23. Grae #3
“The script?” My brain screams it’s a trap but my hopeful opposite side says maybe it’s not.
Hadeon locks his icy gaze on me. “It’s yours, but you have to walk away from Alana forever.” I instantly slam the book shut and hand it back to him.
“I didn’t spend the last twelve years hunting her down, just to be bribed with a bunch of paper you overpaid for.”
He raises his eyebrow. “I’ll get you the entire first season, signed.”
“No.”
“Every script from every episode, including the finale.”
I lean forward. “I’ll watch it, with Alana next to me.”
The trillionaire watches the world go by out the window, and his lip curls. “The hockey player took the deal. That’s why he won the travel mug.” He turns back to me, still icy. “So what do you want from me?” Hadeon asks. Everyone must want something from this guy, me included.
“I tried finding her for years. I think even Amanda tried too, but we always came back empty. Not gonna lie, in some circles I’m pretty powerful, and Amanda has people tripping over themselves to glance in her direction. I honestly can’t remember a request she hasn’t gotten.”
“I’m aware.” Hadeon pets the dog's head as it lowers to his lap.
“I had a journal, and I don’t know, maybe you have the connections to help me find it.” God, even saying it makes me sound so desperate. But Hadeon’s entire body tenses up, and he whips his head toward me.
“What?” His anger startles the dog, who lets out a low whine.
My mouth dries and a new anxiety forms. I pissed off one of the most powerful men in the world.
He digs through his pocket, takes out his cellphone and taps the screen.
The dog lifts his head up and hops down off the seat, sitting at my feet.
I lock my fingers together to resist the urge to pet the dog.
The air in the car feels thick as a woman’s voice says hello, his jaw locking while fury blazes in his gaze.
“Penelope, I am going to ask you questions. I don’t care what the answers are as long as they are honest. But if I find out you’re lying, don’t bother coming home. ”
Holy shit.
“It’s not that serious.” I lift my hands. “It’s fine. I’m so sorry.”
Penelope is the name of his wife. Hadeon Olympian and Penny are the only two members of the family who are married. I read somewhere that the oldest children of the Olympian empire struggle to find someone they trust enough to marry. And Hadeon is willing to leave his wife over my stupid journal.
But his attention is on the screen. “Do you understand?”
“What did I do wrong?” Her voice is quiet with fear laced in every letter.
“I’m asking the questions,” he counters. “Honest answers or move into the Martha’s Vineyard house.”
“You’ve never acted like this before.”
“I’ve never suspected you of pulling this level of bullshit.
This is the shit my family does. Not us.
You and I are different.” He closes his eyes and inhales like he’s trying to keep his demons at bay.
When he looks at the phone, he’s still cold and dark.
The reset didn’t work. “Look, if you did it, we’ll deal with the fallout, but I swear to fucking God if you lie to me, twenty years of trust vanishes. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Her voice sounds so small. Hadeon starts his interrogation.
“How much money did you spend blocking Grae’s attempts to find Alana?”
“His, or Amanda’s attempts too?”
Holy shit. They were being blocked. The most powerful humans on the planet were actively trying to keep us apart.
“Both.”
“Twenty-four million dollars over the last twelve years.” She says the number with no emotion. Like it’s a fact, and facts don’t need feelings. He curses under his breath, glancing away from his phone.
“Did you know Grae has blackouts?”
“Yes.” This time her voice breaks.
“Were you aware he keeps journals?”
“I’ve read his digital journal for a few years.”
“How?” I squeak out.
Hadeon waves me off. “If it’s digital, my wife can find it.”
“He’s there?” she asks. “This isn’t private?” But he ignores her.
“This is the last question: did you, or someone working on your behalf, steal his physical journal from the time of Davin and Kinsley’s breakup?”
Again, hearing our old names sounds so alien.
“He had a physical journal?” She sounds angry and annoyed at the same time.
“No.” Her voice is sharp. “Damn, if I had known… maybe I would have taken it and burned it. But I had no clue. I only found his digital journal a few years ago. And quite frankly, he’s a very boring man.
He spent three weeks debating if he should get a new dishwasher and if so what brand.
” She emphasizes, “Three weeks! And that was his biggest problem.” She exhales.
“His journals were not at all useful or entertaining.”
Wow. I’m having my privacy violated and being insulted at the same time.
He looks at me again. “Did you get a new dishwasher?”
“Yeah and immediately regretted it.”
“See!” Penelope’s voice echoes in the car.
Hadeon’s lips curl in the corners. “Do you have any questions?”
He hands me the phone. She’s in her late thirties, nearly flawless skin that comes from treatments and serums. Her hair hangs low around her shoulders with a hairpin holding it back behind her ear. The real her looks so elegant compared to the high gloss and filtered, press-released images.
“Why? Why would you keep me away from Alana?”
“You shattered her.” Her jaw tightens and there’s hatred in every word. “Destroyed everything that was holding back the darkness deep inside her, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again.”
The reality of the situation slams into me like a tank through paper. I hurt her. She’s a different person because of me.
Penelope continues, “At first, I was protecting an asset. Then over the years she became my friend.” Her voice drops with a pleading ache. “Then the Four Families dominated her attention, and I could feel her slipping away. If Amanda and you came back into Alana’s life, I’d never see her again.”
Empathy can be a really shitty thing sometimes. I understand why this woman would want to keep Alana and me apart. Hadeon takes the phone from my hand.
“Thank you. We’ll talk when I get home. Love you.
” He hangs up the phone and slips it into his pocket as the car pulls up to my building.
He stares at me like he’s doing one final assessment.
Then the dog puts his head on my leg, and Hadeon’s eyebrows shoot up.
“Very interesting.” He presses his lips together as I pat the dog on the head, and then the driver opens the door, so I scoot towards it.
“You might not believe it, but I’m rooting for you,” he adds, as I slide out. “Don’t disappoint me.”
It’s not a threat, but it’s also not exactly an endorsement.