Original Sins by Faith Summers
31
Henry
“Hey, you got a minute?” Dad asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Of course.”
For the last three weeks, I’ve been nervous as fuck from one day to the next, always thinking something is going to happen.
Georgiou’s plan is this: he’s going to speak to Donny when he comes back to Chicago. That’s at the end of next month—September.
Georgiou is going to have a face-to-face conversion with Donny, and I have no idea what he’s going to say. Whatever it is, I’m not sure if he plans to tell Donny about me. I can’t imagine the man is going to like the idea of our threesome relationship with his daughter.
Knowing my friend, though, the way I know him, he probably would have thought of coming out with the truth and seeing how it goes. The problem with that is such a truth could jeopardize everything. This is why I’ve been inclined to tell Georgiou to leave me out of the explanation. Thinking that way feels like I’m taking myself out of the relationship.
But I’m not. I’m serious about Evie, and all I’m doing is thinking of whatever I can do to keep her.
I knew when I agreed to keep our secret that at some point, if we keep on as we are, or even if we pull through this, I was going to have to take the back seat sometimes. Or indefinitely. It’s a given and something I realized when Donny announced William Reviello would be marrying Evie.
Because I’ve also gotten so up close and personal with the company structure and traditional policies, I know it’s always been in the hands of someone of Italian descent. The French-Canadian blood flowing through my veins won’t qualify me.
I also realized it again when Georgiou put himself forward to speak to Donny. I knew he had more than one reason for the suggestion.
If this works out, I know the dominant in our relationship will be Georgiou, but I love Evie enough to accept that. What will matter is how we are in the end.
The end seems so far away, and I’m not the kind of guy to sit down and wait things out. The secret is killing me, and the longer we keep it, the worse everything feels.
Worse of all, I’m worried about my father.
Worried the secret would be out, and we won’t have this relationship we’ve healed anymore.
When I say healed, I mean healed in every sense of the word. Not just from my previous mishaps but also my life.
Things have never been so good between my father and me, and it’s because I’ve proved my worth and made him a fortune with my presence here.
The smile on his face as he walks in is a testament to that. In just these few months, I’ve taken Dubois Developments to another level. Since then, my father has treated me like a son. He’s no longer rubbing shoulders with Carson like they’re twins, or rather like he wishes the goody-two-shoes prick were his son instead of me.
“The company anniversary event is coming up, and I wanted to find out if you wouldn’t mind speaking,” Dad says, and my eyes fly open.
I straighten up in my chair and look at him properly so I can check that what I’m seeing and hearing is truly what’s happening.
“Me, Dad?”
“Yes.” He pulls up a chair and sits in front of my desk. “We’ve had a good year, son, and that’s because of you. I have requests pouring in for work just based on word of mouth and, of course, the good work that you’ve done. Your grandfather would have been proud to see what you’ve done. I’m proud of you.”
I never knew just how much I wanted to hear those words until just now.
Despite the euphoria rising in my soul, the shadow of worry creeps into my heart because I know if we lose everything, it will be my fault. The fall from this type of success and appreciation will hit me hard.
“Thank you, Dad. I appreciate that a lot.”
“I know you do. That’s why I’m saying it. I’m afraid your grandfather was more into football than I was, so I couldn’t really celebrate your success the way he could. I was proud of you then, too, even though I didn’t show it.” He stands. “I know I have a lot of things I have to make up for too. Maybe we can start with dinner tomorrow at the diner we used to go to with your mom. Tomorrow is Saturday.”
I haven’t been back there in years, and the years before were sparse. That diner was a place we’d go to every Saturday because it was where my parents met.
Saturday was date night. When I came along, that night turned into a whole day event they celebrated with me.
My father looks like the man he was when my mother was alive.
“I’d really like that.” I dip my head with gratitude, and a ripple of excitement runs through me at the possibility of fixing my relationship for good with my old man.
“Great. Does eight o’clock work for you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Alright, let’s do it. See you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.”
I watch him leave, and as soon as the door closes, the heaviness of the secret pierces into me.
