<h4>Chapter 203: Chapter 203</h4>


    ASHTON


    The air goes still after Ashal drops the name. Nobody moves for the first two minutes. While he rambles on about how he came to find out, my blood curdles. The way I am feeling right now is exactly the same way I felt when Demi had called to gloat about Ashal being her captive; I feel deeply betrayed.


    "What?" Someone finally quips. "What did you just say?"


    I realize that ’someone’ is me when I surge to my feet, brimming with anger. "You have got to be mistaken. Do you have any idea what you’re saying Ashal? That’s a grave usation you just made against MOTHER!"


    But it’s Ashal, mother’s favorite. If anyone knows her the best, it is ASHAL. That is what scares the crap out of me as I struggle to digest his words. None of us would dare say a bad word against mother. Even Asher would not allow himself utter anything negative against her, because she’s the brightest light in our family.


    For Ashal to say this, he has to have known for some time, and probably spent much longer trying to disprove it.


    Slowly, he lurches to his feet with pained eyes trained at me. "I couldn’t believe it myself. I still struggle with the truth, Ashton. I have been so confused that I can’t even summon the courage to confront her despite all the evidence pointing to her."


    I take a few steps away from them to gather my thoughts.


    "This makes no sense. I can understand why a member of our family would want ownership of the very blog that has been used to target us for a while now. What I don’t understand is why...<i>mother</i>...would use Billion-Err to attack Demi whom she imed to have forgiven this whole time?"


    "I can only chalk it up to pent-up revenge for everything Demi put our family through."


    My zing eyes find Ashal’s face again. "That’s a misced sense of revenge, don’t you think, considering how our family wronged Demi in the first ce both before and after she joined our home?" I’m so livid invisible steam might as well be sizzling from my ears.


    "Plus, did you forget the part where the article mentioned me too? Mentioned stuff about our family that the world didn’t have to know about? What reckless revenge are you talking about? Why would she go so far and put our family under the microscope barely days after we narrowly survived social decimation? How exactly was that helpful?"


    From the corner of my eye, Asher stands and tucks his hands in his pocket. The squared shoulders tell the story of a son about to defend his parent even against the grain ifmon sense.


    "Well, I’m d Billion-Err is now within our grasp." He begins with a calm voice. "I can think of a few ideas on how to make better use of the blog. Leave confronting mother to me."


    "Are you kidding me?" Ish at him. "I have questions of my own that she needs to answer." I burn a hold through their heads with a heated stare one after the other. "And contrary to what you all might be thinking, this is beyond Demi. If mother is indeed the new editor of Billion-Err, then she knows about Skr given herst article. She probably knows far more than we think, like the fact that Dean Sawyer and his father are alive and making efforts to be close to us."


    The more I reel out my concerns, the more their faces distort with worry.


    "If she knows this, then father knows. If they both did do what Skr ims, what the fuck are they going to do now to stop their secret from getting out? How far are they willing to go?"


    Ashley sniffles. "Is it strange to say that there areyers to mother that we might not know? Father has always been the strict and scary one for me but hearing all of this and trying to reconcile it with the tenderness I havee to expect of mother is just hard. What if she’s the one we should have been scared of from the onset?"


    I amble to Asher. "You’re being unusually quiet, Asher, but I know the wheels of your brain are spinning. What the hell do we do about this? How do we protect Skr, Dean and grandpa."


    Asher nts azy gaze my way. "Did you just say grandpa?" He stifles a chuckle. "Skr maybe but Dean and his dad? If Dean has found a way to watch us for years, I want to believe he knows how to watch his back." He heaves a thick breath with hardened eyes.


    "I’d like to point out that discovering this new side of mother should not be tranted as her being our enemy. If there’s one thing I am certain of, it’s her love for her sons. Unlike father, we are the only children she has. She would never do anything with respect to us, if she didn’t think it was in our best interest." He holds my gaze as he finishes his sentence.


    Then gazing at Ashley and Ashal, "Are we clear on that? SHE’S OUR MOTHER, NOT THE ENEMY."


    "Crystal." Ashal replies while the rest of us nod in agreement.


    "Good. Now, we have to find a way to get to the bottom of this feud between our biological father and our parents. I believe the fear of losing us is driving each party to do the things they’re doing. If mother went after Skr, then she knows who Skr is to us. She must also know by now that we all have clues as to what she and father did to acquire us years back. Instead of addressing the elephant in the room, she’s opting to use Billion-Err to distract us from the digging into our past. That’s what I think she’s doing."


