Chapter 73
His voice was a low murmur, laced with a lazy, intimate tone Alicia had never heard before.
But just as he finished speaking, poised to make his next move, the figure under the covers shifted, an excited, trembling moan escaping their lips in response to his proximity.
That sound was wrong.
Jacob froze.
Almost instantaneously, his sharp senses caught a foreign scent wafting from the duvet. It was nothing like Elizabeth's clean, cool fragrance.
His gaze then snapped, quick as lightning, toward the source of the cloyingly sweet, bizarre aroma hanging in the air—the silhouette of a smoldering object in the corner.
Not her.
Jacob's pupils contracted violently.
"You're asking to die," a low, brutal snarl ripped through the darkness.
The sound struck Alicia on the bed like a physical blow, shattering the drug-induced haze of her fantasy into a million shards of pure terror.
She shrieked, instinctively trying to burrow deeper into the covers.
But it was too late.
Without even bothering to turn on a light, Jacob moved with deadly precision in the dark. He grabbed a fistful of Alicia's hair and, with no more care than if he were dragging a sack of trash, yanked her from the warmth of the bed, slamming her onto the cold, hard floor.
A piercing scream tore from Alicia's throat as her naked body collided with the unforgiving surface, the impact so jarring it nearly knocked her unconscious.
Jacob didn't even glance at the pale, nauseating heap on the floor.
He strode to the wall and flipped the switch for the main bedroom lights.
The blinding glare instantly illuminated every detail of the room.
On the floor, Alicia was curled into a ball, shivering, her face a mess of tears and snot as she stared in horror at the demonic figure of Jacob looming over her.
His eyes were as cold as if he were staring at a corpse. He walked over to the decorative object, kicked it over, and stomped out the small patch of fire it left smoldering on the carpet.
He turned, his gaze pinning Alicia, who was now trembling like a leaf in a storm.
"Who told you to do this?" His voice was low, but each word was an icicle driving straight into Alicia's frayed nerves. "Where did you get it? Say one wrong word, and I'll make your entire family pay the price."
Alicia's courage had already shattered. The terrifying aura emanating from Jacob—the palpable promise that he could rip her apart at any second—obliterated any thought of lying.
She started sobbing, her words tumbling out in a chaotic, incoherent mess.
"It… it was Mrs. Michelle Smith! She told me to steal that ornament from the study! She said… she said to bring it to her! I… I just had a moment of weakness… Mr. Smith, please spare me! I beg you, spare me! I'll never do it again! It was me… I got greedy… it had nothing to do with Mrs. Michelle Smith… It was all me…"
She was rambling, trying to take all the blame, but the crucial information had already spilled out.
Michelle.
The study.
Stole the ornament.
Jacob's eyes grew even colder, a deeper abyss.
He remembered the rosewood ornament, recalled seeing it in the study recently, and now, he understood the source of the unusually potent fragrance tonight.
So that was it.
What a piece of work Michelle was.
He ignored Alicia's continued cries for mercy on the floor and pressed the intercom. "Leon, bring people over. Immediately."
Less than two minutes later, Leon arrived with two grim-faced security men.
Leon's eyes widened for a fraction of a second at the scene in the bedroom before his expression smoothed back into an emotionless mask.
"Drag her out," Jacob ordered, his voice devoid of any warmth as he pointed at Alicia. "Find out exactly what Michelle told her, where the substance came from, and who else was involved. Then, handle it the usual way."
"Yes, Mr. Smith." Leon gestured, and the two men moved forward. They hauled the still-wailing Alicia out of the room like a sack of potatoes, her cries quickly fading down the hallway.
Jacob walked to the bedroom door, where Tina stood, her face pale, having been drawn by the commotion.
The moment she saw the disarray in the room and the sheer, palpable fury radiating from Jacob, Tina knew something catastrophic had occurred. She bowed her head deeply. "Mr. Smith, this was my oversight. My management was lax, and I allowed someone with ulterior motives to slip through. Please, punish me."
Jacob looked at her. Tina had been with him for years; her competence and loyalty were beyond question.
But this had happened in his private suite. An item from his study had been tampered with, and a drug had been left in his bedroom. No matter how he looked at it, Tina bore the responsibility of a serious security breach.
"You are indeed responsible," Jacob's voice was hard. "You'll forfeit six months' salary. Every staff member on this estate will undergo a new background check, with special attention to anyone who has had unusual contacts or a sudden change in their financial situation recently. If this happens again, you know the consequences."
"Yes, Mr. Smith. Thank you for your leniency," Tina replied, bowing again as cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
She knew, considering their history, this was him going easy on her. She dared not even imagine what fate awaited the maid, Alicia.
"One more thing," Jacob added, his eyes darkening. "Send someone to fetch Mrs. Michelle Smith. I want her here. Now."
Tina's heart clenched. "Yes, sir."
When Michelle was invited to the small sitting room in the main house, her face wore a perfectly crafted expression of confusion and annoyance at being disturbed.
She was dressed in an elegant velvet robe, her hair slightly tousled as if she'd just been woken up.
"Jacob, what is it? It's so late," she began, her tone carrying the lazy, questioning air of a concerned elder. Her eyes swept over the grim-faced Jacob and the stone-faced Tina standing nearby, a flicker of unease stirring within her.
There had been no word from Alicia.
Jacob sat in the main armchair, not offering her a seat. He simply lifted his eyes, his gaze a cold, piercing spotlight fixed directly on her.
"Mrs. Michelle Smith," he began, his voice flat but heavy with unspoken pressure. "Something rather unpleasant just happened in my bedroom. A maid, acting on someone's instructions, stole an ornament from my study, added something to it, and then climbed into my bed."
Michelle's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, the smile on her face stiffening. "Something like that happened? How dreadful! Which shameless girl was it? She must be punished severely!"
She feigned righteous indignation, as if she were completely innocent.
Jacob ignored her performance. "The maid said you told her to steal the rosewood ornament from my study. She also said you promised her a large sum of money."
The color drained from Michelle's face, but she quickly forced herself to remain calm, plastering on a look of shock and hurt. "What?! She… she's lying! Jacob, you can't possibly believe that tramp's words! Why would I do something like that? I… I am part of the Smith family, for heaven's sake. I'm your stepmother. I would never be foolish enough to orchestrate something so vulgar! It must have been the maid herself who got greedy. Now that she's been caught, she's just trying to drag someone else down with her! Jacob, you have to investigate this properly!"