Chapter 185: RIGHT ON TIME

Ace woke up the next morning, sprawled on the floor of his painting room.

He rolled, and groaned when his body pressed hard against the paint brush.

Taking a second for the pain to pass, he rose to his feet.

His body staggered when it was fully erect. Looking around, the room began to spin for a few seconds.

After a while it stopped, and he took a step forward.

He didn’t bother to check the progress of his painting.

Turning the keys of the door, he opened it, and walked out the room.

He went straight to his own room, and went into the shower.

His shirt came off, and his pants followed. Throwing them through the doors of the bathroom, to the floor of his room, he grabbed the shower head, and turned it on.

Ace returned to his room, feeling alive again. He stepped on his clothes on the ground, on his way to his closet.

After dressing up, he began to search for his phone.

It occurred to him he must have dropped it in his pants pocket.

Returning to the clothes on the ground,he picked up his pants. He checked, and found the phone in it.

Retrieving the device, he placed it into the pockets of the pants he was wearing, and turned towards the door.

He was a man on a mission. There was only one goal in his mind, and it was to do everything he could to turn the tides.

Reign was waiting for him when he made it down the stairs.

"Hey are you—"

He walked past her, and went out of the house.

"Cam!" He called at the top of his voice.

His driver came running with his car keys. There was a way his name was called by his boss, that made him already know what he wanted.

Ace stretched out his hand, and Cam dropped the key in it.

He pressed the remote key, and one of his cars opened up.

The gate was already open, before he reached it.

Ignoring Frank’s greeting, he drove straight to the Luxe mansion.

Seth Luxe was in the living room with his great granddaughter and her nanny, when one of his domestic staff came to tell him Ace Atticus was at the gate.

A memory of the night he picked up Fay from the side of the road flashed in his mind, and he went into his head.

Seth was seated in his living room when his phone began to ring.

There were only three people that called him. His private investigator, the acting president of Luxe, and one of his domestic staff.

So when his phone began to ring, he had expected it to be one of these three.

He answered, and the next voice he heard caused a shudder to run through him.

"Hello Mr Luxe," he heard Margaret Atticus voice say.

"How do you have my number, Maggie? I haven’t heard from you in years," he replied after a brief silence.

"Because you’ve decided to be a social ghost. I understand it, but I also don’t understand it," the Atticus matriarch said.

"You’d know about that—"

"By the way you sound, I have a feeling you know the truth."

"What truth Maggie? I want to hear it from you."

"That over twenty years ago, you son and his wife got into an accident. Your granddaughter was in that car too. It was all orchestrated by my son."

A tear dropped from Seth’s eyes. After meeting the stranger Fay at the beach, he knew he had to do some research.

He called on the private investigator that helped him locate his son. After many investigations, he came up with some results.

The fact that the family that had caused him so much pain, was the same family his granddaughter was married to made him almost lose his mind.

He knew he had to get her away. But he also couldn’t just appear in her face, and tell her she was his granddaughter.

"Why are you telling me this now, Maggie?" he asked through the tears.

"Will you believe me if I told you that I didn’t discover your relationship with the parents of Fay, until very recently? Your son didn’t hear Luxe. He went by Landon."

It made sense to him, and he was angry it did. Because he could sit there and dish out blames, but if he had accepted his son’s decisions, maybe he would have preserved his life.

"What do you want?"

"My grandson has been greatly misinformed. I choose to believe he’ll do the right thing, but Ace is crazily erratic. I don’t know what his decision will be. I’m not confident he’ll protect your granddaughter. I want you to be on standby for this Saturday. If anything horrible happens, you’ll get a call. Save Fay. She deserves good things only."

In his forty years of knowing, and knowing about the matriarch of the Atticus dynasty, he had never heard her sound that emotional.

She must have formed a really good bond with his granddaughter.

"Why can’t you save her?" He couldn’t help but to ask.

"My hands are tied, Seth. It’s all my fault for raising monstrous children. I couldn’t save your son. It would kill me if I didn’t do my best to save your granddaughter."

"Alright. I’ll be waiting for that call."

The call ended, and he wept. He wept until he couldn’t feel his soul anymore. After so many years of waiting, there was a big possibility his granddaughter was coming home.

And just as predicted, one week later, he got the call.

He drove that night to the side of the road, where he found Fay, already unconscious.

With the help of his driver, he had carried her into the car, and to the hospital.

What started as a traumatic event, brought forth the beautiful child that was now seated on his lap.

As he left his head, his eyes rested on her. Their dream.

Her father was currently at the gate, seeking an audience with him.

Neither of them knew about the existence of each other. His granddaughter wanted it to remain so.

He looked up, and discovered he had their pictures all over the living room.

"Hey Dream, pawpaw wants to host a visitor. Do you mind going away with your nanny for a while?" He tapped the little girl.

"Okay pawpaw!" She said, jumping off his lap.

She had changed his name overnight, because she didn’t want to keep calling him the same name her mother did.

"Nana, do you want to play with my dolls?" She asked.

"Of course darling," she replied, after exchanging glances with Seth.

She knew about the parenthood of the girl, and knew that her boss wanted to keep it a secret.

Whisking the little girl into her arm, she carried her away.

"Bye pawpaw!" She screamed behind her shoulders.

Seth sprang to his feet the second she disappeared out of sight.

"Tell one of the staff to bring him to the third living room through the other entrance," he ordered one of the staff present.

He was seated in the comfort of one of his couches when the door opened, and Ace was led in.

Ace remembered meeting the Luxe patriarch once when he was a boy.

His father had brought him to this same mansion for a mission.

What the mission was about, he didn’t know.

When they left, his father didn’t look too happy. But like all times, he still managed a smile on his face.

Now he was back, and looking at the man who had grown considerably older.

"Good day sir," he greeted.

"Please call me Seth," he said, stretching his hand.

Ace shook it firmly, then took a seat beside, across from him.

A staff member came with some drinks and snacks, and placed them in front of him.

"Thanks," he muttered.

After they left the room, he returned his attention to Seth Luxe.

"I didn’t think you’d let me in," he said, breaking the thick silence.

"Why?"

"The woman you’ve entrusted your legacy to, and I, were once married. We didn’t part ways in the best way."

"That woman is my granddaughter." Seth corrected.

"Your granddaughter?" Ace asked.

"I know you’re wondering how, because I never had a child. At least you were too young to remember. But I did have a son who ran away to start a family. The woman he started a family with, bore Fay."

Ace threw his head back and began to laugh. The man had to be demented. Fay had gotten him good.

Her mother was the woman she claimed to be her aunt. Definitely not whoever he was talking about.

"Is something funny, Ace?"

"I think you’re mistaken. She can’t be your granddaughter. I know her mother."

"Oh do you now?" He leaned forward with curiosity.

"I do. I can bring her to you if that’s what you’d like. Fay lied to you. That’s–"

"That’s what?" The door opened, and Fay walked into the room.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read