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Lucien stares at him with impatience. “We need to know what happened in the autumn of eighteen fifty-three.”

Hale snorts, his gaze sliding toward a dark corner where something moves. I follow it with my eyes. A rat seems to have remained stuck under some boards.

“Your name was on that contract,” I utter, bringing my gaze back to him.

He shifts in his chair, hands splayed. “Mine wasn’t the only one, was it?”

“Why did the negotiations for the iron and coal mine fail?” Lucien presses.

Hale clicks his tongue, pointing a finger into the void between us. “Because of your father.”

My brother furrows his brows. I feel the blood boiling in my temples.

“Clarify yourself,” I say, fists clenched, breath short.

“What I know is that Theodore Ashford’s principal had started the negotiations, almost everything was finalized... then the payments were blocked. Suddenly.”

“But for what reason?”

“Lord Ashford disapproved of our methods. Too much of a coward.”

I lunged forward, Lucien grabs my wrist firmly.

“Dorian—wait.”

Hale’s face burns in my eyes, and with it, the insult to my father’s name.

“Don’t you dare, you filthy wretch,” I snarl through my teeth.

He shrugs with a contemptuous air. “Your father didn’t want us putting pressure on the landowners. Too delicate a heart, dear Theodore Ashford.”

I break away from Lucien’s grip.

“Because of him, rumors circulated about our unorthodox methods. Other investors backed out.”

He stands up.

“And while the fucking Theodore Ashford became the liberator of the peasants, his reputation grew...”

A malignant smile appears on his face.

“But it didn’t serve him much in the end, did it?”

The rat I had seen passing through the shadows now runs near my feet. Arching the tip of my boot, I trap it; the shoe pins the tail, and it remains there, motionless under my control.

Lucien stares at him. “You know what happened next, don’t you? You took revenge because his refusal had compromised your business.”

The rage mounts inside me and spreads through my entire body.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You said there was a principal. Who was?”

“Why should I give you such information?”

“How much money do you want?” Lucien intervenes, placing his hand on the table, drawing Hale’s attention.

Taking advantage of his distraction, I lower myself slowly and seize the rat between my fingers.