I get home an hour later and find Evie on the sofa in the living room watching a film.
Georgiou is working late, working overtime. Although he’ll never admit it, I think the secret is getting to him too, and he’s doing more work than usual.
Evie smiles when she sees me, and I move over to her to kiss her.
I love this part about getting home and seeing her. Admittedly, it’s also nice too when I get to play with her by myself for a little while.
The plan for her being here is she stays with us for a few nights a week and with Cordelia for the rest of the time. Granted, she is with us more days than her cousin, but I wish she were with us all the time. We’re just doing it this way to keep things as legit as possible in case Donny ever checks in. It’s near enough to what it was like when she was coming here after the auction.
The three weeks she’s been here have been a dream to me, and she feels like the missing piece of my life. The house feels like a home now when I step inside.
Fuck knows what we’ll do if this all blows up in our faces. It’s bad enough when I come home, and she’s not here. I don’t exactly know what I’ll do if things go back to being without her.
“What are you watching?” I ask when we pull out of the kiss.
I glance at the widescreen of the TV, and while it looks like an old horror film, I can’t quite place which film it is.
“It’s one of the old Friday the 13th movies.” She chuckles.
“You’re here by yourself on a Friday night watching Friday the 13th?” I raise my brows.
“I see your point.” She giggles.
“Let me get popcorn, and I’ll watch it with you.”
“Yay.”
I make the popcorn, and I had every intention of watching the film but ten minutes into attempting to do so, and she reached over and put her hand on my thigh.
That was all it took for me to lose control and get her on her hands and knees so I could fuck her on the sofa.
That’s what we did for the whole film. By then, Georgiou came home, and we took our Friday night to the bedroom, where we both ended the night buried deep inside her.
Saturday came, and I enjoyed having dinner with my father.
It was clear at the outset that we were planning to stay a max of one to two hours so we could eat and head home. However, we spoke for three hours and then found ourselves at the bowling alley for another three hours.
There’s no way I ever expected to find myself hanging out with my father that way, and the best part was it was just the two of us. There was no one else to cushion us, so we wouldn’t argue or even out the balance so the tension wouldn’t be as heavy.
We even made plans to return next week for the same thing, and he invited me for dinner at the family home I haven’t been to in five years on the following Sunday.
It felt like being in another dimension where things were going great with us.
My good mood from the evening rippled into the next day when Georgiou decided the three of us should spend the day on the lake in his sailboat.
That’s exactly what we did, and we both had a blast with Evie.
When night falls, we get off the boat, and I can tell from the way Georgiou has his hands all over Evie that he’s going to want her to himself all night.
We get in the car, and I offer to drive to allow them to make out in the back seat since they were already doing that for the last hour.
As I am pulling out of the car park at the docks, I notice a man with a hooded sweatshirt enveloped in the shadows of the alleyway.
I was about to look away, but I notice he’s actually watching us, and he doesn’t stop either. Peter is the first person to cross my mind, a good look at this guy, and I see it’s not him. He has an extra two feet on Peter and more muscle.
But… that doesn’t mean he doesn’t work for him.
I’m not sure if he notices I clocked on to him, but I’m damn sure he’s definitely watching us. I admit to being extra paranoid given the situation, but I don’t think I’m wrong, so I keep my eye on him until I’m out of there.
Georgiou and I have been really careful where we take Evie and when we show affection outside, we make sure it’s not the two of us because that by itself will draw attention. I, for one, would be looking without shame if I saw two men spooning on a woman and feeling her up.
Aside from that, we knew we needed to be careful because we don’t know who could see us together, and she isn’t supposed to be with us.
When I take the road to head home, a car turns the corner as I drive past and tails us.
My nerves pique when it continues to follow us all the way down the road. It turns when I do three times. It’s them. I’m sure as fuck, it has to be the same guy who was watching us.
In order to lose them, I slow down and indicate to the left, and when they slow, too, I do a sharp right and go down the other road, speeding onto the road that leads to the most traffic.
