Page 104 of Relentless Sinner

“I agree with you.”

It's odd that we agree so easily with each other now, when we spent so many years fighting.

“Who would you choose?” He gives me a curious look.

“Eric as second-in-command and Andrieu to take the Obshak position.”

Andrieu is what I call an unsung hero who doesn’t get enough credit. He’s been my guard for the last twenty years and, like Eve, his family have always worked for mine.

“Do what your heart tells you.”

“I’m amazed you agree with me. You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“She was here today,” he replies, switching the subject and ignoring my comment as if I never spoke.

For a moment I'm not sure who he means, then I realize he's talking about my mother again. Talking about her withme. This is the second time in the past month that we've ended up speaking about her when I've wanted to all my life.

“How do you know she was here?

“I felt her presence. I also know she’d want to see her son become Pakhan.”

Her son.

My insides twist at the reminder that I’ve always been referred to as my mother’s son. It was neverourson with him. “Yes. I'm sure she would have wanted to seeherson achieve such an accomplishment.”

Father gives me a hard stare but it's different from the seething ones I’m used to that are always filled with cruelty and coldness.

“You are my son, too,” he clarifies as if reading my mind, shocking me at the same time.

I’ve never been the kind of person not to question things and point out the obvious in the most blatant of ways. That’s another flaw of mine which has always gotten me in trouble. Despite that, I’ve never stopped myself. I won’t start now.

“Why are you suddenly acknowledging me?” I want to hear the reason from his lips. Sure, I know Eric spoke to him aboutmending the bridge between us but Eric would have always been trying to fix us. This is not a new thing. It’s only been heightened because of my father’s illness.

“Maybe I realize I should have done so a long time ago.”

His answer makes the lost little boy inside me eager to hear more, even if it means nothing to me now.

“You didn’t want me to be Pakhan. You made me fight for it.”

“Now you know you earned it.”

“Okay, that’s fair enough, although I shouldn’t have had to fight for it when you didn’t.”

“You’re right. I didn’t. I married your mother and automatically got it when her father died. But the empire back then was nothing like it is today. I needed to make sure the right person got the position.”

“Jacob wouldn’t have needed to fight.”

He clenches his jaw and digs his fingers into the edge of the chair. “No, he wouldn’t have.”

I bite down on my back teeth, hating to hear him say that. “You also tried to kill me. I know it was you, Father. You messed with those drugs, and Cillian's father saved me.”

His gaze drops to the floor, a silent confirmation of a truth I already knew.

Seeing him react this way is more of a punch to my gut.

“I'm dying, Jaxon…” He raises his head and looks back at me. “Dying men see things differently because they become weak. Death has snuck up on me, and when I look back I realize I made certain mistakes.”

So, if he weren’t dying, he wouldn’t see shit. He’d still be the same kind of bastard he always was.

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