I don't sit down. There's nowhere to sit that doesn't put me on the wrong side of my own desk, and I'm not going to stand in front of my father like a child. I go to the bar, pour two fingers of scotch, and lean against the wall.
"Close the door, Viktor," my father says.
The door closes. Viktor is on the other side of it.
"You handled Luca adequately," my father says. He still hasn't looked up.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me. I'm telling you what I observed. I'm also telling you that showing up to a Castellano meeting without informing me was a mistake."
"It wasn’t anything important. There was nothing to inform you about."
He looks up. His eyes are pale blue, washed out with age. "Everything involving the Castellanos requires my knowledge."
He sets down the printout. I can't see what it is from here. "The losses on the floor. You look like you’re making progress."
“Not as much as I’d like.”
“You have the omega in your suite.” My hand tightens on the glass. He already knows. Of course he does.
“He’s mine.”
“What’s that got to do with anything? Keeping an omega -- a prime match omega – gives you a weakness.”
"He's useful."
"Useful," My father says and I can hear the disdain dripping from every word. “There are useful people I could hire for you who don't come with the complication of a prime match that makes you incapable of rational thought."
"I'm perfectly rational."
“You should have disposed of him the moment you found out who he was, but you’re keeping him," He leans back in my chair.
The anger is immediate and hot and I hold it in my chest. Losing my temper with my father is a mistake I stopped making when I was a child and learned to hold my temper.
"He says he can identify the ring."
“No, he says he can. You know nothing about him. You’re looking for reasons to justify a decision you have already made.” My father stands. He buttons his jacket.
He moves to the window and looks out at the city the way I do, the same view, the same posture. I have spent my adult life trying not to become this man and every year I see more of him in the mirror. "An omega is a liability, Dominic. I've told you this. Your mother—"
"Was the only mistake you'd make again. You've told me that too."
His jaw tightens. It's the only visible reaction. "Then you understand what I'm saying."
"He's mine." The words come out flat. I don't dress them up. "The match makes him mine. He's in my building, he's doing useful work. The match is the match. He doesn't get to run from it."
My father is quiet for a long moment. He turns from the window and looks at me and I can't read what's in his face.
"You sound like me," he says. "Thirty years ago. Standing in this office, telling my father the same thing about your mother."
"And you were right. You kept her."
"No, I was wrong. No one used her against me, but I was lucky with that. She could have destroyed me. In hindsight, keeping her was the wrong decision."
My eyes snap to him. He loved my mother. I know that. She is the only thing he ever loved. I’ve always known that I’m not on that list, but she was.
He walks to the door and opens it. Viktor is standing on the other side.
