A Billionaire In Disguise

Chapter Seventy-One

Once Mr. Orlando had brought the car to a stop, K rushed out and opened the vehicle’s back door.

“Thanks,” Rome said as he stepped out of the car.

Then he waited for no one and headed directly into the enormous mansion before him.

“Good day, young master.” Butler Hobson said as he gazed at Rome with a friendly smile on his face.

“A pleasant day to you too,” Rome hastily replied before heading upstairs with K just a few steps

behind him.

When Rome got to a door at the west end of the hall, he paused for a moment, took in a deep breath,

sigh, then knocked on the door.

“It's open.” Mr. Ford said from the other end of the door.

Then he raised his gaze and focused on the doorway as he watched Rome enter into the study.

Without spearing a second, K hurried in after his boss and then gently closed the door behind him.

For a moment, Mr. Ford gazed at Rome's serious expression. Then he looked at K and said, "Can you

excuse us?"

"Yes, big boss." K hastily said before walking out of the study.

Now that it was only Rome and him in the room, Mr. Ford point his hand to an empty chair before him

and said, "Take a seat, son."

Swaying his gaze of his father's calm face, Rome looked at the chair for a moment. Then he walked

over to it and sat down.

"Here," Mr. Ford said, handing a paper to him.

Without looking away from his father, Rome took the paper. Then he looked down at the names on the

sheets and knew not to ask what the list was about when he saw Big Daddy's name at number thirty.

"Who are twenty-nine people?" Rome asked, raising his gaze to meet his father's eyes.

"Those are the names of people who tried to harm my family." Mr. Ford calmly uttered.

"What did the twenty-nine names do to us?"

"They were all involved in your mother's death."

The room grew quiet as Rome watched a look of raw anger spike in his father's eyes, almost like he

was reliving that dreadful night.

"Mom!" The loud cry of his eighth years old self echoed in his ear, and Rome squeezed his eyes shut

as he buried his face into his palm.

"Are you good, son?" Mr. Ford called out with a look of worry on his face.

"Yeah," Rome whispered, sniffing softly.

Then he raised his head, fixed his wet eyes on Mr. Ford as his face hardened, and asked, "Why did

they do it?"

"Because they were taken orders from one person on that list?" Mr. Ford said, darting his eyes away

from his son.

"Who?"

"Someone I vow not to speak about."

"Well, you got to break that vow today, dad, because Catherine isn't going to end up like mom. I'm not

going to allow that to happen!"

"I can't talk about him, okay?!"

Frowning, Rome squeezed his fists tightly, striving to suppress the anger rising in him, and said, "You

can't be serious right now!"

"I am. So, I'm begging you to let this matter go." Mr. Ford said, sounding broken.

"How do you fu… How do you expect me to let this go when my entire life… my wife's life is a mess

because of this! Uh, dad."

"I promise you that I will make everything right! Just give me time!"

"How! How do you plan to make this go away! How are you going to do that, uh?!"

Feeling his nails penetrating the skin of his palm, Mr. Ford lose control of his anger and shouted,

"Rome, stop!!"

Silence fell in the room as both men glared at each other with anger in their eyes.

"Please, don't push this topic any further. I don't want to revisit the past, so I need you to trust me to fix

the present." Mr. Ford mumbled, drawing in a deep breath.

"My home has been compromised, and my workers have become spies for the enemy." Rome calmly

uttered, rubbing his eyelids.

"What!!"

A look of fear crossed Mr. Ford's face as he stared wide-eyed at Rome and subconsciously lashed out,

"How could you allow something like that to happen?! Did you not do a background investigation on…"

"I did, dad, and they are clean! It's not like my workers are the bad guys. They are being blackmailed!"

"Still, You should have gotten workers who have nothing to lose and nothing to compromise on!" Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

"How was I supposed to know that some freak will show up in my life and decided to ruin my it! Uh,

father?!"

The silence was the only answer Rome got as he frowned at Mr. Ford and then sighed out his

frustration.

"If this so-called puppets' master wanted Catherine and I died, we would have been." Rome casually

uttered, sluggishly resting back in his seat. "The terrible part of all this is that I don't know who is going

to be the next puppet and what their orders are going to be."

"You and Catherine should come to stay with me!" Mr. Ford abruptly uttered with a straight face.

"Dad,"

"I'm serious, Rome. Until we can get everything back to normal, you and Catherine should stay here.

It's one of the safest places in this country. After your moth… mother died, I made sure of it."

Without replying, Rome stood from his seat and gazed intensely at Mr. Ford.

Then he folded the sheet, shove it into his pocket, and said, "Thanks for nothing."

Watching Rome walk out of the room, Mr. Ford's eyes grew dull with sadness, and he shouted, "Come

on, son. Don't be like that!"

A second later, the study door slammed shut, and Mr. Ford held in his breath while staring at its

wooden brown frame.

Then he let out a breath, picked up his phone, and strolled through his number.

Realizing that it was already four o'clock, Catherine looked away from the time displayed on her phone

screen and then stared at her office door as it opened.

Then she softly smiled and mumbled, "Hey, honey."

Not uttering a word, Rome walked over to her desk, and then sat down in a chair before replying, "Hi

babe."

"What happened?" Catherine asked, reading his mood.

"Nora and Thomas was the mole in our house."

"What!!"

"I'm not sure if they are the only ones whose being manipulated by this puppet master. I could fire all of

our workers. But there's no certainty that the new ones wouldn't get polluted too."

For a moment, Catherine said nothing and continued gazing at the look of devastation on Rome's face.

Then she darted her gaze to the desk and asked, "So what are we going to do now?"

"I don't know." Rome half-heartedly mumbled. "My father wants us to stay at his place. But I'm too

pissed at him to make a decision right now."

A looked of hesitation crossed Catherine's face as she rubbed her thumb against her index finger. Then

she mumbled, "Staying at your father's place doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"Really?" Rome asked, gazing intensely at her.

"Yeah. I don't mind. That place is enormous, soo…"

"He called you. Didn't he?"

Darting her eyes away from Rome, Catherine drew a deep breath and said, "Yes,"

A frown crossed Rome's face as he clutched his fist and mumbled, "I knew it."

"But his call is not why I'm agreeing to this. I think it will take off some of the stress you've been going

through, and your father is right, hon. His place is safe, and isn't that what you want for us, to be in a

protected area?" Catherine said, meeting his eyes.

"You are okay with this?"

"Yeah, I am."

"But, your personal space…"

"We stayed at my grandparent's mansion for those years, I'm used to living with others."

Grinning, Catherine's eyes lit up as she said, "Also, I adore your father, so I'm really happy to stay in

the same place as him."

"If that's the case until we can get this mess-up situation under control, we will stay at my father's

house for the time being," Rome said, giving her a soft smile.