That was when the assistant finally placed him. The man making a scene was my own father.
Annoyed as I was, calling the police over this would have been a real hassle, and on top of that we were blood, so I had no choice but to come out and face them.
The moment they saw me,
Ina seemed to let out a breath.
"Tania, I didn't come here today to fight with you. We came for one thing only, and that's money!"
"You stopped giving us our allowance over a month ago, but I can't have my baby going without, so we went and took out some loans to get by!"
"Now the repayment's come due, so don't you dare play dead."
I shook my head, smiling.
I'd been wondering why I hadn't heard a word from them since my birthday. So this was the other way they'd found to support themselves.
I took Ina's statement and ran the numbers in my head. It came to nearly a million.
They certainly hadn't let themselves suffer.
But not one cent of this money was going to them. I'd earned every dollar the hard way, so why would I hand it to a pack of ungrateful leeches who'd never be satisfied?
Seeing that I had no intention of paying, Paige panicked.
"Ina got pregnant to help secure your position. You can't repay her like this!"
"If you won't give us the money now, don't come crying once the baby's born!"
Inwardly, I rolled my eyes.
"I've already told you, I'm single. I don't have a husband at all!"
"Tell you what, Ina. Right here, in front of every employee in my company, I'll make you a promise. The moment you bring my husband here, I'll divorce her on the spot and let you take my place!"
Ina didn't refuse.
"I regretted not slapping you last time."
"So this time I called him the second I got here. By my count, he should be arriving any minute now."
The words had barely left her mouth.
A man pushed through the crowd and made his way to Ina's side.
"Ina, are you and the baby all right?"
The moment Ina saw him,
she dropped the furious act in an instant, tears spilling down at once.
"Dirk, thank goodness you're here."
"You have no idea. If you'd come any later, that vicious witch Tania would have been the death of me and the baby."
"I know being with you was wrong, all of it my fault, every bit of it, but the baby is innocent!"
The man froze.
He shot a quick glance at me, then dropped his voice and demanded,
"Didn't you tell me Tania wasn't here? Why did you lie to me?"
Ina hadn't expected him to react like this. She forgot to even keep crying.
Paige couldn't stand to watch.
"Son, we had no choice."
"Ever since Tania found out about you and Ina, found out about the baby, she cut us off and stopped paying for everything."
"We only came here for the money because we had nowhere else to turn. You have to set things right for us."
Darren chimed in too.
"That's right, Tania's gone too far."
"Ina never tried to take anything from her. It's Tania whose heart is rotten. I'm in poor health these days, son, so go on and teach Tania a good lesson."
"Otherwise, once the baby comes, there's no telling what other tricks she'll pull."
Ina gave the man a light push.
The meaning was clear enough.
She wanted him to hit me.
"Dirk, she's the canary you keep. When the bird won't behave, it needs to be put in line!"
I didn't flinch, because by now I had a pretty good idea what this whole farce was about. Just as I'd thought, this man wouldn't dare lay a hand on me. He didn't even dare look me in the eye.
So I smiled.
"Dirk Gray, why don't you tell them. Am I some canary you keep?"
Dirk opened his mouth and couldn't get out a single word.
In the end his legs just gave out, and he dropped to his knees in front of me.
"I... I can explain."
