VICTOR's POV

I couldn't believe my ears. I was standing in the preparatory room we got in the building where the interview was supposed to take place and wondered for the millionth time why I was even talking to the man who called himself my father. There was no way a parent would intentionally make his child's life hell, right?

"What did you just say?" I asked, feeling a weird sense of déjà vu.

I knew something was awry the moment I arrived. Too many reporters I saw standing in front of the building were from the gutter press, which was not the main audience this interview was called for. We were supposed to talk about the big merge and plans for the future. The wedding date announcement should have been only a by-the-way notice; that was what I saw in the script I got to read on my way here. With the masses outside and their hungry looks for the newest hot topic, though, it looked like it was the opposite.

And my impression was right.

"Don't play dumb. You heard me well enough, Victor. I knew you would be too much of a coward to come clean, so I made sure it got out my way. The last thing we need is a scandal after you get married. There will be too much work to concentrate on when our companies merge." My father was sitting in front of me, looking as calm as always.

Naturally, he was right. After my not-so-friendly conversation with Oliver in the morning, everything became clearer in my mind, and I realized letting the world knew I had a son through television, and with Matt still being only five, was total bullshit. Not to mention Oliver was a guy.

After studying the files I got from my father, I found out the experiment wasn't any secret. When it first started, it was all over the news. Ollie wasn't even the first man to birth a child after the treatments all of the subjects got. But with years passing, all the boom shut down and the majority of people had no idea it even happened – just like me. Subjecting Oliver and Matt to the nightmare reporters could be was out of the question. There had to be another way to make it work without the information getting out.

That was what I hoped for.

Staring at the flat screen behind my father's head, I knew I was naïve. The video of Oliver leaving the house with his boyfriend and our son was playing on TV with inappropriate, almost vulgar comments from some bitch reporter who looked like it was her right to talk about them, and I felt my heart drop. There was no way to fix this. Once big news like this got out, it was impossible to stop it from spreading.

"How could you do this to them? To your grandson? You threw them to the wolves without any chance to prepare for it! The bastards are going to ruin their lives!" I yelled, and for the first time in my life, I felt an urge to leave and never turn back. It was like a sudden awakening. A thread that had been slowly thinning for years just snapped.

"Oh, come on. It would've happened either way. It's better now when he is still a kid. He'll have time to get used to it. If the truth got out later, when he was in his teens, the consequences would've been way worse. A hormonal teenager that had a normal life suddenly becoming a center of attention? He would've ended up on drugs," he said, looking as if he really believed his own words. As if everything he'd done was all right and reasonable.

I was left speechless. How was I supposed to react to something like this? All the insults I knew were too nice for him. This was simply too much. My father was officially going crazy. There was no better explanation than that. No sane person would come up with reasoning as such and think it made sense.

Taking a deep breath, trying to figure out whether to yell at him some more or simply punch him in the face, the door to the room opened. Alison came in, dressed in a white-green suit, looking ready for the interview as never. The only flaw in her looks was an angry scowl that was, for whatever reason, directed at me.

Stomping her way towards me, putting so much force into her each step I was surprised her high heels didn't break, she stopped just inches in front of me and frowned.

"Tell me you aren't so stupid and did what I think you did." Her voice was so full of venom it took me aback. I knew she had a huge problem with people who played hardball and did anything they had to achieve their goals, but I'd never seen her so angry.

When her eyes flickered towards the television and the crease between her eyes deepened, the reason for her behavior and outburst became clear. The fact she thought I would be capable of such a fucked up thing was a bit offending, but with how the things were going in the past years, I couldn't really blame her.

"Don't look at me like that. I wouldn't stoop so low. Not when it would mean ruining my son's life," I said, nodding my head towards the only other person in the room.

Alison's eyes widened in what was probably a realization. Stepping back, she looked at my father with undisguised contempt.

"Graham."

It was just his name, but the tone of her voice told me everything I needed to know about her opinion on my father. She wasn't a huge fan of him, but this was the first time she showed just how much she despised him.

It was nice, seeing someone on my side like this. Having another person, who was furious for the same reason, backing me up like this, was invaluable. I was glad I had such a good friend in Alison. At times like this, spending the rest of my life with her, as best friends, seemed like the best idea I had ever had.

"Alison, honey, this angry look doesn't suit you at all. Smile and get ready for the show. It starts in fifteen minutes." He stood up, not sparing us another glance.

