Chapter 123: Spot the liar
Elias’s POV
He sobbed himself to sleep.
He didn’t even cry this much after his kidnap. Hell, he was a force to be reckoned with. It’s good he’s asleep.
I shove the last article of clothing into the laundry basket in disgust.
The smell in the room is suffocating. It smells of dust and fading strawberry pheromones. Noah is not as tidy as I’d like.
The terror he wreaked in my own room was only a glimpse of what his space looks like. His room is cute but triggering.
Everything is all over the place and pink. Too much pink. It fascinates and stresses me.
Cleaning it up is not enough. I need to strip the whole room bare and rearrange. Why does he have a cassette player at the head of his bed? Why is there a notebook in the drawer where his body cream, face cream, and hair products are?
I glare at the omega’s sleeping form on the bed. If he wasn’t already so fragile, I would have smothered him with that pink pillow on his side.
I move closer to his bedside. I am attracted to the little hitching of his breath and the way his eyelashes flutter. He’s too precious for his own good. Fuck Goldsmith for creating someone this...oddly unique. I will still murder him.
I turn around to observe Noah’s wardrobe. The door of the white furniture is half open. There are tiny scribbles on the door and as I take a step to read them, a distracting knock on the door sounds through the room.
"Who’s there?" I ask.
"Food for Mr. Noah Goldsmith, sir" the person at the door responds. I eye the wardrobe once before going to the door.
There’s a man in a simple overall at the door with a tray.
"Mrs. Goldsmith asked me to deliver it to her son" he says and I take the tray from him without speaking.
And when the man stands there for a few seconds instead of leaving, I give him a warning growl and he scurries away. He takes off and runs down the hallway like a chased prey.
With him gone, I lift the tray to take a sniff. It’s a simple dinner of mini meatloaves and vegetables.
Why would she send an alpha male to deliver food to her omega son?
I look over my shoulder at Noah. He’s still sleeping, so instead of waking him up, I leave the room with the food tray. I use my photographic memory to make my way to the kitchen.
I arrive at the kitchen and find Mrs. Goldsmith leaning against the kitchen counter. Her beady eyes are fixed on the white surface. Her painted lips are downturned and her brows pulled into a frown.
The noise of my shoes hitting the floor announces my arrival and she looks at me.
She looks insulted.
"Eat" I say flatly, dropping the tray to the counter and pushing it in her direction.
The woman glares at me with hatred, but she doesn’t question me. She already knows why I asked her to eat. She takes a bite of the food, chews and swallows.
"You think I would poison my own son?" she asks quietly.
"Your track record proves what you’re capable of, Mrs. Goldsmith" I say, pulling the tray back to myself. Will I really feed Noah something from this woman? No.
I push the tray away again and she scoffs.
"You have lost your mind, Deus. All the stolen power your parents have has gotten into your head" she hisses and I nod.
I like my conversations direct and straight to the point.
"You’re not Noah’s real mother" I say and she flinches like I slapped her made-up face.
Unfortunately I do not want to slap her. I want to stab her. I want to watch her bleed out on the floor. I want to weight of her blood to match the number of years she made Noah hurt.
’Patience. logic. Order, Elias’ my alpha growls inside my head.
"What are you talking about? Noah is my flesh and blood" she says defensively through her white teeth. I hate the way she straighten her spine and looks at me with challenging blue eyes.
"Conan told me everything" I say with a lazy drawl. Mimicking my older brother’s calm way of inciting danger.
"Conan?" she repeats the name.
"We can end this irrelevant interaction if you give me the truth" I say and she starts to laugh. She bends forward over the counter, laughing, and laughing till a vein sticks out in the middle of her head.
I tilt my head to the side, quietly waiting for her to finish laughing.
Wouldn’t a spoon in the neck look good on her?
"Noah. Is. My. Son" she says when she’s done laughing.
"Give me a lock of your hair" I say and she freezes, turning purple in the face with anger. Raw, unfiltered anger.
"I don’t know why I’m tolerating you in my own house. I paid Noah’s tuition fees from my pocket. I did everything a mother should do. How dare you bring accusations into my house?" she yells and my eyes drop to her stomach.
Conan said Mrs. Goldsmith was pregnant when Noah was twelve. Either Conan lied to us or Mrs. Goldsmith is too good at hiding.
This would be my litmus test.
"Where’s your son?" I ask and she clenches her teeth.
"My son is Noah, you bastard" she says through her teeth and I move away from my spot. I approach her slowly and she meets my frost gaze with heated one.
"Your other son" I say, watching the signs of weakness in her face.
"You’re believing the words of a man in a psychiatric hospital, I heard rumors that you were the logical one in your family" she says calmly and I pause.
Fuck.
"Why is Conan in there?" I ask and she barks a bitter laughter.
"Isn’t it obvious? He’s mad! He grew obsessed with my son and kidnapped Noah. Whatever Conan told you is a lie made up in his mad head" she says and I smile slowly.
"Do you want Noah?"
"Of course I want my son" she spits out and I nod.
"I still want that lock of hair" I say, taking a strand her dark hair and rolling it between my thumb and index finger.
A new problem; Conan is mad and lied. But that will make Governor Goldsmith innocent. This idea is inapplicable because Conan is also a suspect, why was Noah in Gotteigen of all places? Why did his kidnap happen at the same time as mine? Was he a bait or was it coincidence?
"You look too put together for a woman whose son was kidnapped by a family of psychopaths" I murmur and tug.
"Screw you" she gasps, moving away from me before I can pull her a single strand.
"I was barren, okay? Noah was given birth to by Conan and was adopted by me. But he’s my son" she confesses.
"Was barren?" I ask.
"I..."
"Good night, Goldsmith" I say curtly.
Why hear her excuse when I can make her scream them with blood rushing down her face?
"Whatever you have to hide, make sure you double your security around it. Because when I find out your sins...I, the god you hate, will make you pay" I say and leave her standing in the kitchen.
Noah could be awake by now.