Chapter 12
ROBERT SMITTE
After a long day at the office, he had come home and decided to call his daughter, Ruby. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help her, or that he dado love her like a father should, he just thought that Ruby was being unreasonable. He had always known that she was an empath, she was emotional, too emotional. She had always been like that since she was a little girl. And just like she had cried for days on end and didn’t understand why he hadn’t let her bring in three stray cats into the house to live with the
shen she was just eight, she also couldn’t understand that spending millions and millions of dollars on hospital bills waca waste of money Especially when the patient in question was as good av dead. He had tried to explain to her countless times and make her see reason with him, but she had proven to be too stubborn. So he let her do whatever she liked, as long as it didn’t interfere with his family affairs. But the one thing he wouldn’t be doing was to give her even more thoney to waste on medical bills. Money was tough to come by anyways, he barely had enough, and it would stupid of him to throw it around on unimportant things.
Beatrice and Melame were seated in the living room, watching TV when he came in, and he smiled to himself, clutching the two Louis Vuitton bags he was holding tighter. He knew that any second from now, their faces would break out in wide smiles and squeals of happiness would fill the living room. He felt good knowing that he would be the cause of that happiness. Just as he thought, their eyes went directly to the bags as he entered the room. Shaking his head as he handed them to his wife and daughter, he smiled to himself. Women were so easy to please. He watched them open the boxes, taking so much care as if the bugs were a delicate flower. And he smiled in satisfaction with warmth filling his heart as the both of them obsessed over the purses they had just gotten.
“Look habe! Isn’t it just beautiful?” Melanie gushed to Ethan, who was sitting beside her with his arm around her shoulder. “It’s the limited edition Louis Vuitton I wanted”
“I think I should give Ruby a call,” he announced when all the nose died down
His wife, Beatrice, sneered at him. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Just to talk about what happened earlier.” he shrugged. “We can’t let her think that we’re bad people, can we!”
“Why does it matter what she thinks?” Cole asked, walking into the room. “Her feelings aren’t going to change the fact that we are low on cash and we shouldn’t be wasting it on irrelevant things like hospital bills for a brain dead woman. She’s pretty much a corpse now.”
“You’re right.” he agreed, nodding. “But still, I should call her.”
He searched for the number on his phone and dialled it, putting it on speaker so they all could hear. But as expected, the phone call didn’t go well. He should have known that she still wouldn’t understand. She was too much like her mother. Beatrice gave him a look that clearly said “I told you so as he made a move to click the large red icon that ended the call. Ha finger froze mud air as he heard Ruby’s voice again on the other end loud and angry. Frowning he increased the volume on his phone still leaving it on speaker.
I was going to tell you. He heard Alex Blackwood say in response to Ruby’s question. His interest was piqued, so was the rest of his household apparently, as Melanie put the TV on mute and they all listened intently.
Loud gasps erupted froen Beatrice and Melanie as Alex yells out the CEO of Tidal Tech and he felt all the colour drain from his fate as a second confirmation came from a second voice, and they all listened as Alex explained how he slowly built up has own empire after his father kicked ham to the curb. The line went silent after a short while, and he realised that he had been caught. He ended the call then, still in shock from everything he had just learned.
“Alex Blackwood ownd Tidal Tech The Tidal Tech!?” Melanie screeched, placing emphasis on ‘the‘
“How is that possible“” Beatrice asked, looking at her husband like he had all the answers that she was looking for. “Did that sneaky Ruby know this I bet she did. That was why she jumped at the opportunity to marry him” she added, deep in thought. “Hold on, what if they’re lying? It has to be a le. They must be trying to trick us, right?”
Cole slowly shook his head, “I dont think Ruby knew, not with the way she sounded. It seemed like she was hearing of it for
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Chapter 12
the first time too. And I don’t think they’re lying about it. They have no reason to lie. They obviously didn’t know that we could hear them. That sneaky bastard.”
“Oh my God!” Melanie exclaimed.
Robert Smith listened to his family react to the news they had all just learned of, feeling like it was all background noise. He felt like a fool. The only thing that he could think of was that he had been cheated. How could he have accepted two percent shares when he could have gotten a lot more? If he had just been a little more patient, maybe the truth would have come out and he would have gained a lot more than he did. And what’s worse? He felt like they had just handed Ruby more power than she knew what to do with
“Oh my God!” Melanie gasped again, shrugging Ethan’s arm off her and turning to her mother. “Mom, what have we done? That should have been me, I should have married him instead of her. He was all mine to begin with!”
Ethan frowned, trying to get his arm back on her shoulder for the thousandth time and failing again. “Babe, I’m still here.” he said, sounding like a weakling.
Melanie turned back to face him with a look of disgust in her eyes and fumes coming out of her ears. “This is all your fault!” she screamed, shoving him off the sofa. “If i hadn’t gotten involved with you, then Alex Blackwood would have been mine.”
“Babe.” he tried to argue, looking at her with a hurt expression on his face.
“Why would I choose you when I could have the CEO of Tidal Tech? Get out!” she screamed, sending him out of the house. When he was gone, she turned to her mother with desperation evident in her eyes. “What do we do mom? Surely we can’t let Ruby have him? We can’t let her win. She’s not even that pretty.”
Beatrice held her daughter’s hands with a confident look on her face. “Of course you’re going to get him back. He was yours from the beginning. You’re his rightful wife. And I know just how you’re going to win him over from her.” she tucked a lock of Melanie’s hair behind her ear, looking at her with pure affection. “You’re my beautiful daughter, and no man in his right senses would pick that trash over you. You just need to show him what you’re made of.”
Robert stood up and left the room. He needed some alone time to figure out his next course of action.
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