Chapter Seven
Kian
Before Iris even finishes telling me the address, I guess the place.
The park.
I cannot believe she was this close, within my reach, and I never saw her. All I had to do was look around at my surroundings and see the woman I’m meant to spend my life with. Instead, I was content in my loneliness.
When Nathan revealed the truth, painting her as a lying and clever villain, I was blown away, overcome with feelings. My mind, body, and soul chanted a single thought.
Mine.
My other half.
Every glance she had slung my way, filled with coy desire and adoration, the lingering touches, the constant chasing, it all fell into place. It doesn’t matter who saw her first, whether it was me or Nathan. Because she saw me .
She chose me.
She fought for me.
The endgame matters and I am hers.
So, I don’t care if she stalked and tricked her way into my life because I would follow the same path, make the same decisions, until I possessed her.
It’s the intention that counts and there’s nothing malicious about hers.
Women like my little siren come by once in a lifetime and I will never let her slip away.
Her corrupt and loving heart is mine.
I thought my greed and possessiveness for her would be too much, but Iris’s obsession rivals my own. I want to swim in the depths of it.
The deserted park is exactly the same when we enter through the short revolving gate, holding hands. The tall streetlights illuminate the wide ground with trimmed grass. Since it’s around eight-thirty p.m., there’s no one around but us.
“The army cadets,” I say, remembering the time I visited a friend with whom I served during my time in the army. “You saw me training them.”
“Yeah,” she murmurs. “You used to come at six p.m. sharp, park your black SUV down the street, remove your suit jacket, and roll down your sleeves before joining the young soldiers. You always kept your shades on, so there was no way to see your eyes. It wasn’t until we met in your childhood bedroom that I learned their color. ”
I’m momentarily speechless.
She utters my routine as if it were just yesterday that she saw me here.
“Where were you?” I ask, feeling her pulse rise in her wrist.
The slight breeze ruffles her hair as she points in the distance toward a tall and thick tree. “I used to sit under there and watch until you left.”
I tug her in that direction, wanting to see the spot up close while picturing what an eighteen-year-old Iris must’ve looked like sitting there. What she wore. The expression on her face. Never have I wished for a time machine more than I do this second.
I do the next best thing.
“What are you doing, Kian?” Iris exclaims.
The grass is soft when I bend down and sit with my back against the trunk of the tree. I pat my thigh, pulling her to me. “Come here.”
Shaking her head with a cute smile, she lowers herself sideways onto my lap as I curl one arm around her small waist.
“The guard is going to think we’re making out and kick us out,” she teases.
“He can try.”
“Poor guy won’t be a match against you.”
“Damn right.” Pushing a stray lock that comes free from her high ponytail behind her ear, I softly coax, “Tell me everything.”
“Didn’t Nathan tell you?” There’s a nervous rasp in her voice.
“I didn’t stick around past him sharing that you’ve crushed on me for years and was vying for my attention. Even if he had said more, I don’t care about his version. Only yours matters to me.”
“You trust me that much?”
“More than God himself.”
“I was walking past the park when I laid eyes on you for the first time. I always took a different route, but for an unknown reason, I took this street that day. As I was passing by, I saw you and my feet came to a halt. The world ceased to exist, that’s how hard you struck me.
I thought you were the most handsome man I’d ever seen.
” A mischievous grin tilts the corners of her mouth, which makes my chest squeeze tight.
“Your aura reminded me of a scary and sinful reaper who came down to earth to steal souls. I was right because you stole mine. It was also one of my nicknames for you, since I didn’t know your real name. ”
“Plural?”
“Yes.”
“What else did you call me?”
“It’s silly.”
“Tell me.”
Staring at my chest, she blurts out, “Mr. Severe. Because you were so intimidating and I never saw you smile.”
Mr. Severe and Scary Reaper.
My lips tug up. She’s too darn cute.
With a fingertip, I tilt her chin up. “Keep going.”
