Vindication of the Rejected Heir

Chapter 8

On the day that Hannah finally called, Declan was sitting beside the pool in his penthouse. He had bought the house and other properties before he came back.

He had thought of numerous ideas on how to arrange the perfect date for Hannah.

He wanted her to know that he liked her and wanted to go for a long-term relationship with her. He had not dated any girl properly before, so he had asked Samson for ideas.

"Just take her out to a nice restaurant for dinner", Samson had said, after turning down his idea of a small trip, that Declan had come up with, insisting that it was too much for a first date.

Declan had insisted that a girl like Hannah deserved the world. It was what love did to a person, partly ridding you of your normal sense of reasoning. Samson laughed so hard.

Her voice sounded like music to his ears over the phone. She was not working for the next three days. She also updated him on his grandfather's state of health.

He was still in a coma. Declan finally agreed to send a car to pick her up and get her to the venue.

She protested but he insisted. He was that persistent. He liked that she had a great personality and he only hated that she was Patricia's sister and Paul's daughter.

Declan was fifteen minutes early. He had shut down the whole restaurant just for the date, and he hoped she would be comfortable having dinner with him.

His jaw dropped when he saw Patricia. She looked so beautiful in the body con knee-length beige dress she wore. Her hospital scrubs had not done enough justice to her curves.

Her face was covered in light makeup, and when she smiled, it was so soft and peaceful that his heart melted.

"You look spectacular", Declan spoke up first when she took her seat. He would stare at her over and over again throughout the night. He could barely take his eyes off her.

"Thank you", she said quietly, her cheeks turning a heavy shade of red. "How is work? Declan asked, in a bid to start up a conversation, after they had ordered their first course.

"Stressful, hectic, but of course, I love my job. It's the idea of caring for people that gives me a sense of purpose.

It's what I love to do", Hannah replied and scooped in a spoonful of soup afterward. She seemed hungry. He was impressed by her views.

He had asked her different questions and he soon found out that she had ditched a position in her father's company and had followed her passion headlong.

She was not like his fearful self from some years back, who was afraid to speak up and swallowed everything that was forced down his throat.

She spoke up and she got what she wanted. It made him like her even more. Being a straightforward man, he was already thinking of taking her as a wife.

"So you, what's the deal with you? Asides from being on the Forbes list and being one of the eligible bachelors in the country, what else is there to Declan?" Hannah asked him, taking him by surprise.

"Backstory and front story, I want to know everything", she said with a small laugh.

He chuckled too. She had a great sense of humor and she seemed very unbothered by his stuttering which was unusual.

He opened up to her and told her everything, how much he had suffered after the death of his parents, the incident of a few years ago, and what he had become presently.

She listened to him with rapt attention. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that. Nobody deserves that", she said when he was done speaking.

"It's fine. All that is in the past now", he said reassuringly. "You know", she began again.

"That's Patricia for you. She has always wanted everything for herself". Declan nodded. It turned out that she was not invited to the wedding. She was away for studies in another country.

When they finally got up to leave, the night was already far gone. He led her to the car amidst bouts of conversations and small touches of laughter.

They had agreed on a date on the day before she resumed work. She willingly agreed. It turned out she likes spending time with him too.

He gave her a small kiss, just before the driver started the car, and drove her home. As he drove back home, she was all that was on his mind.

He was still thinking about her when he entered his house and his cell phone beeped. Peter was at his front door. Peter was the private investigator he had hired to stalk his brother.

Peter disguised himself as one of Daniel's trusted bodyguards and watched every one of Daniel's moves.

Peter was on very dark sunglasses as usual with an earpiece to his ear that was now looking like a birthmark because of how often he wore it.

Declan had once asked him if he slept with his earpiece. "There's news", Peter said, raising a file and handing it over to Declan, who seemed impatient at the moment.

He wanted to know every single detail. He opened the file and it was a DNA test to prove that Daniel was not the biological grandson of Lord Rowland said not the biological son of his father.

Daniel was the adopted son, and not him. Little wonder he had so much hatred and was always wanting to take Declan down.

Declan was not ready for the news that followed after. His biological father was not dead. He had been paralyzed. It was also Daniel's doing, so the truth would never come out.

Daniel had been planning all of this longer than anyone expected. He was truly a very dark man at heart. Declan wiped the year that threatened to roll down his eyes, with his thumb.

He was happy that his father was alive, but he was not happy that he had not known for this long.

Daniel had stashed him far away in a small city where it would be difficult to find him. "Then who died in the car accident?" Declan asked.

"I'm still investigating that sir and I'll find out in no time", Peter replied hurriedly and immediately. He also made Declan know that his grandfather had been paralyzed by Daniel too.

Daniel did not want anyone overseeing his affairs in the company so he had done that to shut him up, the only person that had the right to tell him what to do.

He had been planning with Patricia to gain a huge fortune with the company and put it up for sale afterward. He was behind the bankruptcy the company had suffered.

Peter left an hour later. Declan was filled with so much anger. All he wanted to do was to make Daniel and his wife pay for everything they did. As he paced about, his phone rang and Hannah's name appeared on the screen.

As much as he wanted to hear her voice, he held back and let the phone ring. When he did not answer on the first ring, she dropped a message stating that she had gotten home and wanted to know if he was home yet.

He wanted to call her back, to talk to someone that did not remind him of how complicated his life was. But he did not. He was too angry to speak.