The Billionaire’s Creed

MYKEL

My wife surprised me every day. I’d never expected her to get down on her knees and literally fucking blow my mind. I knew she had a fire in her, but when she admitted that she’d never done it before, it warmed my heart with pride that she trusted me with her body.

It was a new experience for her, and I was lucky that her first was with me.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She had never stopped reading since she decided to take the CEO, and her grandfather planned to go under the knife.

I admired her tenacity and willingness to learn. At the same time, as a selfish bastard like me, she sometimes chose to focus on things rather than appreciate my existence.

“Just grateful to be your husband.” I came to visit her at her office. By the end of this week, she would turn over her position to Blaze.

She wrinkled her nose. She was not convinced why I was here not making some deals. “What is it, Mykel?”

“Nothing, really. I just came to see you. Have you told Blaze yet?”

“Not yet.” She shook her head. “I’m trying to finish the remaining work before I turn the position over. I don’t like keeping work for someone else.”

“Figured, baby.”

She squinted her eyes at me as she may have noticed the dullness in my voice. “Mykel, what’s wrong?”

“I just noticed that you have twenty hours researching, reading, three hours of sleep, then one hour for three meals. If you start working at the Kross Corp, do you still have time for home? For me.” Not to mention, she also enrolled in a seminar online twice a week for three months.

She closed the book and rose to her feet. She smoothed her dress before she came to me. She cupped my face, looked me directly in the eye, and pressed her lips into mine. “I thought you understand what I’m doing. I’m not changing, Mykel. After I learn what I should, I’ll be back to you twelve hours a day that you’ll be sick seeing this face you wanna vomit and flee.”

“It’s hard to watch you so focused and forget the people around you.” I kissed the palm of her hand.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“You mean you? I thought we were in this together.” Her eyes flashed with emotions.

“This morning, I invited you to have dinner with me, but you declined.” And my fucking half-brother just reached out to her. I deleted the call logs and his message. It was a dumb move, but why was she still have his number saved? “It was just a few hours, Adley.”

And I had not told her my relationship with fucking Knox. And now that we knew where our relationship stood, I didn’t know how to bring it up without blowing it in my face.

“I told you, I want to finish my research first.”

“Okay.” I scratched my stubble.

“That doesn’t sound okay.”

“I’m fine.” I stood up, changing the topic before I went all weepy, asking for attention. “How’s your bodyguard?”

“He seems capable.”

“He’s temporary, but if he’s proven doing his job properly, he can be permanent next month.”

“He’s stiffed. I feel safe already,” she joked before returning to her desk.

“I briefed-”

“Not to look at me, not to pay attention to my boobs and ass. I bet you did.”

I laughed. “He is military trained, baby. I didn’t exactly say the exact words-”

“Just admit it that you are territorial and possessive as crap.”

I simply slipped my hand into my pocket. “He knows what he’s doing, and it’s inappropriate to have more time watching your boss’ ass than the danger around you, correct?”

A smile curved up her lips. “You should have hired an older man, but whatever floats your boat, Mykel.”

“Did you talk to Lyra?” I felt like I should get to know more about her considering I was going to be the brother of her child. I promised my mother to be civil to her. At least, a simple hi and hello would be a good start.

“She will be here later.”

“Okay. I have to go back.” I went to her desk to kiss her.

She leaned over to kiss me. “Don’t work so hard. I might need your strength tonight.”

I smiled. “Might, huh?”

“I might be tired, or my mood changes or I will spend time with Blaze and go home late. Or maybe you’re meeting the blonde. A lot of possibilities to suspend my anticipation.”

“If you want me here right now, I won’t deny you. You know that, right?” I kissed her nose.

“No way. We’re not having sex in my office.”

“Home office, then?”

She smirked. “Bye, Mykel.”

I went back to my office. After hours of meetings, I texted Adley.

MYKEL: How did it go?

ADLEY: Still with her.

My brows furrowed. My father did not come with Lyra?

MYKEL: Alone?

ADLEY: Yeah. I’ll get back to you.

She sent it with a heart emoji. Why a heart emoji if she could send me; I can’t wait to see you tonight? Or she should start calling me babe, my love.

I scoffed. Elisa came in.

