revenge we did decade ago.” He brushed Sullivan’s coat down.

“You rotten liar. The only revenge?”

“Yes. Do you have proof of any others?”

“I don’t need proof to know you killed my brother, you dirty labourer,” Sullivan said heatedly. “And the day you least expect, I promise to come for my payment in blood.”

“Who said you would live till that time?” Blaine laughed. “You are not scared enough for a man who stole another man’s son and woman.”

“Delusional,” Kan chuckled. “That was the same thing that drove your grandfather to madness his whole life. I should have known it was hereditary.”

“You have that all backward. The Sullivans are the delusional ones who would not accept the reality that their money cannot buy everything.”

Kan laughed, “The favorite words of a poor man. Console yourself with that thought. I understand life can be hard from down there.”

“I am coming for my son. And I would take his mother with him.”

“Your bastard is dead. I will take you to his ashes myself if you want.” 

For a moment, Blaine’s confidence wavered. 

Sullivan looked so sure, his eyes so certain. 

These people were a true couple if they mastered the act of lying so well. Ariel had even cried.

If his son was truly dead, who was that boy at the Sullivan mansion that they were protecting fiercely? And why won’t they let him meet him?

Why would they not even admit that they had a son?

That was the story they should be insisting on, that he was theirs, and they had him last year. 

But that was not the case; They simply denied his existence. 

That, plus the feeling he had always had in his heart that his son was out there, stopped him from falling for their smooth lies.

“I will not let you insult me by taking me to a stranger’s grave.”

“It makes sense now why you treated your unborn child that way.” Sullivan nodded. “So you saw him as a stranger the whole time?”

“You are no man, you know that?” Blaine spat. “No real man would marry another man’s woman with the man’s child in her belly.”

Sullivan laughed, throwing his head back in pure amusement, like this was the richest joke he had ever heard. 

“The woman I met had no ring on her finger and was bleeding to her death alone on the tarred road.”

“What?”

“So technically, your son was not inside that belly when I married her sometime later.”

“What bleeding, what the hell are you talking about?”

Sullivan stepped back, “Again, you forget yourself. You think we are friends or something?” He started walking away.

“Sullivan.”

The man glanced back at him with a teasing smile and Blaine realized he had given him that half-information on purpose. 

Or downright lied on purpose. 

He knew the thought would torment him. He knew it would torment him so much and it was already working.

Whether they were lying now or not, he had to know what happened that night where Ariel suddenly disappeared. 

But where would he start asking questions from? 

The security camera at the mansion only worked in a few places inside the house for privacy's sake. And he was sure the existing footage from almost two years ago must have been deleted now.

Why had he never thought about this? 

His anger had clouded his mind and he could only see through his grief. 

Too many things had happened that night. That was the last time he saw Ruby, as well and now that he thought about it, it made no sense to him why Ruby would suddenly disappear too.

And Ariel had not made mention of her since she showed up. 

If the inheritance was their goal, and they secured it and transferred it to the Sullivans, Ruby would not bow away silently. 

She would want to flaunt her victory in his face.

He hurried back to the mansion, all thoughts of the launch, board meeting, and his dick-measuring competition with Sullivan, forgotten.

He had to find answers, and to do that, he had to start in the room where he had last seen Ariel