Page 50 of Legacy of Succession

“It can’t be.” I’m shaking my head. Reggie has been the father I’ve never had. He’s looked after me for as long as I can remember. "Let me try?” I’m pleading with him. I can’t lose him.

“I’m old. She’s young. Help her.” He coughs again, and his eyes roll back in his head.

“Reggie.” I shake him, but there’s nothing to be done. The room goes silent as he passes away. I lay him down on the floor. I can’t breathe. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to go to my father and be marrying Victoria. Victoria, she’s got to steal. I need to think. We have a list of works that we want. Which one would it be? Oh god, the ultimate prize. Would my father send her after that? The Mona Lisa. I have to hope that he has some sort of heart amongst the ego that dominates his body. I spin around, ready to finish this, but my father stands in the door, a tablet in hand, and a microphone headset on.

“One less expense on my budget, then.” He looks over my shoulder to where my butler lays dead.

“I want the guard who killed him. I’m going to tear him apart, limb by limb.”

“So dramatic.” My father rolls his eyes

“Reggie wasn’t just staff. He’s been more of a father figure in my life than you’ve ever been”

“Well that explains the weakness in you, then. He always did pander to your whims when I thought you should be beaten black and blue, to instill some balls into you. I should’ve had someone stick a knife in his chest years ago.”

“Give me the guard,” I repeat.

You’ve more important things to worry about than the staff.” He hands me the tablet.

“What’s this?”

“I thought you would like to watch the woman you love.”

I swipe the screen quickly, and it brings Victoria up. She’s in a dimly lit room, but I can make out her silhouette.

“Miss Hamilton” ?my father addresses her, and she jumps? “I trust you had a good evening with my son. I know you were expecting him to come back and whisk you away into a happy ever after, but I’m afraid I can’t allow that to happen. I don’t believe you’d be the best choice for Duchess of Oakfield. You’re what I’d call ‘a little too headstrong’. Alas, I have to go through the rules, and you must be given a chance.”

“Fuck you,” Victoria shouts out into the darkness, and I smirk at her bravery.

“I don’t do sloppy seconds, Miss Hamilton. I’m afraid you are spoiled goods, now. When I prove it, I’ll have you executed for your disregard of the rules, but, for now, this is much more fun.”

“Let her go!” I snarl at my father.

“Nicholas?” Victoria must hear my voice.

“I’m here.”

“Don’t give into his demands. Remember, I’m stronger than I look.”

I smile because I have a feeling that my father is the one who’s doing the underestimating of the situation, when it comes to Victoria.

“I won’t.”

“Hush,” my father snaps. “Miss Hamilton, you have half an hour to retrieve a painting from the vault you are in. If you fail to do it in that time, then you’re at the mercy of the collector. I’d wish you good luck, but I’d be lying. Your time starts now.”

My father takes the headset off his head and throws it on the floor. I stare down at the screen, and the lights come on. I don’t recognize where she is but breathe a sigh of relief as I know it’s not The Louvre, in Paris. The Mona Lisa isn’t the picture she’ll seek.

“Victoria isn’t headstrong. She’ll make a good Duchess of Oakfield.”

“She’ll destroy the rules, and the society will be left penniless.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” I ask. “Haven’t enough people died?”

My father yawns. “You’ve become such a bore. That’s why I’ve had to do things this way. You gave me no choice. It’s your mother’s fault. She put weak genes in William, and they seem to have gone in you as well.”

The door behind him creeks, and Elizabeth Sandford appears in the doorway.

“Your Grace, she drapes her arm around my father. He greets her with a kiss on the cheek and pats her stomach.

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