Page 154 of Treason's Temptation
I don’t know what it was with their generation that led to avoiding accountability, but he couldn’t blame Treason. Long before he was a man, he was a child, and it was up to Winston to cultivate that relationship. From the small glimpses Treason shared, he hadn’t done that.
“I’m really sorry it had to come to this, but my son is stubborn. Hopefully, you can reason with him,” Winston revealed.
“Calling him your son isn’t pulling at my heartstrings. It’s actually pissing me off, so stop.”
“You’re smart.”
“Smart enough to know you’re telling me this for a reason," I replied, getting to the point.
His eyes scanned the room in sarcasm, “You’re in jail for a crime you didn’t commit. Someone has to look out for you.”
“How do you know I didn’t do it?”
“I’d like to think I’m a pretty good judge of character. You didn’t wait years after the abuse to kill him.”
“Information is currency. Leak it, and you walk out of here freely. If you want to take a chance with my son, I’d use that information as protection. He doesn’t want anyone to know, including you.”
“I don’t know if I’d be jumping for joy to tell everybody you’re my father either. Especially one that didn’t want me.”
“That’s complicated.”
“Well, you’ve dragged me from my cell,” I finally said, sitting down. “Might as well give me a good story for my time, especially since you want me to do your dirty work.”
Winston chuckled. “I met Inez at an education summit. I was attracted to her smile and passion for education. We had a few drinks after the convention and ended the night in my hotel. It was never serious because I knew I had goals to reach.”
“Then she got pregnant,” I replied, getting to the part of the story that mattered.
“She did, but I wasn’t the man I am now. I was still building then. I wanted control, reach, my name etched into history. I didn’t have time to raise a child.”
“But you found time to raise your daughters?” I asked with a raised brow, “Just not him.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It never is,” I huffed, standing up to bang on the door with my fist.
“The things I could do to you and him for getting in my way haven’t even been invented yet, but I’m here because I do love my son. Help Treason, help himself,” Winston explained behind me, but I didn’t give a fuck about that.
“It’s bad enough you weren’t there for him, now you’re single-handedly backing his opponent and trying to destroy him in the process. His own fuckin’ father! If that’s love, the best thing you ever did was leave him.”
My brain was spinning as I thought about my own child and Treason’s reasons for being undecided about it.
“Take me back to my cell!” I yelled, ready to rid my ears of his voice that sounded eerily like Treason’s.
The door finally opened, and I shoved my arms out. I had never been so happy to be handcuffed in my life.
“I don’t make the rules, Navie. In this game, you can’t have it all, no matter what Treason tells you. Protect yourself.”
The walk back felt like miles, half of my heart angry that he didn’t tell me. Treason wanted every detail of my life on a silver platter, yet he kept this from me. The other half sympathized with the little boy inside of him, too scared to utter those words.
“You don’t look so happy for a woman who just saw her man,” Goldie said, likely worried about herself in the equation, but I couldn’t blame her.
“It wasn’t Treason.”
I laid down on my side, dissecting how Winston’s absence impacted Treason’s life. Is that why he threw himself so deeply into work that he didn’t have an identity outside of it? Was Winston the reason why Treason felt like he had to fix everything?
His bloodline was just as fucked up as mine. Maybe even worse. Sloane wasn’t a vacation to Dubai, but Winston was the devil reincarnated, leaving me wondering how he had pulled Inez in the first place. She seemed sweet and sensible, but even the most sensible women stood no chance against a charismatic man.
This poor kid was doomed from conception with the genes it stood to inherit on both sides.
