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Ottilie trembles, but I can see the fire in her eyes. She wants so badly to lash out at me, but she's scared. I bare my teeth at her. The black streak of her mascara makes her look more like a raccoon than she already did.
I turn to her father.
"You and I both know you prefer to distance yourself from the shady shit you do to keep yourself rich," I hiss. "It would be a shame if the truth behind your acquisition of the Crestview Group a few months back ever hit the media." He goes even paler. "You would probably lose half the value of your stock overnight."
The Crestview Group has been on Jeffrey's radar for years. As a direct competitor to one of his businesses, he's been trying to buy them out for as long as I can remember. They had always turned down his offers.
Until the chairman of the board, Gerard Crest, died a few months ago.
The new guy they brought in was more favourable to Jeffrey’s offer.
Crest’s death was ruled an accident, and Jeffrey made off with the company for a fraction of what it was actually worth. The details are much more sinister than that, though. The Empire made the chairman's murder look like an accident, and after an elaborate months-long intimidation scheme aimed at the other members of the board, they finally cracked.
"You would sink the Empire," Jeffrey says, but he's taking a step back as if he doesn't really believe what he's saying.
I shake my head, still smiling. "You underestimate me, Jeff." I slap his shoulder like we're old friends. He jerks away from me. "I would only feed them enough info to let them think you had Gerard killed."
Which he did do, but that goes without saying.
Ottilie's tears have dried up now, and she's looking at her father like he's sprouted a second head. How far under a rock has this girl been? She didn't seriously think that her father's money was squeaky clean?
"You had Connor's father killed?"
Oh, yes. Gerard's twenty-six-year-old son, Connor. Heir to his father's fortune—most of it stemming from his shares in the Crestview Group. After he found out what happened to his father, he was much more agreeable.
His first and only decision as chairman was selling the conglomerate to Jeffrey.
Jeffrey doesn't respond, but Ottilie grows hysterical.
"I wondered why he ghosted me after we had been together for so long." Her lips are trembling. "You had his father killed so you could get your grubby hands on his company?"
This ended up being much better than I thought.
Jeffrey probably involved my father in getting Gerard killed so they could kill two birds with one stone—Jeffrey got the company he always wanted, and my father got Ottilie's long term boyfriend out of her life so he could marry me off to her.
Pathetic, both of them.
I excuse myself from the ruckus that Ottilie is creating by arguing with her father, but they're both too engrossed in their tiff to notice me.
Now, to find Alize and get the fuck out of here.
No doubt, inviting the Welsers to this party is my father's way of showing me that he's still pressing on with his plan. But it will never work out, so long as I'm alive. Ever since Alize told me about the baby, I've been toying with ideas of how to keep them both safe and away from my father.
Each of my ideas is a little bit crazier than the last.
But every day we spend at the estate makes me realise just how dire the situation is. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I will do whatever it takes to ensure that my family is protected.
As I'm walking past the bar, I spot Wesley.
And he's alone.
I jog up to him, resting a firm hand on his shoulder. He's taking a rocks glass of whiskey from the bartender.
"Drinking on the job?" I scold, scanning the room from Stuart.
Wesley shakes his head. "It's not for me. Apple juice for Alize."
"Where is she?"
