The Contracted Stripper

Ryan paced the length of his father’s study, his mind racing with conflicting emotions. He held the hospital reports tightly in his hand, his knuckles white from the grip.

The reports confirmed his worst fears-the man he had called his father for his entire life wasn’t his biological father at all.

Dr. Parker was. The revelation had shaken him to the core, and he knew he couldn’t keep this secret any longer. He had to tell Mr. Kendrick.

Taking a deep breath, he walked over to where Kendrick sat in his leather chair, his eyes already filled with concern.

Kendrick had noticed Ryan’s turmoil the moment he entered the room, but he hadn’t pressed him to speak.

“Dad,” Ryan began, his voice trembling slightly. He rarely ever called him anything but ‘Dad,’ but now, with this new information, it felt like a lie.

Still, it was all he had ever known. “I received something today. It’s… complicated, and I don’t know how to explain it.”

Kendrick raised an eyebrow, worry etching deeper into his face.

“Ryan, whatever it is, you know you can talk to me.”Ryan swallowed hard, handing him the reports. Kendrick took them, his eyes scanning the pages.

For a moment, the room was silent. The air felt heavy like they were standing on the edge of a precipice. Then, Kendrick’s face went pale.

He looked up at Ryan, confusion and disbelief mixing in his gaze.”This… this can’t be right,” Kendrick stammered. “What are you saying, Ryan? Dr. Parker is your…?”

“My biological father,” Ryan finished for him. His voice was flat as if saying it out loud might lessen the blow. “Mom has been lying to us for years. She had an affair with him, and they’ve been keeping this secret from us.”

Kendrick stood abruptly, knocking over a glass of water on his desk, though he didn’t seem to notice. He grabbed the reports and looked at them again, as if rereading them would somehow change the words on the page.

“No, this can’t be right. Ryan, we need to get another test done. There must be some mistake. This can’t be true!”

“I already did,” Ryan replied, his voice weary. “I didn’t want to believe it either, so I went to three different hospitals. They all came back the same. Dr. Parker is my biological father.”

Kendrick sank back into his chair, his hands covering his face. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Ryan could hear his father’s heavy breathing, and it broke his heart to see the man who had raised him so shattered by this news.

“Why would she do this?” Kendrick asked finally, his voice barely above a whisper. “Why would Rose lie to me, to us, for all these years?”Ryan clenched his fists.

“Because she’s selfish. She wanted to have it all-her affair with Parker and the security of being with you. She didn’t care about how it would affect us.”

Kendrick looked up at him, his eyes filled with sorrow. “Ryan, I… I don’t know what to say. You’ve always been my son, and nothing can change that. I love you, no matter what those reports say.”

Ryan’s chest tightened at his father’s words. Despite the devastating revelation, Kendrick still saw him as his son.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

But the knowledge that he wasn’t truly Kendrick’s by blood felt like a wound that would never heal.”I appreciate that, Dad,”

Ryan said softly, trying to keep his emotions in check. “But I need to see her. I need to know why she did this.”Kendrick nodded, his expression resigned. “I’ll support you, whatever you decide to do. But please… be careful, Ryan. Your mother has hurt us both, but you don’t have to face this alone.”

Ryan left the room, his mind clouded with anger and betrayal. He felt Iris’s comforting presence as she waited for him outside the study. She had been his rock throughout all of this, standing by him even as his world fell apart.

“Are you okay?” Iris asked, her eyes filled with concern. Ryan shook his head. “No. But I have to see her.”The visit to the prison was even harder than Ryan had anticipated. When he arrived at the visitation room, he was told by the guards that Rose had refused to see him.

It was a final, bitter rejection from a mother who had never truly cared about him, and it stung in ways he hadn’t expected.

Iris placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as they walked out of the prison. “She’s not worth it, Ryan. She doesn’t deserve your time or your pain.”

“I know,” Ryan muttered. “But it still hurts. I don’t know what I was expecting… some kind of explanation, maybe. Something to help make sense of all this.”

“You’ll never get that from her,” Iris said gently. “But you have me. And you have Kendrick. That’s what matters.”Ryan nodded, grateful for Iris’s unwavering support, but deep down, the bitterness still gnawed at him.

There was someone else he needed to confront-Dr. Parker. If his mother wouldn’t give him answers, maybe the man who had fathered him would.

Meanwhile, Luca’s bond with Ivy had grown stronger by the day. What had started as casual flirtation had quickly developed into something deeper. Ivy, once aloof and uninterested in relationships, found herself drawn to Luca’s warmth and stability.

They spent more time together, and soon, they were officially in a relationship.”You’re different from anyone I’ve ever met,” Ivy admitted one evening as they sat together in the garden of the Kendrick estate.

“I never thought I’d let someone in like this, but with you… it just feels right.”Luca smiled, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “You make it easy, Ivy. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”

Their relationship was one of the few bright spots in a family otherwise torn apart by lies and betrayal. But even as they grew closer, both of them knew that the chaos surrounding Ryan’s family would eventually affect them, too.

Back at the Kendrick estate, Mr. Kendrick was struggling to come to terms with the revelation about Ryan.

He had always loved Ryan as his son, and despite the test results, that love hadn’t wavered.

But the truth gnawed at him-after all these years, how could it be that Ryan wasn’t his biological child? As he sat in his office, staring at old family photos, Kendrick felt a deep sense of loss.

He had raised Ryan and taught him everything he knew, and now this secret had shattered the very foundation of their relationship.

A knock on the door pulled Kendrick from his thoughts. It was Luca.”Sir, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Luca began hesitantly. Kendrick waved him in.

“Of course, Luca. What’s on your mind?”Luca sat down across from Kendrick, his expression serious. “I just want to say… I know this situation with Ryan has been difficult for you. But I hope you know that nothing has changed. You’re still his father in every way that matters.”Kendrick smiled sadly.

“Thank you, Luca. I appreciate that. It’s just hard to process, you know? I raised him, loved him as my own, and now to find out that Parker is his biological father… it feels like my world has been turned upside down.”

“But you didn’t raise him because of biology,” Luca said gently. “You raised him because you love him. That’s what matters.”

Kendrick nodded, but the weight of the situation still hung heavily over him.

In the cold, sterile confines of his prison cell, Dr. Parker waited. He had received the call that the hospital reports had been delivered to Ryan, and he knew it was only a matter of time before Ryan would come to see him.

He could almost taste the anticipation, knowing that this was the moment he had been waiting for.”Good,” Parker muttered to himself, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Now he knows the truth.”Parker’s plan had been carefully orchestrated from the beginning. He had always known that Rose wouldn’t be able to keep the secret forever, and now that the truth was out, he was certain that Ryan would come to him.

After all, Ryan had been living a lie his whole life, and now that he knew Parker was his real father, surely he would do everything in his power to get him out of prison.

At least, that’s what Parker believed. But as he sat in his cell, waiting for Ryan’s arrival, Parker’s overconfidence blinded him to the reality of the situation.

Ryan wasn’t coming to rescue him. Ryan was coming to confront him, and when he did, Parker would realize that his carefully crafted plan wasn’t going to unfold the way he had imagined.

As the hours ticked by, Parker continued to wait, his mind buzzing with thoughts of what he would say when Ryan finally arrived. He envisioned a reunion, a father and son finally coming together, united by the truth.

But what Parker didn’t realize was that Ryan’s heart was filled not with a desire for connection, but with rage.

When Ryan stepped into that prison, Parker would soon learn that the son he thought he could manipulate wasn’t going to play along with his plans.