Page 47 of Prodigal

“Where is my son?” The urgency and panic in Ennis’s voice was a direct contradiction to what André knew and had experienced over the years.

He couldn’t do this. Gideon wanted him to be there, but he didn’t think he could do it. As if aware of André’s spiraling thoughts, Gideon stepped to the side, allowing Ennis’s gaze to fall on André.

He didn’t miss the stark relief that flooded the older man’s pain-creased features.

“André.”

André tore his gaze away from the man who’d fathered him.

“As you can see, he’s here,” Gideon said. “And he’s safe, but if my men and I had gotten to his place just a minute later, he and his sister wouldn’t be alive. Your daughter sent assassins.”

André’s head spun. Nothing made sense. Why would the sister he’d never met want to kill him? How did Sienna even know about his existence? And why was Ennis watching him with such softness in his eyes?Nothing made sense.

“Explain,” Gideon ordered brusquely. “You owe your son and me that much. Explain why your daughter wants him—and you—dead.”

André swallowed a gasp. Sienna was the one who tried to kill Ennis? What the fuck was going on?

Ennis released a sigh. Keeping his gaze on André, he said, “Years ago, I had a health scare. We kept it under wraps, but there was a real chance I wouldn’t have made it. I made some changes to my will. Recently, Sienna was able to get into the paperwork and see that she wasn’t the one I’d named to take over as my proxy on The Council.”

What was The Council?

Gideon clearly knew because he inhaled swiftly. “André is your proxy?”

What was a proxy?

“From the moment he was born.”

Gideon made a sound, swiping a hand over his jaw while André just stood there. It was as if they were all speaking a different language than the one he knew and understood.

“Sienna confronted me. I told her she had a brother and confirmed that they would each be inheriting half of everything I owned.”

“Wait, what?” The words burst from André.“What?”

“She was mad about that, but when I refused to change my proxy to her, that’s when she became livid.” Ennis pursed his lips. “If I’m dead, she can forge paperwork and name herself my proxy since André had no clue about any of it. Or if André’s dead, then she becomes my proxy by default as my only living heir.”

Jesus. These people were something else. This was whose blood ran through his veins? There were a million questions André wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to say, but his throat refused to work. He needed to sit the fuck down.

“You were always in danger being my son,” Ennis said, addressing him directly. “To protect you, I had to ensure that we were never connected, but naming you as my proxy was a selfish act on my part. I wanted my son to have something from me. And I wanted you to know that even though I wasn’t in your life, I never stopped thinking of you or loving you.” His voicegot weaker but he kept going, eyes pleading for André to believe him. “I’ve always been proud of you.”

Tears blurred André’s vision but he refused to let them fall. “No.” He took a step backward. And then another. “No.” After everything he’d seen his mother go through, her pain and heartache, he would not be taken in by this man and his words that were decades too late. “I don’t know what any of what you just said meant, but I want nothing from you.” Certainly not Ennis’s businesses or his money. “We can go back to you rejecting me.”

“André.” Ennis’s expression crumpled, but André refused to feel for him. “Please.”

André turned and walked out.

15

Gideon followedAndré out of the med unit, leaving Samir behind to find out what else Ennis had to say. He rushed after André, finally catching up with him in the elevator headed back up to the penthouse.

Stepping in beside him, Gideon didn’t speak. Truth was, from the moment he’d burst into André’s apartment, he’d struggled to find words, what with his heart being lodged in his fucking throat. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d been as scared as he’d been walking into André’s kitchen and seeing the other man on his knees, struggling to protect himself and his sister.

If Gideon had been a minute late—if he’d taken the stairs instead of the elevator—the outcome could’ve been so fucking different. Just thinking it made his chest hurt and had him ready to kill.

Jules had clung to him in the aftermath and Gideon had held on to her just as tightly. She’d soothed him as he’d tried to soothe her, but the anger inside him still blazed hot.

As did the fear and panic.

He still couldn’t make himself stare at André too long, otherwise Gideon would pounce on him, hang on to him and never let him go. He still needed the reassurance that André was fine. That Jules was okay. But they were safe. Gideon had protected them, and they were back where they were supposed to be.

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