271 Discredit a professional
“I thought it would be something fun.” Zaria lamented. Spending the day thinking about Nathaniel didn’t sound like a blast.
“Oh, but it’s going to be fun.” He winked and waited for Lucy to arrive. She had heard Zaria’s voice so she came from the kitchen a minute later, a frustrated frown on her face.
“Are you hungry? I’ll order something. The only edible thing in your brother’s refrigerator is cheese. I wonder what he eats when he’s here.” She shot a glare at her son, who hummed as though she was not talking about him.
“We can order cheeseburgers.” Zaria suggested, immediately getting a resounding no from both Zeus and Lucy.
“Hey!” She complained at their stern tones.
“If you are craving burgers, I’ll make you some. Just to be sure of the ingredients.” Lucy offered and ordered the ingredients through the delivery app on her phone.
“You know, Sven can do grocery shopping. It’s his new feature. He can even scan and pick out what you need and weigh them.” Zeus bragged.
“I’m sure he can, but the poor shoppers and employees can survive without the scare.” It was not every day a robot stopped by the grocery store and started picking out vegetables.
Once she was notified that her order would arrive in twenty minutes, she sat down with the two of them to broach the topic.
.....
“Zeus and I went digging for dirt regarding your grandfather and we did find something.” He started. “You have estimated the past performance of Regal Hotel, right?”
She nodded, wondering why it was being brought up. But she answered nonetheless. “It wasn’t doing nearly as great as you would expect of a hotel owned by the Su family.”
“Right. They have this excellent reputation after all. But if you investigated their hotel and casino, as well as every other business they own, you would notice the trend. They either made losses or their profits weren’t anything like you would expect. A VIP room in the hotel-and-casino would cost slightly less than a regular room in Le Perle. And here’s the thing. They are both five-star hotels. They call it coupons and discounts but the truth is, the quality has dropped too much since Nathaniel took over the business. No one is willing to pay that much for the diminished service.”
Zaria’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “That doesn’t make sense. How come none of these business has been run into bankruptcy yet?”
“Because he keeps injecting money into them.” Zeus answered.
Her brow quirked. “If you don’t get any profit from your main business, where do you get enough money to keep it running?”
Lucy flashed a content smile. “Now you are thinking on the same wavelength as we are.”
“Okay, but can you please just spill it? The suspense is killing me.” She urged.
“The businesses are making losses, but it’s not because Nathaniel doesn’t know how to run a business. He just doesn’t have the time of day to care for anything that is not his underground firearm dealings.”
“That’s illegal.” She gasped.
“Exactly. And it’s not just firearms.”
“No.” She shut her eyes in denial. She didn’t have a close relationship with Nathaniel but to think that her grandfather was one of the reasons why crimes were much easier to commit felt like a nightmare.
“I discovered this while investigating the mole at Twilight.” She continued.
“There is a mole at Twilight too?”
Lucy nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. I’ve whisked him out. I don’t have sufficient evidence of Nathaniel’s deals yet. Which is why things are going to change in Preston and Fort Group.”
“Okay?” She probed with her gaze.
“I’m going to suggest working with him.” She revealed.
“That’s crazy.” She nearly snapped.
“I told her so.” Zeus seconded. “Nathaniel will want me instead. What he wants is not his daughter, but a child of the man his daughter fell in love with.”
Zaria glared at him and grabbed Lucy’s hand in desperation. “Mom, he could hurt you.”
Lucy cupped her face in her hands. “I lived with him for two decades. I know how to tread in his path without getting myself killed.”
She was still worried, but Lucy was not going to change her mind once she made her decision.
“Liam will be back in Preston and Fort Group as soon as I leave. My three month stay is almost over anyway.”
“What about me?” Zeus whined.
“You can be Liam’s assistant if you want. Desmond certainly wants his Zaria back.”
Zeus groaned. “I’d rather be stuck with Desmond.”
“Good. Because you don’t have to work for Liam. Why don’t you go back to Nice and finish the task you left underway?”
