Page 48 of The Revenge Plan

“We do try,” Rachel said beaming. I thought it funny that a few months ago she didn’t want to be associated with my family and had almost forced me to change my name, but now that my dear husband had brought in a large donation, all of my relations were perfectly fine to associate with now.

“Is there some place I can have a private word with my daughter?” He sounded taut. It was an instruction to boot Alicia out of the office. I didn’t want her to. She, however, understood him and made an excuse of needing to send some documents to someone and left with Rachel. When she was gone, I got up ready to greet him, but he gripped my elbow hard and said, “where is it?”

“Let go of me,” I wiggled, but it was useless. His grip was tight.

“Did you give it to your husband?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The deed. You fucking stole it and gave it to him, didn’t you? Why else would he marry you if not to use you in his scheme?”

“You mean the deed to the mine you stole? All I did was return it to the rightful owner.”

His eyes narrowed into slits. His face was red, boiling with anger. “You’ve destroyed me. Do you understand that? You’ve destroyed us all.”

“It’s funny, I thought I was a Scott now?”

“Where is it?”

“I don’t have it.”

Twisting my arm, he said, “Fine, then let’s go speak with the man himself, shall we?” he said as he dragged me out of my office.

“You can’t. He’s not in town!”

“A little birdy told me he is back. Let’s go.”

When we got to the parking lot, my father practically threw me into his car and a somewhat bewildered chauffeur drove us there.

“I’m telling you he’s not there. You’re wasting your time.” I said when we entered the elevator. We arrived on Caiden’s floor. He hadn’t let go of me yet, so it was a shock to the assistants to see me being held by the elbow as if I was some petulant teenager. They said nothing when we burst past them and Julian pushed through the door. To my surprise, Caiden was there sitting in his chair looking a little amused if I may say. His gaze went to the vice grip dad had on my arm. His eyes flared, and he stood up and went around his desk, “Julian. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Dad stepped forward and whirled me in front of him, but he didn’t remove his hand. I stumbled at the unexpected movement. “Is this why you married her? To use her against me!”

Caiden’s voice was calm, “Let her go and then we will talk about this civilly.”

Dad scoffed. “There’s nothing civil about your underhanded tactics.”

“Let her go, Julian.”

He pushed me forward, and I stumbled again. This time, Caiden caught me as I was about to splatter to the floor.

“You little thief. Had I known; I would never have you marry into the family.”

“Are you going to tell me what I did wrong or are you going to keep hurling accusations?”

“The deed. You stole it.”

“To the emerald mine? If I remember Julian, it was part of Celeste’s assets, which I acquired in its entirety.”

“Just know that this is not over. That little wife of yours holds more secrets than you know.”

“Can you leave?”

“This is not over,” he fumed, “It is not over.”

“I don’t know. I think it is. The mine is no longer yours. Get over it. I won.”

Dad’s lip curled. I could feel the anger radiating from him.

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