The Drifter

C H A P T E R 6 5

C H A P T E R  S I X T Y – F I V E
The Truth about Aidan Blake: Part 3

Aidan nodded. "It's sick, but it's true."

"How?"

"There's a whole story to be told there, Addison."

"I've got the fucking time."

What I never told you about was part 3. Part 2 is where you have the questions you need answering straight away – details you think about in that moment and require the answer. But part 3 is the story. It's the entire story with the butterfly effect: you have choices with your actions and they influence the rest of the story. Maxwell Blake chose this for his future, and now Aidan was going to recount every detail to me.

"There was an article – several, actually, after the original – that went to print and had the potential to kill Blake Industries and ruin our family. I won't be able to get the articles for you to read, though. My dad had the money to pull everything from the Internet. Nothing remains. No paper copies or anything online."

"Not true," I muttered, not realising I had bowed my head as my brain fought the fog that was beginning to thicken and cloud. "I found an unfinished article by my mom in the attic. It seemed like she was writing an exposé on a businessman, but it was unfinished."

"Can I read it? I'll be able to tell you whether it's related or not."

Jumping up, Aidan followed hastily as I climbed up into the attic and found the boxes of my parents' possessions wordlessly. It wasn't until I opened a second box when I found the one I was looking for. Aidan crouched next to me, having flicked on the light switch so I could rummage through the box until I found the article. My eyes skimmed over it primarily in a vain attempt to remind myself of the words my mom had written. I passed it to a curious Aidan to peruse afterwards.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
An unnamed businessman had made his legacy what it is today with the usual connections and names in bigger industries, but there's also another secret ingredient: illegality.
It's no secret that illegal crimes are where the money is, but most people have their morals which cease them from committing traitorous crimes. Drug deals are done on the side with this business and it is rumoured that he used illegal drag racing in the early days of setting up his business to fund it, having been turned down by the bank initially for a start-up loan. The bank made the right choice.
Like ABBA once said "Money, money, money, it must be funny in the rich man's world".
And not only has the family name been dragged through the mud recently, but one child

"At the end of the article, your mom exposed my dad's name and business," Aidan declared, depositing the article back into the box. He sighed before running his hands through his hair, pushing it away from his forehead and revealing his thick eyebrows. "Let's get back into your room and I'll tell you everything, okay?"

With a nod, I followed Aidan out of the attic, turning off the light so it was plunged into darkness. He was sat on my bed already when I stepped into my bedroom and pushed the door ajar after me. I sat next to him, retaining distance between us, because I knew that if he reached out to embrace me, I wasn't going to be strong enough to refrain myself from succumbing to him and his affection and my feelings for him.

"Why me?" I whispered. "Why am I being punished for what my mom did?"

Aidan reached out his hand to squeeze my thigh and I let him. He released my thigh a moment later and leaned down, resting his arms along the lengths of his thighs. "There was a point where Blake Industries was on the rocks – sketchy. It seemed like Dad would have had to declare bankruptcy, but he managed to find a rope and pull himself out of it along with the business. He smuggled drugs. He has a side business of drugs. He doesn't smuggle it anymore, but instead he receives it from his originally suppliers and ships it out to hospitals and whatnot. Anyone who needs it. He had to do this to clean up his image after he caught wind of the article your mom was going to write when she must have discovered he was dabbling in illegal drug smuggling. He had to make it seem like he had been doing a good deed the entire time."