Page 59 of Surprise Quadruplets for the Mob

“Well, I’m not looking for your understanding,” I snap. “And if you’re going to spend all your time trying to play detective, maybe you should go and work for the goddamn cops.”

“All right,” he says quietly. “I get it. Sorry for overstepping.”

“Forget it,” I mutter. I want to change the subject, but now he has my mind racing. Have I made a mistake? A huge, colossal fucking mistake? “You saw it too, didn’t you? The way she was with the kids? The way the kids were with me?”

“Yes,” he insists, nodding and leaning in a little. “That’s what I’m talking about, boss. Those kids are your spitting image. You can’t fake that shit.” He’s starting to get so animated that his coffee sloshes in his cup before he sets it aside. He saw their resemblance to me, too? It wasn’t just in my head? “And what about the attacks? The Irish ransacking her foundation? It’s looking more and more like they’re the ones who put that hit out on her, too. Like they might be involved in the same bullshit mess of drama that these scammers are a part of. Are you really going to tell me that was all for show? That she nearly died, just to prove a point?”

“Fuck,” I mutter, scrubbing a hand down my face. “Okay, but the foundation. The scamming and the money. That’s real. That’s undeniable. The facts are right there in black and white.”

“Is it? How do we know what’s real and what isn’t anymore?”

If that’s not the question of the fucking century, I don’t know what is. “And the DNA test. Is that made up, too? Why didn’t anyone tell me my father was running fucking tests on my—on Abby’s kids?”

“I didn’t know about any fucking DNA test,” he says with a frown. “I didn’t hear shit about it from anyone.”

“So, what, Alyosha was directly ordered to work alone on this shit?”

Before he can answer, I pick up my phone. “Never mind. I’ll ask him myself.”

Lev’s eyes widen and he starts shaking his head, but I ignore him. I’m already punching the number into the phone and waiting for the call to connect.

“Maks,” my father answers, sounding a bit surprised. “It’s good to hear from you. Everything okay over there?”

“No, it’s not fucking okay,” I snap. “Why did you have my girlfriend’s kids tested without telling me?”

There’s a beat of silence before he responds. “You found the paperwork.”

“You have a lot of nerve,” I growl.

“I did what needed to be done.”

“The fuck you did.”

“Calm down, Maksim. It was a necessary precaution. You weren’t thinking with your head, son. Not the right head, anyway.”

I can’t believe my ears. “You didn’t trust me?” That’s the part that hurts the most. “You could have told me. Christ, you could’ve given me a fucking heads-up, Papa.”

“And risk letting someshlyukha,who swoops in out of nowhere with four child-support checks on the line, get in under your skin and manipulate the situation to her favor? Please,I’ve protected this family from much worse. I know how women work.”

“You really think,” I growl quietly, “that I’m so easily swayed that I wouldn’t take my own father’s advice into consideration? That I couldn’t have handled this myself?”

“Bah,” he snorts through the phone. “You’re too soft when it comes to women. You’re lucky enough Alyosha thought to tell me about her at all, and offered to organize the paternity test himself.”

“Father…” I begin angrily, but he cuts me off.

“Please, I’m a busy man. Is this really why you called me, Maksim?”

I hang up with an angry scowl. I’ve already heard enough. Too much.

“So the DNA test was Alyosha’s idea?” I ask Lev as I set my phone down.

“That’s news to me,” he answers. “Doesn’t surprise me, though.”

“Of course not,” I snort. “He’s the one who brought all the shit to me in the first place. The one who convinced me Abby was a con artist. The one who convinced me I needed to send her away.”

“He did what?”

I wave a hand. “It doesn’t matter. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? What the fuck am I supposed to believe?”

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