Page 55 of Falsifier

This day couldn't really get much worse. I know my dad by name only, and that one photo. Mum mentioned it once or twice. Said she was good enough for a good time, but he threw her out of the county when she became pregnant.

Now I'm looking at him. He doesn’t look anything like me, thank goodness. He reminds me of Edward Thayer, the armed goons behind me remind me of the Thayer cartel. This is all a mess I don't want to be a part of.

"My men have asked you what you are doing." Daddy dearest skips the pleasantries and greetings.

"I am not doing anything relevant to you." Somehow I don't think shacking up with another monster was what he had planned for me.

"I will ask you again, boy, what do you want?"

"And I will tell you again, I don't want anything from you," I reply. "I'm telling the truth. Last year, I would have loved to know who my father was, even last month I could have been convinced to care, but not now. Now I have everything I've ever wanted, and I don't need anything else. I don't want anything from you."

"Then why all the threats to tell my wife?"

"You have a wife?" That comment startles me more than it should. Having a wife is the perfect reason for not wanting my druggie mum.

"I do. And three grown children, older than you. You were a mistake. If my wife finds out, it could ruin me."

"Shit. Annie!" I may have everything I've ever wanted, but it cost Tiffany everything she had.

"Annie?"

"My twin sister."

"I know there are two of you. But I have found no trace of her."

"Why did you think it was me?"

"You found yourself a sugar daddy, suddenly your eyes became very wide, and you saw what was mine as your own."

"Telling your wife wouldn't get me any of that. Getting my sugar daddy wasn't easy and I ruined my sister to get him. It was her fault, she tried stealing from Knox Thayer and he ruined her and claimed me."

"Tell me how to find your sister. I think this is a conversation I should have with both of you."

"You can do what you want with her." Something I should have said to Knox, but I'm very glad I didn't when I look at what I would have missed out on. I will never look at candles with a soft dick again. "I don't know where she is. Knox had her escorted out of town. She didn't come back." I want to give him something useful. I want to give him my sister, so he lets me go. "The last time I spoke to Mum, she seemed to know something, but she doesn't make much sense these days. You could try asking her."

"Untie his hands," Carter orders.

"Thank you." It's a relief to have movement in my arms. I need to save my muscles for later, with Knox.

"It was your mother who refused help. I offered money, but she said if she didn't have my heart, she didn't want anything. I paid for all your after school classes."

"Then I have something to thank you for."

"I didn't mean to be a shitty father. I just love my wife too much for this to get out."

"Until Nico went missing, I never thought you were a shitty father. Just an absent one."

"Nico? Is that a person?"

"You didn't have him kidnapped?"

"Who?"

"Then…" I can't believe it was Annie. Pissing off Carter with threats to expose him is totally her style, but having Nico kidnapped and hurt just for those few words on paper is cruel. "I can't believe she would do that."

Chapter thirty-eight

Knox

---