Chapter 98 Claudia’s plight
CHAPTER 98: Claudia’s plight
Silas
Going into the office on weekends was a normal occurrence to me. There were some concerns that required my attention. I returned to the mansion a few hours later and headed straight to check on Vera. I crossed the threshold of our bedroom, and the scent of her perfume lingered in the air, but she was nowhere to be found.
The room looked frozen and in order. The bed had been stripped and remade, the traces of our morning together erased by the efficient hands of the staff. Yet the absence of her presence made the room feel hollow.
I stood there for a moment, listening for sounds of movement in the bathroom. When it was obvious I was the only one in the room, I headed downstairs, my strides long and impatient.
I stopped one of the servants near the foyer.
“Where is my wife?”
The girl dipped her head, a stack of linens, clutched in her hands. “Sir, Madam left the mansion a while ago. She seemed in a hurry.”
I dismissed her with a curt flick of my wrist, my jaw tightening.
Where the hell had she gone off to in a hurry without informing me? Could that fraud from last night have gotten through to her again?
Something cold and heavy settled in the pit of my stomach.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and the screen flickered to life as I strode toward the lounge. A notification blinked at me; a voicemail from Vera, sent while I was unreachable. My phone had been out of service for the last hour, as a result of the signal being dampened.
I pressed the phone to my ear, and Vera’s voice filled the space, sounding breathless and strangely brittle.
“Silas, I can't seem to reach you. But I'm letting you know that I’m going to see Cherry. I need to speak with her... I’ll be back soon.”
The unease and heaviness in my gut sharpened into a cold, hard knot. While I knew that she was clearly hiding the truth about her whereabouts from me, because she just saw Cherry last night, I was worried about where she really headed to.
Something else was going on and I strongly suspected that it had something to do with Damien.
Before I could dwell on the suspicion, a shadow fell across the doorway. I looked up and my sister was standing there.
Claudia stood in the doorway, her usual sharp, catty veneer stripped away to reveal something uncharacteristically solemn.
“Brother,” she said, her voice unusually quiet, lacking its usual bite. “I need to talk to you. I want to have a word. Please. It’s important.”
I studied her for a beat, and saw the genuine tremors in her hands even though her arms were wrapped around herself. I held off my plan of calling Max and gestured toward the privacy of my study. As soon as we were settled behind the closed doors, the silence stretched thin.
I leaned against the desk while she sat on the couch, trembling lightly.
“Are you going to come out with it, or are you going to keep quiet all day?” I snapped, my nerves fraying.
She took a deep breath. “I’ve been keeping something from you,” she began, her eyes fixed on her lap as she twisted a heavy gold ring on her finger.
“That much was obvious after Chaunce's outburst this morning,” I said a bit calmly.
She looked at me. “Well, I wanted to tell you before, but I thought I could handle it, but—” she paused and took a deep breath. “Anyway, I can't handle it alone. But Chauncey... he wasn’t lying. Or exaggerating. He was right.”
“He usually is when he’s that angry,” I replied, folding my arms, my eyes narrowed. “Now enough of the running around. Get to the point. Tell me, sister. What did you do?”
She swallowed hard, her pride seemingly dissolving before my eyes. “He’s blackmailing me.”
My jaw tightened. Of course I knew who he was.
“I didn't just leave him because he cheated like the bastard he is, Silas. I left because he’s a monster. And he’s been blackmailing me ever since—”
My fingers gripped the edge of the desk tightly.
“What?” I cut in tightly, and she blinked back a tear. “What does he have on you?”
Her hands trembled. “He has... a sextape,” she whispered.
I swore harshly under my breath.
“And that's not all,” she continued in a voice barely above a whisper. “He had convinced me to try something else to spice up our relationship,” she sniffled. “I was a fool to believe him.”
My stomach clenched in apprehension. “What is on that tape, Claudia?”
“He convinced me to—to have… groupsex with his friend and his girlfriend.”
I gripped the edge of the desk tighter till my knuckles turned white, my jaw locking so tight it might crack. I was vibrating with a white hot rage that flowed in my veins.
“He’s been using it to keep me under his thumb. And after I finally called it quits with him, he’s been using it to threaten to ruin my reputation and the family name if I don't comply with his demands.”
“Why didn't you come to me with all of this sooner?” I thundered, and she flinched.
“I’m sorry,” she cried. “First, I thought I could handle him. Then I was too embarrassed and ashamed. I didn't want you to judge me.”
I had never perceived myself to be with enough moral high ground to judge others, moreso now.
The thought of anyone, much less a lowlife, holding my sister in such a disgusting, low-life grip was an insult I wouldn’t tolerate.
“I’ll handle it,” I said, my voice dropping into a register that promised a very specific kind of violence. “I’ll make sure that that trash will never threaten you or anyone else ever again. This I promise you.”
Relief washed over her face, her shoulders sagging as if a physical weight had been lifted, but the moment was shattered by the vibrating buzz of my phone.
I checked the screen and it was Max.
“Speak,” I commanded, stepping away from my sister.
“Sir, we have a problem,” His voice was tight with suppressed frustration. “Damien Vane managed to slip into the country unnoticed. He avoided every lens, every checkpoint we had flagged. He knows we're on to him.”
A sense of foreboding, thick and suffocating, settled over me. I was sure that scumbag had something to do with that fraud from last night. My grip on the phone tightened until the casing groaned.
“Where is he now? Tell me you have something.”
“We just got a ping on his location,” he replied, but his voice hesitated, a rare note of dread creeping in. “But there’s a development, sir. He’s not alone.”
A frown etched between my brows. “Who?”
“Your wife... she’s been detected at the same location. I think she’s with him right now.”