“Your father is here.”What the fuck? What does he want now?

“Dru.” I gestured for him to take a seat. “What a surprised.”

“Lyra is with Adley. I figured I could come and visit you.”

“Yeah. So I heard. Why didn’t you stay with her?”

“It’s not my thing. And I have more important matters to attend to.” He took a seat.

“Like visiting me. Well, it’s for your child and the woman carrying your child, Dru.”

“I know, Mykel. There’s been a rumor that Lex is retiring. Is it true?”

I paused for a moment. Gossips in any business spread fast like lightning in this modern world. It always scared me because when you were under the microscope, the world only wanted to see the filtered of a very specific lens-your mistakes.

“If your reason for coming over to ask me if the rumor is true, of course, Lex is retiring, but when? I don’t know.”

“Haven’t he mentioned something to you?” What was he getting from this?

“We were with him last week. He mentioned that he wanted to step down. That’s all.”

“Who would take his seat?”

“One of the major shareholders.”

“Adley.”

I searched for the true intention in his eyes for a moment before I replied, “You seem to have an opinion about it.”

“I have an idea. The boards will choose experienced shareholders, but Adley definitely has potential. Most of them have confidence in the Kross. Until now, Kross Corp is still the top-ranking corporation in the country.”

“Do you have a word of advice?”

He shook his head. “I’m confident. There’s no gender in running a big corporation and definitely no age. It’s the tenacity, good listener, and decision-making that make someone a good leader. Like you, son. Experience can be learned. You have her. She has Lex and can consider me her consultant if she wants.”

My father was one of the best financial analysts in the world-he advised leaders, economists, capitalists like me, and entrepreneurs. He was featured in business magazines multiple times. News channels frequently asked for his advice. I still wondered why he declined the offer of work in one of the government sectors as a top-ranking official. He ran his empire, but he chose to be low-key.

“Thanks. I’ll make sure to relay your offer.”

“No problem.”

He stood from the chair. “I should go.”

“Um, Dru.”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember Dash?”

He buttoned his suit. “Yeah, sure. The blond friend of yours.”

I chuckled. People constantly referred to him as blond. I didn’t know why. The male blond was typical, but even Adley sometimes called him that too.

“Yeah. That’s the one. Maybe we could get a drink sometimes.”

“Of course. Just let me know.” He smiled. “Thanks.”

I held my hand out. “Thanks for coming to see me.”

“Anytime.” He shook my hand.

After he left, I sat back on my chair, wondering what had taken me so long to accept his mistake. I spent most of my life hating him when I could have that peace I felt right now for years.

After an hour of extended silence and contemplation, Adley called me.

“Why did you not tell me?” I quickly recognized that tone. She sounded upset about something. My stomach painfully twisted before I found out the reason why.

My brows creased. “You okay? About what?”

“That Knox is your half-brother, Mykel!”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I swallowed hard. I opened my mouth, and I had to close back. My mind went blank. I didn’t know what to say because I had not anticipated she would find out today.

“You can’t even answer me, can you? Do you plan on telling me the truth? Because you knew it was only a matter of time until I found out.”

“Baby, let me explain.” I shut my eyes close as I processed the right words to say.

“Oh, I’ve been waiting for months.”

“It’s-”

“This is sick, Mykel. I was in his apartment while you were bagging another woman next door. How screwed up is this? Then you flirted with me- Oh, my God. That makes sense now, how you told me he wasn’t good in bed. So you two are in some kind of competition?”

“Jesus Christ, baby. That’s not what happened. I already told you the truth.”

“You mean half-truth?” Jesus Christ! I could even hear her glaring at me.

It felt like the air was leaving my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. “I didn’t know that woman’s apartment was next to my half-brother.”

“We’ve been together for months now, and you’ve never mentioned him to me or maybe planning on meeting him because you knew how would I react.”

“We’re not closed. And could you blame me? I mean thinking of my half-brother kissing my wife or maybe something happened that I preferred not knowing.”

“I told you nothing happened between us! But maybe in our second meeting, you did it on purpose, proving to your half-brother that you were better than him, showing him that you could have the woman he wanted to date.”

“That’s not fucking true.”

“I think that’s precisely what this sick illusion of yours is all about, Mykel.”