Chapter 7 To be innocent
There is a certain beauty to decisions. It is assumed that one truly deliberates and makes choices. This is one of the greatest lies one could ever tell one’s self. One is easily deceived into thinking they truly think about something and come to a decision. How amusing. What one ultimately decides can only fall into the range of what they think possible, or worse, what they think possible for them.
As Lilac stared at Eric, she wondered what he considered possible when faced with the fact that your wife has been communicating with federal agents all these while.
“When did you find out?” He asked tensely.
“This morning,” she answered.
“You said she is investigating us, on what grounds?” he asked.
“communicating, funding and trading with terrorist groups in the middle east,” she answered and his eyes went cold.
“Even a little research would solve this matter, no need to investigate for two years,” he answered.
“Unless someone is fanning the flames, producing evidence of constant money transfers, communication and even gifts handed to the Black family from terrorists,” she said, glancing at the gift box on the table at the corner of her cabin. His face went deadly pale at this point. She was not naïve, she knew what came next at this point. Even when one thinks there are many choices, the more variables that keep getting piled into the problem, the smaller the options.
“Who is doing it?” he asked dangerously. The question finally came. His options for decisions had narrowed down to two. Help her, or destroy her.
“My family,” she answered, and he walked back slowly and took a seat on the couch in the living room attached to her room.
The two of them sat in silence for a moment, contemplating the implications of Cathy’s phone call. The gentle hum of the ship’s engine filled the air once more, a stark contrast to the unease that now hung between them.
The sun poured in through the windows, casting a warm glow over Lilac’s room as she sat at her opposite him and the two of them held each other’s gaze in silence for a full minute.
“How much evidence are we talking?” Eric asked.
“You do not suspect I have something to do with it?” she asked with raised brows.
“I know enough about you to know that you are stupidly trusting. It is easy for you to trust your family and sell mine in the process.” His words made her laugh. He had hit the nail on the head. She was stupidly trusting.
“Just as how you would tell me without precaution,” he said, “What if I blamed it all on you? What if I made you take the fall? If I am not wrong, a lot of your family’s interaction with us has been through you. Would you not be the perfect victim?” he asked, and she turned pale. He was right. Both on her family’s side and his family’s side. She was the perfect person to take the fall. Why had she not thought of this?
“True. I am stupidly trusting,” she mocked herself. Her tone disturbed him quite a bit.
“I was wrong, it is that people are not worth it,” he corrected himself. His words amused her greatly. She could tell he meant to console her.
“So, how much evidence are we talking about?” he asked.
“The gift, the bank account you had discovered a while ago, and me,” she answered.
“The gift?” he asked.
“My father asked me to hand it over to your father. He was not supposed to open it till after tonight. That means the takedown of the Black family would happen tonight,” she answered.
“The bank account?” he asked.
“They asked me to open a joint account with you, but I could not. So as not to indicate that our marriage was not going well, I added you as a signatory. It is not clear if they believed me, but it must have been good enough for them,” she answered.
“What was the account used for?” he asked.
“Money would enter from unknown sources and leave to unknown sources for two years.”
“I am guessing that these unknown sources would be traced back to the Middle East then,” he muttered. She was quite taken aback by how calm he was being about the entire thing. But this was the trait that attracted her to him.
“So, since this morning, what have you been doing?” he asked.
“Creating suspicion,” she answered, and he raised a brow.
“You are thinking the matter is too far gone to solve, so you are cracking holes?” he asked.
“A little hole can sink the ship. They have had years to plan. From what I know, it seems something went wrong with my family’s business years ago and they decided to trade with terrorists somehow. They set up our marriage as an escape plan. To create a scapegoat, they needed a family with enough reach and pull to the world for it to be believable. And it helped that I had fallen I love with you, then,” she said and Eric felt his heart jump in his chest. He tried to stay focused on what she was saying.
“What do you mean by they set up our marriage? I know how we got married, is there more that I should know?” he asked.
“You were drugged and placed into bed with me. I too was drugged and delivered to bed. It was a critical moment for you, you could not have scandals at that time, so you married me. I am not saying I did not know they would do this, I went along with it because I would get to marry you. I saw their actions as they were trying to help me,” she explained.
“So, you did not do it, but you knew,” he said, and she nodded.
“Now, Cathy just realized this morning that you never knew you had a joint account with me or even were a signatory to my account because I made a mistake. I even slipped that I was trying to move the money and close down the account, but the accountant asked me to get my sister’s permission on our own account. Cathy has been presenting herself to me as a big executive in the banking sector. When I have a problem with my account, obviously, I would go to my friend,”
“So, she is suspicious of an account used as evidence I did not know I had that has been sending and receiving money to the Middle East. The same account we need your sister’s permission to do anything to?” he asked.
“Yes. I have passed a few things to her to solidify her suspicion. For her to say that the job has been done and I can move the money, I am guessing the accountant has been caught,”
“The ship is already leaking, but that is not enough, is it?” he asked with raised brows. He did not believe this was all she had planned. If so, be would be utterly disappointed.