CHAPTER TWENTY

TORN APART

Saint was beyond furious. The man was practically seeing red everywhere he looked. The information he had just learned ruined so many aspects of his life: his career, his family, and quite possibly his reputation.

He scanned the email one more time, making use he didn't miss anything. Double checking that his friend wasn't pulling a practical joke on him. To his dismay, the email read the same as it had before.

Attached to the email were several pictures of Duncan Shepherd with his youngest daughter. Some of the photos depicted a normal familiar relationship: the two eating dinner or sitting in the same car. Others showed a much more intimate relationship:the two holding hands or kissing.

Charles was pissed. Not only had his ex wife allowed her husband to sleep with their daughter right under her nose but Saint Enterprises was about to lose one of their biggest deals of the year. There was no way Charles would allow his business to partner with Shepherd Foundation after what he had just found out.

Saving the photos in a password protected folder that was then saved to an encrypted flash drive, Saint slammed his expensive laptop shut. Standing up, he briskly left his hotel room. He was going to make sure that Duncan Shepherd never so much as talked to his youngest daughter again.

Disappointment was written all over Annette Shepherd's face. The woman who usually held a stoic expression could not hide her emotions in the moment. Not while she knew her son had continued to mess around with a minor.

"I told you to stop seeing her!" Annette whisper shouted at her son who stood across from her.

The pair were arguing in the dining room of Duncan's penthouse. He had taken his mother as far as possible from Cindy whom was still asleep in his bed.

"You have never cared who I have slept with as long as I continued to do your bidding! I kept Esmeralda West silent for years. And as for Misty Blaine, I fucking married her!" He argued with the woman, his arms folded over his chest.

"Her father knows." Annette said, her lips in a flat line. "Charles Saint knows that you've been fucking his youngest daughter. Let that sink in."

"Charles Saint? He's her father?" Duncan asked, his eyes going slightly wide with shock. He had no idea that Misty's ex husband had been the CEO of a million dollar tech company that was currently designing an app for the Shepherd Freedom Foundation.

"Yes!" Annette hissed, her fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "He pulled out of the legally binding contract hours ago. When our lawyers threatened to sue him, he stated that he was going to be seeing you in court anyways."

Shepherd began to panic, his fingers running through his hair. "What the fuck do I do, ma?"

"Lucky for you, he called me." Annette replied, pulling a chair from under the dining table, and sitting down. "You stop seeing his daughter immediately and he won't press any charges."

Duncan shook his head no, desperation beginning to set in. "No. I can't do that. I adore this girl, mom. You don't understand."

"No!" She screeched, losing her cool with him. "You don't understand!" She was out of the chair now, her heels clicking as she walked towards him with her finger pointing at him angrily. "If you don't stop seeing this little girl you think you're infatuated with, our reputation is gone. Our lives as you know it are over!"

Silence.

"Duncan, if you don't stop seeing Cindy Blaine, you will be disowned from the Shepherd family."

The threat got his attention and a nerve deep within his body was struck. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat, he let out a shaky breath. He couldn't be disowned. He couldn't disappoint his mother. He would rather die.

With tears threatening to fall, he stared at the woman in front of him. The woman he once thought would love him unconditionally but now knew wouldn't. At the end of the day, the only person Duncan cared about pleasing was his mother. That how it had always been and probably always would be.

Annette took another step forward, a pleading look on her face. Her eyes were begging him. "Please, Duncan. You know what you have to do."

A loud knock on the door didn't let Duncan respond. Taking a few steps to open the door, before Shepherd stood Saint and three burly men (most likely body guards).

"Let me take my daughter without a struggle and nobody has to know." Charles told him, a straight face.

Duncan didn't answer. He physically couldn't. He wanted to throw up.

Taking his silence as a yes, Charles pushed past the owner of the penthouse. Making his way inside, he passed Annette, giving her a nod.

Saint disappeared upstairs and Duncan's heart pounded in his chest as he heard Cindy's yells of protest from upstairs.

The sound of stomping announced the teenagers arrival. She stood in front of Annette, the three body guards, and Duncan in one of Duncan's button up shirts.

"D!" She cried, running to him, and throwing her arms around the stiff man. "Please don't make me go. I don't want to leave you!" She was sobbing, practically heaving as she tried to hold onto him.

His heart broke into a million pieces. Pieces so small he knew he wouldn't be able to fix it. However, he gave no reaction. He couldn't let himself. He knew he would start crying with her if he did.

When Cindy realized that her lover wasn't hugging her back, she took a few steps back, her bloodshot eyes looking at him from under wet lashes.

"Duncan!" Her voice cracked, her world slipping from under her feet. Her whole world was falling and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"Please, daddy!" She begged, dropping to her knees in front of him.

Duncan wanted nothing more than to pick her up and tell her everything was going to be okay. However, if he did that, he would be lying to her. This was most likely the last time they would see each other.

"Cynthia Blaine, get yourself off the floor and go get dressed. If you aren't out in the hallway in five minutes, I'm dragging you out of here." Charles spoke assertively. With that, he exited into the hallway with his bodyguards.

Annette looked at the girl on the floor. "Cindy, my advice is to pick yourself up and salvage what bit of self respect you have left."

The blonde looked up at the older woman, her nails digging into her palm. "Yea? Well I didn't fucking ask for it, Annette!"

Annette scoffed and sauntered out of the room, leaving the two lovers alone.

Cindy turned her attention to Duncan and just shook her head. "After everything we've been through, D?"

Taking several deep breaths, Cindy managed to get herself off the marble tile. She had realized where her and her lover stood. The two were now merely strangers with distant memories.

She went upstairs and was back moments later, dressed in some random outfit she had haphazardly thrown together.

Her cheeks were red, her hair ablaze, and her eyes slightly swollen as she turned to address the man. She was an emotional wreck but Duncan swore she had never looked more angelic.

"I never want to see you again."

And just like that, she had slammed the door behind her, her blonde hair again a figment of Duncan's imagination. He was alone in the world again.

Standing there, with his hands still shoved in his pockets, he let one tear roll down his cheek. Staring at the door, he cracked, "I love you."

Except no one said it back.