Gabriel didn't come home last night. He sent me a text that he was spending the night with Angelica. Apparently, he left Kenji's and spent the rest of the day with Angelica, choosing to sleepover. I didn't understand why he couldn't just come home, but I didn't question him about it.

        I was meeting up with my father for breakfast, but before I left, I snuck a peek into Gabriel's room. He laid in his bed with his eyes closed.

        "Gabriel?" He slowly opened his eyes, and he groaned. "Are you okay?"

        He made a lot of noise when he returned home, but I was too sleepy to get out of bed.

        "No," he said. "My head is killing me." He rubbed his forehead. "I feel like utter shit."

        I smirked. "Had a wild night?"

        What did he and Kenji do last night anyway? Or was it Angelica?

        "You can say that," he said.

        "Let me get you some water."

        I walked to the kitchen and got him a glass full of water. I placed it on the dresser, and he gulped most of it down.

        "Damn," I said. "You sure are thirsty." He laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "You know, drinking a little bit of alcohol makes hangovers better."

        His eyes widened. "I've had my fill of alcohol for the next week."

        I chuckled with my arms crossed. "That bad, huh?"

        "The worst."

        "Let me get you a refill." I grabbed the glass and filled it up, and I even left him some aspirin. "Just rest, okay?"

        His arm rested on his forehead. "I'm not going anywhere." Then he pouted at me. "Cuddle?"

        I winced. "I'll love to, but I gotta meet the old man."

        "Later then?" he asked.

        "Later." I kissed his forehead. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

        He nodded, and I walked out. The drive to my parents' house, I tried not to worry too much. That was the thing with Gabriel. After he came back, I always worried about him. College, he worried, but now, I took over. I wondered why things changed so much.

        How did that laid-back Gyan turn into the balls-less man who worried too much about his partner?

        Gabriel could take care of himself, and he was a grown man. He was safe, and I had to remind myself of that.

        When I arrived at my parents' house, I took my time, not looking forward to meeting with my father. Apparently, he had some serious business to discuss with me. A paranoid part of me felt like it had something to do with my theft and the whole Arush situation, but I pushed those thoughts away. Nila handled it, and Arush was behind us.

        "Beta," my father greeted me in my parents' backyard with his arms open.

        "Papa." I pulled him into a hug, and my father grinned at me. When we pulled back, I watched him. "What's going on?"

        There was no point in beating around the bush.

        He rested a hand on my back, leading me to a table with chairs. "Let's eat."

        We sat down. "Let's talk. We can eat after."

        I couldn't eat with this anxiety eating at me. I needed to know that this wasn't about Arush before I developed an appetite.

         "It's not the best news."

        My heart dropped into my stomach. "More reasons to talk about it."

        How could I eat now?

        "Money is missing from Appeto," he said.

        Fuck.

        I ran my hand through my hair, trying to keep it together. "How?"

        "I don't know," he said, "but we're going to find out."

        "How do you plan on doing that?"

        "We probably have a thief on our hands," he said. "And we're going to find them."

        "Again, how?"

        "I'm going to lay some people off."

        My eyes expanded. "What? Why?"

        "I'm going to keep laying people off until someone confesses."

        "Papa..." I stared at him in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

        His expression remained firm. "Do I look like a funny man?"

        "You can't fire innocent people," I said. "What if this person doesn't come forward? You can't fire everyone."

        "The culprit will give in."

         "And if they don't?"

        "We have to do something, Gyan," he said. "We can't have people thinking they can steal from us without consequences."

        "Innocent people are going to lose their jobs," I reminded him. "There has to be a better way."

        "My mind is set," he said. "I'm laying off the first batch of people next week."

        "Papa, please."

        "It's done," he said. "Now." He smiled. "Breakfast?"

        He stood up, and I did, too. "Papa, you can't do this."

        "I can, and I will."

        "Papa—"

        "Enough, Gyan," he said. "Let's eat."

        He turned to walk away, and I frantically glanced around, my mind racing. Shit. This couldn't be happening. I couldn't let this happen.

        It was time to be a man.

        "I did it," I said, and my father froze. "I did it, Papa." He turned around to face me, and I walked over to him. "I stole the money."

        He stared at me, squinting his eyes as if examining me. I gulped, not knowing what else to say. "What do you mean you stole the money?"

        "Arush had something on me," I said. "He was blackmailing me to steal money from Appeto. He told me to not pay the taxes. To give him the money instead." My father's eyes widened. "It only went on for a couple weeks, but I guess it was enough for you to notice. I didn't mean to do this, Papa. You have to believe me, but I had no other choice." He continued to stare me down. "Papa?" He didn't say anything.

        Then his palm collided with my cheek, the sound of his slap echoing in the air. I stared off to the side, knowing I deserved it but still being in disbelief.

        "You foolish, boy," he sneered. My eyes returned to him. "You stole from your family?"

        "I didn't want to."

        "Yet, you did it anyway."

        "I didn't have a choice."

        "You always have a choice!" he yelled. "And you chose wrong. What did he have on you?"

