Blackmailing his runaway bride

"I don't believe this," the suited man turned in his stance to further bore his grim sight at the tearing woman seated in front of him. "I have been calling the wrong man my father for thirty-one years."

"Christopher is still your father regardless. He accepted you, loved you as his own," she said, her voice trembling, her obviously expensive silk scarf doing a good job of wiping her tears off before they could damage her make up.

"He knew?" Charles scoffed as his mother confirmed it. Taking a seat on the leather sofa which strangely was the only furniture he ever sat on, he ran his hair backwards, the dryness annoying him a bit. "I still don't believe that you kept this from me."

"Charles," the richly dressed woman whose age wasn't telling on her spoke softly. ", truthfully, if I had my way, I would have preferred you not to know. Rodrigo is sort of a bastard, Charles."

"I was a bastard unknowingly for years, mother."

The gentle look on his mother's face turned to a frown for a second. "Don't speak such things about yourself Charles. You were raised by a wonderful father, the best you could ever have."

He sighed.

He did love the man he called Father. Charles appreciated him for everything he had done. But it hurt. It hurt to know that he had spent years calling the wrong man his father.

"So, if this letter hadn't come, I wouldn't have known about this."

"I really wish it didn't come," Mrs. Oxford whispered into the office that wore a cold look similar to the one on the face of its main occupant.

Silence took over. Mother avoided her son's piercing glares. It was as though she knew that he was trying to mask the anger within him behind his roughly chiseled face. Charles took another look at his mother, his eyes all set. "I have to meet Rodrigo Ordinaz."

The silly hat on his mother's head bobbed as her whole body reacted to his statement. Shaking her head, tears forming on the surface of her eyes, she begged, "Please my son, don't do this. Don't give in to his demands."

"I deserve to meet my real father before he dies." He rarely saw his mother cry, so he could tell how serious she was with her plead. But his mind was made up.

"But if you want to meet him, you will have to give in to his demands."

Charles gave a short shrug. "I have to get married, how hard can that be?"

"You can't just pick any girl to marry, that's like the worst thing that can happen to a man."

"Who says I am marrying any girl? Mother," his hands tucked beneath his chin. "I am a man that deals with precise selections of things, I will not make an exception when it comes to choosing a wife."

"Is this about the wealth? Rodrigo's wealth? You don't have to do this son. Your father's empire is more than enough."

"I don't care about his money. I just want to meet my real father, dammit!" He hated to see his mother flinch, but she was too blinded by her emotions to see how important it was to him. Heck! He would marry a thousand times to get to meet his real father and… siblings.

"I have even have siblings. Don't I deserve to meet them?"

"What I am saying is that you don't have to give in to his demands, there are other ways…"