Page 103 of Bastian

Boss,

I’ve attached some old articles I dug up from old newspapers of the murders of Ronan and Vivienne Kenton for you to look over. I think there’s something here we can use. The late Ronan Kenton had to be in bed with the Detroit crime families for him to be gunned down the way he was, and now his son has the same ties with another known crime boss. We can expose his hypocrisy to the world, and there’s proof. Let me know if I should proceed with writing the piece for next week’s paper.

Best,

Nessa Adams

I read through the message and click on three of the articles she attached to the email while bile rises in my throat. Has my hatred for this man led me down this road? A road where I exposed his greatest pain to the world. When I open up the wound that his parents’ murders left him. Looking down at Ellaiza, I can’t help but feel guilt choking me. These are innocent people who died at the hands of my own family. So much hatred, my God. It all started with my father, but looking at Ellaiza, who has gotten off the floor and is now walking towards me with a blinding smile on her face, I know the cycle ends with me.

I can’t do this.

I can’t hurt him.

I can’t, and maybe that’s where he and I differ.

He hurt me to give me what he thought I needed to be fulfilled in this life, and I was willing to break this man all in the name of revenge. Noted, I didn’t know he had broken my heart to save me from what his mother went through. From ending up the same way she did. Giving up her dreams for an older man and losing her life years later.

Watching him through the TV, looking serious as he talks to the crowd, I make my choice.

I let go of the hate and choose love instead.

I choose them.

Typing a quick message to Nessa, I let her know she can trash the article because I won’t be publishing it in my paper.

Not now and not ever.

“Oh, mommy! Listen!” Ella’s sweet and excited voice breaks through the noise inside my head. “That lady with the microphone asked daddy about you!”

With half of my heart sitting next to me, I watch Sebastian. The President smiles widely and seals my fate forever. The beautiful, clever, and opportunistic tyrant.

“The love of my life.” His voice booms around my apartment, echoing through the speakers.

“Ahhhh!” Ella jumps up and down as she watches her father while I sit there, not being able to look at anything else but him.

“Three years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life when I hurt the woman of my dreams. Mind you, I thought I was doing what I thought was best for her, but I made a mistake, and I lost her. But life gave me another chance and she’s back, and she’s mine. She’s my person.”

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Fuck.

“What…” I whisper at no one, staring at him as he looks so heartbreakingly beautiful, professing his love for me to the entire world and claiming me as his for everyone to know in the process. There’s no way I’ll be able to escape this man now or the media storm his love confession will surely cause. “You crazy bastard…” I grin the same way he is grinning at the crowd.

So cocky and sure of himself.

So…him.

With that, he leaves the crowd going nuts after he exits the stage, and the live footage ends, surely making our situation world news.

Ella’s loud sigh makes me look at her as she falls back on the sofa with a grin and little hearts in her blue eyes. “I can’t wait for a charming villain to confess his love for me on TV, as daddy did.”

Laughing, I tickle her belly enjoying the sweet sound of her giggles. “Villain?”

“Yes!” She breaths, holding onto her belly, stopping me from tickling her more. Her blue eyes meet mine, and a determined look that reminds me so much of her father takes over her expression. “Villains love the hardest, and they are misunderstood.”

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