Chapter Twenty-Two #2
She finally speaks, taking a deep, shuddering breath. “But you asked me out because of your father?”
“Yes,” I answer immediately. No hesitation.
Her eyes squeeze shut, and something inside me fractures completely.
“And then I realised there was more to it. More to why he was so interested in you. Leoni, I thought having power meant protection,” I continue. “I thought if I stayed ahead of it, of him, no one else would get hurt.” I step closer now, unable to stop myself. “I was wrong. And you paid for it.”
She opens her eyes again, glassy and furious and unbearably sad. “I loved you,” she says.
I nod. “I know.” That’s the worst part. Because I did too. And I still do. “And I know you can’t forgive me,” I add. “And I don’t expect you to. I just—” My voice breaks again despite every instinct I have to lock it down. “I need you to know that if I could undo it, I would. Every single part.”
Silence crashes down around us. Leoni rises slowly; legs unsteady but determined. She doesn’t touch me. Doesn’t even brush past.
As she walks toward the door, the space she leaves behind feels cavernous.
Anthony looks at me, waiting for the order.
I don’t give one.
Because this time, control would be the final sin. And if this is the price of choosing wrong, I’ll pay it.
The door closes with a soft, final click.
I brace myself against the marble worktop, my head dropping as my chest caves in. The sound of it feels too quiet for something that just broke me open.
“Father is going to lose his mind,” Erik murmurs behind me.
I spin on him. My hand closes around his throat with no thought, slamming him back against the wall hard enough to rattle the glass. His shoulders hit first. His head follows.
“Did it ever occur to you,” I snarl, tightening my grip, “that everything I do is for us?” My voice echoes, raw and unrestrained. “You’re so busy trying to impress that piece of shit,” I continue, shaking him once, “you didn’t even notice what I was building for you. What I was offering you.”
He scoffs, even with my hand at his neck. “He gave you everything on a platter,” Erik spits, his breath tight but his eyes blazing, “and you repay him by fucking it all up for a woman you hired to take notes?”
“He’s dead!” I roar. “And if you weren’t so fucking obsessed with trying to shag Leoni just to piss me off, you would’ve been there with him.”
His eyes widen. His breath stutters. I release him abruptly, shoving him back like he’s nothing, like he’s already beneath me.
“What?” he chokes.
“You didn’t see him,” I mutter, dragging a hand down my face, the rage draining into something darker.
“You didn’t see what he was like at the end.
” I turn away, pacing once, twice, my laugh sharp and hollow.
“I spent my whole life trying to keep that evil from touching you,” I say, dragging a hand through my hair.
“Taking it on myself so you didn’t have to.
” I stop and look back at him. “But sometimes,” I say quietly, the words heavier than anything I shouted, “I think you’re worse. ”
“Did you kill him?”
The question is raw. Stripped bare. His eyes search my face, desperate for denial, and when I nod, his legs buckle. He catches himself on the wall, breath tearing from his chest like he’s been punched.
“There’s so much you think you know, Erik,” I say steadily. “But you only know what he wanted. The parts he needed you to see so he could keep pulling your strings.”
Anthony takes a step back, then another. He leaves the room without a word.
“He treated you like a fucking king,” Erik spits, his voice breaking. “And you’re so power-hungry you killed your own father. Was he really that much of a threat to you?”
I scoff. “You still think I’m the villain?” I shake my head slowly. “He lied to you, Erik. To both of us.” I draw in a breath, grounding myself. “I went to see Mick Rowe.”
His head snaps up, fury blazing. “You what?”
“I had to know what was really going on,” I continue. “And he told me everything. How he was in love with our mother. How she was planning to leave.”
Erik’s hands curl into fists.
“Our father found out,” I say. “And if he couldn’t have her, he made damn sure no one else would.”
“He said she was weak,” Erik snarls. “Useless.”
“He said that because it was easier than the truth,” I reply. “She wasn’t weak. She was trying to escape him.”
