Chapter 487 I Am Not A Boy

Noah’s POV

“I did not do anything to her. She came to me,” my father said.

“She came because you called her,” I said.

“I called. She answered. That is not the same thing,” my father said.

“You kissed her,” I said.

“She kissed me back,” my father said.

I walked to his desk. I put my hands flat on it.

“You are going to tell me everything. What you want. What you are planning. What you did to Katia’s car. All of it,” I said.

He smiled. That small, ugly smile.

“Or what?” my father asked.

“Or I stop being your son,” I said.

The smile faded. Just a little.

“You would not,” my father said.

“Try me,” I said.

He looked at me for a long moment. Then he laughed. Not loud. Pleased.

“There he is. The boy finally grew teeth,” my father said.

“I am not a boy,” I said.

“No. You are not. You are a man who just found out his wife prefers his father,” my father said.

I did not hit him. I wanted to. I did not.

“Tell me what you want, or I walk out that door and I never come back,” I said.

He stood. He walked to the window. He looked out at the city like it belonged to him.

“I want the Windsors gone. All of them. Julian. Katia. The children. I want their name erased from this city,” my father said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because they took what was mine. Because they think they are better than me. Because I have waited long enough,” my father said.

“And Delia?” I asked.

“Delia is a tool. She is useful. She will keep being useful,” my father said.

“She is my wife,” I said.

“She is whatever I need her to be,” my father said.

I picked up my phone. I dialed Julian’s number.

“What are you doing?” my father asked.

“Calling your enemy. The one you have been trying to destroy,” I said.

“You would not,” my father said.

“Watch me,” I said.

The phone rang. Julian answered.

“Noah,” Julian said.

“I need to talk to you. About my father. About everything,” I said.

Silence on the other end.

“Come to the estate. Now,” Julian said.

I hung up.

My father was staring at me. The smile was gone.

“You just made the biggest mistake of your life,” my father said.

“No,” I said. “I just made the first right one.”

I walked out. I did not look back.

In the car, I sat with my hands on the wheel and my heart pounding. I had done it. I had finally chosen a side. Not my father’s. Not the middle. Mine.

Delia had lied to me. My father had used her. And I was done protecting either of them.

I started the car and drove toward the estate. Toward Julian. Toward the truth.

Whatever came next, I was not going to be the man who stayed silent.

I drove to the estate with my father’s words still in my ears. Delia is a tool. She is useful. She will keep being useful.

I had spent twenty minutes in his office wanting to hit him. I had spent the drive after wanting to call Delia and ask what she had really done. I had done neither. I had called Julian instead, and Julian had said one thing: come now.

The gate opened before I reached it. Two men I did not recognize checked my face against a list, then stepped aside. The house was quiet in the way it always was when something was about to happen.

Julian was in the study. He did not stand when I came in. He did not offer a chair. He looked at me the way a man looks at a door that has been left open too long.

“You knew,” I said.

“I knew a lot of things.” He leaned back. “Sit down, Noah. This is going to take a while.”

I sat.

“I knew your wife was listening at my door on Thursday,” he said. “I knew before she got there. I knew when she told the housekeeper she was looking for a book. I knew when she stood in the hall for twenty minutes and heard nothing but shipping routes.”

My stomach dropped.

“You let her listen.”

“I let her hear what I wanted her to hear. Crane was real. The meeting was real. The port in the south was real. Everything she reported to your father was true—and useless.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to see what he would do with it. And because I wanted to see what she would do with it.” He tapped the desk once. “She came back and told him it was nothing. That was the one honest thing she did all day.”

“You knew about Delia.”

“I knew about Delia the moment she walked into my house looking for a book that was never there.” He stood and walked to the window. “I also knew about your father. I knew about the car. I knew about the emails. I knew about the study. I knew everything you have been carrying for months and never said.”

The room went very quiet.

“You knew,” I said. “The whole time.”

“I knew.”

“And you let me sit in your office and lie to your face.”

“You did not lie to my face. You told me a warning and kept the rest. That is not lying. That is choosing.” He turned around. “I let you choose. I wanted to see if you would ever choose right.”

I stood up.

“So what now? You knew everything and you did nothing?”

“I did plenty. I tightened security. I changed routes. I found Halcyon.” He said the name like it was a wound. “I have been cutting your father’s money for weeks. I did not need your confession. I needed your father to feel it.”

“Then why did you call me here?”

Julian walked back to the desk and sat down. He looked at me for a long moment.