Intense (Dark Hearts)

Prologue

Roman

I enter the charity dinner alone as always. My tuxedo’s already testing my patience with this stupid bow tie and collar that make it feel stuffy in here. I wear a suit every day, so maybe it's not the clothes that has me chomping at the bit. I promised to give a speech at dinner as one of the prominent benefactors, but as I walk in, I see a man I haven't seen in a decade. A man I loved and trusted. A man who abandoned me.

"Mr. Danvers, is it?" he remarks with a hint of frustration like he has the right to be angry with me that I changed my name.

"Mr. Edwards." I'm blunt, rude as per my usual, but it's years of bitterness that has me grinding my teeth.

He sighs, running his hand through his thick brown hair that’s gotten much more grey than I remember. "You know—” There’s a long pause as he rubs the back of his neck. “I thought that when you finally got out from under your mother’s thumb, you’d seek me out, but all these years and nothing.”

"Why the fuck would I look for you? So you could abandon me again?” My voice raises, but I quickly drop it down before people hear us.

“Abandon you? I never ever abandoned you, Roman.” He looks completely confused, angry, hurt, all the damn feelings I should be feeling, not him.

“Bullshit. I heard the conversation between you and Mom that night. The night you learned I wasn’t your biological son.”

“You only heard what your broken heart wanted to hear, but I assure you I wouldn’t have let you go for nothing. If she hadn’t snuck out with you while I was gone, she wouldn’t have had a chance to take you.” I stare at him like he’s crazy, full of shit. Then I see something in his eyes. Tears.

He pulls out his handkerchief and wipes gently. “Please, let’s have a minute before this starts. Please tell me the devil didn’t come with you.” He looks around the room as if my mother’s going to pop up behind him.

“No. My mother isn’t here.”

“Come this way, for just a minute. Please.” I nod, and he leads me off back into the corridor and then into a small alcove. We sit down on a bench out of the way of the arriving guests. “Right after my stint in the hospital, I learned that not only had I been poisoned, but that you didn’t have the right blood to donate to me. They check family first, and you were my only known blood relation. It came back, and they said you were not my child. At first, I was devastated, but a part of me always had a feeling. After all, you look exactly like your real father. I confronted Anna about it, and she told me that I was just a patsy, her way out of her shitty life, but that she hated me. I told her to get the fuck out and never come back, but I told her that you were staying and that you were my son.”

“Are you serious?” I’m trying to process everything he’s saying. As much as I don’t want to take it at face value, I have a sinking feeling in my gut.

“Very. I planned to take you on that trip and consult a lawyer, but the next day, you fell off your bike and broke your arm. I knew she tampered with your brakes because she wanted to get back at me, but I had no proof since your bike rode into traffic and had been run over after you fell.”

“I remember her insisting I go out for a ride. I didn’t feel like it because I was psyched about the trip.”

“Yes, I know. I didn’t want to go without you, but you insisted I not bail on my friends and that it was only for the weekend. I had no idea it would be the biggest mistake I’d make.”

“You wanted me?”

“I fought the courts for you. She claimed that I’d abandoned you to go fishing and that since I wasn’t your biological dad, I had no rights to you. I even said that I signed your birth certificate, which means that legally I had a right, but they pulled the birth certificate, and it no longer had my name. It had been removed the day I got out of the hospital. Then, when I went to court, she had photos of bruises on her, and diary notes claiming I abused her. I was lucky not to end up in jail. There was a restraining order put out on me to stay away from you.”

“If you knew all this, why didn’t you contact me sooner?”

“The restraining order ran out two days ago. I decided now was my best chance of seeing you again. You may not believe me, but here’s the proof.” He hands me a document with a court stamp. It’s a restraining order against him. If he’d really abandoned me like my mother had claimed, then why would he need one of these? It’s too much to puzzle out.