Love Wins Over Lust novel Chapter 31

"Liam," Ryan Knight nodded at his son who was standing at the main door. "Dad."

"Is your wife home or has she run away again?" He muttered under his breath.

"Maybe you didn't understand the rules of my house, Liam. You will not insult my wife standing in my house," Ryan snapped at him in a sharp voice.

Liam fisted his hand. "I can't believe you!" He said taking his coat off and hanging it on the coat stand in anger.

"I don't know why I came here, damn Aurora and her infuriating habit of asking me to do things I do not want to do."

Ryan sighed. He wanted to talk to him to tell him the truth about Penny and his relationship but couldn't find the strength to do so. But today he would tell him the truth.

Ryan Knight was ready to face Liam's hatred towards him. "Where is she?" Liam asked.

"She went with Ralph somewhere."

Liam gritted his jaw and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to call Ralph. He wanted to have this so-called talk with his mother to appease his wife or she would shift with that infuriating girl, Liam would be damned if he kept her doing that.

"Don't call him. I want her to forget the pain she was feeling for the last two days. You humiliated her in front of your wife and another guest, Liam."

Liam shook his head. "Isn't it ironic, it was you who told me how big of a bitch she was and now you are taking her side, why the change of heart after all these years."

Ryan closed his eyes. It was now or never. "I want to tell you something, Liam. It would be hard for you to believe but It's time you should know the reality."

Liam frowned. He knew his father, he never spoke like that. Today he was talking weirdly. "What reality are you talking about?" He asked carefully.

He sighed and stared directly at his son. "I think it would be better if you sit down, Liam."

Liam nodded. Ryan took a deep breath before sitting on one of the sofas in the living room. Liam waited for his father to speak but all Ryan did for a minute was he stared at the floor.

Liam was getting impatient. He was about to ask him to say something but Ryan spoke before that. "I lied to you, she was not cheating on me. At least not in the literal sense of the word."

Liam's body went numb. He heard something wrong, his father didn't just say that he was lying all these years. Did he?

"What did you say? I think I heard that you lied to me…"

"You heard right, I lied to you all these years. Your mother never cheated on me. She was loyal to me, to this marriage and to you and your brother.``

His heart stopped for a moment and then started beating again so fast that he feared it would jump out of his chest. "You have to be kidding me!" He jumped from the sofa and lunged at his father. "You can't lie about something like this for too long, Father. You are trying to protect her from my hatred by lying now. You are a bastard I know but you are not this big of a bastard!"

Ryan stared into Liam's eyes. "You are right, I am a twisted bastard, Liam. I wanted to punish her for what she did.

She was involved with a police officer but it was a platonic relationship from her side. The bastard was a different story, nevermind he paid the price for manipulating my wife against me. I personally killed him after cutting his body parts and feeding them to him."

Liam fisted his hand, stopping himself from killing the man standing in front of him. "Don't you dare talk in riddles now? Tell me what exactly happened?" He snapped.

Ryan nodded and turned towards the wall. He didn't have the strength to look into his son's eyes when he told him the truth about Penny. "I was a possessive man from the start. I wanted all her time when I was around her which I used to get until you and Ralph came into our lives. She was always busy with you both, it was fine. I tried to tell myself that you both need her more than me, so I started getting busy with work. It was good for me because I gained more power, I killed many of my enemies and took over their territories under my control. But I was not aware that the police were keeping track of my activities. There was this officer, Chandler. A handsome bastard and an old friend of your mother from college. He got successful in manipulating Penny to give up on me by showing her the proof of me being involved in the business of brothels and drugs. She asked me to stop the business but I refused. They were the most profitable business of mine. I couldn't lose the money which was coming from there."

Liam fisted his hands. He stopped the business for his wife and now he was glad he did. He gritted his jaw when Ryan stopped. "What happened then…"

Ryan sighed again before continuing. "We had some differences and I blurted out all my frustration on her that day. She asked me multiple times to quit the work because she was disgusted with it but I never agreed. The bastard told her many lies about how I killed innocent people, children even…all lies!" Ryan gritted out as he went to the memory lane.

"One day when I came home. You and Ralph were sleeping. I thought it was my lucky day. You won't be disturbing us but what I heard that day stripped land under my shoes. She was talking with Chandler over the phone. Asking him for help because she will not be leaving without you and your brother and she wanted a promise that I will not be getting a long prison sentence. I was stunned that day. I loved her and she was stabbing me in the back. The next day I pretended to be normal and told her that I was going out for some work. She said goodbye to me like always, only to leave me. She gave off to the household staff and that bastard came to my house. She was crying, telling him how much she loved me but she was doing it for my betterment. And then he hugged my wife in my house. That was the last thing I needed to see, I walked out of the secret room I was hiding and caught him. Penny begged me to leave him but I didn't listen. My men took him to the basement and I punished your mother. I couldn't kill her, I was too weak for that, I did worse than that I stripped her off her children. I snatched every right from her when she got married to me. Ethan asked for my help in catching the Mexicans who killed his wife and I asked for a favor from him. Your mother was held captive all the while there in Churchill. You and Ralph asked me where she was, I didn't have any answer to it but when you said mom ran away, you heard a phone call. I didn't deny it and told you that I killed her…"

Liam's eyes turned dark. It was all a lie. His childhood, teenage years, all the while he believed in a lie about his mother. "So that's why you used to go to Churchill every now and then. It was not business, it was because of her…" he chuckled.

