Mr. Control

by Maya Hughes

  MEL

  And then it hit me, like a grand piano pushed from the thirtieth floor. My stomach lurched and the picture became crystal clear. How much more important all this was, than just some board election. It wasn’t about the money or reputation or any other bullshit. It was about Esme.

  “She’s not yours,” I whispered. A plunging sensation overwhelmed me, like I’d been thrown up in the air and came crashing back down. Everything tunnel-visioned around me. Rhys rounded on me with more fire in his eyes than I’d ever seen before and a mixture of so many other emotions.

  “She is mine. She is mine in every way that counts,” he shouted, but then his shoulders rounded and he splayed his hand across his forehead. “But biologically, no. She isn’t. I didn’t find out until she was almost one,” he said, grabbing a glass off the bar and pouring himself a drink.

  “How did you find out?” I sat on the edge of his desk, gripping the sides so tight my knuckles turned white.

  “She was out playing in the park. Beth was supposed to be watching her. She took a nasty fall. We rushed her to the hospital and they didn’t know if they’d need to do a blood transfusion, so they recommended I go down and give some. I’m O-negative. My wife was O-negative. Esme is A+. It’s genetically impossible. And then I had a paternity test done,” he said, gulping down the amber liquid, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

  “My loving doting, junkie wife,” he said, throwing the glass against the far wall. It exploded with shards flying across the room. I didn’t even jump. I was numb. This was a secret he’d held for years, something he’d lived with every day. The idea that someone might find out. Someone might take her from him.

  “Someone knows,” I said, my stomach dropping.

  “Yes, someone knows. Killian took it upon himself to do a little digging. Wants to expose me for the fraud I am, but what he doesn’t realize is that he unearthed something far worse. Something I’ve dreaded since the day I found out the truth.”

  “She’s your daughter,” I said, vehemently. She was his in every way that mattered. “You can’t let anyone take her,” my voice raising up an octave. The room swam as my breathing increased. They couldn’t take her. He couldn’t let them take her. My vision blinked in and out and my chest constricted like someone was crushing me. I could barely breathe. What the hell was happening to me?

  Then he was there, in front of me, holding my face in his hands. Tears prickled the backs of my eyes. They couldn’t take her away from him. What kind of father would they even be sending her to? A shudder ripped through me.

  “Mel,” he said, standing right in front of me, but it sounded like he was a mile away.

  “Mel!” He shook me and a ragged sob ripped through my chest. I buried my head into Rhys’s shoulder. They couldn’t take her away from us. His strong arms wrapped around me, holding me up when all I wanted to do was sink into the floor and disappear. Was this how my mom felt when they came for me? My real mom, she might have only been in my life for a year, but it was the best year of my childhood. Shannon. I can still smell her warm strawberry smell and see her bright smile. And then she was gone. Forces beyond my control ripped me away from her and threw me back to the wolves.

  It was almost cruel. To get a glimpse of what could have been. What my life could have been like if I hadn’t been born to Colleen. But those memories were a lifeline I needed so many times growing up, like a girl who dreamed she was a princess who waited for her parents to come back and claim her. My sobs grew louder and my fingers dug into his shoulders as I wrapped my arms under his. Please don’t let this be happening.

  “Mel, don’t worry. They won’t take her away. I won’t let them. I’ll do whatever it takes,” he said, pressing his lips to mine. I grasped onto him like a lifeline as my life story replayed in front of me in excruciating detail. I should be the one holding him up, comforting him. But I was a wreck, I couldn’t imagine watching them walk in and take Esme away.

  Derek walked into the office like I wasn’t even there. No head nod or anything.

  “You’re going to want to see this, boss,” he said, handing a tablet to Rhys, along with a stack of papers. I leaned forward in my seat. He glanced at the tablet before scrolling across the screen and dropping it onto the desk. The energy in the room shifted. What the hell was on the tablet?

  “You took money from Killian?” Rhys growled, glaring at me.

