After I had spent the rest of the evening with my family, thoroughly reminding my wife how much I loved her, I decided to take the next day off to explain to her what I had been doing these last couple of weeks. I had originally wanted to keep it hidden from her in fear of stressing her out more than necessary, but it seemed that my secretive nature only caused more harm than good.
I told her I had been working with my father and brother to find the people who were targeting her. Explaining how we had found the woman who pushed her down the stairs the first time I ran out of the house in the rush. How we had been trying to get more information out of her ever since to find the other people supporting her from behind.
To quell her worries, I had to tell her about the dark side of our family that I had tried so hard to hide. Although I didn’t go into detail about it, I had to explain how we couldn’t do everything to the book due to the number of enemies that came with holding one of the most powerful companies in the world.
She was a bit appalled at first, slightly taken aback by the fact that I had physically harmed another human being before.
I figured she might’ve reacted like that, given her past, but I also knew I couldn’t hide it from her forever.
With time, she eventually calmed down and accepted the fact that I would have to hurt other people if I wanted to stay alive in this world. Reminding herself that I had only ever hurt bad people who tried to hurt me first.
I gently combed my fingers through her hair, trying to soothe her anxieties.
She looked up at me warily and asked, “But what about the police? Won’t they arrest you if they find out what you have been doing?”
I chuckled quietly and reminded her, “Love, I basically own the entirety of New York City. There is not a single thing that happens in this city that I don’t know about. No government official or officer in their right mind would try to intervene with my actions.”
Her mouth dropped into a small circle in surprise.
Rubbing small circles on the back of her hand, I continued softly, “But even though I have all this power, I still wasn’t able to keep you safe… It is something I would spend the rest of my life repenting for…”
Her facial features softened as she took my cheek in her hand, turning my head to meet her eyes. “It wasn’t your fault, Achi… You can’t know everything in the world… Besides, I’m alright now, aren’t I?”
I sighed as I melted into her hand. “But I still should’ve done better… If I had just insisted on keeping your guards by your side while you’re at work…. Or if I had just left a bit early that day… You wouldn’t have had to go through all of that…”
She tenderly smoothed her thumb over my cheek and replied, “You couldn’t have expected that to happen, so please don’t beat yourself over it.”
I nodded solemnly as I closed my eyes and leaned even further into her touch.
“What do you plan to do now?”
I pursued my lips and mumbled, “I might have to interrogate Cassy next…”
Her chest stilled underneath me, making me crack an eye open in confusion.
“Is something wrong, Jane?”
She bit her lower lip nervously as she looked down at me. “It’s just that it seems a bit cruel to treat her so harshly… I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be interrogated by the person you love…”
“You’re much too soft for your own good, Jane…” I sighed, “I don’t want to believe that she would go far as harming you, but it was far too much of a coincidence for me to simply overlook her actions…”
She nodded reluctantly, diverting her eyes as she played with her fingers anxiously.
Diverting the subject away from Cassy, I asked her, “Do you mind letting me have your phone? I’ll get you a temporary substitute cell for the time being, but I would like to have my brother take a crack at tracking down the number that sent you the photo.”
She reached over to grab her phone from the nightstand and handed it to me. “The password is the date from when I first started working on your joint project.”
I arched an eyebrow in curiosity as I typed in the numbers, and surely enough, it unlocked with no problem. “Why that date? I don’t remember it exactly being the best day of your life… I had nearly sent you into a panic attack on your first day of work.”
“I, uh… ” She flushed under my gaze when I turned to look up at her. “I had actually admired your work ethic for quite some time before the day, but I had always been scared of your large frame and found it difficult to approach you whenever you visited Mr. Serman at his office… So uh… Even though I nearly went into a panic attack and I didn’t say anything to you all day, I wanted to remember the first time I got to meet you in person… I wouldn’t be where I am now if it weren’t for that day…”
My heart fluttered inside my chest from her words.
