Tainted Me

Chapter 30: Call Me Devil

This was the last place I expected to be.

They had me checked for wires and weapons. When they were satisfied, they finally let me in. They made me wait in the sitting area of their mansion.

"I'd say I didn't expect you to come here."

I turned my head to Senator Adder entering the room. He was wearing a business suit. He walked over to the drink cart and looked at me over his shoulder, before shrugging.

"But I'd be lying."

"Honestly, I didn't think you'd be here," I said. I thought politicians were always too busy.

"I'm wherever my attention is needed. At the moment, it's here." He raised a bottle of whiskey and asked me, "Would you care for one?"

I shook my head. "No, thanks."

"It's not poisoned."

"I never said it was."

"Although, it can be a poison itself if consumed at an alarming rate in a short period of time."

My jaw clenched. I watched him pour himself a glass before facing me again.

"So what brings you here?"

Right, as if he didn't know.

"You know why."

"I wouldn't have asked if I knew so."

He was playing a dumbass. Got it.

"I need to talk to your son," I said.

"He's not here."

It took every fiber of my being not to say bullshit. But I held my tongue. I wouldn't lose to anger. I'd done so many times, I wouldn't lose to it now. I was better than that.

"I don't believe you."

He shrugged as he paced around the room. "I don't know what to tell you. He's not here."

"Prove it."

"I don't have to do anything."

"Of course not, because you know he's hiding in his room while he lets his daddy do the talking."

"I can assure you, we can personally check his room right now and you won't find him there."

I stood up. "Lead the way."

He blinked, taken aback that I called him on his bluff. But he straightened up and put down his glass. He looked at me and yelled after someone. A person who looked like a butler came.

"Show Mister O'neal to Holden's room. After you're done seeing that it's empty, kindly return him here."

"Right away, sir." The butler turned to me, and gestured to the hall. "This way."

I followed him upstairs to the room. I already knew that it would be empty before he opened it. But I had to play a part in order to get what I really wanted. I morphed my expression into disbelief and rushed to the bathroom to appear as if I'm checking. But as soon as my eyes caught the toothbrush, I snatched it and swiftly shoved it in my jacket before the butler could catch up to me.

"May we return to the sitting room, sir?"

I tried to appear disappointed as I followed him back downstairs. Senator Adder was sitting on the couch opposite where I was sat earlier.

"Satisfied?" he asked, without looking at me.

"I still need to talk to him."

"You know I can't just hand you over my son."

"Is he going to hide behind his father all his life? Aw, what little balls he has."

The senator looked at me sternly, so far from the man I met in New York City. "These unwarranted claims towards my son are unprecedented. You'd realize this if you were thinking objectively. But you're too emotionally involved that it's clouding your judgment. You should correct this if you want to become a good lawyer."

"My head's never been clearer."

"I'm sorry you think that way."

"I'm not."

His jaw clenched, unwilling to back down yet speechless on what to say to me next. Joke was on him, I could do this all damn day.

"Are we done here?"

"Goodbye, Senator Adder."

I walked out the front door and headed to my car. When I sensed that someone was watching me, I looked back at the house. I scanned the windows but nobody was there.

I let it go and got inside my car. I didn't expect it to be this easy to get a DNA sample. I thought Senator Adder was only playing a dumbass. Maybe he was really one after all. He was so blinded by proving his son wasn't at home that he never considered that I had a different motive from what he thought.

I brought the sample to Yash as soon as possible. He scolded me for not wrapping it in a ziplock bag or a tissue. But at the end of the day, it didn't matter.

His plan didn't matter.

My efforts didn't matter.

Because that night, Arisa gave me news that shocked the living hell out of me.

Holden confessed.

That motherfucker confessed to everything.