  “No. No, I didn’t,” I said, trying to piece together what was happening.

  “Then what do you call this?” He held the tablet up and right there, on the screen in living color was my bank account. Extra zeroes and all.

  My heart stopped. How did he know? How the hell had he gotten into my bank account? I’d been trying my best to figure out where the money came from, and the bank had been beyond useless, but now it all fell into place. I shook my head. This couldn’t be happening.

  “I didn’t, Rhys. I swear to you I didn’t. The money just showed up in my account.”

  “When?”

  “Today. It completely slipped my mind with everything going on. I didn’t even know it was him. I didn’t know what was going on,” I said, hoping he would believe me. I should have told him, but with everything going on, there wasn’t time. I figured the bank would figure it out, take the money back and case closed. I didn’t plan on spending it. It wasn’t mine and I forgot about it.

  “Are you sure it wasn’t for services rendered? First Rachel, then you. I’ve been so blind. Stupid to fall for your tricks. You must have all had a good laugh at how fucking stupid I am.”

  “Rhys, it isn’t like that. I haven’t met Killian except for that once at the gala. That’s it. I don’t know why or even how he would deposit money into my account.”

  “Maybe to help him make the case for why they should take Esme? Get as much insider information as he needed to destroy me and take her away? But I’m not going to let anyone take her.”

  29

  RHYS

  When Derek showed me the tablet I couldn’t comprehend what I saw. It didn’t make sense. Why would she have had this kind of money deposited into her account? And then it dawned on me. She wouldn’t, not unless Killian got something in return. I’d told her so much about myself. I’d spilled my guts and opened old wounds to her and she hadn’t told me much about herself. I didn’t know much more than what was in her file Derek gathered for me. Did I even know her? Was everything I felt, just me playing pretend?

  My heart pounded in my chest, like it was trying to escape. Trying to run away from what this meant. Killian would have to get something substantial. But it was the folded letter that nearly sent me to my knees.

  A letter from a lawyer demanding a paternity test. They had to be connected, there was no way they couldn’t be. I looked up at the woman I’d opened my heart to, the woman I’d just been inside. I saw nothing but a viper. I didn’t want to believe what I saw, but how could I doubt it? She disappeared today, Derek saw her leave. She has a mountain of cash deposited into her account and now this. A demand for me to submit to a paternity test.

  Everything I’ve worked for every day. To keep my little girl safe, to protect her from where she could have ended up with a dead mother and a junkie father. And now it was all crashing down. It would all come out. Every single thing I’d tried to hide. The past reared its ugly head and Mel was at the center of it all. I shoved the letter to her, wanting her to see the ugliness that she brought into my life.

  “That was him in the park, wasn’t it?” she asked, playing her part perfectly.

  “Of course, it was him. And what type of coincidence is it that you come into our lives and he shows up. Did Killian contact you and tell you to bring her out there? Did you think he’d just be able to take her?” She shook her head and tried to speak, but I didn’t want to hear her denials. “You were using me, just like everyone else.” I couldn’t breathe. I thought she loved me. I thought if anyone could love me for who I was, it was her, not for what I could do for
them or give them, just my love. It hadn’t been enough for my parents or anyone else I knew. I thought she was different.

  “Rhys, I’m not lying. I’d never lie to you about something like this. I…I love you. I love Esme,” she said, tears in her eyes. Love. I rolled that around in my mind. I thought I loved her. I’d been so ready that I put my daughter at risk. The one person who loved me more than anything. It was my fault. I let her in.

  I had enough to deal with. Enough to handle. Enough to protect and I wasn’t going to be pulled even deeper into her web. I’d finally let myself feel. Let myself get comfortable that she was mine, finally mine and now she would rip that all away from me. Help them take my little girl.

  “You played me.” The veins in my neck throbbed and I hung on by a thread.

  “I haven’t. I wouldn’t. Why would I do that?”

  “Because of the payday Killian promised you.” Was she screwing him, too? Like Rachel? Was any of this real? My mind raced as I tried to make sense of everything.