Georgiou noticed what I did and straightens up to look at me in the rearview mirror.
Thankfully, Evie didn’t and is still lost in him. I shake my head at him, a sign that we’ll talk later because I don’t want to panic Evie.
Georgiou looks through the back window, but we’re long gone from whoever that asshole was who was following us.
When we get home, we both act normal. Georgiou takes Evie upstairs, and I know I have to wait until she’s asleep before we talk.
Georgiou finds me downstairs, sitting by the window in the living room close to midnight. I’m watching the place like I’m waiting for someone to come down the drive and shoot up the place.
“What the hell happened?” he asks, pulling up the wooden chair to sit opposite me.
“Someone was following us. They were probably watching from when we stepped off the boat.”
“Fuck. Are you absolutely sure?”
“Yeah, I am sure.” Now isn’t the time to second guess myself. Even if there’s a chance I’m wrong—and I don’t think so—we have to be careful. That person saw all three of us together.
Or rather, it might be better to say, us with Evie.
“Did you get a look at them?”
“No, it was just a guy in the shadows with a hooded sweatshirt on. The built wasn’t like Peter’s. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t one of Peter’s lackeys.”
“Or Donny’s,” Georgiou surmises.
Yes, or Donny’s—which is so much worse.
Jesus. “What the fuck do we do, Georgiou? I’m like a fucking sitting duck, and if you don’t mind me saying, my friend, so are you.”
He rises and places a hand on his head.
“I can’t call Donny and talk to him, Henry. It’s bad enough that I’m with her, and she’s supposed to get engaged to that asshole next month. But this isn’t just about me.”
“Don’t tell him about me,” I offer.
“I don’t feel right doing that.”
“Georgiou, you just said it yourself; this isn’t just about you. You do what you have to do so she can stay in our lives.” I release a sigh.
“I know, but I don’t feel right doing that.”
“I’ll leave it to you. We have bigger fish to fry. If I’m right, then this person saw us together. That’s the fucking bottom line we have to deal with.”
“Let’s see what happens over the next few days. I mean, we’ll know more if anyone contacts us. We’ll know better then. In any event, we have to lay low. Maybe she should stay with Cordelia for a while.”
“She was excited about going to the club next week,” I point out.
“We can’t go.”
“You want to tell her that?” I raise my brows.
Evie has been dying to go to Georgiou’s club with us. It was all the talk last week because we changed her. Before we dirtied her up, there’s no way a sweet girl like her would venture into a sex club, let alone talk about it. But she wants to go because of the thrill of going with us.
“I will. We can’t risk going somewhere so public. She can go back to Cordelia’s tomorrow. Maybe we can see her there.”
“We’re going to have to tell her something.”
“I know. She should know. If she doesn’t, she’ll wonder what’s going on, and I don’t want to keep her in the dark.”
“Me neither.”
There’s something more we have to talk about that he won’t like.
He’s not a failure, and he never accepts the point at which you have to retreat, but it’s looking like it might be something we might have to factor in.
Georgiou is the kind of guy who would rather die trying, and this is the exact situation where he would do just that. It’s because he’s in love with her. I am too, but one of us has to think about the situation in its entirety and consider the possibility of failure.
It’s not that I wouldn’t die trying. It’s just that I can see the other side of the coin where my death might not change anything. I learned that after my busted leg ended my football career and I realized no amount of physio could fix me.
“Georgiou.”
“What?”
“We’re going to have to consider that this might not work, and we can’t do this to her. She shouldn’t have to live in secret. She’s young, and she’s just started her life. We’ve lived. There might be a point when this pursuit no longer benefits all of us, and we’ll just end up looking like the selfish motherfuckers we are.”
He stares back at me, and in the depths of his eyes, I can see he has thought about it.
Georgiou pulls in a breath and answers with a slight nod, then he leaves.
I have a bad feeling in my gut.
That feeling always comes to fuck with me when I have no control over a situation.
The feeling is there, and I’m not sure when it’s going to go away.
