Page 87 of Corruption

“I get the feeling—and I’m sure you’ve noticed also—that there’s no love lost between Vaugh and his brother and Nadia. So why not use the opportunity to put them both to death? Why risk two people you know opposed you? He has an heir. Alik and Nadia were disgraced. So why?”

“I didn’t think of that.”

“Don’t feel bad. You’ve already uncovered enough. Here’s what you’re going to do,” Addy instructs. “You’re going to head home, and you’re going to talk to Alik and Nadia and see what you can get out of them. And if you can’t… if you can’t, we’re just going to have to let this play out and see where it goes.” She gives me a genuinely sympathetic look. “I know I’m asking you to go back to the viper pit, but you’re going to have to trust that Nadia and Alik can protect you from whatever the hell is going on here. And then, once we have all this settled, you can give them both hell for getting you into this mess to begin with.”

I don’t really have much of a choice, so I nod. Addy instructs me to call another Uber to get home to keep where I’ve gone as quiet as possible until we get all this sorted.

Except, the driver doesn’t take me back to Alik’s and Nadia’s place. I’d assumed we were taking a detour. I had no reason to assume otherwise. Vaughn’s home is on the way to Alik’s and Nadia’s from Adrian’s and Addy’s. So I don’t realize that my destination has been intercepted until we’re in front of Vaughn’s home, and Vaughn is waiting for me.

With my mother.

33

Kiya

It’s been over a year and a half since I saw her, but she still looks exactly the way she did when I last saw her as she was leaving for work before I staged my escape from her. Well… almost. She looks like she’s helped herself to Vaughn’s money to get herself some new clothes and to cover up the grays that I remember being in her ginger hair. Just like mine except pin straight rather than kinky.

With no choice in the matter, I get out the car and weigh my options as I walk up the path to Vaughn and my mother—or at least, the woman Vaughn thinks is my mother. He doesn’t really know. Maybe he does. Maybe he managed to get some of my DNA and run it to confirm a match. But even then, I don’t know that he’s done that. I don’t know what he knows. So until I do know what he knows, I have one option.

Deny any relation to my mother. Pretend I don’t even know her.

If I looked anything at all like my mother, this would be impossible to pull off. But except for my blue eyes and the color of my hair, we look nothing alike. Her skin is pale. My skin is brown. Her hair is straight. Mine is kinky and curly. Her build is slim and boxy. I’m curvy and even pudgy in some places. Her face is long and oval. Mine is heart-shaped. I could go on forever about how different we look. Hell, if it weren’t for my birth certificate and checking with the county records to make sure it wasn’t forged. If it weren’t for the hospital pictures and the mole on my cheek in the same spot as the baby in my mother’s arms, I would suspect—even hope—she kidnapped me at birth or something.

“Vaughn,” I say without even looking at my mother. “What’s going on? How… Why did you bring me here?”

Because it’s not really a question of how. I can take a few educated guesses. He had my stuff with him overnight after he threw me out. With all his money and access, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to assume he had my things searched. Found my old phone and had it hacked, just in case. Saw that I was coming from Addy’s house, maybe even overhead our conversation. I’ll find out one way or another. But that’s not the most pressing thing.

“Now, don’t be so rude, Kiya. Are you just not going to greet your mother? I’m sure you’ve missed her.”

I finally turn to look at my mother. Then, while looking the woman directly in her eyes, I say, “My mother?” I turn back to Vaughn. “What are you talking about? My mother’s dead. She’s been dead for over a year. I don’t know who this woman is. She doesn’t even look anything like my mother.”

“You dare to deny me, you ungrateful child,” my mother says reaching towards me, but I back out her reach.

“You can stop your little act, girl,” Vaughn says.

“It’s not an act. I don’t know who this woman is or where she came from,” I say, holding fast to my lie.

“We have all the proof we need. The DNA test, pictures. Now stop lying,” Vaughn demands.

“I’m not lying. None of that proves anything except that y DNA testing was faulty and that somewhere else in the world, a woman had a daughter that looks a lot like me.”

Also, I don’t actually know that Vaughn has done any of those things. So until I know for sure, I’m not going to give him something that he might not know for sure yet on the off chance that it gets me out of this.

I’m rewarded when I see the spark of doubt in Vaughn’s eyes. That maybe I’m telling the truth. That maybe I really don’t know who this woman is. But then it’s gone and a cruel smirk replaces the doubt. It doesn’t matter whether he believes me or not. It’s like with Adrian claiming to be my father. Just like Adrian, Vaughn can forge and pay off as many doctors and labs as he wants to get the result he wants. It doesn’t matter if it’s real or fake. Just that he has documentation and that there’s a woman willing to claim me.

“Doesn’t matter,” Vaughn says. “What does matter is that you’re carrying my brother’s bastard child.”

“I’m not pregnant,” I say, despite the niggling feeling in the back of my head that tells me that might not be true.

Vaughn would be the second person today to accuse me of being pregnant. In the times I’ve been in Alik’s and Nadia’s bed, protection was never a thought on my mind. And I wasn’t on any birth control. I hadn’t ever needed it. So I never had one unless Addy and Adrian put me on one during my physicals and check-ups before they gave me over to the Vorobevs. But even then, there’s a chance of failure.

Still, that’s not something I know that Vaughn knows even if I did know.

“And what are you basing that on? One conversation with Addy that I assume you listened in on?” I ask

“Luckily, there’s an easy way to find that out,” Vaughn says and then grabs my arm to drag me into the house with my mother behind him.

He shoves me into the bathroom and my mother follows. She hands me a box with a pregnancy test on it.

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