  “I would never. I’ve only met him once. I haven’t had anything to do with him.”

  “Get out,” I roared. She jumped and blanched under my glare. Good. I gritted my teeth. She’d lied. She wasn’t mine at all, she was like every other user who’d ever danced their way into my life. But this time I’d extended the invitation. I let her do this to me. Mel’s lip quivered, and I chained up my heart and closed my eyes. The control slid back on, like a warm comforting coat.

  “I would never do anything to put her in jeopardy,” Mel pleaded. “I’d die before I let anything happen to her. The fact that you don’t believe me. That you don’t trust me shows me you’re not thinking straight. You’re doing this because you’re scared. You’re scared because what we have is something neither of us have experienced before. You don’t think I’m scared? That I know which way is up around you? That the thought of losing Esme makes me want to wrap her up and run out of here with her?”

  “Do you know how I knew you wanted to do that? Because the same exact thought ran through my head. The minute you said it.”

  I can’t look at her. This is what she and Killian planned. Maybe trying to wring a bit more out of me.

  Mel sniffed, wiping at her face with her sleeve and choked out, “You’re going to realize you were wrong. You’re going to see how much hurt you’ve caused us both, just because you couldn’t face the fact that I love you. That I love Esme. I would never hurt either of you, but if you can’t look past your past, then it will never work.”

  I didn’t care about her pain, I can’t care about it. The fate of my little girl hung in the balance. I don’t know why I thought things would be different. That she could return the love I had for her. My selfishness created this mess. She dug that knife in deep, her scent lingered on my skin and I wanted to scrub it off.

  “Leave Mel, there’s nothing left for you to take now. You’ve taken it all.”

  30

  MEL

  The roar in my ears disoriented me as I tried to figure things out, clear my head. Rhys thought I wanted someone to take her away. That I’d let that happen. That I wanted Esme to end up with the guy from the park. I tried to speak to him, but Derek stepped between us, his arms across his chest, and shook his head. Blocked. I glared at his betrayal. I’d thought we were friends. He’d shut me out.

  I walked out of Rhys’s office, my legs unsteady. The hallway grew longer with each step. I slid my hands along the wall to keep myself upright. I gasped in hungry breaths like I’d just clawed my way to the surface of a surging ocean.

  I sat on the edge of my bed and I didn’t know what to do. Where would I go now? I had a lot of money in my account. I could start over. Build a new life for myself, but my stomach soured as I thought about leaving Rhys and Esme. I loved them. I knew that now. I loved them more than I’d ever loved anyone and I didn’t want to leave, but there was no way to stay if he thought I’d done something so terrible.

  The fact that he thought I’d been working with Killian to expose his secret made me want to rage back at him. Shatter a few glasses of my own. My anger poured off me in waves. After everything we’d had together, after how much I cared for Esme, how could he think I could do something so traitorous, so vile?

  Then my rage turned to Killian who deserved it most. Killian, that fucking bastard wasn’t going to get away with it. I wasn’t above showing him just what happened when someone fucked with my family.

  “Ma’am, you can’t go in there.” A stocky woman in her fifties chased after me. I blew right past her, pushed the solid wood door open, and closed it right in her face, locking it behind me. She pounded on the door, but I didn’t give a shit. The time for being nice was over. The breakdown I’d had when I left Rhys’s apartment was far from pretty. Everything was ruined. I told him I loved him and he kicked me out. He didn’t believe me. But something bigger than us was at stake. The life of a little girl hung in the balance.

  “Mel! I certainly didn’t think I’d be seeing you so soon,” Killian said, his hand behind his head as he leaned back in his chair, like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “What did you do?” I asked, through clenched teeth. My hands fisted at my sides. The appeal of punching him in his smug mouth wasn’t lost on me. No wonder Rhys went for it that night on the balcony.

  “I did what I needed to do to get back what was mine,” he said, leaning forward.

