Chapter 23 - Kristopher
I chose to face my father alone. This is a conversation I hope to have in a respectable manner, and storming into his office with my entire alliance at my side like I did with Ali isn’t going to be a good starting point.
The envelope on the passenger seat next to me contains a document that I want my father to sign. A treaty similar to the one Ali Koskos signed last night.
If this doesn’t go as planned, I will visit him again with my allies.
Out of whatever shred of respect I might still have for the fact that this man is my family, I’m here alone.
Parking in the underground section beneath his office, I turn my car off and sit for a moment, organizing my thoughts.
I’ve waited a long time for this. But I want it over and done with as quickly as possible.
This isn’t the type of moment I want to savor.
That was last night. With her.
A smile spreads over my face when images of her beautiful body flash through my memory. She arched against me with my name on her lips as she gasps for air, my cock deep inside her, pleasure flooding us.
She loves me. I’m going to be a father. Everything is falling perfectly into place.
I pull my mind from those beautiful moments and back into the present. Focus, Kristopher. Your father signing this document will be the closure you need. The end of this madness once and for all.
A hard knock against my window makes me jump. I turn to see Faiz standing there, his brows knitted.
I push my door open and climb out, the envelope in my hand.
“You missed me. How sweet,” he says sarcastically.
“Can we talk in your office?” I ask.
“Why, you don’t like the parking lot?” he laughs coldly.
“This is important,” I snap.
“More of the same unfounded and false accusations you came into my home to share?”
“No false accusations, Faiz. Only facts.”
He snorts. “Facts based on what exactly, Kristopher? A hunch? Some moron on the street telling lies?” he laughs. “You really don’t get it, do you? Your power is slipping. Your judgment is lacking, and the world can see it. Your throne is crumbling because you are not man enough to control it all.”
I sigh, grinding my teeth and clenching my fists. I’m already bored with this back and forth, and I’m already losing patience.
“Can we talk in your office?” I ask again, gesturing towards the elevators.
“No,” he says blandly. “Say what you came to say. I have a lot to do, and you’re wasting my time.”
“Fine,” I snap. “I’m here to inform you that your plans to turn those warehouses into a larger venue for the auction-trade business are no longer going to be possible. Your attempts to pin attacks against my allies on me have failed, and you have no choice but to back down.”
I fold my arms across my chest and glare at him. He grins.
“Please, my son, accept that you are not the one in control here. I am.”
“Really?” I muse and begin to provide intimate details of his plans and his movements. Ali was thorough in his betrayal in order to save his own ass. I guess we really didn’t give him any other choice.
The more I reveal about what I know, the wider my father’s eyes grow and the redder his face gets.
His anger is flaring, his breathing heavy.
I hand him the envelope. “That is why you will sign this,” I state clearly. “And we can all move past this.”
He snatches it from me and throws it to the ground, spitting next to it.
“Fuck you, Kristopher. You weak, pathetic boy,” he hisses, his words spilling from his lips like venom. “You never had enough backbone. You were always a disappointment. I was embarrassed to call you my son.”
His face is glowing bright red, veins popping up on his temple.
I watch him, curious about how little I feel.
Somehow, his words don’t sting like they used to. He doesn’t look scary; he actually looks weak and desperate.
My life has changed. The things I care about have shifted. His approval, while I haven’t longed for it for years, is now as inconsequential as his insults.
“Just sign the damn document,” I sigh.
“Or what?” he challenges.
I step closer, towering over him. I’m done being subtle.
“Or I tear everything you own to the ground. I take my warehouses back. I destroy your reputation. I pull you apart piece by piece until there is nothing left. If you survive it, you will live on the streets, in the gutters, where you belong,” I say darkly.
“You pathetic piece of shit. Do you have any idea how much I’ve given you?
You are nothing without me. Without my name.
You have no power without me. You and that bitch sister of yours.
You turned your back on the one good thing you had going for you.
She betrayed me by marrying that asshole, Emmanuil, and now she will never again hold the status of my name.
My name,” he screams, his voice echoing against the cement walls of the underground parking lot.
“Please, stop,” I roll my eyes. “This is pointless. Just sign the damn paper.”
He grabs the front of my shirt and tugs me close to him, snarling and hissing in my face.
“You think you’re better than me? You think you can control me?
I will be the one destroying you. No one can touch me.
This city is mine. Do you hear me, boy? You might have played on the throne for a moment, I might have allowed you to taste that power, but the second you tried to use it against me, you were already dead to me. ”
I grab his wrist and twist his fingers free from my shirt.
“You are running out of chances, father. Sign it,” I snarl.
He pushes away from me and staggers back before stooping low and grabbing the discarded envelope. “This?” he laughs. “This is what you want me to sign?”
I clench my jaw, seeing the mania flickering over his face. He’s losing his mind, his sanity slipping away, his careful mask disintegrated.
“Faiz. It’s over. You have no other choice.”
“Hah,” he spits, sneering. He grabs the envelope in both hands and rips it and the document inside it in half.
