Chapter 104

Chapter 104 The incessant ringing of his penthouse doorbell jolted Kris out of his sleep. He’d ignored it for a while, hoping it would stop, but the ringing only got worse until he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“This building better fucking be on fire,” he cursed under his breath as he shot out of bed and made his way out of the bedroom, down the stairs, and to the door.

His annoyance grew when he yanked the door open and saw that it was Alden.

“Wow, I still can’t believe you moved out of your house.”

Kris gritted his teeth. “And you woke me up this early in the morning just to tell me that?”

“Early?” Alden scoffed and pulled out his phone, turning the screen toward Kris.

Kris mellowed a bit when he saw that it was already 8 in the morning. He’d spent the night tossing in bed and must’ve only drifted to sleep around 4 a.m. As such, he felt exhausted.

“Come in,” he said with a sigh as he stepped aside.

“Who said I was asking for your permission?” Alden rolled his eyes as he walked inside, causing Kris to glare at him.

“Wow, this place is...bare,” Alden commented, looking around the apartment.

“Why are you here, Alden?” Kris asked, still feeling a little irritable.

“I came here to be the best friend I am by helping you decorate your new penthouse since you have such shitty taste in décor.

I’m here to make this place feel like a home.

Kris’s expression instantly soured as he bitterly said, “No place can ever feel like home again.”

Alden’s eyebrows knit together, and he glanced around the bare apartment with a shake of his head. “But still, the Miller mansion is where you’ve lived all your life,”

Kris smiled wryly. Alden was right. He’d stayed in the Miller mansion all his life, but ironically, that place had stopped feeling like home the moment he kicked Thalassa cut of it.

“Honestly, in my opinion, you shouldn’t have left because of Karen.”

Kris ran a hand through his already tousled hair. “You don’t understand, Alden. And I don’t expect you to. You don’t know how much I detest Karen with everything in me. She killed my child and made me lose the only woman I’ve ever loved. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had stayed in the same house with her for even a single night more.”

Alden shook his head in pity as he took a seat on one of the couches in the living room. “But what about your daughter?”

“I’ll find a way to get her away from Karen without making her suffer,” Kris said determinedly. “I can’t afford for her to grow up around someone like Karen.”

Alden could see that bringing up that subject hadn’t been the best since it had soured Kris’s mood even further. He quickly tried to lighten the atmosphere, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a really terrible host‘ he joked. “I’ve come to visit you at your penthouse, but you haven’t even offered me a glass of water, not to mention coffee.”

Kris snorted. “If you need coffee, you know where to find Srbucks.”

1/3 Cha +25 BONUS “Fuck you.” Alden flipped him the middle finger.

“I’m going to freshen up,” Kris informed him, heading towards the stairs.

“Good, because your breath smells like shit. I thought I was going to die from breath poisoning.”

Despite himself, Kris couldn’t help the small smile that tipped one corner of his lips. Just as he was about to make his way upstairs, Alden suddenly let out a curse.

“Fuck.”

Kris paused and turned back with a frown to find Alden looking at something on his phone. “What is it?”

Alden quickly put his phone back down. “Uh, nothing.”

Kris was instantly suspicious, realizing that there was something Alden didn’t want him to see. He stormed back toward the living room.

“What were you looking at? Show me.”

Alden let out a sigh. “Fuck it. You’re going to see it sooner or later anyway.”

Standing up, he handed the phone over to Kris, and Kris’s jaw clenched tightly the moment he saw the headlines and the pictures.

“That bastard,” he gritted out under his breath. “How dare ne stand so close to her?”

“Uh, forgive me, but people who are dating do stand close to each other, as well as other things,” Alden pointed out but shut his mouth when Kris glared at him.

Kris felt like he was being poked in the heart as he looked back at the picture, seeing how close Clark and Thalassa’s faces were to each other.

Alden saw how all the veins in Kris’s arms and forearms were popping out from how agitated he seemed. He instantly warned, “Dude, remember that you’re holding my phone, not yours. Don’t even dare throw-”

He’d barely finished his sentence when Kris hurled the phone against the wall with a growl.

“What the fuck? I told you not to throw it,” Alden complained as he went to pick up his phone from the ground. It had been smashed so hard against the wall that there were several cracks and black spots on the screen.

“You better prepare to hand me your black card because you’re definitely buying me a new one,” Alden said in annoyance.

But buying a new phone was the last thing on Kris’s mind. He was breathing heavily as his eyes darted around frantically.

“What are you searching for?” Alden asked.

Kris–stopped as he spotted his phone on one of the couches. He picked it up and dialed the number of his private investigator.

“Smoke, you said that your contacts go beyond borders, right? I need you to pull up everything you can find on Clark Morgan. He was away in Europe in the last five years, specifically Ireland. I want information about everything he was up to during that time.”

“Okay, Mr. Miller. I’ll do that, but I’m going to need a few-

“No, Smoke. I need that information, and I needed it yesterday!” Kris hissed and hung up the phone.

Chapter 104 +25 BONUS Alden watched him pace back and forth. “So this is the level you’re going to stoop to? You want to find dirt on your rival just to discredit him?”

Kris turned to him with a glare. “I don’t trust that guy. It seemed all too convenient how he suddenly appeared in our lives.”

“And if you find out that there’s no dirt on him and he has good intentions with Thalassa?” Alden asked, raising a questioning brow. “Are you going to step aside for him to be with her if she’s happy?”

Kris’s throat tightened, feeling conflicted. There was nothing more he wanted than Thalassa’s happiness, but at the same time, the thought of her with another man made him feel like he was going crazy.

“No. I can’t,” he admitted, his voice cracking a bit. “I can’t give up on her, Alden. I need her.”

He had never been the same in the last three years without her. Yes, his daughter had been his source of joy, but outside of her, his life had been nothing but miserable. Thalassa was the only one who could fix it.

He didn’t just need her forgiveness. He also needed her heart and her love back, and he was going to do everything he could to win it.

He just hoped that it wasn’t too late.