He pouted like an abandoned pet, making Zaria pat his head.
“Hey, don’t be scared, okay? You still have me.”
He swatted her hand away. “What do you take me for? A kid?”
“You were acting like one.” Zaria defended herself and dashed to hide by Lucy’s side before Zeus could retaliate.
Luckily, the groceries arrived and she no longer had to deal with the bickering siblings. She shut the door to the kitchen and left them to tear each other’s heads off if they wanted.
___
Meanwhile, Natalie was on the verge of burning a hole through the ground as she paced. She was in the parking lot of Devonte’s apartment complex but she couldn’t bring herself to go up. It was not a question of whether or not the information she got from Kara was true.
Kara had no reason to lie to her. There was nothing in it for her. Even so, she was nervous.
He was definitely home based on his schedule, but what would his reaction be? Would he want to see her?
All that mattered was that she got to tell him the truth about his shrink, but would he even believe her?
Most importantly, she couldn’t have done it via text and the only way for the information to make sense was if she told him everything, including how she found out that he was seeing Dr. Stanley. He might take her for a creep but it didn’t matter as long as he got the intended message.
Plucking her courage, she headed for the elevator before she could change her mind. He was yet to revoke her access to his floor, which gave her a strange feeling.
Although she now knew that his reason for breaking up with her was nothing like he had claimed, it still threw her off. The ding of the elevator must have signalled him of her arrival, he was at the door when she stepped out.
“Natalie?” He blinked in disbelief before pulling her into his arms in a tight hug.
She shut her eyes for seconds before gently pushing him off her. “That’s not why I’m here.”
“Of course.” He stepped out of the way. “Do you want to come in?”
It would be awkward to talk about it outide so she walked in carefully, glancing over her shoulder with each step as though she was scared he would shut the door once she was in. She hated that she felt spooked in his presence. This was the man she trusted with her life up until a month ago.
She scrunched her nose when a wave of the stench of beer hit her. Empty bottles were strewn all over the place, along with takeout boxes, paper and booklets she guessed must be scripts. There was no way this house had been cleaned in the last three days. Maybe a week or even more.
“Are you trying to drive yourself to the grave?” She scolded over her shoulder.
He closed the door and slumped onto the couch. “Why does it matter to you?”
“It doesn’t.” She evaded a pizza box and sat down. He must have fired his housekeeper too. Not that it should matter to her but it did. She couldn’t stand it any longer, so she stood up and grabbed the boxes and paper. She disposed of them in the trash bin and returned to pick the remaining ones, only for him to chortle at her.
“Quit it, Natalie. You are not my wife.”
She ignored him and grabbed an empty beer bottle.
“Natalie!” He barked.
She jumped and dropped the bottle. She was not used to him yelling at her. His sigh was evidence that he regretted it immediately but she let go. Angering him was not a good idea.
“I came to talk to you about your psychologist.” She started.
“My what?” He asked through a laugh.
“Psychologist...Dr. Stanley?” His gaze made her shiver. When he stood and closed in on her, she instinctively snuck a glance at the door.
“You spied on me.” He accused.
“You didn’t give me much choice by lying to me.” She took a step back, only for him to close in relentlessly.
“So you let curiosity get the better of you. Yet here you are.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She hadn’t missed the threat in his tone.
He grabbed her throat with both hands, his fingers wrapping around it. He didn’t squeeze but waited for her to react. When she didn’t do anything but stare right back at him, he let go.
“You are not scared.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me.” She retorted. “Not physically anyway.”
“You don’t know that.” He pulled away from her. “I don’t know how you found out but once you did, you should have done the only sane thing and stayed the fuck away from me.”
She ignored his words. “Dr. Stanley is only trying to hurt you.”
He glared at her. “Not only are you spying on me, but you are also trying to discredit a professional? On what grounds?”
There was no way she would convince him based on her instinct and Dr. Stanley’s inappropriate reaction could be chalked up to his attempt to scare her off. The only way she could convince him was if she had evidence.
An idea popped in her head. “I need to use the bathroom.”
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