    He inhales sharply and kneads the back of his neck. "We need to think this through. We can’t rush to make decisions, not when it involves our mother."


    Though I still feel hurt, I concede with his reasoning. After the meeting ends, Ashley joins Ashal to go visit his baby in the hospital where mother spends most of her free time visiting the baby. I’d join them if I wasn’t feeling hurt by mother and unsure of how to act around her. Demi’s current condition doesn’t make things any easier.


    "How are you feeling?" Asher asks me while we’re sharing an elevator.


    "Not great. I am hurt in more ways than one. I truly hope mother can justify her recent actions or I don’t know how we’re going to move past this. Then, of course, there’s the fact that my girlfriend lost her memory and went back to her toxic ex." A frustrated sigh leaves my lips. "Why is everything going wrong all over again? Can I catch a fucking break?"


    If he was a hugger, this would have been the moment for Asher to pull me in for a hug. However, I have never been more grateful that he isn’t.


    Right now, I need a serious punch to the gut to get my head straight and stop me from letting my frustration about Demi bleed onto my mother’s actions. I don’t want to escte my feelings towards mother because I am frustrated by Demi’s amnesia.


    "I understand." Asher hums next to me, thenys a hand on my shoulder. "Stop overthinking. Demi will be fine. She might have lost her memories but she still isn’t romantically interested in Iman."


    "No, that’s not what I am thinking about." I turn to him as the doors open. "Demi called me from a stranger’s phone, remember" Then as his eyes begin register the question that’s been on my mind, "How did she remember my phone number in spite of her amnesia?"


    ***


    The sliver of hope that question gives me trumps any worry I have about Demi being with Iman, and thatst bit has me worried quite a bit. Still, I get on the phone with doctor Ezra and listen to him exin Demi’s chances of full recovery while on my way to work the next day. It gives me renewed hope and suddenly, my dark mood brightens up a bit.


    After the call, I check with Anna.


    "She’s back at my ce." Anna tells me. I sigh deeply in relief. "She hasn’t said a word to me though. I have been trying to talk to her but it’s like talking to a brick wall. I think she’s just waiting for her uncle to get here." Anna sounds like she’s on the verge of crying.


    "It’s okay, Anna. Let her be. We don’t want her running off again if she feels pressured or confused."


    "I understand." She sniffles. "It just feels painful to see her treat me like I betrayed her. She’s fully convinced she can’t trust me and after everything I’ve done for our friendship, that hurts as much as a stab wound."


    "I can imagine." I tell her truthfully. "Not only does she not remember what we share, but she totally hates me all over again." I try not to fixate on the pain that causes me each time I think about what I have lost with Demi in the space of a day. "Try to stay positive. We have to help her find her way back to us. Let me know as soon as her uncle gets there."


    "I will."


    Hanging up, I emerge from my car and make my way through the entrance of mypany. Gris is already in my office, dropping off my favorite coffee order. Though I always expect to find him going the extra mile to do his job, I pause at the door as thoughts of Dean Sawyer being his real employer cross my mind.


    Gris beams at me and greets me gaily, as usual. When I take a moment before reacting, his face crumples. Quietly, I get behind my desk and make a mental note to myself to save the confrontation forter.


    "Thank you, Gris. I’ll call you when I need your help."


    "Very well, sir." His bodynguage tells me he suspects I am in a foul mood. He ignores it or rather tries toply with my directive and heads out. However, he stops by the door, hovers, then whirls back to face me. "Can we talk, sir?"


    "Not now, Gris." I respond without looking up from myputer. It feels weird that I find myself looking for the message Demi had seen in it. Memories of ourst meeting cloud my mind as my eyes stray to the couch.


    How could a day that started off so beautifully end so badly? Was her memory loss triggered by her learning of her mother’s condition or was it triggered by the same delusions her mother suffered which she possibly inherited? I need to know.


    When I tear my eyes away from the couch, Gris is standing right in front of my desk.


    "Gris, what are you still doing here? I told you..."


    "I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you from the beginning..." He begins slowly. "I’m ready to talk about it whenever you’refortable doing so. I just want to exin that there were no ill intentions from the beginning. I came in here as a trusted hand to keep an eye out for you but I happened to gain a good friend in you, my boss. I truly hope I don’t lose that friend as a result of truths withheld." He doesn’t wait for my response before exiting my office, leaving me stunned.


    Dean Sawyer is watching my brothers and I a bit too closely. How the hell did you already learn of our conversation? Are our phones bugged?


    My phone buzzes, startling me. A message from Anna.


    [Uncle Marcel is here]