“When I finally remembered how to walk, I came into the park and found this spot. It was the perfect place to watch you without getting caught. Except you didn’t stick around for too long.
In those few minutes, you left your mark and hooked me.
When I went home that night, I…” She bites her mouth, a blush covering her cheeks.
“I made myself come with thoughts of you… for the first time.”
The admission rocks me. Slipping my hand between her thighs, I cup her pussy. “Your first orgasm was because of me?”
“All of them,” she purrs seductively. “I’ve only fantasized about you, Kian.”
Satisfaction fills my veins.
I’ve owned her long before I saw her.
Fisting my shirt, she continues and I rub her thigh as I listen.
“Before I knew it, I was coming here daily for a glimpse of you. It became a ritual. No matter how hard I tried to stop, I couldn’t.
I told myself you’d eventually stop showing up, while praying you didn’t.
I had this fantasy of having my own meet-cute moment like in the movies.
You’d notice me from afar, our eyes would lock, and you’d feel the same rush I felt.
It was stupid.” A soft laugh escapes her lips as she shrugs.
“I was an awkward, daydreaming teen lusting after a man out of my league. Watching you from afar was all I was ever going to have.”
Regret carves a hole inside my chest the more I listen to her. I should’ve seen her. “What happened next?”
“Then I met Nathan.” Sadness dulls her eyes as a faraway look washes over her.
Her voice goes from dreamy to hurt in a flash.
“I thought we were strangers when we met the first time. He was easy to talk to and friendly, gaining my trust. I didn’t know until yesterday that he only approached me because he caught me watching you.
I couldn’t be mad at him because I had done the same to him.
I saw you two arguing and realized you were brothers.
I wanted to be closer to you and learn more about you, so I purposely ran into him again.
I felt guilty because I genuinely considered him a friend.
I can’t believe he would use me this way. I deserved it. Karma got me.”
“No, you didn’t deserve it,” I vehemently say, brushing the tears away.
Nathan doesn’t deserve her sorrow. I force her eyes on me as I erase her doubts.
“He preyed on you, Iris. Unlike you, his intentions were malicious and selfish. If you were using him, you would’ve dumped him the second we met.
Yet you stayed loyal to him, and you were going to push me away just to help him.
He took advantage of you, not the other way around. ”
“I never wanted to lose him,” she sobs. “He was my closest friend.”
“I know.”
“I still don’t think he’s a bad person. He brought me out of my shell.
He stood by me when my dadu got sick. Nobody can fake that.
He’s just broken, Kian. I’ve seen the pain and the anger he hides from ever since you left home.
It’s made him toxic. A part of me thought I could bring you two together because he’s wrong about you hating him. ”
Everything she says is bloody true, proving how well she knows me. Iris is wise beyond her years.
“I never left my home. I was kicked to the curb.”
She jerks back in horror. “What do you mean?”
“I’m Rakesh Singhania’s bastard son from an affair he had with another woman,” I reveal, a truth I haven’t told a single soul.
Big blue eyes go round in astonishment, while Iris’s mouth parts in an O.
“I knew he hated my existence while I grew up in that house, but I never understood why. I was eight or nine when I overheard him yelling at my grandfather that he was raising a snake in his house. I didn’t understand why he said it until he caught me eavesdropping in the hallway and happily told me I was his illegitimate son.
The one he didn’t want but was forced to raise because of my grandfather.
That my whore of a mother left me at his door.
They didn’t want to cause a scandal. I wish he had dumped me after I was born instead.
That fate would’ve been kinder than having me live in a house where I was constantly reminded of how unwanted I was. ”
“Why did he wait until you were older?” Iris asks in a trembling voice, eyes glistening as she rubs my arm to comfort me. The soft touch feels good.
“My dadu passed away a few months before my eighteenth birthday. Rakesh found the opportunity he had been waiting for to finally get rid of me. I didn’t even fight him.
I was suffocating and slowly dying under his roof.
