Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Ronin did not make idle threats. That didn’t mean I was willing to be threatened in my own fucking office.
“Who exactly do you think you’re talking to? I have had this deal running with your family before you were born. You will not come into my office and threaten me, boy. You do not threaten my family. I threaten yours. Just because I sit in this glass tower, don’t think I don’t remember where the fuck I came from. Or how I got here.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that we need to—”
“You need to shut the fuck up and let me handle it. I heard you. You need another way to clean money and replace the income you lost. I have a plan that is in the works and may prove to be far more profitable than I intended.”
“What plan?”
“It’s too early to give details. I have been working with your family for years. I value this relationship and understand how delicate it is, even if my son does not. Let me handle it.”
“You know what happens if you don’t,” Ronin said.
I knocked over my king, even though it was never in any danger. Not as a sign of defeat, but a symbol of bending a knee.
It made my stomach twist in anger, but I held it in.
Life was a game of chess, and just like in chess, sometimes you needed to sacrifice a pawn or even a king to win in the end.
I was playing the long game.
CHAPTER 22
STELLA
My heart raced as I pressed myself against the wall, listening for the footsteps coming down the hallway.
Doing this was stupid, but I had to try.
The footsteps got closer, and I just knew they belonged to the evil butler. He was going to rat me out if he caught me, and then there was no telling what Lucian would do to me.
The lawyer’s words played over and over in my head, as well as the image of the healthcare proxy listed on the court documents.
If he caught me here, he really could toss me in a mental institution and throw away the key. Just because doctors no longer diagnosed women with hysteria didn’t mean they didn’t treat it.
My eyes stayed closed tight as I listened to his footsteps get closer and closer.
Maybe I did deserve to have a trustee.
Maybe I wasn’t an adult.
I couldn’t even sneak down a hallway and get into an office without being caught by the butler.
Then, in a moment of pure luck, the footsteps turned a corner and walked away from me. I hadn’t been caught, not yet, anyway.
I counted to ten silently in my head, making sure the coast was completely clear before I continued creeping down the long hallway to Manwarring’s office.
The large wooden door was thankfully unlocked, and it was easy for me to slide into the room, barely opening the door and closing it behind me. Again, I stopped and listened, making sure no one had followed me, no alarms were going to go off, and I was safe.
With an almost compulsive need, I slowly counted to ten in my head, waiting for something to happen, someone to pop out of a closet or the butler to walk in and drag me out after being alerted to my trespassing by some silent alarm. When nothing happened, I let out a breath of relief that made my lungs ache.
I had made it successfully into his office. Now, all I had to do was find something that I could take to Harrison Astrid.
His computer was the most obvious place I would find anything truly damning.
If I could find something there and take screenshots, maybe email them to myself, delete everything from his computer, or even just take photos with my phone that would give Harrison enough for some type of search warrant, then I could be free.
It did occur to me that I may not even have to go that far. Just having the information might be enough for me to blackmail my way to freedom. I just didn’t know if I was strong enough to go through with that. But from what Amelia had told me about her brother, Harrison absolutely was.
Whether or not I decided to go the legal route or the blackmail route really didn’t matter unless I could find something incriminating.
I sat in the large leather chair that was behind the massive, imposing wooden desk. There was no computer on top of the desk, so I opened drawers, trying to find something.
Thankfully, Lucian kept a tidy desk, and it only took me a moment to find the sleek silver laptop. Of course, it was Samsung and the newest model. As carefully as I could without smudging anything, I lifted the top to see the battery was full, but the screen was locked.