I step closer. “He spent years trying to work out who she was leaving him for,” I continue. “Do you know how he finally figured it out?”
Erik shakes his head slowly.
“Blood tests,” I say. “Yours.” His brow furrows. Confusion flickers. “He made you kill your own half-brother,” I say, each word deliberate. “Knowing exactly who Isaac was. Knowing exactly who you were.”
Erik stares at me, mouth open, colour draining from his face.
“And then,” I add quietly, “he sent you after Leoni. Knowing who she was.”
My stomach turns as I say the words. “Mick Rowe,” I finish, “is your father.”
The room goes deathly still. And for the first time since our mother died, Erik looks like a boy who’s just realised his entire life was a lie.
He stares at me like his body has forgotten how to function.
His mouth opens. Closes. His hands come up, pressing into his temples as if he can physically hold his skull together.
“No,” he whispers. Then louder. “No. That’s not—”
His knees give out. He hits the floor hard, the sound sharp against the marble, and this time he doesn’t catch himself. He folds forward, elbows braced, head hanging like he’s been hollowed out from the inside.
“I knew it,” he says hoarsely. “I fucking knew it.” I don’t move, letting him speak.
“He never looked at me the way he looked at you,” Erik continues, his voice breaking into something raw and ugly.
“Not once. You were the heir. The golden boy. Everything you touched turned to something he could use. And I…I was his right-hand man. Clearing up the parts he didn’t have the balls to.
” He lets out a laugh that borders on a sob.
“And I spent my whole life trying to earn something that was never meant for me.”
My jaw clenches as I watch him fall apart. Just another casualty in my father’s wake.
“Do you know what that does to a kid?” he snaps, looking up at me now, eyes wild. “Growing up knowing you’re tolerated, not chosen? Watching him excuse everything you did while I was punished for breathing wrong?”
He shakes his head violently. “Maybe he always knew. Maybe deep down he knew I wasn’t his.”
His words hang between us, heavy.
“That’s why,” Erik goes on, his voice cracking completely now.
“That’s why he pushed me harder. Why he never let me forget I owed him.
Why he made me prove myself over and over.
” His breath stutters. “And when he told me about Isaac, I thought that was my chance. He said your warnings were low impact and Isaac needed to know who was really running the show.” He scrubs his hands over his face.
“I looked that kid in the eye and he was fucking terrified. And I felt nothing, I just saw the chance to prove to him I could be what he needed me to be.”
I move slowly and crouch in front of him, lowering myself to his level.
“He didn’t make you kill him because you weren’t his,” I say quietly. “He made you kill him because he didn’t have the guts to, and he wanted to get to Mick.”
Erik looks me in the eye, searching…maybe he’s waiting for me to be cruel or give him a cutting remark, just like my father would have. Instead, I offer my hand.
He stares at it, his shoulders shaking as he fights his emotions. And then he takes it, and I haul him to his feet, pulling him to me. For a second, he doesn’t react, just stiffens, and then he sags against me. We stay like that for a few silent minutes.
When I eventually release him, he pulls back.
“We’re equal,” I tell him. “Not rivals. I will not let us become him and Toni.” I stare him dead in the eyes.
“You have a choice now, brother.” His eyes flick to mine in surprise.
“Because that’s what we are, Erik. Brothers.
We always have been and we always will be.
You can walk away from this life, build your own.
Or you can stay and help me run Baxter Corporation.
” He hesitates, his brows furrowing, and I know he wants to ask what his role will be, because now my father has gone, he doesn’t know how to fit.
“I want you to go to Italy for a few months.”
His eyes snap to mine again. “Help Toni set up. You know the business this end, your input would help him. Our uncle needs someone he can trust,” I continue. “Family.”
Erik wipes his face with the back of his hand, swallowing hard.
“And Leoni?” he asks quietly.
“Some things can’t be fixed,” I admit.
He nods once. Then inhales deeply before saying, “Italy sounds good. A fresh start.”
He holds out a hand, and I take it firmly. We shake. “Fresh start,” I agree.