  “What was yours?” I said, my voice hitching. “You dragged me into this. Made him think I had something to do with you. That I was working for you.”

  “He should know what it feels like to have the people closest to him betray him.”

  “I didn’t. I’d never do that to him.”

  “It doesn’t matter if you did, it’s what he thinks,” he sneered. “And when he watches his fortune drain away, everyone will see him for who he really is. Maybe Rachel will see who he really is.”

  “You dragged her into this, too. You’re talking about the money? Who gives a shit about the money?” I couldn’t believe that, with lives on the line, he’d care about something so petty.

  “It’s not just about the money, it’s about justice. I’m not going to let Rhys get away with his good guy routine he’s been pulling his whole life.”

  “Money and justice, huh? Justice for who? For you?”

  “Yes, for me and for his wife. And everyone else he’s fucked over in his life. Everyone who’s ever been mixed up with him ends up regretting it. He’s thrown around his money for so long, he doesn’t know what it’s like to deal with the consequences.”

  “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” I couldn’t believe someone so powerful could be so petty.

  “He killed her!” he roared, toe-to-toe with me now. “I knew Beth, a scholarship kid like me. And just like he railroaded me and everyone else at our school, he railroaded her. And when she wouldn’t agree to whatever plans he had, he killed her.” My mind swam as I tried to piece together what the hell he talked about. This story did not fit in with everything happening right now.

  “What are you talking about? Were you in contact with Beth?”

  “Yeah, she got in touch with me not long before she died. Said she was wrong about Rhys and needed money to run away. She was going to leave him.”

  “For you?”

  “No, not for me. For Allan. But she couldn’t contact him, so she got in touch with me. The three of us were from the same neighborhood growing up. She was like a sister to me.”

  “Then you knew about her problems? About the drugs?” How could he think Rhys killed her? He had his issues, but he wasn’t a killer. Killian hand waved it away.

  “She was screwed up in all that when we were in school, but she got clean. Cleaned up her life until she married. She wasn’t going to toe the line anymore. Be the good little wife he wanted, and he killed her,” he said, his eyes fierce and his fists clenched. The tears in his eyes told me this wasn’t just some vendetta about
money.

  “She died in a rest stop bathroom of an overdose, Killian.”

  “She didn’t,” he said, looking away from me, shaking his head. “She was clean. Had been for a while, she told me. But he was practically keeping her prisoner. She said he was having her followed.”

  “He was having her followed because she couldn’t keep the addiction at bay. She did have a problem. She was using. She was there in that rest stop with Esme. She brought her little girl there to get high and she died.” His head snapped back, the color draining from his face.

  “What?” He stared at me like a part of his world had just imploded.

  “I’m sorry. I can tell she meant something to you, but I saw the sealed police report, unredacted. She died of an overdose, Esme was with her. Stuck in that rest stop bathroom for hours before Derek found her.” He staggered back and I almost felt bad for him. Almost. If I hadn’t remembered what he’d brought into our lives, upending the quiet tranquility of the life Rhys had built for his daughter.

  “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he cover it up? Why wouldn’t he let them publish that report?”

  “Esme. She’d already been through enough trauma. He didn’t want her to have to face that in the news every day of her life. To have other people bring it up and shove it in her face. He did it to protect her. All he’s ever done is to protect her and now you’ve opened a Pandora’s box that’s going to destroy that little girl.”

  A thumping and pounding came to the office door. I glanced over my shoulder. I didn’t have much time left. Security flung the door open and burst into the office. Three burly security guards grabbed me by the arms and tried to haul me out. Killian held up his hand.

  “Stop! Let her go. I’m fine,” he said to the guards, who immediately let me go. They glanced back and forth between us. “I said go,” he said through gritted teeth, and the guards backed up like they were trying to escape a rattlesnake. He did seem like the type to strike out at anyone who got in his way. And then his focus was back on me.

  “You’re going to ruin more than Rhys’s life with this vendetta built on lies.”