Chapter 4 Enemy's Daughter

• 4. Enemy’s Daughter
• >
• I pull over in the parking lot of The Kids Academy, a fancy daycare of my daughter, and walk inside to pick her.
• She comes running towards me, screaming. “Daddy!!”
• I pretend to stumble behind with her force and she giggles.
• “Easy girl..” I say as I pick her up.
• “Did you eat donuts again?” I ask her while fixing her hair. Her hair is as wild as her mothers. I push the guilt away. I cannot show weakness If I want to punish her as she deserves.
• “Yes. Easter’s donuts… I eat him too.”
• “‘His. Not him.” I correct her and put her in the car seat.
• Easter is her ‘this week’s best buddy’. She is speaking more and more complex sentences nowadays.
• “Mommy see me.” she says and my jaw clenches.
• “She came inside?” I ask her in a calm voice. I removed Rose from the guardian list long ago. Jessie doesn’t answer me and starts playing with the car toy in her hand.
• “Jessie… Did momma come inside?”
• ”No.. she.. she is crying.”
• I grimace. She probably created some drama at daycare again. That bitch doesn’t realize it leaves a terrible effect on Jessie if she sees her crying. The sooner she stops seeing her, the easier it would be for Jessie to forget her mother.
• I reach home and cook dinner for both of us while watching the news. As expected, some reporters are bashing Rose real bad. Callum is taking good heat too.
• I turn my head towards tv when a newsroom discussion about today’s drama starts.
• “I don’t know. Mikolaj Josef is a hard man to read. It’s surprising that every time anyone who has even a minor rift with him, somehow goes bankrupt,” a reporter says and the panelist chuckles.
• “Now Now! Be careful what you say! You don’t wanna be enemies with him. Do you?”
• I shake my head in amusement. These are all stupid tactics to ruin my name in subtle ways. Doesn’t matter to me.
• It serves me well if people are afraid of me.
• No one can dig up dirt on me because I keep my tracks clean. I am not sloppy like others. I learned a salutary lesson when I was barely at Jonas' age. Since then, I have not slacked off.
• After dinner, Jessie creates mayhem for quite a while in the entire house. Thanks to her double donut energy. Then she finally falls asleep around 7:30.
• At 7:45, I hear a knock at the door, and I open the door for Jonas. I make a drink for both of us while he opens the compiled report.
• “His name is Garrett. Never heard of him, but I have been told he is good,” Jonas says and I frown.
• Garrett?
• It can’t be him.
• “Garrett Adams?” I make a vague guess.
• “Yes.”
• I put my drink on the counter to open the file and see his photograph pinned at the top. My jaw clenches. I stare at the photograph for a while. It is indeed him. He looks old. Older than me. He is an enemy. The only one with whom I am not even yet.
• Rose was right about one thing. I didn’t love her. Because the only woman I loved was stolen away from me by this motherfucker 20 years ago.
• I knew he was a small-time lawyer. Defending low lives, barely making a living. I turn a few pages to see if he is still married to her. Her photograph is pinned too. My stomach twists.
• Lena Adams.
• That’s not her real name.
• I still know her By Lena Kowalski. We were childhood friends and our families moved to the USA from Poland together. We grew up next to each other. She was supposed to be Mine. Now look at them, happily married even after this long. He was a bastard and she still chose him. There is a reason Callum and Rose’s betrayal hit me to the core. Because it felt like I was living the same hell all over again. No wonder it stings even after twenty fucking years.
• He not only took away Lena from me but also broke my family apart. My brother cannot step foot in the United States because of him. He is the reason Jonas had to leave his father behind in Poland.
• I grab his photograph and look at it, thinking—He is so happy in his life— with a loving family.
• I, on the other hand, was alone all those years. I had no family left in the States. Even my closest friend was taken away.
• I didn’t marry Rose until I was 35. Three years ago she bore me a daughter. Rose knew it was a marriage of convenience, but I cared for her. Never mistreated her. Never cheated on her. She needed a rich name and a lifestyle. I wanted a child. She always knew what she was in for. I am happy with Jessie in my life. Then why do I suddenly have a fire burning within me?
• I have always got even with my enemies. Garrett got away from it because I was too young to retaliate. Too kind. Too hurt to even react. I left them behind when Lena got pregnant with his child. I wonder how old that child is now. I turn the page and see a young girl.
• As beautiful as her mother.
• She has her mother’s eyes. Lips too. I read the information and something peculiar catches my eyes. My lips twitch.
• Riley Adams
• 19 years old
• A sophomore at Michigan university in the Business administration and management Program.
• Same college and program as Jonas. This is a delightful surprise.
• “Do you know this girl?” I ask Jonas and he peeks, then laughs.
• “Oh yes… She is a dick tease.”
• “I want you to do something, Jonas.”
• “What?”
• “Put in some effort and get into her pants.”
• He chuckles. “Okay… I can try. But why?”
• I pick up a photograph of the three of them having lunch and laughing together.
• “We won’t buy him out. But twist his arm to make him do what we want…”
• And we will use his daughter for this.