Chapter 15

“I see,” Lucien said, sighing. “Good evening, Kendall.”

She blinked. “…Good evening! Good evening, Mr Sinclair…”

He saw the subtle alarm in her wide eyes under her calm mask and tilted his head. Sabrina brought a lot of her spoiled-brat friends over, but this one looked at him like she thought he could kill her with a single word.

“Kendall’s scared of you,” Sabrina offered casually.

“Probably because you’ve told her I’m a frightening monster who terrorises you,” he said flatly.

“No, I haven’t!” Sabrina denied.

“Helena!” Lucien called, putting his keys on the small table near the wall.

“Yes, Mr Sinclair!” answered a woman who came hurrying into the parlour.

“How are preparations for the dinner this weekend?” he asked.

“We’re not done,” Sabrina said, glaring at Helena. “Leave, I’m still talking to my dad.”

“The preparations, Helena,” Lucien said, tiredly loosening his tie.

As the housekeeper hesitantly told him what she was planning for his business dinner, he casually held out his jacket for her to take.

Helena reached for it, but Sabrina pounced, grabbing it out of her father’s hand. “I’ll take your jacket, Dad!”

She glared at Helena, clutching the jacket against her chest.

Lucien closed his eyes for a moment and released a calming breath. “Fine, go. Take it to my dressing room.”

Pouting, Sabrina turned away and hesitantly climbed the staircase as she threw suspicious glances over her shoulder.

Kendall watched with interest. She was slightly overwhelmed by being in the presence of Sabrina’s father, but two major things took up most of her attention. First, how Mr Sinclair hadn’t ignored her presence or kicked her out.

Secondly, the realisation that Sabrina was a master manipulator.

Watching her friend come up the stairs, Kendall slowly came to terms with the fact that everything she’d done for Sabrina to help protect her from getting into trouble with her father had been done through deception.

It was so obvious that her dad hardly ever raised his voice at her, unless she crossed the line like she had when they’d left the school grounds. But, somehow, Kendall had believed she was really helping Sabrina stay in the good books of a terrifying father.

She looked at Lucien as he spoke to the housekeeper. Terrifying? He was anything but.

Just like she’d seen the evil in Eliott Cross’s eyes and had seen the kindness in Evander’s eyes, Kendall saw the truth in Lucien Sinclair’s eyes.

She couldn’t describe it as kindness; that didn’t suit him at all. But it did look like pure righteousness, simple justice. Like, he would do wrong if it were for a good cause. What she didn’t see was the viciousness it would take for him to be as frightening as Sabrina pretended he was.

“Ugh!” her friend scoffed as she finally reached Kendall. “I shouldn’t have left them alone together.”

Kendall lowered her gaze. Her friend? A quiet sigh parted her lips. More like someone who treated her like a personal scapegoat.

Forcing on a smile, Kendall looked at her as Sabrina grabbed her hand and marched away.

“Why? He’s just asking her about housework.”

“Oh, please!” Sabrina spat as they went up another flight of stairs. “Didn’t you see how she was looking at him? I hate it when the maids get too close to my dad, they’re all gold diggers!”

Kendall blinked. “Oh.”

“Yeah! Last year, one of the maids tried to drug my dad and sleep with him so she would get pregnant!”

“What? That’s insane! Did he catch her?”

“No, I did!” Sabrina said, leading Kendall toward her father’s room. “Wait here.”

Nodding, Kendall stood aside as Sabrina popped into the room for a moment and then quickly came back out.

“So, what happened was, I saw her putting a drug in my dad’s water. He was in bed with a horrible cold at the time, so she was trying to get him while he was vulnerable!”

“Wow,” Kendall said, frowning as they slowly went back downstairs. “How do you know it was a drug?”

“I saw it fizz up!”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t medicine? Like, one of those fizzy vitamin C ones for colds? What colour was it?”

Sabrina pouted, raising her nose. “Don’t know, don’t care. But anyway, she got fired! I told my dad I would run away from home if he made her pregnant and they brought another child into this house!”

With a huff, she flipped her hair and continued marching down the stairs.

Behind her, Kendall tried to keep her facial expression as still as possible. She wouldn’t care. In their world of wealth and luxury, it was normal for servants to be maltreated by the master’s children. Reacting negatively to it would expose her background of poverty.

She couldn’t scoff, she couldn’t roll her eyes or scowl, she couldn’t tell Sabrina how absolutely outrageous and annoying she was being. She would simply let it roll off like water droplets on a duck’s feathers.

“They all want my dad,” Sabrina continued as they went down to the foyer. “And his assistants are the worst. I wish he’d fire them all, and hire a man.”

Pursing her lips, Kendall silently nodded. Poor Mr Sinclair.

For the next twenty minutes, they sat in a manly-looking sitting room as Sabrina explained everything in detail.

Apparently, every woman was trying to seduce her father, and Sabrina wouldn’t let it happen because she knew all about how gold diggers enjoyed killing their rich husbands for the insurance money and the inheritance.

Once, there had even been a woman who had nearly spent the night at their house because her car had taken a while to pick her up after a formal dinner, but then a terrible storm had started, causing unsafe conditions to drive in. Luckily for Lucien, Sabrina had been there to openly tell the woman that her schemes wouldn’t work and that everyone knew she was trying to get pregnant for Lucien like the gold digger she was. It was safe to say that the woman had braved that storm on foot that night, and Lucien had lost a lucrative business deal.

Kendall stared at Sabrina in shock as her friend proudly recounted all her successful Protect Dad missions.

“Helena!!” Sabrina screeched. “I want a snack,” she told Kendall with a sigh.

Moments later, the door opened.

“Helena, we need food,” Sabrina said, turning to the door.

Her father stared flatly down at her.

“Oh, Dad! We were waiting for you.”

Lucien looked tiredly at the two girls in their matching silk pyjamas and felt her heart sink. Could he just get an hour to himself? “No,” he murmured. “Go to bed.”

“But Kendall wants to ask you questions!” Sabrina said. “She’s curious about the great Lucien Sinclair!”

He looked at Kendall, frowned. “Is she?”