Forbidden Heat novel Chapter 149

“My father…he thought he was going to die?” I asked rhetorically. This was the first clue I noticed from my father’s words. My father, he knew that he was going to die when he said those words…

“It was a possibility, yes,” Lucien replied as he nodded slowly, his lips pressed into a tight line.

“Why did he think he was going to die? How did my father die?” I asked in succession. There was so much that I wanted to know. At the back of my mind, I think I already knew the answer. My father probably didn’t die a natural death. Unfortunately, we’re probably not talking about a case of terminal cancer here…

“I can’t tell you right now. You can try Edward, but I doubt he’ll tell you anything…without a very high price,” Lucien answered with a soft laugh. These brothers hated each other but they knew each other very well, I’ll give them that.

At least Lucien did not pretend that he didn’t know. He just admitted upfront that he was not going to tell me right now. I wonder what conditions I had to meet for him to tell me…everything.

“So, what can you tell me?” I asked impatiently.

“Your father gave me that black envelop asking me to protect if it he passed away. Based on his request, I did not open the envelop until he passed away. When I opened the envelop, just like you just saw, I found that photograph inside,” Lucien paused, and it was clear that he was reflecting on his interactions with my late father.

“To be honest, I didn’t know up until that point that your father had a wife and a child…I guess no one knew. However, no matter how you look at it, that photo is a family photo. For your mother and your safety, your father probably didn’t tell a soul of his relationship with you both. However, he was very worried about you two that he asked me to take care of you should he pass away…” Lucien recounted the event from his perspective.

“What happened next?” I asked curiously.

“It took a while but finally, I found your mother and somehow I was able to convince her that your father had left her in my care. In the end, I was able to convince her to start working for me. The rest of the story you should already know. When she started to trust me more, she introduced me to you and then we started discussing our marriage of convenience,” Lucien quickly wrapped up his story.

Basically, Lucien supported us because my father, his mentor, asked him to do so. My mother, on the other hand, agreed to Lucien’s plans because she trusted in my father’s judgement to leave us with him. Is that really it?

I still had so many questions that I wanted to ask him but before I could form the words…

“Well, that’s more than enough for today. Let’s leave the past in the past for now, shall we?” Lucien said as he smiled back at me. It was evident that our talk was over for tonight.

I felt my brows knitting together as I pondered who out of these two extremely stubborn brothers that I could more easily extract information from. Lucien was more straight forward but inflexible and not so open to negotiations. Edward on the other hand was extremely tricky and unfair in his negotiations…