Ten years

“You can’t be serious,” Ophelia said, shaking her head, looking at the document in her lap wide-eyed, like it was some carnivorous thing that might jump at her anytime.

“Let’s make Olivia’s life easier. I filed for a no-fault one because I do not want to bring up your cheating,” he said, and she flared up.

“Don’t play the saint with me. You have been cheating way longer and there’s proof scattered all over the internet till date.”

“Go on and be delusional.” He began to climb out. “I have suffered enough losses at your hands,” he said sadly.

“Honey,” Her voice was soft again. “Please. We should talk about this first. How do you expect Olivia to grow up well in a broken home?” 

“We would be doing her a favor,” he said, and she flared up again.

“You know the law is on my side, right? If you do this, you can say goodbye to seeing your daughter ever again.”

“Good luck with that,” he said and walked away. 

As he walked towards his car, he tapped the shoulder of his chief guard. “Don’t let Ophelia ever leave the mansion with my daughter. And have someone always keeping an eye on them, even indoors.” 

The man bowed deeply, and Blaine walked ahead and slid into his backseat. 

He was beginning to feel weak, and a headache came on again. 

He pulled out a compartment in the car and dug out his medication. 

He swallowed it and as he pressed a button to raise the leg rest up, he asked his chauffeur to drive him to a place he had not been to in a long time, then he closed his eyes and slept off.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in front of the familiar lone house on the outskirts of Tokyo. 

He stepped out slowly, and smiled at the housekeeper and waved her away, saying he could manage.

He found the study door and knocked. 

He heard a grunt from within, pushed the door open and walked out.

The slight man was bent over his desk and going through the jewelry on his desk. “I thought Sullivan would have killed you already.” 

“That’s why I came to you.”

“After punching me, you really have no shame.”

“I am of the mind to do it again, but I hear you almost gave me that old blood.” Blaine took a seat and stared at Mr Grigor. “How could you not tell me my son was alive?”

“Why should I? My girl is my priority.”

Blaine grimaced, “Why can’t you just call her your daughter.” The man finally took off his glasses and laughed. 

“Is that why you thought she was my mistress at the hospital?” 

Blaine watched the man as he stood up, and walked around the office to the seating area to pluck out a bottle of alcohol and glasses from a standing shelf, then he filled the glasses with ice and returned.

The biggest shock of Blaine’s life at that hospital was seeing the man he had known for the last ten years was Ariel's father. 

He had not even recognized him till they began fighting. 

He had physically met him once in all the ten years they had been working together, and then Mr Grigor was younger and poorer, although insanely efficient.

Blaine had never drawn the connection between the last name the man and Ariel shared, because the Grigor he knew owned an estate on the far side of the country.

“When will you reveal your true identity to Ariel?” he asked as the man dropped a glass in front of him.

He thought about how the man had not recognized him on sight even after working for him for years and having met him once. And how he might not have punched him if he did not throw the first punch.

“I take it you are here for business and not personal chats.” The dignified old man took a seat again behind his desk. 

He looked nothing like the dusty old man that hung around Ariel.

“Do you know how hurt she will be when she finds out you have been lying to her?” 

“Do you know how much hurt she would be to know I had all this money and never did anything for her?” The man said, closing his eyes.

“Ariel does not care about money. She just wanted your physical presence.”

“And I am trying to make that up. Please don’t complicate things.” The man put his glasses back on, and focused on the jewelry he was working on, signaling the end of the conversation.

Blaine went quiet. He could always bring it up another time. 

“I want a bird hovering above me all the time. I don’t trust Sullivan not to shoot me dead one of these days.”

The old man nodded. “That seems likely to me too.”

“How protected is the house? I may want to storm in there to save Ariel and my son soon.”

“I will make it easy for you,” Mr Grigor said again. And went quiet. 

Blaine nodded and stood up. All the ten years he had used the man’s services, he had known the man to only say a few words.

“What do you know about this Italian?” Blaine turned at the door.

“That he is now on my hit list.” The man said matter-of-factly. 

Blaine waited, knowing patience was the only way to get anything out of the man. 

“He has been with your wife for ten years,” the man said. “Started as a small Mafia urchin but is now a Mafia kingpin, currently hired by the country’s enemy to assemble a terrorist group.”

Mr Grigor looked up now. “He wants to marry your wife and then the attacks will begin. Tokyo will burn. I will be doing the country a favor when I kill him.”

Blaine stood frozen as he listened to all this. 

Mafia? Now he was desperate to get Ophelia out of his and his daughter’s lives.

He had to stay far away from this madness. He had enough trouble with the Sullivans as it is. 

“In case you have not heard. Minister Inuoue’s wife is dead,” Mr Grigor said as Blaine began to walk out again. 

He paused and looked back.

“What?”

“Died last night,” the old man said. 

“Thank you, Levant,” Blaine said and turned away. 

He had always wondered what the scene he met at the National leader’s house that day was. Chasing after his own daughter and hitting her? The same night the accident with Ariel happened.

Knowing all he knew now, he was glad he would soon not be a part of that family anymore.