Chapter 70 THE PUPPET MASTER SMILE.
ELDRIC'S POINT OF VIEW.
I stared at the huge Ravenscroft crest on the wall in my study, created with pure gold, and the family’s signature jewels: black opal and alexandrite. The damn thing stared back at me, reminding me of my status each time I glanced at it.
I hate the damn thing.
The lion on it, the name, everything about this place makes my blood boil. I clutched the ice pack in my hands harder, placing it on my cheeks. That bastard packed a punch, I’ll give him that.
I swirled the whiskey in my glass, watching as the amber liquid caught the light, and stretched my lips in a slow, thin smile that never touched my eyes.
The crest didn’t belong to Lucien. It didn’t belong to Alicia. And it sure as hell didn’t belong to her parents, those pompous bastards who looked down their noses at me.
No, it belonged to me.
Me. Eldric Hayes.
Ravenscroft.
I clenched my jaw at the sound of the name in my head.
It should be my name that quakes fear, and admiration in the minds and hearts of every damn person in the world.
Hayes.
A name that reeked of mediocrity. I remember what Alicia’s mother said about it the first time I’d met her.
‘It’s too common.’ She had spat, like my name left a bitter taste in her mouth. That day, I vowed to become something they would all fear. They’d regret ever treating me like I was nothing.
The name Hayes didn’t open doors, not for me, not for anyone in my family, and it sure as hell could never open any doors for Alicia’s brat. It didn’t command respect, didn’t get a man invited to the table where the most powerful men and women dined.
So I’d shed it like a snake sheds its own skin and taken the Ravenscroft name. I’d married into it, twisted it around my finger, forced it to fit for me. And damn did it fit so perfectly, and beautifully, no matter what anyone said.
Alicia was a fool. She clung to her fantasies and believed whatever I’d told her. The pathetic ice-cold heiress who always had a ghost of a smile on her face when she and I attended Ravenscroft High. It made me grit my teeth. She thought she was better than me because of a few measly trillions.
I remember the day I told her I loved her. The fool blushed so much, I thought she would pass out from it. I hated her fucking eyes, they were too blue, too fucking happy, too fucking bright.
She had the best things at school. Everything good was reserved for her alone, while I had to fight for scraps.
I hated her.
Alicia thought she was clever when she married me; she thought she had finally found her forever happiness.
I remember the way she smiled on our wedding day, which her parents paid for because they didn’t trust me to give her a wedding that befitted their status.
I hated every second of it. The way they all stared at me like I was a fucking spectacle, their noses in the air, as they furrowed their brows at me.
Alicia, the sweet little heiress, was blinded by her own fairy-tale fantasies, and I lived off of it. I told her I loved her, and she believed me. I told her we’d build a family, and she clung to me like I was the fucking sun, staring at me with that twinkle in her eyes.
Idiot. She never realized I didn’t need her love. All I needed was her name, her money, her access, everything that being a Ravenscroft would get me.
I endured years with her, thinking that once we got married, I would get a share in the fortune and a space in one of the companies as the CEO, but that bitch’s father would never allow it.
I was left to fend for everything on my own, every penny, every damn thing. The name became an accessory because no one respected me, even when I had it.
So I decided to open a company of my own, something that I hoped would rival Ravenscroft Corp, but I had gone against the biggest conglomerate in the world.
It was damn near impossible.
In the sixth month, the company folded, leaving me in ruins and an unending rage.
I begged that bitch to get her father to give me a space in the company, and she did. But the foolish man gave me the position of an intern.
That was an insult I couldn’t take, but I could never touch her father, so I took my rage out on Alicia instead.
Her parents had seen straight through me from the beginning. They called me a leech behind my back, a social climber. They locked their coffers and dared to put everything in Alicia’s name instead. And when I thought her love would be my way in, they laughed in my face and cut me out entirely, not even giving me scraps to live on.
I drained the whiskey in one gulp; the amber liquid burned at the back of my throat, mirroring the rage I’d felt for years.
Even in death, Alicia managed to spit in my face. That woman, broken and pathetic with her fucking sickness, still managed to cling to her dignity. She left this world like she was still above me. Even when I spat in her face, when I broke her body down piece by piece, she still looked at me like she was better. Like her money made her untouchable, like I was a roach she could squash.
With an angry roar, I smashed the empty glass against the wall, relishing the sound of the pure crystal glass crashing against the wall, as bits and pieces of it fell to the floor.
If she still thought that even in death, I couldn’t touch her, that I couldn’t touch what belongs to her, she was fucking wrong.
I touched her, I broke her, I fed her the poison that made her insides rot, her blood poison to her, and ultimately, her fucking death.
And I’ll do the fucking same to her son.
Lucien.
The piece of shit should be on my side, but he’s on her side instead. He’s always been on her side.
He doesn’t deserve the air he fucking breathes; the ungrateful bastard should fucking bow to me. I gave him all of this; he’s my fucking seed, so he should fucking do as I want. But he’s such a mommy’s boy, the damn kid should have fucking died.
I hate him, and his golden hair that mirrors Alicia’s. He has her eyes, her voice, he’s her fucking carbon copy. It was another reason to hate her.
She took yet another thing from me; this time, it was the very kid I never wanted, but thought I could use to get some of that wealth her parents refused to get me.
But they fucked me over again, giving everything to him the moment he turned fifteen, and naming him heir once he turned eighteen.
Now, I’m my own son’s lapdog.
The thing about Lucien is that he thinks fucking he’s clever. He believes that because he has Alicia’s money backing him, because he was born into this bloodline, he’s untouchable. But I’ve spent my entire life carving myself out of nothing. I know how to bleed someone dry for my sake, and Lucien will be no different.
And I’ll bleed him dry, just as I did his mother.
And then there’s his pathetic girlfriend.
Sloane Bishops.
The damn girl reminds me of myself. That was how I started, and if she thinks she can come in to steal the wealth I want for myself, using Lucien’s love for her?
I’ll kill her, just as I did Alicia.
I stared at the Ravenscroft crest, imagining what it would be like to have my own name there instead.
Hayes.
I smiled at the thought.
I’ll fucking take it all away until it all becomes mine.
Everyone will bleed once I’m fucking done; no one will be left, not even one.