Friends, thank you for sticking with me through this story for 15 chapters. It’s been a wild ride, and I am so excited to bring it to a conclusion.
The House Boy finale diverges into two paths. This chapter is the Path to Power. Tomorrow, I’ll release the Path to Freedom.
It’s up to you to decide which path you believe Scott will take.
I know what I think—do you?
The hotel workers cleared away the last of the continental breakfast buffet, carrying off trays of lukewarm scrambled eggs and soggy sausages.
Adrian sat across from me at one of the tables, a stale bagel untouched in front of him and a cup of black coffee clenched in his hand. He rested his forehead against his fist, wincing every time the kitchen door slammed.
“I haven’t felt this wrecked since college.”
He took a sip of coffee and immediately grimaced.
“Jesus. Get me some Tums or something. I think I’m gonna hurl.”
Under the table, I thumbed anxiously through social media on my phone. In addition to the Times, I’d sent the footage to several prominent political accounts on X.
The news was sure to drop any minute.
Still nothing.
“Scott? Hello?”
I looked up. Adrian was staring at me through red-rimmed eyes.
I slipped the phone into my pocket. “Yes, Sir. I’ll see if the hotel has any.”
I started to stand, but he reached across the table and caught my hand.
“Wait.”
His eyes flicked around the room.
The dining room had mostly emptied by eleven, leaving only us and a couple of workers wiping down counters in the far corner. A television mounted near the ceiling played CNN coverage of the convention.
“Just sit down for a second.”
I sat back in my chair as my heart started to race. He couldn’t know about the video yet.
His thumb brushed slowly across the back of my hand. “Last night was a dream come true for me.”
I forced a smile. “Yeah. It was fun.”
“No, you don’t get it.” A small laugh escaped him. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, Scott. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a boy. Things I didn’t even know were possible.”
My palm had gone slick with sweat in his hand.
He stared down into his coffee.
“I never thought I could have this. Somebody who accepted all of me. Somebody who could feed the beast and tame it at the same time. I thought…”
He shook his head, sighing.
“I’d accepted a long time ago that I was never gonna have the life I wanted. It wasn’t up to me. Never was. Dad pretty much made sure of that. He forced me into politics. Forced me into the military when it was the last thing I wanted. Forced me to…” He paused. “Forced me to give up my son.”
For a moment, he just stared at the table. When he looked back up, his eyes were glassy.
“And even before that, he…”
He cleared his throat.
“My father wasn’t a bad guy. He really wasn’t. But he used to, uh…”
A tear rolled down his cheek.
“He used to rape me.”
The words landed with terrifying calmness.
”When I was a boy. From 8 until I was about 13.”
I stared at him in shock. I didn’t know what to say.
“I never told anybody,” he continued, “because… because he was my dad. He was a great man. He was my hero, and he…”
He laughed bitterly and wiped at his face.
“I didn’t think I was ever going to fall in love. I knew I’d have a family, a wife. And I knew there’d be sex. But it would always be hidden and dirty. Secret. But I didn’t think I’d ever find something like this. Like you.”
His eyes found mine, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. His grip on my hand wasn’t hard, but it felt tight as a noose.
“You changed everything for me, Scott. I had no idea when you walked through my door, the things you’d unlock in me. You’re the only boy, the only person, I’ve ever truly felt I could be myself with. I wish… Fuck, I wish more than anything that we lived in a world where we could just fucking be together. Where we didn’t have to worry about all this bullshit. I could just have you by my side, claim you as mine, without giving up everything else. Where I could have it all: power and freedom.”
He smiled sadly. For the first time in years, he looked every bit of his age.
“But this is nice too, isn’t it? Even if it’s just for us… It doesn’t make it any less real.”
Something flashed across the TV screen behind him.
He noticed me go pale. “What?”
He turned to see the breaking news broadcast behind him. The chyron at the bottom of the screen read: “REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN ACCUSED OF INCESTUOUS SEX SCANDAL.”
It cut to a recording of Adrian and Mason, fucking against the wall in the hotel room. They were blurred out below the waist, but the implication was clear.
For a second, Adrian simply stared.
“What the fuck?” he said softly.
He rose to his feet, his eyes glued on the screen. The video continued playing, showing Adrian taking his son from behind.
“What the fuck is this?” he said, a little louder. He turned to me, eyes blazing in anger. “How do they have this, Scott?”
“I– I don’t know,” I stammered.
He marched toward the television. His hands roamed around the sides of it, searching for a way to turn it off, but there was nothing.
“Motherfucker,” he said, slamming his palms against the screen.
The image glitched out for a moment, but remained.
