32. Chapter Thirty-Two #2
One thing Asher would not expand on was the identity of Ryde’s alpha birth father and the nature of that man’s relationship with Zeller. The only thing he said was that the alpha was offered payment by the Parkensons to disappear and he’d done exactly that.
But even pregnant by an alpha who’d deserted him, Zeller had refused to meet with any of the men his parents deemed suitable to be his husband, alphas they believed would be willing to claim his baby.
After months of this, and once Zeller’s belly began to grow, his fathers gave up and kept him at home so no one would find out about the pregnancy, taking away his phone and online access.
They tasked Antoni with finding an agency that would handle an adoption quietly and not insist on meeting or vetting the baby’s biological parents.
Above all, Antoni was never to reveal the identity of the baby’s omega father.
Keyes used his government contacts to have a forged birth certificate filed.
Antoni found an agency headed by a beta, Gleason, who was about to retire.
Wes and Assa recalled that they hadn’t registered with that agency initially because it was about to shut down for good.
Gleason was tasked with finding a couple willing to take the baby who would be amenable to a closed adoption.
When Zeller was close to his due date, he attempted to run away from the estate to keep his baby. Asher intercepted him, but their parents showed up, and their alpha father demanded that Asher leave.
“My biggest regret is that I spent all those months of my brother’s pregnancy trying to convince him to get with the program.
I told him that our fathers always win, so if he really wanted to keep his baby, he should just marry an alpha they liked.
I thought I was helping, but I was being a coward.
Zeller was the strong one. He wanted to fight.
” Asher fisted his hands in his lap. “I should have helped him fight.”
He explained that his parents had refused to divulge their plans for the baby to him, other than to say that he would be raised by adoptive parents.
When Zeller wasn’t back at the estate the day following his escape attempt, Asher cornered Antoni to find out exactly what the butler knew.
Antoni, equally horrified by Keyes’s heavy-handed treatment of Zeller the night before, admitted that the plan was for him to bring the baby to Gleason after he was born.
He agreed to Asher’s scheme to ensure Gleason gave the child to the Pashuks.
That way, they could monitor him from a distance, and Keyes and Deveron would never know.
Asher and Antoni had promised Zeller they’d do what they could to protect his baby, and knowing who was adopting him seemed like the bare minimum.
At this point in the story, Wes interjected, unable to wrap his mind around the Parkensons’ indifference to their grandson. “Keyes and Deveron were fine just entrusting Gleason to find a home for Zeller’s baby? They didn’t even want to find out who adopted him?”
Asher huffed. “Gleason was always going to find the baby excellent parents. That was part of the agreement. But once my fathers were sure the boy would land in a good home, they were done. I can’t overstate how important reputation is to them.
And I haven’t even gotten to the most diabolical part of what they did.
Besides, closed adoptions aren’t uncommon.
Plenty of omegas find it easier to sever that link, knowing that the agencies have a rigorous process for vetting families. ”
“Yes, but in this case, the omega didn’t make that choice,” Assa said indignantly. “And I’m seriously judging your fathers right now for being terrible human beings. Not even wanting to keep the door open on letting Zeller meet his son.”
“Trust me, you’re not judging them any harder than I do.
In all the conversations we’ve had since then, they’ve refused to acknowledge their grandson and shown no familial feelings.
Their only focus was on making sure Zeller could never contact the child.
Any strings felt like there was potential for that. So they cut ties.”
“Ruthless,” Wes stated.
Asher nodded. “Father is, anyway. Daddy is probably more spineless.” His expression darkened. “But I’m done giving him a pass for that. Not after everything this did to Zeller.”
Exhaling, he continued, telling them how Gleason happily took Asher’s double payment to approach the Pashuks and explain that the birth parents had specifically requested them for a private adoption.
As a student at the university, Asher was aware of the couple’s polyamory, and he figured they would be open to the proposal, since that revelation had limited their options for fatherhood.
“And it didn’t bother you that we have an open marriage?” Assa asked.
