Binding Agreement- Book 1 of the Tipton Dynasty

He Kept You Away For A Reason

"Do I have to go to bed yet? I'm not ready." Sterling groaned as I tucked him in.

"Yes. You have school tomorrow." I responded.

"I can take a day off." He suggested.

"Sterling, what would your father say to that?" I asked.

Sterling let out a defeated sigh. "No days off."

"That's right." I gave him a smile. "Do you remember who is picking you up tomorrow?"

"Grandma." he referred to my mother. Damon and I would be meeting with my uncle and grandmother. It definitely wasn't something I wanted Sterling to attend, besides he could use some bonding with my mother.

"Yes. Goodnight." I gave him a kiss on the forehead and left his room.

I went down the hall and entered our bedroom where Damon was already patiently waiting for me. He sat in the bed propped up on a pillow, wearing nothing but his boxers. His brows were furrowed as he looked at his phone. He was so focused I wasn't sure if he had even noticed I came in the room.

I changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top before slipping into the bed beside him. "What are you doing?" I asked to finally grab his attention.

"Just going through some emails. Sorry, I guess I got too focused there." He answered as he set his phone down.

"That's okay." I planted a kiss on his lips.

When I was about to pull away his arm wrapped around my waist to keep me near him. His lips remained on mine for a moment longer before pulling away. His arm remained wrapped around me to hold me close. I laid my head on his chest and he ran his fingers through my hair.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Damon asked, referring to the dinner that was planned.

"About as ready as I can be." I answered.

"How are you feeling about everything that's going on?" He continued running his fingers through my hair to help keep me relaxed.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to feel." I looked up at him, my green eyes meeting those icy blue ones that I've come to love. "I've learned things about my dad that I never knew before. I have so many questions but he's not here to answer them."

"I know. Just remember he was doing what's best for you. A father's job is to keep his family protected." Damon placed a soft kiss on my forehead.

"You're right. We should probably get some sleep now." I suggested.

Damon released me from his arms. Normally I would love to sleep cuddled up with him but it was difficult being pregnant. I took a million trips to the bathroom every night and then I always had to get comfortable all over again. Sometimes I worried I might disturb Damon's sleep from moving so much.

He turned out the lights and we both worked on trying to doze off. He was successful, I was not. I had also dealt with a couple nights of insomnia and it appeared tonight would be one of those nights. I tried for what seemed like hours to finally get to sleep but nothing worked.

I got out of the bed and went to the bathroom. I checked the time to see it was about eleven in the evening, I had been trying to sleep for about two hours now. I went down the stairs and into the kitchen to get myself a drink. I got me a bottle of water and went back to the room.

Damon was unphased about my absence in the bed. I looked around the room to see what I could possibly entertain myself with. I sighed to myself realizing anything in here would potentially wake him up. I took my bottle of water and left the room. I went down the stairs and entered the hallway that started from the end of the living room. I went all the way down and entered Damon's study.

I didn't come in here very often, I felt this was more his space. He was making a few changes to it though so I didn't feel so awkward being in here. He had set up a profile on his computer for me so if I wanted to I could use it. He offered to just let me use his profile but I had a feeling I could potentially end up finding something I didn't want to see. Like maybe details of what he had being done to Ava and other darker things.

I logged in and pulled up the internet browser. I was curious and decided to make my time useful. I wanted to find more details about my father and his family. If they were well known like Damon's family there would have to be something. I typed in 'Bushemp' into the search bar.

My eyes scanned the screen. There were various articles that came up about them. There were a few about my father's disappearance from the family. I clicked and read them. There was speculation that he had been kidnapped, that he was murdered or maybe he committed suicide. None of the articles had the truth of course. He left because he couldn't take them anymore.

I moved on to the articles about his family. It took some digging but I found a few about the things that they have done. The things that made Damon not want to do business with them. They tried to hide their scandalous acts but clearly there were media sources the Bushemp's couldn't touch. I clicked into the first article that caught my attention.

I read through it and then read more. They had been caught for money laundering and embezzlement. Bushemp Industries had almost been shut down over my grandfather's acts. The only thing that saved it was him handing the company over to Alastair. From what I read it sounded like the company was on it's way to being my father's but then he disappeared.

"Couldn't sleep?" Damon's voice startled me, making me jump in the chair.

"Damn it." I cursed after I caught my breath. "No, I couldn't sleep."

"What are you doing this time?" He asked as he walked closer to me, coming behind me to see what I was looking at.

"I wanted to see what the internet said about my family history." I responded. "I see what you mean by they lack morals."

Damon studied the computer screen before he spoke. "I told you that. Why waste your time down here to look up information I already gave you."

"Because I was curious. And you didn't give me a lot of information to go off of." I answered him. "Is this why you guys pulled out of doing business with them?"

"Well, they came back from that. They were trying to rebuild, my father took them on to try to give them a second chance. The partnership started before I left and ended when I came back." He explained. "I came back because the stress of Tipton Enterprises gave my father a minor heart attack, the heart attack was caused because the Bushemp's were attempting to embezzle from our company. My father would have lost everything he built because of them."

"Oh." I was shocked at the information he decided to share.

"They're bad people. But you're father wasn't, he kept you away for a reason and I'm going to make damn sure it stays that way." I could sense his determination.