A few of the workers were starting to stare now. Adrian was breathing heavily, his shoulders heaving in anger. He grabbed an empty carafe from the buffet table and slammed it against the screen.
“Fucking BULLSHIT!” he yelled, beating the glass over and over.
The screen fractured into a spiderweb of broken glass, the video of him and his son splintering into jagged pieces.
“Sir, stop.” I tried to grab his arm, but he threw me off.
“AHHHH!” he yelled, wailing the screen until it continued shattering.
Several of the hotel workers were rushing toward us now.
“Sir, we need to go. Tom—TOM!!”
I grabbed him by the arm, dragging him away from the ruined television and toward the lobby. He was still swinging the carafe in the air, spewing spittle as he raged in grunts and yells.
When I finally got Adrian back to the hotel room, he hurled the coffee carafe against the wall. It exploded across the carpet.
“How the fuck did they have that video, Scott?”
I was already on my phone, firing off texts.
“Scott!”
“I don’t know,” I said, not looking up.
“You don’t know?” He paced the room, running both hands through his hair. “This is a fucking disaster. Do you understand that? My life is over.”
“It’s not as bad as you think.”
He stopped pacing. “Not as bad as I think? Are you fucking retarded?”
“We’ll just say it’s AI,” I said, still typing. “I’m already setting up a press conference.”
Adrian stared at me. After a moment, some of the panic drained from his face.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “Yeah, that could work.”
“Deepfakes are sophisticated now. Half the country already believes nothing they see online. We’ll say it’s political retaliation.”
“And the guy?”
“What guy?”
“The one who released it.”
“We’ll find him and pay him off.”
Adrian’s lip curled in anger. “He must have done this. That little faggot. He filmed it.”
“Maybe.”
I finally looked up from my phone.
“Or maybe a hotel employee planted a camera. Maybe somebody hacked security footage. It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.” He turned to me, his expression hardening. “Why the fuck did you let me go upstairs with him?”
I blinked. “What?”
“You knew this could happen. You put me in this position!”
I set my phone down and looked at him coldly. “I didn’t force you to fuck him, Sir.”
“Yeah, but–”
I stood.
“The buck stops with you, Tom.”
He stared at me as I stepped closer.
“You made a mess, and I’m going to clean it up for you, because that’s my job. So don’t lose your fucking cool, or else you’ll make this even worse.”
For the first time, he looked uncertain, frightened.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I continued, striding over to the bathroom door and opening it. “You’re gonna take a shower, because you smell like absolute shit. Then you’re going to find your wife and daughters and tell them there’s a fake video circulating online.”
I checked the time on my watch. “In one hour, you’re going to be downstairs in front of the hotel. I’ve got reporters on their way to take a press conference. You’re going to say it’s AI, that you don’t even know the other man in the video, that you’re a loving family man who would never cheat on his wife. All right?”
He nodded slowly.
“Tell me you understand, Tom.”
“Okay,” he said quietly. He rubbed his eyes. “Fuck, this is such a mess.”
“Like I said.” I held the door open. “I’ll clean it up.”
An hour later, Adrian stood in front of the hotel entrance with Rebecca and their daughters beside him. Television cameras lined the curb, a dozen microphones crowding together in front of him. The panic was gone, replaced by his usual cool exterior.
“This fake video is an absolutely egregious act of political sabotage,” he said, his low voice booming with authority. “A malicious attempt to discredit me after last night’s speech. The president’s enemies are desperate, and they’re willing to manufacture lies to achieve their goals.”
“Congressman,” a reporter called out, “what do you say to claims that the man in the video is your son?”
“It’s a lie,” he said. “I’ve never met that man before in my life.”
“But he’s publicly identified himself as your biological son.”
The color drained from Adrian’s face.
“He… he what?”
The reporter glanced down at her phone. “He says the two of you have been engaged in a sexual relationship for years. Is that true?”
His mouth opened and closed several times, as his brain short-circuited.
Beside him, Rebecca slowly turned her head. “What?” she whispered.
“That… that’s ridiculous.” His voice cracked. “I don’t have a son.”
“Would you be willing to take a paternity test?”
“Of course.” He leaned toward the microphone. “I’m telling you, he’s a fucking liar. I am not gay, and I’m not having an incestuous affair with my son!”
As the reporters shouted out more questions, I quietly slipped away into the background. No one noticed, as they were all watching Adrian. I crossed the hotel lobby, stepped into an elevator, and rode up to the 15th floor.
I stopped in front of room 1523, then knocked twice.
A moment later, the door opened. Carter looked me up and down.
“Mr. Pierson.” He looked past me into the hallway. “You’re alone.”
“I am.” I smiled politely. “Can I come in?”