Asher shrugged. “Plenty of monogamous couples are miserable. My brother, Jem, for example. I knew Professor Pashuk was a good man, and I assumed his husband would be too. And the most important thing was that you weren’t strangers. Zeller’s baby wouldn’t be totally lost to me.”
“But he was totally lost to Zeller?”
Asher’s head bobbed. “Yes. The only two people who know that Ryde is Zeller Parkenson’s baby are me and Antoni…and now you.”
Asher said Zeller had given birth at a private medical office with only a doctor in attendance, plied with so many drugs since the night of his escape attempt that he remained out of it for days, even during labor.
Afterward, his parents took him to the hospital and used their influence to force the doctors to give him an appendectomy.
“Wait—what? They gave him an appendectomy? When he didn’t need one!?” Assa exclaimed, aghast.
“Mm-hmm. He had to go to the hospital because there was some postpartum bleeding. Nothing serious, but the doctor who delivered the baby was worried enough to insist on it. Apparently, his ability to accept my parents’ bribe had some limits.
Anyway, Father came up with the plan for the appendectomy to explain things.
Few hospital staffers even knew the truth.
He also figured it would help cover up the pregnancy if rumors ever started.
Later, if anyone remembered that Zeller had disappeared from society for the months before and after his surgery, they could say he’d been ill because of his appendix. ”
“That’s…barbaric.”
Asher rubbed his palms on his thighs. “It is. But I didn’t find out about any of it until later.
In those days after Zeller’s thwarted escape attempt, I monitored Gleason, to ensure he got the baby to you once Antoni brought him.
Antoni didn’t know about the appendectomy plan beforehand either.
When he found out and told me what happened, I was sick.
It was my first real reckoning with how far my fathers would go.
I’m not sure if I’d been in denial or what, but it wasn’t until I watched my brother wake up and cry for his baby, while our fathers calmly insisted that he was mistaken and had simply had an appendectomy, that I came to terms with how evil they are.
” He looked at the ceiling, and Wes could only imagine what memories assaulted him.
“I’m just grateful I was able to hide your identities.
My fathers never figured out that the adoptive parents were known to me and Antoni. ”
“Why?” Wes asked.
“Why didn’t they figure it out?”
“Why did you never tell Zeller who adopted his baby?”
Heavy seconds ticked by before Asher finally answered.
“You have no idea the number of times over the years I’ve thought about it.
The one thing I did give my brother was to acknowledge the birth.
Our fathers got angry with me for not following their lead, but I refused to gaslight Zeller by going along with the appendectomy story.
Even Antoni pretended. So did Jem and the household staff.
They all acted as if he’d never been pregnant.
But with me, his pain was seen. He tried looking for the baby after Father and Daddy let him go online and leave the house again.
But of course, there were no records. Gleason closed his agency the week after Ryde was born.
Once, Zeller went to the hospital and tried to get information—he didn’t know that he gave birth at a medical office and not there—and the staff just looked at him with pity.
At least with me, his truth was validated. ”
“I can’t even imagine his agony,” Assa hushed out.
“But why didn’t you tell him about us?” Wes persisted. “Ease his mind?”
Asher’s eyes flashed before his features dissolved into resignation.
“I realized too late that my parents are unredeemable monsters. The night they took Zeller away, I promised him I’d do everything I could to help his son.
And I did. As Ryde Pashuk, he’s a normal kid, living a normal life.
But the years after the birth changed my brother completely.
He stopped laughing. Stopped smiling. His pain was omnipresent.
If I had told Zeller about knowing who adopted his baby, he would not have settled for my assurances that Ryde was safe.
He would have moved mountains to find him.
But after everything they’d done to manage the situation and protect the family name, our fathers never would have allowed Zeller to be reunited with his baby.
Never. And I couldn’t risk finding out just how far they’d go to prevent it. ”
“Are you insinuating that your parents would have…hurt Zeller, to keep the secret?” Assa asked.