“Fuck’s sake,” I mutter. “I should have known you wouldn’t see reason. You have never had the ability to be tactful. Everything you ever did was in violence.”
My father pulls his Glock from the holster at his hip.
“What are you going to do? Shoot me?” I laugh.
“You have no idea who you’re messing with,” he shouts.
“Put the fucking gun away, Faiz.”
He’s walking backwards, slowly raising it towards me.
I shake my head in disbelief.
Faiz spins on his heel and runs. Even though he has nowhere to go, he runs.
I fold my arms across my chest and sigh loudly. “I guess we’re doing this the hard way, then,” I call out into the parking lot.
My father is gone.
Into the wind.
I gather the torn document from the ground.
Tugging my car door open, I climb back into it.
I gave him the only chance he was going to get to be diplomatic about this. Now, I’m going to do what I promised.
I’m going to tear everything he’s built to the ground and leave him with nothing.
On the way home, I call Emmanuil and update him on how it went.
“Did you expect him to react any differently?” he asks.
“No, probably not. But at least I know I tried to do things the right way. I gave the old man a choice.”
“So, tomorrow, we’re getting to work then?”
“Yes. You can tell the others to meet at my mansion. We can drive in convoy to the warehouses Ali and Faiz have been using. It’s time to take them back.”
“Excellent. I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” he agrees.
When I get home, Georgie is waiting for me, looking anxious. She runs into my arms the moment I climb out of the car. “I was so worried,” she says, holding onto me tightly. “What did he say?”
For a moment, I don’t answer her, I just breathe in that gorgeous scent and let it settle over me.
“Kris?” she huffs. “What happened? How did it go?”
I smile and touch her face. “It went as expected. His mask slipped, his true nature revealed. He won’t sign. And now his chance is over.”
She bites her bottom lip. “I’m so sorry. I know you wanted to try and smooth things over with him if it was possible.”
“It was never going to be possible,” I admit. “It was naive of me to assume I’d be able to break past his ego.”
She slips her arm around my waist and pulls me towards the front door. “But still. He’s your father. I can’t imagine any of this being easy.”
She’s so supportive. So beautiful.
I smile a crooked smile and cock my head to the side as we step into the mansion. Our home.
“Little one, none of it matters. He doesn’t matter anymore. All that I could ever want or need is right here in my arms,” I say, holding her against my chest.
She giggles and nuzzles into me. “So, you aren’t sad?” she grins, mischief glittering in her eyes.
“Did you want me to be sad?” I muse, frowning.
“Well, I just thought that if you were sad…I know of a few ways I could make you feel better.”
Her voice is sultry and seductive, instantly setting my body aflame.
I lean down and lift her into my arms. I don’t need a second invitation.
“In that case. I’m devastated. I’m practically coming apart at the seams. I need a lot of help to feel better. I’m desperate,” I say, carrying her up the stairs towards our bedroom while she giggles and nuzzles her face into my neck, tracing kisses over my skin.
***
Over the next week, my alliance works at my side, moving through the city and fixing everything my father has been destroying.
I claim my warehouses back, stripping them from the inside and burning everything he was building.
I tear down two other buildings he had contracted on the land in relation to the auction-trade event.
Word spreads fast through the city. I move with brutal intent, letting my voice be heard loud and clear in every corner of the city. My city.
In person, I visit every single one of my inner-city allies and show them all of the evidence I have collected.
One by one, they see the light and shun all connections they had with my father.
Day by day, piece by piece, I tear his world apart until there is nothing left but me. My kingdom, my power, and my throne.
The lawyers move everything to my name, and I finally, fully claim my Bratva group as my own.
My father may as well be dead to this city. If he hasn’t already fled, he will soon see that it’s his only option.
There isn’t a single hotel that would host him. Even his mansion is now in my name, and his guards are under my employment.
He has nothing.
Less than nothing.
He can’t even claim ownership of his dignity.
He should have signed that document when he had a chance, but his arrogance was his downfall. It always was and always will be.
There are no more chances for him.
While I am grateful for my alliance and grateful to finally have full power over the city, I don’t take pleasure in what I have to do to my father. It exacts a toll on me in unexpected ways.
Because I am not like him, and I still value family. Even him. I didn’t want it to end like this, but when he made his choice, I had to make mine.
Each night when I get home, Georgie is waiting for me.
She makes me forget everything.
She steals me away from my stress and shows me all the things I have to live for. All the reasons that I’m doing this.
With her at my side, I have more family in my life than I could ever have had with my father.
She is my queen, my goddess, and my entire universe.
Georgie is the one who finally gave me the strength to do what I was always meant to do—to push that old man out of the picture once and for all.
Late at night, after another beautiful evening of making love to her, I pull her close to me and kiss her silky, soft cheek. “Thank you, little one.”
“Mm,” she murmurs, sleepily, already drifting into dreams.
“You are my whole universe,” I smile. She wiggles closer. Her breathing is soft and even.
For a long time, I just watch her, my heart swelling with happiness.