Edward tore out the article from the day’s newspaper and crumbled it as his breathing took a heavy and sizzle turn.

Thea Collins was the weapon he was using against his nemesis.
She was the spy he wanted and she had willingly agreed to serve his purpose until the tables turned and his pawn had tasted nothing but a downfall.

Thea was working as one of the important managers in Morrison’s empire and she had been recently fired for being caught in a scandal with a politician's son. It had been all over the local news and Edward couldn’t pinpoint the possibility of her involvement in any way. The sole reason he had reached out to her in the first place was her lack of connection. In the crowd, she was those kinds of nobody who tries to make it through the day.

But now nothing more could be done. Even though Thea’s wasn’t fired because of her real intention, but Edward was aware that Morrison knew about the presence of a spy and according to Thea, he was so close to figuring that out.  

“Care to explain?” Mr. Blake demanded the minute he stepped into the living room, the paper ball he had held slipped inside the pocket of his pants.

Edward shot his brows up, then rolling them down at the sheets of paper lying on the table in front of Mr. Blake. It was the look on his face that warned Edward that he had another dirt to dig at him. It was how a normal conversion took place when no one was around.

“You have to be more specific about that, ” he shot back.

“You have a penthouse in Kingston Avenue?”

He refrained from giving any instant reaction for so many reasons.

Mr blame continued. “You have been disappearing from time to time. I ought to check what are you up to.”

“It’s just a penthouse!” he stated in a tedious tone. “Sure, I can have one.”

“Without me knowing.” His father accused him as he stayed silent. Edward had predicted this piece of information was bound to come out sooner or later even though the payment of the place was almost nothing compared to the expenses they had. “Are you seeing a woman, Edward?”

“No, ”

“You sure?” the glint in his eyes told Edward he knew. He fucking knew.

“Dad, what's a big deal about it. I sometimes bring women to blow off steam.”

“Like a particular blonde?”

Blonde? What Blonde? Estella’s brunette.

Mr. Blake slipped his hand inside the jacket. Few photographs flashed in his hands as he displayed them on the table. It wasn't Estella he was talking about. Cramped in photographs was Thea next to him in the same restaurant he had been with her a few days ago. Infuriated, Edward glanced up at him.

Sensing what his son was wanting to ask, Mr. Blake replied. “This is not the first time I had you watched. I had to know if you have been planning my murder with someone.”

“You could have asked.”

“I don’t ask. I do as I please,” he said in a flat and motionless voice. Shrugging, he adjusted on his couch as he picked one photograph of Thea and faced that to his son. “The evening these pictures were taken was the same night she had been all over the internet. So tell me, Edward, why this Morrison’s whore was doing with you. Is she your—”

“I don’t like blondes. I hate’em.”

Mr. Blake stood up swiftly and motioned toward him. His grey eyes were bleak. “Like a certain blonde, Nicholas Morrison.”

The name stung Edward. Nicholas Morrison wasn’t just anyone. He was the family Edward could never be part of. He was the person he shared his blood with; his half brother and the boss Thea was working for in disguise. Mr. Morrison, Edward’s biological father was aware of the existence of his third son, and yet he denied his presence whenever they stood in the same room.

“This piece of useless shit worked for Morrison. Our rival.” Mr. Blake pressed, matching his height with him. There was barely any resemblance between them yet Edward felt every cell was a replica of his demeanor.

Edward exhaled and still felt chaotic. His hands slipped inside the pockets of his pants. He wanted to tune out, focus on the waves of the ocean but they were far just like his chance of living a normal life. What it seemed inside the house was never the reality. Nothing was black and white anymore here. He, Mr. Blake, and Vanessa knew that explicitly. Luckily he had been forgetting about it due to Estella. As Mr. Blake had said, he was indeed sneaking his way out of his mansion and spending time with her. Over time, he had been enough with her to be able to differentiate in his emotions. She interested him and he couldn’t stop himself from indulging in her life. And now she was his.

He had been engrossed about Estella that he failed to notice when Elliot slipped into their living room until Mr. Blake shifted back into his previous spot.

Elliot’s face looked passive as he took a long look at the photograph of the girl and a two-page folder that had her information since the day she was born. Elliot was always best at his work at finding valuables whenever anyone needed it.

Huffing, he decided to leave them alone to conspire against the poor girl and headed toward the stairs. Mr. Blake stopped him shortly. “Edward, I want your eyes on her.”

He didn’t turn and stayed put. An urge to break something waved inside him.
“I can’t.”

“You can’t or you won’t?”

Now he faced the old man. “I won’t. I’m fed up of following people around.”

“I give what you want and you give me what I want. That's how it goes here.”

The weight of his threat was way more than what it showed on the scale. Unfazed, he repeated. “Dad, I won’t. Moreover, Elvis and I are working on our new contract on the east and as a COO—”

"Yes, the COO of my company, why don't you take a vacation. You haven't been given leave for a day since you joined the office.”

"I don't want to. Why don't you get someone else to do it for you?

“You are my favorite rook, boy. No one can do a better job than this. I didn't spend years teaching you all these for nothing. Now get your head in the game.”

He answered in silence as his black orbs set blank at the coffee table, muscles strained and jaw flexed.

“I won't!" He answered. "I won't.”

Mr. Blake looked like he was struck hard on his face. “I didn't quite hear you.”

He repeated his threat. The kind of threat he again, noticed and learned from him. It was only his voice that squirmed him of all people in the entire world. “I said I won’t do it.”

The battle of will was a long show and Elliot had to witness it happening. Mr. Blake however withdrew first but there was a determination, an advantage. The one that only crushed him further. “You are fired from the office.”

Edward rose to his feet, the last ounce of sanity ready to jump out of his senses. He didn’t care if Vanessa was going to witness him, or Nora. Mr. Blake was always successful in hitting the right nerve. “You just can't—”

“Oh, I just did.” He spoke calmly. There was no regret, no shame, no guilt. “Do as I say and earn your place back.”

“I fucking did everything to earn more than that.” He shouted, and the veins on his temple throbbed. Not only he took his childhood, but he also twisted and ruined him for his cause. “You made a toy out of me.”

Unaffected, Mr. Blake looked away to Elliot who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. His father ignored Edward’s murderous glare and turned his attention to him, and the girl he was assigning him to follow. He instructed Elliot to find more information on her before he gave him a nod and instructions to meet him the next day in the office.

“So where were we?” His father's gaze caught his glare as soon as they were alone. “Oh yeah. Do you want me to book a flight for you or type of resignation letter, Edward? Firing you would be a temporary decision by me, and it is up to you if you want that as a permanent?”

“Why me?” He yelled again. “Why it has to be always me?”

He never answered that, not even today. He knew the answer but there was a part that hoped he hearing from his mouth might make it better.

Mr. Blake got up, positioning himself in front of him, barely a few inches away from him. He glanced at his face before moving his hand and taking his tie in his fingers trying to fix the already fixed tie. “You eat, you drink and you even breathe because of me. Get it!”

Mr. Blake had said the same thing Edward had said to Thea once. Even though it was Thea's will to play dirty at any cost, for a fraction of a second Edward had a taste of how messed up things he had done to keep her in line after she wanted to back out.

Mr. Blake wasn't done as he pushed the tie-up to his throat to hold his neck tightly. He wasn't choking him but it was a mock action he did to show his authority over him and for some unknown reason, he was. He always had been. Keeping an unaffected face was not as easy as it looked.

“Dad?”

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