"There are some rumors but you know how rumors are. They keep spreading until someone can bring solid proof." Grace's answer was the truth as he truly felt that Zach was merely asking for his own understanding. He wasn't the least bit suspicious.
"To be honest, all of us had been discussing this topic but we couldn't make the heads or tails of the situation considering that all of us play a managerial role in sugar production. I heard from Clara that you like to help out the workers from time to time. Then you must have a different outlook on things which is why I feel that you are the only person who can help me out."
Zach didn't want to ask the questions that he wanted to ask all of a sudden because it would then be no different from an interrogation. As such he had to build on a conversation before getting to the main question that he wanted to ask him.
Grace unknowingly nodded and said, "Since you are willing to give me a medical check-up, the least I can do is answer a few questions for you if that's what you want. In fact, it would make me feel at ease as well disturbing you like this."
Zach showed his appreciation with a smile on his face.
"Then I won't stand on ceremony. When I heard of the accusations on Mr. Windsor, I couldn't help but feel a little doubtful about it. I have seen the layouts of the production plans and the security is very strict. No matter how I think, it seems impossible to me that someone could get into the production facility and ruin the end product without attracting attention from the public. So, I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about the poisoned sugar that affected so many victims in the city."
Zach's question was carefully crafted and even the story behind it couldn't arouse suspicion in Grace.
Grace on the other hand wasn't doing so good on the inside. His heart was practically bursting out of his chest as he could hear the voice of his heart thumping in fear.
Even though Grace somehow managed to keep a nonchalant expression on his face as if the question had nothing to do with it, the screeching of the polygraph attracted Zach's attention. The heartbeat was through the roof and even the breathing had begun to make huge waves on the graph.
Grace's composure was a complete and utter fa?ade behind which he was hiding something. Zach had to draw out the reason with the help of the polygraph.
"No, as you said the security really is very tight. There is no way that an outsider could get in without getting detected. As for knowing anything about it, I might be the last person you want to ask about this. Even though I go there sometimes to help, I barely spend much time in idle gossip or rumor mongering. I find it childish. Therefore, I barely know the things that anyone in the street might know about."
The polygraph showed that it was a barefaced lie.
Zach could only sigh with helplessness. Clara noticed it right away and knew that Grace had betrayed the Windsor family this time. When she thought of how her father was currently in a prison where he was probably being tortured and her sister had been through such an ordeal; all because of him, a flame of anger burst inside her with the force of a nuclear explosion and she couldn't control her actions. She lunged towards Grace pulled him off the polygraph and pinned him down to the ground with one swift motion.
"WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS? We trusted you. I TRUSTED YOU…then why...why did you betray us?" Clara was yelling as she kept applying force on his collar to pull him off the ground before releasing him.
Grace looked crestfallen, his expressions a mix of anger, guilt and myriad emotions that he had kept hidden all this time. Clara was the girl he had been protecting since she was very young. Therefore, he offered no resistance to her aggressive questioning. He knew that she was acting this way because she was extremely disappointed.
Grace didn't try to escape what he knew he deserved. He had already expected this day to come and was prepared to give his life in return for betraying the Windsor family.
Clara on the other hand was far from being able to stop once she began to rage. She began to smack Grace right on his face. The strength behind her punches was strong enough to shatter the cheekbones of any normal person but Grace had been trained by the Windsor family who specialized in physique strengthening. Therefore, under the wrathful assault of Clara, he was able to survive somehow. He only spat blood a few times but still said nothing in response to Clara's questioning.
Before Clara ended up killing him in her anger, Zach grabbed onto her hand that was now covered in Grace's blood.
"Stop…that's enough. We still don't know why he did it and from the looks of it, he doesn't plan to tell you either. I am afraid if you continue, you will end up killing him."
Clara unwillingly let go of Grace but the indignation in her eyes was evident for all to see.
Grace couldn't even lift his eyes to take a look at what she looked like at the moment. He was too ashamed of what he had done. Nevertheless, he believed that his actions were only to save his loved one and not to intentionally hurt the Windsor family. He had been coerced by the enemy into doing this. Therefore, he believed that he had done nothing wrong even if the whole world called him out on it.
"Let me ask him the questions. I am afraid that he won't live very long if you end up questioning him like this." Said Zach as he pulled Grace to his feet with both of his hands. Grace turned out to be quite heavy and it took quite a bit of force on Zach's part to pull him up.
Zach then had him sit on the chair and connected the polygraph to him once again. He gave him a few minutes to catch his breath so that his vitals could back to normal after the earlier stimulation.
Now that they had already established that Grace was a traitor, they didn't need to give him the respect he didn't deserve. He was a traitor to the family and could be treated with the harshest of behaviors and could be interrogated directly.
When the vitals were steady enough, Zach began the interrogation with a stiff expression that bordered on the verge of anger.
"Why did you betray the Windsor family that you have been serving so whole heartedly for the enemy? Did you think that you weren't being treated right in this place? Is that it?" Zach asked a series of questions from him in order to determine his reasons.
However, he was faced with absolute silence from the culprit. Grace was unwilling to answer any single one of Zach's questions. There was a resolute look on his face as if he was not going to waver even in the face of death.
To Zach, this seemed to be a little odd. Usually those who were willing to betray once were bound to betray again. This kind of people had no sense of honor and were flexible enough to switch sides as soon as the benefits outweighed what they were currently receiving.
However, Grace was resolute enough to maintain his silence throughout. This was only possible if the Hunter family had offered him something that the Windsor family would never be able to even if they continued to develop for several years or he was being forced to betray Windsor family due to some coercive means that the Windsor family had no means to handle.
There was another possibility but Zach didn't think that was possible given how passionately Grace had served the Windsor family before. It was that Grace had never been loyal to Windsor family from the beginning and had been planted by the enemy side as a sleeper cell until ordered to act.
Zach chose the process of elimination to test all these theories on Grace so as to ascertain the true reason with the help of the polygraph despite Grace's continued silence throughout the interrogation.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om