The Billionaire's Hidden Heir

#8 - Fate, Maybe?

Lily

Asher is our son... That statement from Adrian's lips would have had me reaching for the stars once upon a time. Right now? Right now I wished to stab something or someone, preferably his over confident self that had scraped at my angry shield with that statement. Or simply burn down the universe for being in his favour time and time again.

He was damned right Asher was our son, but Adrian was nothing more than a sperm donor I had intended to forget the moment I left Glanbury. And I had tried. I decided never to even look him up. I hadn't for a whole nine months, until Asher's birth changed everything. Now I didn't need to look him up anymore. Seeing my son everyday made sure I was reminded of his father without asking for it. And I couldn't hate Asher.

"Down finally?" Derby peeked over my shoulder into Asher's room that she'd helped me decorate five years ago. Nothing much of the decor had changed since then, except for the addition of different figurines of Asher's favourite super heroes that had inspired the theme for his birthday party this year.

"Yep," I sighed, still leaning on the frame of my son's bedroom door. He'd been down for a while, but I couldn't bring myself to leave him. I nursed this weird feeling that I would return to his bed empty, him gone - taken from me. "He couldn't stop talking about how much his party rocked until sleep eventually won." He also couldn't stop gushing about the new friend who had his eyes and loved the same kind of chocolate he did. Those moments ripped through me with guilt and left me scared as countless 'what ifs' assaulted me. The worst of them: Asher hating me for lying to him and going off with Adrian, leaving me alone. I'd been a little jealous, too. After working so hard at the surprise birthday party, I was supposed to be super mom, taking all the credit for his happiness - because that's all I had ever wanted: for my little sunshine to be happy, but seeing how animated he got while talking about Adrian, whom he'd only met today, I couldn't shake the feeling that I would never be enough for my son. I couldn't help but hate Adrian a little more for that too.

My heart dipped as I watched my son sleep, a contented look on his little handsome face. He looked so much like Adrian.

"I've been a terrible friend." I confessed, turning to Derby. Maybe I could right one wrong tonight.

"Now why would you think that?" Derby barely kept from screaming, casting a quick glance in Asher's direction, a bewildered expression on her face.

"Because I haven't been completely honest about my past...relationships," I said, finally finding the strength to walk away from Asher's room. I left his bedroom door open, just in case. Walking back to my own bedroom, I noted how clean the short hallway was after the party, a sight I knew reflected the rest of the house, courtesy of Derby. Guilt prickled even more. How could I do this to her, not trust her when she'd proven time and time again that she cared more than she should?

"Girl, I'm pretty sure you don't know about all of my past-"

"Adrian Frost is Asher's father." I blurted out, cutting her off as I nervously sunk to the edge of my bed.

Derby only stared. Then blinked, and blinked some more before she skirted around my bed and snatched Asher's photo from my dresser. "So that's it!" She exclaimed with realization. "God, now I totally agree with you. I'm sleep deprived."

"What?" It was my turn to blink.

"I thought he looked familiar when I stepped into his office in Glanbury and when I met him at the airstrip, but I couldn't place my finger on it. Are you sure you made him together, though?" Derby shot me an assessing look, that if I wasn't so confused by what she was saying, would have left me shifting where I sat.

"I don't understand." She'd mentioned going by the airstrip today when she'd come over to pick Asher for the sleepover last night. I'd just assumed she was going over there to do some inspections or something as mayor, not that she was receiving someone, least of all, Adrian.

"It's just, there is more Adrian in Asher than there is you."

"I still don't understand." I shook my head at my friend whose eyes still remained on Asher's photo. "Since when were you in Glanbury?"

"I-" Derby finally tore away her gaze from the photo and looked at me. Something must have shown on my face because she rushed to my side and held my hand. "This is all my fault, isn't it?"

Her fault? I stared at her, bewildered. "Why would you think that?" I asked. Sure she had let Asher walk into the party on Adrian's hand who was a stranger, but it wasn't like she had gone ahead and searched for him, because that was impossible. Even if Asher looked like Adrian's replica, no one would have connected the dots out here in Radiant Springs.

"Because-" Derby sighed. "The client, Radiant Spring's saviour, happens to be Frost Industries."

"I'm sorry, what?" Even though I was sitting down, I felt my legs go numb.

Derby's hold on my hand tightened. "Frost Industries is that organization willing to bail Radiant Springs out. Headed by Adrian Frost, Asher's father, the guy I'm gathering, you never hoped to see ever again. The guy I brought to you. You've been hiding?" There was no accusation in her voice, but I couldn't help not feeling it even as shock at the turn of events assaulted me. Of all the places, companies that could invest in Radiant Springs, Frost industries turned out to be the one willing? What were the odds? Was it Wallace's doing? Had he been the one to point his grandson in our direction?

"Lily?"

"Hmmm?" I answered Derby absentmindedly, my mind on my encounter with my ex-husband down at the Cozy Cask. Adrian had always been cold, but never confrontational, which he was at the pub. He was like a wounded beast that was short of killing Warrick among other things. Things I couldn't let my poor heart dwell on. That didn't speak of someone who knew what they were about to walk into. He was just as shocked as I was.

"What happened between you two?"

"It's complicated." I shot to my feet, guilt prickling even more. "But, I'm so sorry for not coming clean."

"Nah," Derby waved me away. "I should be the one apologizing-"

"Please stop. You have nothing to apologise for." I reached for her. "You were just doing your job. He's not here because of us...me." I mumbled. Adrian hadn't been searching for me. Something weirdly tightened in my chest at that. "I just can't wrap my head around the fact that he is here."

"Fate, maybe?" Derby said, her brow raised. I wanted to say no. That fate had nothing to do with anything. That it was nothing but a weird belief that gave humans a false sense of hope over that one thing they really wanted. But what were the odds of me meeting Derby that day of all the people in Radiant Springs, the same woman who would lead my ex-husband to my door step more than five years later. The universe did really hate me.