Page 38 of Merciless Sinner

"What about her parents?"

"They're dead.” My voice holds the weight of the sadness I feel, but I know my father won’t care. “Olivia survived the attack on her home and has been surviving in hiding ever since for the last two and a half years. I'm going to marry her."

At my declaration, the shock he previously displayed dissolves and he assumes his role of high-handed dictator. I expected this.

My father hated the O’Ridians even when he was friends with them, so any other emotion would shock me.

"You are not going to marry an O’Ridian."

"Olivia is the heir to the diamond mine," I cut him off before he can continue barking his orders at me. That key piece of intel stops him in his tracks.

"What?"

"The same diamond mine you guys fell out over. She is the heir to it. If I marry her, I get fifty percent ownership. The very thing you wanted and have wanted all these long years."

He takes me in with a new light in his eyes, the kind of look he uses when he sees an opportunity.

He might not like that the mine will be mine, but he's the kind of ruthless person who doesn't care how he gets something as long as he gets it and has it in his possession. He will see the mine as belonging to the Antonov family. I’m already playing with fire, so I won’t set off any more flames by letting him know I’ll be giving that fifty percent share to Olivia once the processing period is over.

"I see," he says after a prolonged silence. "Well, that changes everything now, doesn't it?"

“We're getting married next Saturday. I've put in all the paperwork already. All we need to do is say ‘I do.’"

He leans forward. "Is there no other way to get the diamond mine without marrying the girl?"

"This is the way I choose, and you have no authority to influence me one way or another. The contract we agreed to stated I’d get the company after marriage. I never agreed to you choosing my bride." That part was implied, but I found a crack in the terms and slipped right in.

I stand, signaling I've finished talking to him. "I'm leading an investigation to see what happened to her parents. The Creed are going to help. You better hope we don't find anything that links you to their disappearance and deaths."

"I've already told you this before; I did nothing."

"And I still don't believe you, Father. I still don't believe you." I cut him a hard glare and with that walk out, leaving him to stew in the bomb I just dropped on him.

I finally have my father exactly where I want him. And as of now, there is nothing he can do to come back with to get me. That doesn’t mean he won’t try.

I make my way to my office on the other side of the building.

Before I reach it, I realize the door is open, something unusual for me as my doors are always locked. All the cleaners usually come in early at around five or six o'clock because I start as early as seven sometimes.

When I get closer, I realize that there's someone sitting inside.

I walk in and realize the someone is one of the last people I'd like to see.

Amelia Fairchild. Olivia’s best friend. I haven’t seen her since Olivia disappeared, but there was a time when our families were close and she was part of my life

Amelia turns the moment she hears my footsteps and stands. Her bright green eyes find mine, and she pushes her long black hair over her shoulder.

"Hi, Virgo," she says, "I'm so sorry to impose. Your secretary said it would be okay for me to sit in here and wait."

It’s not okay, but my secretary wasn’t to know that.

I wish I could look more welcoming, but this is the same girl who tried to seduce me when she got the chance. Olivia saw us. It was the day before she went missing. That incident set off a chain reaction that led us here.

We all grew up together. And at one point in time, Amelia was promised to marry me, but then her father went bankrupt and lost everything. My father decided that marriage to her would no longer be viable, so he called off the arrangement. This happened long before we were even able to get married, but because Amelia grew up thinking she was going to marry me, she always had this attachment toward me. When I started seeing Olivia, I knew she didn't like it. I thought she'd moved past it after years had gone by, but that night showed she never did.

"Why are you here?" I ask after an awkward silence has nested between us.

My guess is she was one of the first people Seamus told about Olivia’s return, but I wish she didn’t come here. Seamus saw Amelia as the distraught friend who has grieved for the last two and half years. The two were as close as sisters. Only a select few knew what she did.

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