Time To Heal [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE REALITY CHECK

"There must be some mistake," Dev announced to the lawyer as he entered his office dumping the files on his table along with his huge body on the chair opposite.

Jeremy Miller stared at him for a second, before lifting the documents he'd flung on his table and presenting them towards him. "No mistake, young man. Anastasia specifically sent over the two transfer papers in guise of compensation for your family's loss."

Her selfless act only served to fuel his anger. How dared she undermine what they had shared by paying him off like a vulgar gigolo? How dared she?

"Really? How is she going to pay back for the other things we've suffered?" he inquired with sufficient amount of sarcasm to make the lawyer sit back in his chair and give him undivided attention. Trying not to squirm under the scrutiny, Dev frowned furiously to give more credulence to his anger. "You tell Ana that she will never be able to atone what her father did to my family."

Miller still stared at him with fascination, making him feel uncomfortable under that scrutiny which increased his wrath. Was he being subjected to another judgmental opinion?

"What her father did," the lawyer reiterated after a few minutes of silence, his voice calm as he continued to peruse him with undisguised interest. His comment left Dev completely blank even if the man seemed to be conveying an important message. There was no need for words as his bafflement must have been visible on his expression for the lawyer added. "I am stressing on the last part deliberately. What her father did. Why should she pay for his sins?"

He still failed to get it. "What do you mean?" Devin exploded in an outraged tone. "I am obviously not asking her to pay for his sins," he defended hotly, ignoring the measuring look the lawyer sent his way. "She's trying to compensate for the past with money but it's too late for such a thing. How can she still side with that man no matter how beloved she was to her father?"

"Beloved?" scoffed Miller sitting up in his seat and removed his reading glasses which seemed on the bridge of falling from his nose. "That's where you're mistaken Mr. Crighton."

Completely out of sorts, Dev could only stare back at the man after that astounding revelation, his hypoxic face a flagrant display of his nonplus. Never in the past had Ana given him a single clue about anything strained in the relationship with her father, so there was no big secret to be revealed now, was there? Was there?

Even before he got his answer, he felt something clench in his chest with the desolate smile Miller bestowed upon him, and he automatically braced himself for the worst.

"You've targeted her from the beginning, avenging Alastair through her never even sparing a thought about what she went through." The reproaches flew from his mouth and he stopped abruptly sighing with resignation. "Do you even know her mother?"

"Elizabeth Richmond?" Dev managed to infer, glad that his voice did not waver when he spoke.

"Wrong," the lawyer corrected with emphasis. "Her mother is Elizabeth Richmond Forrester. They got secretly married in 1986 but kept it divulged from the world because he had somehow managed to convince her not to compromise her career."

Disconcerted, Dev could only stare at the man who'd just revealed such an important information, his mind reeling back to the past digging for such a possibility. And found none. "Are you sure? Does Ana even know about it? From what I had gathered, she'd always assumed to be the result of an affair."

There was a moment of loaded silence. "She knows," he finally revealed, pinching the bridge of his nose like he was trying to cast off something evil. "But she never lied to you. She got to know the truth on the day you left her."