Alone

Chapter 36

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked calmly, contrary to the storm of emotions that were swirling inside me.

"I know I'm the last person you want to listen to right now, but I need you to know this for your own good." He said, the desperation in his voice clear as day.

"Christian, you need to leave. How did you even find out where I live?" I walked to my apartment as he backed away from there. "Oh wait, I forgot. You're a millionaire now who can find anyone you want with a snap of your finger which is why you've found me so quickly." I said sarcastically as I pushed open my door. 

He winced, but continued on. "I know you called me back, so you must want to know what I have to say."

"I only called you back, so you would stop pestering me and leave me the hell alone. Nothing else." I said as harshly as I could so he could get the message.

"Alex, please just listen to me. I'm just looking out for you."

My patience ran out after hearing that. I swiftly closed the door, but Christian anticipated this and blocked my efforts of banging the door in his face by wedging his foot in between the door.

"Christian, remove your foot." I muttered in a hard tone.

"Not until you hear me out." He said stubbornly.

"Christian." I snarled out in warning.

"It's about that boy, Greyson Blaise."

Hearing his name, I briefly lost my grip on the door, but regained it. What did Greyson have to do with Christian?

"He's not who he says he his." He answered my unspoken question. "Just please let me in, and I'll explain everything."

After much deliberation, I finally gave in, opened the door and scrutinized his face to see if he was fibbing. He held my gaze, letting me know that he had nothing to hide. I let out a sigh and nodded.

"Not here." I said, stopping him from entering my apartment. I wasn't going to let him into my home. "I know another place we can do this." I muttered, locking my door and walking away without a second glance at him.

When we reached the parking lot, I turned around to see him sporting black sunglasses and a cap pulled down low covering most of his face.

"What's with the disguise?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

"Paps." He said as if it was the most common thing that happened. Then, I remembered that he was a millionaire, of course he would have paparazzi following him around for no damn reason.

Ridding those thoughts away, I got back to the situation at hand, "Do you have a car?"

Getting a nod in return, I said, "Okay then, follow me to the diner in your car."

"Wait, why can't we go in the same car?" He objected.

I sighed in annoyance, "Are you serious?"

He continued to look at me with that baffled expression. I didn't have any energy to try and explain it to him because that would ultimately lead to more of his stupid questions.

"Get in the car." I said pointing towards my car. He gave me a broad smile and opened the door to the front seat.

"Nuh-huh." I said stopping him. "Get in the back." I said sharply.

"Wha—"

"Get in the back." I repeated with in a no-nonsense tone.

He got into the car without another word. I got in after him and steered it onto the street. The car was shrouded in uncomfortable silence, but I was more confused about what Christian had to say about Greyson. I had a lot of questions running through my head and with the way Christian spoke of Greyson, I knew whatever he had to say wasn't going to be good.

It seemed that the tension was a little too much for Christian because he started with, "So....?"

Before he could say anything else, I stopped him, "No."

Which seemed to work because he slumped down in his seat, arms crossed over his chest and a glum look on his face. 

As we reached the diner, Christian once again put on his disguise and got out of the car while I followed suit. I led him to a secluded table in the diner, and we took our seats.

"Explain." I said straight up, without beating around the bush.

"I guess I should start from the beginning, huh?" He said with a small smile on his face, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort.

"That would be great."

"One of the main reasons I shifted to the city, away from you, was because of our father." He said feebly as if he hadn't just dropped a bombshell on me.

A look of incredulity and astonishment washed over my face as I tried to comprehend what he just revealed.

"Yes, our father. Tobias Redmond. Mum didn't speak about him a lot, but that man is powerful now. He reached out to me with an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. He said he wanted to make up for leaving me. It seemed too good to be true and extremely shady which is why I didn't want you to come with me."

He paused giving me time to take in the information. I had never thought about my father from childhood, although there were times when I did wonder where he was, but eventually I grew up to realize that he didn't exist, at least not to me. I was content with my mum, who played both the role of my mother and father, effortlessly.

"He didn't know that when he left us, mum was pregnant with you. Mum never told him about the pregnancy which was for the best; it wasn't like he was going to stay for us, anyways. He didn't care about us, always was immersed in his work. He didn't know that he had another child, and I wanted to keep it that way, I didn't want you to get hurt. It's not like I was going to hide the truth from you, I just needed to know what he wanted and what his true intentions were before letting you know."

"And I was right. When I went down there, I detected that he was involved in some shady and corrupt, possibly illegal business as well, but I was not certain. So for the next few months, he thought me everything about business and how the business world worked while I worked under him in his upcoming company."

"I worked hard to gain his trust. His company soon started gaining a reputation and becoming well-known, whilst I started branching out looking for more future prospects and eventually leaving his company." He paused and scrutinized my face as I waited for him to continue.

"Go on." My curiosity getting the best of me.

"I don't if I should." He deliberated.

"Christian White." I chided him.

"Okay, okay." He said, raising both his hands in surrender. "One day he called me, saying that he needed to tell me something very important and he couldn't do it over the phone. So, we met up at his house, and he told me everything, about how the company started taking off so quickly and what he was involved in."

"Which was?" I asked impatiently.

"He was closely associated with a gang."

"Gang as in mafia type of gang?"

"A drug cartel, to be more precise."