He was still smiling, but his eyes had dimmed.
"Ah, yes. Of course!" Sylvia quickly waved her hands around. "Valerie! I'm getting bad with names as I age. Anyways, I quickly shopped for gifts for her and the munchkin."
She peeked up at him to see his usual stoic smile and let out a small breath of relief, immediately grabbing his arm.
"Let me show you!"
She pulled him along toward her room. Katerina followed behind them quietly. Open suitcases were already laid out on the bed.
His mother rushed ahead, practically glowing as she began pulling all the animal onesies out one by one.
"These are for the baby. Look at this, isn't it cute? And this one too!"
She pulled out toys, her excitement spilling over with every item. Then she went to another suitcase. "Oh, see, these are for Valerie and these are for—" Her hand stilled, and she immediately shut the suitcase.
Azrael looked up from his phone. His mother had been shopping and matching clothes with his former fiancée, Andrea, for years.
She rubbed her neck. "I just felt bad for the poor girl, I didn't mean—"
"It's fine." He indifferently went back to his phone.
Sylvia sighed in relief. "How about I go see Valerie and the baby with you?"
Azrael's head snapped up.
"I can give them the presents and we can get to know each other—" She trailed off as his stiff smile fell away. "Or... maybe I should meet them later."
"I'll invite you for dinner soon," he said, standing up.
He wasn't refusing, and Sylvia was satisfied with that.
"That's great!"
Azrael turned slightly to look at the mistress, his gaze lingering a second too long before moving toward the door.
His mother watched his back as he left before her shoulders dropped in relief.
"He's my son, but I felt like I was talking to my dead father. That stick-in-the-mud old man always called me an airhead." Sylvia shuddered at the memory, looking at Katerina. "Is everything ready?"
Katerina showed her the tablet. "Yes, but Madam, I don't think we should do it..."
Sylvia swatted away her concern. "I'm his mother. What can he do even if he catches us?"
"Madam…"
Sylvia turned to one of the suitcases, flipping it empty and beginning to stuff her clothes into it. "When is Vincent coming back?"
Katerina helplessly started helping her, knowing they were damned for this. "In about a week, Madam."
....
Luka was waiting with the car door open when he came out.
Azrael slid in, throwing the wiretap onto the seat opposite him. Luka took off his own too.
"Should I drive back to the mansion, Sir?"
"No." Azrael was quiet for a while. "Back to the office."
His marriage scandal had caused the corporation's share value to drop, giving his competitors an excuse to crowd him like hyenas.
"Yes, Sir. We have dumped the boys in empty barrels at our warehouse near the port." He presented an ice-water container to him. "We took one toe finger from each boy. We staged it so it seemed like retaliation from the kids they bullied."
Azrael looked at him in disgust, flicking the container away. "What are you? In the mafia?"
Luka opened and closed his mouth.
"Send it back to his place. That old dog could use some night exercise."
"Yes, Sir."
They had used experts on the job in cutting and storing the toe finger so they could easily be reattached by a surgeon.
His boss had been planning to strip his grandfather of his control since he discovered the case of Ms. Anna.
She was also an escort Mr. Sullivan brought in to curry favor with the Chairman, but Anna was ambitious enough to get pregnant. She threatened to go public to marry into the Hawthornes, unaware of how obsessed the Chairman was with his image.
How could he air his affair with a woman younger than his grandson? By the time Azrael realized it, Anna was already a cold corpse on the ocean floor.
He hadn't planned to confront Alexander just yet, but because of his family, all his cards were out in the open. He could no longer make an enemy out of his grandfather, especially with a hidden enemy lurking.
"What is the progress on the matter I asked you about?"
Luka immediately passed a file back. "The shares report on the Hawthorne Corporation and the White Corporation, Sir."
Azrael pulled out a cigarette instead, lighting it with a practiced flick before opening the file.
His eyes scanned the pages. This week, Hawthorne's shares had dropped to the lowest they had been in decades. He could tell someone was pulling strings from behind the scenes.
His grandfather's birthday was in five months. With the Whites as guarded as they were, a merger wouldn't be possible. He would need to force an acquisition.
Smoke curled lazily in the dim interior. He looked to the empty seat beside him.
Her sobbing face entered his mind, giving him a headache. His fingers tapped against his head. Annoying woman!
It somehow hurt more than the stings on his back.
Luka watched him through the rearview mirror, feeling conflicted. It wasn't his place to say it, but was it really worth it?
Without a word, he reached into the console and handed back a bottle of water and a stronger dose of painkillers.
Azrael swallowed the pills dry, then took a long swig.
"Sir, as you suspected, a servant was bribed in the Sinclair house to get information on Madam and the Young Master."
Azrael's eyes didn't lift. It was obvious.
"We've dealt with them for now and alerted Mr. Sinclair. They agreed to cooperate."
The smoke from the cigarette resting between his fingers thinned out. "Also tell Mikhail to look into old man's new mistress after he's done with the investigation."
"We have done a background check on her, Sir. Ms. Katerina used to live in an orphanage where she was introduced to some bad crowds. After being kidnapped and smuggled in the country years ago. She was bought by Mr. Sullivan from an illegal prostitution ring."
Azrael sat up. "What about the prostitution den."
"Mr. Sullivan already took care of it. Most likely to ensure Ms. Katerina's past wasn't traced back once she was in the Hawthorne's service."
"...Look deeper. Anyone that can tolerate that ugly mug of that old dog must have an agenda."
Azrael threw his head back to rest his eyes when Luka hesitantly spoke again.
"...Sir, shouldn't we warn Madam to be careful? If it weren't for the spies we placed after Ms. Anna's case, we wouldn't have even known about their plan to smuggle Madam and the Young Master."
Azrael flicked his cigarette, deep in thought.
Look at his mother. His grandfather is a snake, and his dead father was a depraved man, but his mother had lived her whole life happy like a fool.
Life… is only happy in oblivion.
"No need."
His 'wife and son' should be happy fools too.
The cigarette burned quietly between his fingers as the car began to move.
Life was... exhausting.