I knew that I had abnormally strong feelings for Jane, especially considering how I had proposed to her within 4 months of knowing her. These feelings were considered incomprehensible to any normal person like Sebastian, who had previously criticized each of my decisions for being too rushed.
But I didn’t really care at the time. Even if her feelings weren’t nearly as overwhelming, I had already grown attached to her quite quickly and wasn’t planning to let her go any time soon.
However, I was glad to know that Jane had similarly bizarre feelings for me at the time, even if she was too scared to approach me about them at the time. I was just happy to know that I wasn’t the only one who had an unusually high interest in the other despite not knowing much about each other at the time.
An unexpected but welcomed attraction.
I pecked her cheek softly and replied, “I wouldn’t be who I am now either if it weren’t for that day.”
She blushed at my action and hid her face in my chest out of embarrassment.
I chuckled softly at her adorable behavior as I turned my attention back to her phone. All of it looked normal, from her background wallpaper of Liam and me to her chaotic lists scattered in her notes app. The only thing that wasn’t quite right was the chat coming from an unknown number at the top of her text message inbox.
The number had no information attached, not even the usual get of 10 digits. It only said that it was an unknown number, and the chat only had a single picture of Cassy kissing me with yesterday’s timestamp.
It was likely that the message came from a burner phone and may have been untraceable, but I still wanted to check with my brother on the off case that he might’ve been able to find something.
Whether or not Cassy was involved in this incident, I still couldn’t figure out why the sender would send this picture to Jane all of a sudden. It had been weeks since she had kissed me, so why wait that long when they could’ve ruined my relationship with Jane with much more ease had they sent it while she couldn’t remember me?
None of it made sense.
To add on, there were honestly too many people who might’ve held a grudge against us for me to narrow it down to a single culprit.
For one, there was Cassy, who might’ve tried to hurt Jane in retaliation for my rejection.
Then, there was also Liam’s biological mother, who was clearly hostile toward our son but had too many mysterious reasons to understand.
Even any one of the outer families would have had a reason to hurt Jane in an attempt to weaken my position.
Or even worse, it could’ve been some random international enemy that suddenly wanted to fight back now.
I sighed as I shut off the phone and set it aside. I turned around and wrapped my arms securely around my adorable wife, feeling much too stressed out by all the possibilities to think anymore.
Was it too much to ask to be left alone to live happily with the woman I love?
If giving up my position as a member of the Cordova family would’ve gotten me out of this issue, I would’ve done it ages ago to keep her safe. But I knew that it wouldn’t have solved anything. I would’ve only become weaker and even less capable of protecting my family.
I nuzzled against the top of Jane’s head, taking a deep breath of her sweet scent to calm myself down. I guess I should just be happy that I could at least still rest like this with Jane despite everything.
A soft hand ran through my messy hair, brushing it out of my eyes. Her fingertips lightly caressed the edges of my face as they made their way down to the base of my neck before reaching back up to weave into my hair.
I released a small hum in delight as all the stress in my body melted away with her soft touch.
There was nothing in the world that I would trade for such moments.
To simply lay next to the person I loved the most in the world.
With no need for any sexually intimate touches, these innocent caresses already spoke volumes of how much she truly cared for me.
Not my looks, wealth, or power.
She loved me for who I was, my flaws and all, and not who I was expected to be.
I took solace in these little moments, knowing that I would have to get up and deal with all the chaos occurring in my life again tomorrow.
It pained me to harm women.
I was weighed down with guilty from using my bulky frame against people who had not a single ounce of a chance of standing up against me, even if they weren’t chained up for interrogation. But at the same time, I knew that they were the ones who had tried to harm my family first.
I had full right to stand up against them, to use whatever means possible to keep my family safe.
But tomorrow, I would have to interrogate a woman who confessed her heartfelt feelings to me just weeks ago. Someone who had been close to the Cordova family since I was a child, but also someone who may have also tried to kill my wife out of jealousy.
And there was a high likelihood that she would not be the last person involved in this entire scheme.
So I needed to build my resolve if I wanted to end everything as quickly as possible, once and for all.
And I planned to do just that.