The Billionaire's forbidden daughter

Chapter 2

EMMA

A hand closes tightly around my arm the instant I walk through the door.

I stare in surprise at my boss. His face is pale and strained.

"What have you done?" he hisses as he closes the door of the restaurant's kitchen behind me.

"I- I don't understand," I stammer.

The manager opens the door a crack, and points. I look up and there he is, seating alone at a booth in the corner.

Ethan Cole. He is staring longingly at the door through which I had just walked.

How the hell had he found out who I was so quickly?

"You know who he is, don't you?" the manager is saying. "Ethan Cole, the most powerful man in the city. He came here this morning, asking about you. Why would he do that? If you're gotten yourself into some sort of trouble... don't drag me and my business into it."

"I- I don't know who he is or what he wants," I lie.

Because how could I tell him or anyone that Ethan Cole is my father? My biological father.

Years ago, he had gotten mother pregnant. He had denied the pregnancy when she had told him about it, calling her a slut who wanted to force another man's baby on him.

I had found out all this weeks after mother had passed when I had been going through her things.

Mother had found love again with Marcus years later and married him. Marcus had loved me like his own. Now, Ethan Cole was dead to me.

Finally, my boss leaves.

I take a deep breath, grab a rag and enter the main restaurant. Ethan's lips move, form the word "Emma" as he starts to stand.

I go about my work and ignore him. Or try to.

He sits in the diner all that day, occasionally ordering stuff, trying to catch my eye. At closing time, I take the back entrance so we don't get to talk.

The next day he is at the diner. And the next and the next. He sits at the same spot. Always watching me, wanting to talk.

This goes on for weeks. By then I am nearly half out of my mind with anger.

Why the hell wouldn't he leave me alone?

I begin scanning through the ads of newspapers every morning, looking for another job.

The diner closes very late one evening and I am heading home. It is almost midnight. Even Ethan is gone.

For some reason, the usually busy streets are deserted. I am passing under a busted street lamp when a man, wearing a fedora pulled down low over his face, steps into my path.

He looks at me, licks his lips.

I stop dead. My heart seems to freeze in my chest.

"Please, let me pass," I whimper.

"You're prettier than I expected," he says. "Come with me. There is a hotel around the corner. Maybe if you screw me properly, I'll knock a few thousand dollars off your father's debt."

I turn to run, but the man is faster.

"Stubborn b***h!" he curses.

Moving as quickly as a striking snake, he hits me in the stomach twice. I gasp for air. Just as he grabs me and his fist connects with my jaw, I hear the roar of a car engine.

"Get away from her!" a voice I think is Ethan Cole's barks as I blank out.

*****

My head is throbbing. Slowly, I open my eyes and see Ethan leaning over me.

"Get away from me!" I cry and try to sit, but my head spins so bad I lie back, panting.

"Easy, now. Easy," Ethan says softly.

I am in an unfamiliar room, richly decorated.

"Where-" I begin.

"You're in my house," he says. "Couldn't leave you lying in the street after I dealt with Ed."

I frown. "Ed?"I pause, remembering the man's strange words. "What did he want with me? Who is he?"

Ethan's face tightens. "He is the most notorious scum in the city with links to the underworld. Your stepfather, Marcus was desperate enough to take a loan from him. Only he didn't read the fine print in the document he signed. Ed charges 70% interest payable in a month. Seems Ed heard of you and wanted you too as payment. If I hadn't come along or if you hadn't cooperated with him, your father would be in the hospital by now, with a broken limbs. Busted ribs... Or worse."

I gulp. My head is spinning.

How could father do this? How were we going to pay such outrageous interest?

"Where's Ed now?" I whisper.

"Don't worry about him." A strange look crosses his face. "I've taken care of it. Ed and his gang won't be bothering anyone ever again."

I start to ask what that means but Ethan is reaching for me, trying to adjust the covers around me.

The anger, swirling beneath the surface all this time comes back, swamping the shock. I slap his hand away.

"Leave me alone!" I yell. "Just because you saved me doesn't mean I want anything to do with you. Why have you been stalking me anyway?"

"Because you are my daughter, Emma!" he says.

Silence. Heavy silence. I gulp, swallow.

I start to deny it but he is already holding out something. A well worn piece of paper stuffed in an envelope.

The words DNA TEST RESULTS are written on top.

My hands close into fists.

How the hell had he gotten my DNA sample? Had he hired people to snoop around my house to get my saliva, hair, nail clippings? If he thinks he can get away with that because he is rich-

"Emma please," he pleads, reaching for me again. "I know what you might have been told, but I loved your mother. I really did. Pease, just- just hear me out... Five minutes... It's all I ask..."

I don't know why I agree. Perhaps it is something I hear in his voice when he said he had loved my mother.

He begins to talk.

"I wasn't lying when I said I loved Ava... your mother. She was my first love. She was beautiful, free, kind, loving... She used to work as a maid at my house nineteen years ago. We fell for each other. Hard."

"Get to the point!" I growl.

He exhales. "We had an affair. I was going to marry her. I swear I was even though I knew my family- my mother- wouldn't have approved. Then our family doctor paid me a visit, shortly after my twice yearly medical checkup. He said everything was fine with me except for the fact that I was infertile. I couldn't father a child. Azoospermia, he said. He showed me the results and it- it broke something inside me. I didn't know how I was going to tell Ava the news. Imagine my surprise when she told me barely two days later that she was pregnant. For you."

Ethan's throat bobs as he swallows hard. "I thought she had cheated on me. I said... terrible things, threw her out of the house and- and-" He pauses. "When I saw you and the picture you took with her the other day, I was shocked because I saw at once the resemblance we have. You have my hair... my eyes. So I got a DNA test done." He shoots me a guilty look. "It came back positive. I confronted the family doctor. He confessed. Someone had paid and threatened him to fake the results saying I was infertile. Someone had done everything to make sure Ava and I never ended up together."

I turn in the car seat to look at him. I still want to be mad at him, but I can understand now why he walked out on mother and I.

"Who?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper. "Who could have done such a terrible thing?"

Ethan's face tightens with pain, anger and hurt. "It was my mother... Your grandmother."