” Leaning my head against the tree, I sigh.
“My only light in that family was Nathan and my grandfather. I never told my brother the truth because I didn’t want to destroy his world, so I cut him off completely.
Besides, he wasn’t treated the way I was. ”
A hesitant shadow flashes in her pupils before she probes further. “Did your father ever hurt you?”
I know what she’s asking.
“He didn’t physically abuse me in any shape or form.”
She heaves a relieved sigh, as though the possibility of my suffering brings her pain.
“However, he did shove or push me aside in a way that sent the clear message I was unwanted. I was never to step in his path or be in his sight.”
“What about Aunty Rita?”
“She couldn’t stand me either. I was a constant reminder of her husband’s adultery. I had a nanny who raised me. Nathan was too young to understand his parents’ behavior toward me. By the time he got older, I had learned to act like everything was fine.”
“Is this why you’re so private?”
“It’s all I know, Rainbow.”
Her eyes shimmer with unshed wetness. Caressing my jaw, she whispers morosely, “I am so sorry for what you’ve been through, love. You were just a kid. It wasn’t your fault. Tell me you know that.”
“I’ve made my peace with it a long time ago,” I reply honestly. “Kicking me out from under his thumb was the one good thing he did to me.”
“Yeah, he did. Look at how much you’ve achieved. You made the best out of a terrible hand fate dealt you.” Kissing me softly, she says, “I’m proud of the man you’ve become. Whoever didn’t appreciate you, it’s their loss.”
“I only care about your opinion.”
“You need to tell Nathan the truth.”
“No. It’s better this way. That legacy was always his to take. If hating me fuels him to succeed, then I’m perfectly happy being the villain.”
At least I was until today.
“Listen to me, Kian,” Iris reasons. “He thinks you abandoned him. Unless you confess, he’ll continue to believe it was something he did that made you cut him off. He’s angry and it’s half the reason he’s unwilling to cancel the wedding.”
“That’s not why.” She frowns. I hate upsetting her, but she has to know. “Our grandfather left a will that states that the heir who marries first will become the chairperson of the board of directors and receive the inheritance. It also dictates the type of woman we need to marry.”
“So what? I fit some criteria?”
“Yes.” Each revelation digs the knife deeper into her back. “It’s why he isn’t letting you go.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“He feels threatened that I will fight him for it.”
“He’s wrong. You’d never do that.”
“If only he believed that.”
“Why would your grandfather put this condition though?” she asks in a puzzled tone. “Wouldn’t he wish for an opposite girl?”
“I think he didn’t want us to turn out like our father. Or let him choose the girl for us to marry. For all we know, he probably wanted to control us from the grave. While my dadu accepted me, he was an authoritative man, Iris. Nothing in the family happened without his approval.”
“It makes senses then.”
We both go quiet, absorbing the murky past of my family. I pull her against my chest and bury my face against her neck. Raising my hand to her lips, she kisses it before lacing our fingers together.
Every time I’ve thought about my childhood, a sense of unease thrums beneath my skin. Yet with Iris, a peaceful stillness is all I feel.
Ever so softly, she says, “I still think you should tell him. Both of you need closure.”
“He doesn’t want to listen to me,” I reply, resting my chin on her shoulder. “I don’t think he’d even believe a word I say. He’ll ask for proof. Besides my word, I have nothing to show him.”
“Do you know who your biological mother is?”
“No.”
“Do you want to?”
“The woman wanted nothing to do with me, so I never bothered searching for her. I also don’t want to ask my father, not that he’d tell me. Having lived through one parent’s rejection, I’ve lost the desire to go through it again.”
“Maybe you should look for her,” suggests Iris.
Her cryptic tone raises my ire. I tense, twisting her to face me. “Why?”
“You’re wrong about her not wanting to be in your life. Your father forced her out, like he did to you.” Swallowing nervously, she tilts my earth on its axis. “I know who your mother is, Kian.”