Page 77 of The Wife Deception
"That was my grandaddy's plan. I only convinced the guy."
"What do you want?" I said.
She casually lifted her purse, opened it and took out a gun and pointed it at me. Nolan instinctively tried to cover me with his body, pushing me back onto the couch while leaning forward, partially covering me.
"Aelin…"
"I want what's owed to me or she's dead." She lowered the gun until it pointed at my belly. "Theyare both dead."
"I think we can talk reasonably without resorting to violence," Nolan said.
"Maybe, but I need a little insurance."
Nolan raised his hand in surrender. "Okay fine."
“Good. I'm being hunted. I have to leave the country now. And I want fuck-you money. Give me, say, my divorce settlement and I would be out of your hair.” She rummaged through her purse with her free hand and took out her phone. She threw the phone on the table in the middle of the living room. "My bank details are on there. One hundred million dollars should be a good enough divorce settlement, don't you think?"
"I don't—"
"Yes, you do. Don't give me the 'I'm not liquid bullshit.'A rich man like you can easily access it." She cockedthe gun.
"Fine." Nolan took out his phone from his pocket. "Aire, grab the phone."
I stretched over to take her phone and when I sat back down, Aelin stood up, gun squarely pointed at us. “What about the money I gave you?” I said to Aelin, and she looked at me like I was the dumbest person in the world.
“One hundred thousand is not enough to live on forever,” she said in a condescending tone. “It’s not even enough for a month.”
“I mean, why did you ask for it when you had enough money to hire a hitman?”
“Oh, you know about that? Wow. News travels fast. But I guess your brain is slow. It was a test, you idiot. I wanted to rattle you. And to find out how generous he is.” She pointed at Nolan.
Nervous, I dropped the phone. Aelin picked it up and checked it, then leaned over us, saying, "I don't want you calling nine-one-one while I'm not watching."
"I wasn't going to," I said.
“Make it quick,” Aelin said.
Nolan smirked. “Got somewhere you need to be?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Aelin said. “Got a jet I can borrow?”
“Not a chance.”
Nolan opened his phone and asked me to read out her bank details. He entered them and then,when finished, said, "The money will be in your account in a few minutes."
"Good," she stepped back. "Put the phone back on the table."
I did as she said with shaking hands, then she picked it up without turning her attention away from us.
"Why did you try to kill him?" I asked.
Aelin frowned. "Oh, you don't know? Grandfather never told you?" she shrugged. "It doesn't matter, anyway." Aelin sat back in the chair and when she was slightly distracted, I surreptitiously put my phone on record.
“You and I are sisters,” Aelin began. “Twins. My mother, or my aunt I guess I should say, offered to take me as her daughter after your mother, our mother, told her she could not take care of two kids. Making out on your own in this concrete jungle is tough if you are used to certain luxuries. I guess being cut off from the family fortune was so hard for her that she opted to give up one of us. And since my mother was the one who was supposed to inherit the whole shebang, when she died, I became the heir. I guess I was the lucky one.” She scanned me with an envious gaze. "Looks like our luck has changed. Anyway," she sighed.
"Grandaddy had his whole silly little grudge with the," she waved her gun at Nolan, "Hawthornes and he wanted payback. Marry intotheir family, get me with a baby, and when that baby grows up, well, he dies," she pointed at Nolan again, "And the baby becomes the heir of the entire Hawthorne empire, completing his long thought out plan. My baby, you see. Unfortunately, there was a little kink in his plan, because I can't get pregnant. Frankly, I don't want to, but that's beside the point. Since I can't get pregnant, and you can, you had to come into my place. That's why he invented that bullshit story of me being missing so you can take my place. It's so funny that you bought it. You're so fucking naïve, it's quite remarkable."
"What about me?" I said in a small voice. "What were you going to do about me?"
