Page 30 of Secret Heir

The question catches me off guard. I glance at him, but he’s staring at his fishing line, not meeting my eyes.

“Yes,” I say. “We are.”

He nods slowly. “I thought so. This is the biggest house I’ve ever seen and there’s so much food and toys and everything.”

I stiffen slightly, unsure where he’s going with this. “Does that bother you?” Has this been too overwhelming for Daniel?

“No.” He pauses. “It’s just different. We were poor before.”

He says it so casually, like it’s not something shameful, and it makes my chest tight.

“You won’t be poor again,” I tell him. “Ever. I promise.”

“Will there always be food?” he asks uncertainly. “Like, always always? Even if we don’t have money anymore?”

Anger rises in me and I have to take a deep breath to cool down. This is what Aria has done to him.

She’s made him question whether there will be enough to eat.

A seven year old should not be worrying about money.

His focus should be about homework and playground games.

“Always,” I tell him. “Even if I lost every dollar I have, there would still be food. You will never go hungry again, Daniel. Never.”

He nods, and I see his shoulders relax slightly. My brows knit together. How long has he been carrying this worry?

We fish in silence for a while.

“Why do you fight with Mama so much?” He’s asked this before, but now there’s something more urgent in his tone.

“I already told you, we disagree about⁠—”

“But why?” He turns to look at me, and there are tears in his eyes. My heart lurches. “Why can’t you just stop? Why can’t you be nice to her?”

The pain in his voice is a knife to the gut. Of course this is hurting him. He’s caught in the middle of our war.

“I’m trying,” I tell him, hating that I’ve also hurt him. “But your mother and I…we have a complicated history.”

Daniel blinks at me. “What does that mean?”

“It means we hurt each other a long time ago. And we’re still angry about it.”

He stiffens. “Did you hurt her? Is that why she’s scared?”

“No,” I say sharply. “I never hurt her. But I think she was afraid I might.”

“Why would she think that?”

Because she saw what I’m capable of. She knows exactly who I am and what I do.

“Because of who I am,” I say instead. “What I do.”

Daniel eyes me warily. “What do you do?”

I should lie and give him some sanitized version that won’t scare him. He deserves better than that.

“I work for my brother,” I say carefully, trying to figure this out as I go along. “Doing things that sometimes aren’t very nice. Things that help people but can also hurt people.”