"I'm expecting a proper speech from you, Victor." The door shut behind him, leaving me and my fiancée all alone in a tension-filled room. The television still turned on, close-ups of Oliver's and Matt's face appearing on it with the reporter talking about shit she had no idea about, was making everything even worse.

Turning it off, I sat down in one of the chairs and let my head fall into my palms. I had no idea how to fix this. There was no way to fix this. The moment their faces appeared in the news was the moment everything went to hell. I could only speculate about the damage it had done so far, but from my experience, it was going to be ugly. Media dedicated to gossips and life stories weren't going to stop talking about this for weeks.

"What are you going to do?" Alison asked, her hand gently squeezing my shoulder.

I had to suppress the need to laugh. There was absolutely nothing I could do unless someone magically discovered a way to travel in time and let me in on the little secret.

I had never experienced such powerlessness. Till this day, every difficulty I had to face could have been dealt with, one way or another. But compared to this, it all looked petty, insignificant. Not even money could make them shut up.

"This is fucked up. He just ruined his own grandson's childhood. I knew he was a piece of shit after what he did to our family, but this? He knows how ruthless and annoying the media can be. They're going to come up with so much dirt and made up theories. It could even ruin Oliver's business," I paused, an idea suddenly forming in my mind.

Right. There was no way to go back in time and prevent this from happening. But I could make it better. There was one thing I could do to make all the mess more bearable for Oliver and Matt. And the interview today was the perfect opportunity for that.

"You figured something out," Alison said when I looked up, and I felt a small smile making its way onto my lips. This could work.

"I'm not sure how happy you'll be with this, but it's the only thing I can do right now. I have to save the little that still can be saved."

*****

The interview was hell. As I thought, the script was long forgotten after my father's hideous intervention, and all the redheaded presenter wanted to talk about was Oliver and Matt, and if all the talk about an illegitimate child was true. I was pissed off as it was, and having to deal with these questions right from the beginning was too much for me.

Luckily, I had Alison with me. With her charisma and lovely personality she presented herself with on TV, she managed to turn the conversation back on topic, and I had the time and space to make my plan work.

"As you all probably know, we are about to get married. There have been some talks about it being a business move thought up by our parents, but that's not true at all. It was me and Alison who planned all this, so please, after our companies merge and successfully take the first place among businesses all over the world, let people know it was the both of us who contributed to it the most. Not our parents." I chuckled, trying to make it plausible. I was never good at pretending to be relaxed and happy when all I wanted to do was yell and fight.

The presenter and Alison laughed in unison, and just as I planned, the redhead got caught in my little trap and asked the question I was hoping for.

"Victor, with your marriage just behind the corner, what do have to say about the possible scandal that came out this morning? Is it true that you have an illegitimate child with Oliver Brenan, the owner of Ollie's Café that has been steadily rising in popularity? Rumor has it that he's been hiding the fact you have a child for over five years," she said, and I could see Alison smirk from the corner of my eye.

Yes, she took the bite.

I gave her my most innocent and sincere smile and went on with the answer I came up with.

I was still pissed off I lost five years of Matt's life because Oliver didn't even bother to let me know the little detail of having a child with me. I couldn't be there whenever something major happened, such as Matt's first words or steps. But I couldn't possibly let the bastards in the gutter press write whatever they wanted to. I had to stop the theories before they even had the chance to publish them.

"Right. I'm actually glad you asked because, as you said, there are quite interesting rumors going around." I looked behind the presenter, where I could see my father sitting in the backstage and closely listening to us, and gave him a short smirk before looking back at the redhead.

"The rumors are false, of course. I knew about Matt since he was conceived. I haven't had many opportunities to see him in person because of my busy schedule and the fact I and his father have our own lives now. As you probably saw on the video that had been taken this morning, he has a partner. Just like me. We tried to keep this a secret for as long as possible because we wanted Matty to have a normal childhood." This time, I looked over the audience in the room, and my eyes hardened.

"But as it seems, someone thought he didn't deserve it."

*********************************************************************

Yay, finally an update! >.<

We are slowly nearing the end of this book, and I can't wait to dig into the sequel ^.^

Anyway, how was it?

Do you think Victor has something else planned to get back at his father?

And how is Ollie going to react to this declaration?

Let me know what you think!

~°~

Now, I just want to thank everyone who took their time and tried to help me with my situation concerning the speaking exam (it has been a long time since then, and I feel it would be extremely awkward to reply to the comments now, more than two months later). I was lucky enough, and one student turned up without a partner so I could successfully attend the exam and managed to pass despite having a high fever! ^.^