Protect & Serve(81)

I covered my face with my pillow to muffle the insufferable sounds of my grief. Tristan wasn’t the fool here. I was.





10





Chapter 10





I had royally fucked myself over twice in a single span of twenty-four hours—a new personal record, to be sure. I couldn’t believe what an ass I’d been, and to Gwendolyn of all people. I couldn’t remember a single time that that girl hadn’t treated me well, and I had joked about how I would make her my mistress. Idiot.

After I’d been so forcefully ejected from my stepsister’s bed, I called myself a taxi to take me home. I hated the look on Gwendolyn’s face, that look of embarrassment and shame. I knew that I’d messed everything up in a way that I’d be hard pressed to fix if this plan was going to work.

I was almost shocked when I felt my cellphone buzz in my pocket, hardly expecting anyone to be calling me, at least not this early in the morning. I pulled the phone out of my pocket, surprised to see my father’s number glaring at me from the bright screen. I almost didn’t answer, uninterested in the idea of hearing that old bastard’s voice to disrupt what was already a perfectly terrible morning. Despite myself I swiped my thumb across the screen and put the phone to my ear.

“Father, what a delightful surprise,” I said, making sure my tone was almost too chipper. “You hardly ever phone me anymore. How are you?”

There was silence across the line and I knew that I’d thrown him. He’d expected anger or annoyance right out of the gate. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction; and besides, I so enjoyed toying with him.

“I’m more than fine, Tristan,” he said, his tone suspicious. “In fact I just came back from the sonogram with your mother—”

“Stepmother,” I reminded him in a song-song voice.

“Evenlyn’s child is growing quite nicely,” he said, his own voice becoming almost… kind. It had to be a trick. “I thought you ought to know, since you’ll be a brother soon.”

“What is it you really want, father?” I asked, “We both know you don’t ever call me unless you have something to gloat about.”

“The fact that I’ve won isn’t enough?” he laughed, that same crowing laughter that put a chill in my gut every single time. “My son will grow up to be a duke, and you’ll be left in squalor… that is unless you’ve begun looking for a wife.”

My stomach clenched as those words curled through the labyrinthine maze of my mind. He had found out—somehow, someway he had figured out my plan to take the title from his “legitimate” heir. But how? How had he figured it out? Surely Gwen didn’t tell him, or her assistant, Tina. But then who else could have known?

“I’m not sure what you mean,” I said, trying to play the fool and see if he was merely fishing, or if he’d truly been able to figure out what I had thought was such a brilliant plan before it had time to come to fruition.

“Don’t play dumb with me, boy,” he snapped, his familiar anger returning in force. “I’ve seen the pictures of you and that woman. Who is she?”

“I was on a date, Father. Is that so unusual?” I asked.

“It is when your only hope of taking what rightfully belongs to my true son is marrying whatever harlot will have you,” he snarled. “I won’t have you ruining this, Tristan. We both know that you don’t go on dates with women unless you want something from them. Dating and courtship imply commitment, something you sorely lack.”

“I’m hurt, Father,” I said, hoping to anger him to the point that he would slip up and reveal just how he figured out where I had been the night before. “How could you say such a thing about your own son?”

“You are no son of mine!” he shouted over the receiver. “My son is growing in the womb of my wife! You are an abomination!”

“Oh, Father,” I said wistfully, “I so love it when you bring out the old names from when I was young.”

“Don’t try to play cute with me!” he roared. “I will make you rue the day that you were cut from your mother’s unclean womb! So help me if you try to steal my son’s inheritance I—”

“I only want what I’m entitled to, father,” I interrupted, doing my best at keeping my voice level. I didn’t need to him to know how frustrated I was, though I found it hard to keep the edge out of my voice. “I’m your eldest son, and I will do what I must to make sure that I am the only viable option for your inheritance when the time comes—a time I hope comes sooner rather than later—when you shuffle off this mortal coil and I take everything you ever had as mine.”