He went to him and turned him around. "What kind of twisted son of a bitch are you?" He gritted out. "I believed your words, blindly. How could you do this to me?" He roared in anger, making Ryan look down in shame.

Liam's mind was bursting in rage. "Tell me one thing and for once don't you dare lie to me…" he snapped, making Ryan look at him.

"Has she ever asked about me, about Ralph? Has she ever asked to meet us?"

Ryan nodded. "Every time, she apologised to me and begged me to let her at least see you both. But I didn't allow it. My anger was bigger than my love for her. In my mind, she was suffering because she cheated on me. But slowly, she stopped asking me anything, the only thing she asked was to let you and Ralph have a normal life. She didn't want her children in the world of the mafia. So I made sure you will be involved in this world just to show her that her power over me was finished. But I have to say you were born to rule this world, Liam. I was twisted but you were far more twisted than me. You thrived on success in this world…"

Liam had heard enough. He didn't have the power to hear anything anymore. "Just shut your mouth or I promise I will kill you, you bastard!"

He was about to grab his throat but the respect he had for him all these years stopped him from doing so. Liam's mind was raging for blood. He was angry and that too on a man he respected more than anything else in the world.

His whole life he lived a lie, he conceived the fruit of that lie and hated his mother with a passion and today he was coming to know that his hatred was baseless. She was innocent. He could understand the anger his father must have felt at that time but the least he could have done was tell him the truth, if not at that time but when he was old enough. He didn't, he let him believe that lie and now out of sudden, he had a change of heart!

Liam was devastated. He punched the dining table hard. His hand busted open and was bleeding. "Liam, control…"

"Don't you dare say a single word! You are no one in my life anymore."

Ryan nodded. "I deserve it…"

Liam had enough his mind was bursting in heaviness. He didn't want to breathe the same air his father was breathing. Liam sprinted towards the door and was about to walk out when he bumped into his mother. "I am sorry…" she started the apology but was stunned seeing the blood on his hand.

"Liam, your hand is bleeding, son." She dropped the shopping bags from her hands and clutched his hand, her eyes glistened with tears as she inspected the deep cut. "How did this happen?" she asked, putting her scarf on the wound to stop the blood.

" Daniel, bring me the first Aid kit, fast!" She ordered the servant who came running to her with the kit.

Liam was stunned seeing her this worried for him. He humiliated her in front of everyone, didn't leave a chance to taunt her and she was still this worried about him. How could a person be this innocent and pure?

"Come with me," she said, taking him to the sofa. "Please sit, son."

Liam followed her every command like he used to do when he was a child. He recalled the suffocation he felt, the pain he suffered when his father told him that his mother was dead. He killed her as a punishment. He accepted her fate because in his mind she was guilty of cheating on his father when the reality was completely different.

His throat turned heavy, he swallowed the heaviness when she kissed his hand just like she used to do when he was a child. "It will be fine, soon. Son,"

Liam didn't know how but the word which Penny was dying to hear from him left his mouth and she froze for a moment.

"It will be, Mom," Liam whispered, a lone tear left his eye. Liam was stunned by his open display of emotions. He was never like this. "You called me Mom…" she gasped.

Liam closed his eyes. "I am sorry for how I treated you, he lied to me…I…" Liam couldn't speak anymore. He looked away from her. "I will make him pay for all your pain."

Penny's heart was blooming with happiness. She left an emotional sob from her throat. "How did you find out?" She whispered. "Who told you?"

"Your husband he…"

Penny chuckled. "Ryan, he told you?"

Liam snapped his head in her direction when he heard the adoration and love in her voice for his father. "How could you take his name in such a manner, as if you still love him? "

Penny smiled. "Because I do, Liam. I love him more than my life. It may sound twisted but I do…"

"After what he did?"

She patted his cheek lovingly. " even after what he did. Don't look so shocked son. You are just like him. Aurora loves you after all the things you did to her and I love your father the same way. Love is a stupid emotion, Liam. It makes you forgive even the hideous crime."

Liam stiffened hearing the comparison between his father and himself. "I love your father Liam and I want us to move on in life forgetting the past. Can I ask you something?"

"Anything mom."

"Don't be angry with Ryan. He loves you in his own way. I don't know how much time I have left, I want to live this life happily with my family."

Liam fisted his hands. "Don't Ask me anything regarding that man. I can't look into your eyes, after all the things I said to you…"

Penny smiled. "You are still my twelve-year-old angry son. I hold no grudges against you, son. But I want a promise from you. You will never treat Aurora like your father treated me. You will love her and caress her like your equal, never treat her like a possession. Your child will never suffer like you suffered, son. Promise me."

Liam nodded. "I promise you, mom."

Penny kissed his forehead. Even though it was a little embarrassing for him to be kissed like that, he was happy seeing his mother happy. "I used to pray for both you and Ralph. I wanted you both to have a girl in your life who makes you both happy."

Liam chuckled. "I got mine one, mom. Aurora is a firecracker, she defeated the monster inside me…"

Penny laughed. "And gave me my son back."

Liam couldn't agree more. Aurora had changed him and his life for good. She was now the sole reason for his existence. If anyone would have said that he would fall in love with Aurora madly. He would have laughed at the person but now his world starts and ends with only one person.

His wife, His Aurora.