Prologue
“Mr. Jacks, I’m here on behalf of Wilson Khor.”
Will grimaced. “My grandfather?”
“No, sir. Wilson Khor II. Your father.”
“My father is dead.”
“No, sir, he is not. Senator Khor didn’t—”
Will coughed. “Senator?”
“Yes, sir. Mr. Khor has been a senator for nearly twenty years.”
“Are you sure he’s my father? I was told my father was dead.”
“I understand, sir, but we have been assured that Senator Khor is your biological father.”
A nearly uncontrollable anger welled up inside of Will. He narrowed his eyes. “If he’s alive, then where has he been all this time?”
“Until recently, Senator Khor was unaware of your existence. When his father passed away earlier this year, he left the senator a letter stating who you were and what he had done to keep the senator from finding out about you.”
Will felt a cry of anguish well up inside of him and pressed his lips together to keep it to himself. He swallowed several times before he could speak again. “Why would he do that? Why would he keep me from my father?”
He had always known the man didn’t like him, even if they had never met. He never realized the man hated him.
“From what we’ve been able to discover from the letter Mr. Khor senior left his son, he wanted Senator Khor to go into politics, and he didn’t think his son would have that opportunity if he had a child out of wedlock. He felt his son needed to marry a woman handpicked to be a senator’s wife, and not someone…uh…”
“From the wrong side of the tracks,” Will finished for the man.
He’d heard that story before. Now, he was getting the rest of the story.
“Yes, sir.”
It was really too bad the old man was dead. Will would have loved to punch him right square in the mouth. “Okay, so why are you here?”
“Your father would like to see you.”
“Why?”
The agent glanced at Hector, almost as if looking for assistance.
“He’s your father.”
“I’ve spent my entire life without a father. I’ve spent half of it without a mother. I’m not sure I’m ready for some man who feels guilty about not being around to come into my life at this point.”
“Will.”
Will huffed as he turned to look at Hector.
“Your father is just as much a victim in this as you are. If you remember what Agent Darcy said, your father didn’t even know about you until earlier this year.”
“But he never looked,” Will insisted. “If he had come looking for my mother, he would have found me.”
“Maybe, but maybe not. You won’t know until you talk to him. Besides, if his father was willing to go as far as he did to make sure your father never knew about you, then you can probably bet he made sure he created some sort of rift between your parents to keep them apart.”
Will couldn’t really argue with that logic, no matter how much he might want to. “What do you think I should do?”
