Father Dear

Clive was driving on the way back. It was rather late in the evening and even though Zane was ready to retire for the night, he knew that he still needed to met his father for dinner and update him.

He vaguely wondered if his brother would be there as well as he texted on his phone. Before putting it away, he got one message altering him that the bodies had been taken care of per his request.

He already determined that it would be better not to tell his father about the incident until he found out if the eavesdropped was a threat or not.

At most, he knew with Clive's skills he'd maybe have to wait three days to find out who the owner of the handkerchief was. His gut was telling him it was a woman, but he sorely hoped not as he always felt it was a pity to have to kill a female.

Men he believed were always looking for trouble when they spied on something that they ought not have. With women though, it more often than not was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When the car stopped in front of the restaurant that he was to meet his father at, he knew he would have to put all those thoughts behind him for the time being.

"Well fancy seeing you here older brother. I was so certain you'd drop out for this one." The sight of the other man caused Zane to smile.

"Julius." he replied warmly.

"You know as well as I do that I couldn't get away with something like that. It would only cause father to come out himself to find me." he told his brother as they hugged and the younger clapped the other on his shoulder.

"You can't entirely blame him for wanting to keep a hand in everything with the way things have been going despite how well you've been doing." Julius remarked, defend their father with his words.

"I do think that I can however when he makes it near impossible for me to get the jobs done that he requests without him constantly sticking his hand into everything." he replied back under his breath.

Once they were inside, he knew that he would have to stop all the complaining and take on a more civil role since his father was waiting for them inside.

"Give him some time. He isn't used to giving up so much power and allowing others to take control." the younger brother reassured him as they entered the restaurant.

Zane instantly regretted his decision to come when he saw an unfamiliar woman sitting next to his father at the table. Now he knew exactly why the older man was intent upon having him come.

Zane closed his eyes and took a deep breath to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Damn his father for getting the upper hand on this one. Of course, the older man wouldn't say anything, he knew that his eldest son would ditch as soon as caught wind of the fact that there would be some woman he was expected to mingle with.

Was it so hard for his father to get it through his thick, stubborn head that he wasn't ready to settle down with anyone just yet? The only thing that stopped him from turning around and walking out the door was Julius's hand on his back, a quiet reassurance that everything would be okay.

"Father, I see that you brought a lovely company with you tonight." The youngest son remarked as he approached the table first, flashing a warm smile to his father and the unknown woman.

The former hardly acknowledged him beyond a soft grunt as he was too caught up in a staring match with Zane to pay much attention to the other.

The eldest son was daring his father to say anything as he debated on how best to handle the situation in front of him. The other could say what he wanted, but there was no way he was going to even consider entertaining the rather lovely-looking woman at his father's side. It wasn't her fault that he had such a poor relationship with his father.

"Bernard, I see that we have another unexpected guest at the table tonight. I am sorry that he decided to drag you out here." Zane remarked as he came over to the table. He purposely chose to sit in the seat the farthest away from both in order to make a clear statement to his father the same way using his first name did.

"Took you long enough to get here. I thought that I told you the time well in advance and that I didn't want you to be a moment late." Zane simply shrugged his shoulders as he picked up the glass of wine in front of him.

"You know how work can be on this side of things. Nothing turns out the way that we expect it to. I can't help when something unexpected happens that causes me to be late. You should know that." He replied before turning his attention to the woman.

"And who might you be? I don't believe you've given a name." he asked the woman who looked like she was a bit shocked by the way things were turning out around her.

"Her name's Juliet. I already told you about it before. She's the one who agreed to meet with you as a potential suitress." Zane eyed the room. That would explain why she looked rather posh. Bernard had chosen her as someone who would benefit him.

"Really I thought that you must have been my father's new partner." Zane remarked offhandedly. The temperature around the table dropped at least ten degrees as his father's face began to turn red.

Julius felt like he should intervene but didn't know what to say. He picked up his wine glass to hide the smile that twitched at the edge of his lips. He wanted to be able to enjoy the show without being dragged into.

Their father taking on another partner was a sore spot between the older man and Zane.

Bernard had cheated on his wife when she was still alive.

At the time, he didn't care about how it affected his family, he just wanted to have the time of his life. It wasn't some kind of one-time fling either. He did it as often as he could around his wife's back.

Once his wife became sick, he stopped everything in order to 'take care' of her. At least that's what he should do publicly.

And once she died, Bernard decided that he wanted to act like some kind of saint of a husband and swore to never take another woman as his wife.

Just the thought of it was enough to make Zane's blood boil. Even if his father did change after the fact and decided that he wanted to cherish his wife, the damage had already been done in his older son's eyes. There was nothing that he could do to make up for the damage that he did.

The eldest son often resented the fact that he looked so much like his father. From his sharp eyes and mouth to his height, he almost the spitting image of his father when he was younger or so he had been told. The only thing he inherited from his mother was his chestnut hair and golden eyes.

The only thing that Zane could hope for was that he'd look less like his father as he got older. He didn't want to have more wrinkles and lines on his face from scowling more often than smiling. He also didn't desire to become so portly and ill tempered either.

"Hold your tongue! I didn't raise a son who would disrespect me in such a manner." His father scolded barely containing his anger.

"You raise me? I think you must be mistaken. The only person who raised me was my mother. I hardly ever remember you being in the picture. Except for the time when you forced me to make my first kill." Zane retorted before he drank the rest of the wine in his glass.

"Juliet, I apologize for the fact that my father has drug you out here for nothing. Allow me to make it up to you by taking you somewhere nice." He offered a charming smile and extended his hand to the woman.

She looked rather perplexed and uncertain as she looked between the eldest son and his father. She was likely determining who was the one she needed to worry about overstepping boundaries.

"I don't remember dismissing you from this meeting. There are still things that we need to talk about. You will stay right here." Bernard command in a booming tone of voice that made Juliet and some of the other guests in the restaurant flinch and turn around to see what was going on.

"Father, dear. There will be plenty of time for us to catch up later when we're both back home. I thought that you said that you brought her here as a potential match for me. I think it would be highly disrespectful if I don't at least take her somewhere and treat her to a nice dinner away from all of this commotion." Zane replied without taking his eyes off of Juliet.

"Very well, but we're not doing with this conversation. We'll talk about it more later once you're back." Bernard conceded. It was a small victory, but one Zane would take.

"Also make sure unlike some of the others, you give this girl a chance." the eldest son gave a small chuckle in response to this.

"Of course father. You know I always know how to treat girls right."