        "I can't share that," I said.

        "It's important enough that you'll betray your family?"

        "There's no excuse for what I did," I admitted.

        "Damn right there isn't," he said. "People almost lost their jobs. Because of you."

        "That's why I'm telling you now," I said. "I don't want anyone to pay for my mistake."

        "What if I didn't tell you about my plans?" he asked. "Would you not have confessed?" I was silent, and he shook his head at me. "Of course, you wouldn't have." He narrowed his eyes. "You disappoint me, Gyan."

        "I'm not perfect."

        "I'm not asking you to be," he said. "Just be responsible. Be an adult. Be in charge of your life."

        I snorted. "Funny you'll say that. You're the one forcing me to work at a company I hate. You're the one forcing me to marry a woman I don't love."

        He sighed. "Not this again."

        "Fire me," I said. "I obviously can't be trusted to work at Appeto. Fire me. I'm not fit to run the company."

        Maybe there was a silver lining, after all. A way out.

        "Where're you going to work?"

        "I'll figure something out."

        "There you go again," he said. "Having the ignorance of a kid. Why can't you just appreciate what you have? Why do you have to play some victim? You have a beautiful bride. You have a successful company waiting for you, yet you act like it's a great injustice. Yet, you're embezzling money from your family." He slit his eyes. "Is that why you did this? So, I'll have a reason to fire you?"

        "No," I said, "but you might as well. I'm not fit for this company, Papa."

        He waved me off. "Get out of my sight. I'm done with this conversation."

        I grabbed his arm before he could walk away. "I'm not. You're not listening to me. You never listen to any of us. Not Nila. Not Alisha. We need to be heard."

        "You all act like children."

        I released him. "We can't keep doing this."

        "You're staying at the company." I sighed. "You're on probation, but I'm not giving you what you want. You need to earn my trust back and make amends for what you did."

        "Papa..."

        "Walk yourself out," he said, turning to return to the house. "We'll have breakfast another time."

        "I'm not letting this go," I said. "I'm tired of giving in."

        He didn't respond, leaving me alone in the backyard. I cursed under my breath as I returned to the Sequoia. If Nila would have done this, he probably would have fired her. I didn't understand my father. Why was I so special? What did I have that my sisters didn't?

        Everyone liked to point out how much my father loved me. That he would never disown me, but at the same time, he expected so much. No one could disappoint him like I could.

        While I jammed out to some music on the drive home, I received a call.

        Darian.

        "What's up?" I answered.

        "Nothing much," he said.

        "Yeah, because you're spending all your time with Kenji."

        "Jealous?" I didn't miss the humor in his voice. "Miss my dick already?"

        I rolled my eyes. "I can get dick from anywhere."

        "But you choose to commit to Gabriel's." I didn't say anything. "I guess no more threesomes."

        "You never know," I said. "Gabriel may be okay with a foursome."

        Darian chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind."

        "Me and you should chill one day," I told him. "At least, Kenji is hanging out with Gabriel again."

        "Oh, yeah?"

        "They hung out yesterday."

        The line was silent for a bit. "When?"

        "Yesterday afternoon."

        "Wait..." More silence. "There has to be a mistake. Kenji and I spent the whole day together."

        "What?" That had to be a mistake. "The whole day?"

        "Yeah," he said. "Maybe you got the days mixed up."

        No. He explicitly said yesterday.

        "Yeah, maybe," I said.

        Why would he lie? Why didn't he just tell me he was with Angelica the whole time? Was he even with her? This made no sense.

        I continued talking to Darian as if I wasn't wracking my brain. I couldn't get this new information out of my head.

        Gabriel lied to me.

        When I arrived home, I walked to his room, and I got in bed with him. He wrapped his arms around me, and I held him.

        "I love our cuddle sessions." He released a breath. "I always feel safe in your arms."

        I glanced down at him. "Is there a reason you spent the night with Angelica?"

        He thought about it. "I spent the night... Yes! I spent the night. I texted you that, right?"

        I met his gaze. "You tell me."

        "I did," he said. "It was late, y'know? And I was drinking. Angelica thought it was best for me to stay over."

        "What about you and Kenji?" It took everything in me not to frown. "You guys had fun?"

        "We had a blast." He avoided my eyes. "We'll probably hang out some more."

        I stared ahead, my features hardening.

        He was lying through his teeth.

        I should have called him out for his bullshit.

        I should have let him know that I wasn't a dumbass he could deceive.

        I should have confronted him.

        I should have done all of the above, but instead, I smiled. "Glad you had fun," I said, and he snuggled closer to me.

        I would wait. He would confess eventually. If I could come clean to my father, Gabriel could come clean to me. Plus, there was probably a solid explanation for him lying.

        How bad could it be?

        All that mattered was that he was safe.

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* What do you guys think about Gyan confessing? Gabriel's lie? What's going to happen next?

* I was going to update this sooner, but my house currently has no internet/WiFi. I had to go to Starbucks today to write this chapter. I'll probably have to keep coming to Starbucks until we get our internet back. Not having internet SUCKS! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. 😊