'I Do' For Revenge
Chapter 211: The Wealth Belongs To Her
CHAPTER 211: THE WEALTH BELONGS TO HER
~LAYLA~
The villa was quiet, but the atmosphere wa s anything but peaceful .
I sat on t he s ofa, the old photograph of my mother spread out on the coffee table in front of me. I had been staring at her face for two hours now, trying to f in d the cracks in Pennyworth’s story, and convince myself this was all some el aborate scam.
But I couldn’t find any flaws. She looked exactly like me that it was undeniable.
Axel was on the terrace, pacing around. He had been on the phone with Tye for almost two hours. I could hear snippets of his vo ice carrying through the open door.
"I don’t care what time i t is there... wake him up... yes, I need the Interpol files too... check the financials... I want to know who stands t o lose mon ey if she shows up... dig into everyt hing."
Finally, he hung up and walked back inside , sliding the glass door shut behind him. H e looked tired; the lines around his eyes were d eeper, but he still looked alert.
"Well?" I asked, looking up at him.
Axel sat down next to me heavily, pic king up t he photograp h with careful finger s.
"Tye is fast," he said. "And the story checks out. Most ly."
"Mostly? " My stomach clenched. "W hat does ’mostly’ m e an?"
"Silas Huntington, the Duke," Axel recited. "Eighty-two years old. Extremely wealthy with lands, real estate, and old investments dating back centuries. He’s had multiple strokes over the past five years, but he had another major attac k three days ago. He’s currentl y in pal liative care at Blackwood Manor, the family estate."
"And the daughter?" I asked curiously"Victoria?"
"Lady Victoria Catherine Huntington," Axel confirmed. "Disappeared in 1998, just like Pennyworth said. The timeline matches Sarah Stuart’s appeara nce in New York perfectly. And here’s the kicker, we found something in Charles Watson’s private files."
"You have acces s to those? " I asked, surprised.
"Tye decrypted the drive we recovered from his broken laptop when the FBI rai ded his estate," Axel explained grimly. "There w as a fol der labelled ’Stuart.’ It contained documents, court filings, everything, includ ing a sealed adoption agreement signed by Charles before a judge. He got you to cover u p that drunken hit-and-run. The judge was paid off to keep it quiet an d seal the r ecor ds permanently."
I closed my eyes, feeling sick. "The document my adop tive mother Ellen gave me ment ioned something about that. About Charles ’s ’incident’ being expunged from the reco rd in exchange for the adoption."
"Yeah," Axel said softly. "Charles didn ’t just adopt you out of guilt, Layla. He used you. He used your p arents’ death t o clea n up his own mess, and in the pr ocess, he kept you away fr om your real fami ly."
"So it’s true," I whispered. "All of it. My mother was Lady Victoria. I’m... I’m the granddaughter of a Duke. "
"Yes," Axel confirmed.
He put the photo down carefully, waiting, as if allowing m e to digest that before his next bomb.
"But th ere’s so mething else you need to know before we decide whether to go," he said, and I froze. What else??
"What?" I managed to ask, looking at him with dread pooling in my stomach.
"The family tree," A xel said. "The Duke had two children. Victoria was the eldes t. But there was also a son, Edward. He died ten years ago in a boating accident, but his wife, La dy Is abelle, and her son, Julian is sti ll live at the manor."
"Juli an," I repeated slowly , testing the name. "My cousin."
"Your cousin," Axel nodded. "And curren tly, J ulian is the presumptive heir. If the Duke dies without recognisi ng you, without acknowled ging you as Victoria’s l egitimate daughter, Julian gets the title, the estate, the money, everything. The entire Huntington fortune passes to him."
I frowned. "And if the Duke recognis es me a s V ictoria’s d aughter?"
"Then you jump the line of succession," Axel said bluntly. "Ac cording t o the inheritance law, the eldest child’s line takes precedence. You, as Vi ctoria’s daughter, would take every thing. Or at the very least, a significant portion of it. Which means Julian and his mother Isabelle, are currently sitting on a fortune that is about to be sna tched away by a complete stranger. By yo u."
He looked at me seriously.
"We aren’t walking into a family reunion, Layla," he said. "We’re walking into a sh ark tank. These people ha ve millions, possibly billions of reasons to want you to st ay lost. To want you to disappear."
I picked up the photograp h again , study ing my mo ther’s young, happy face.
I thought about the family I ne ver knew existed. I thought about the mother who gave up a castle and a title for love. And I thought about Charles, who had tried to control my entire de stiny from the moment my parents died.
"I don’t care about the money," I said. "I have my own empire. I built Eclipse Beauty from nothing. I don’t need an inheritance."
"I know ," Axel said, his hand finding mi ne.
"But I want to meet him," I continued, looking at Axel. "He’s my grandfather. He’ s the only real link I have left to my mother, to who she really was. If he’s dying... I can’t let him die thinki ng I didn’t care. Thinking, I chose not to come."
"Even knowing that Julian an d Isabelle might try to sab otage you?" Axe l asked. "Even knowing they might be dangerous?"
"I survived Henry and Marco," I said. "I think I can handle some angry aristocrats."
Axel studied my face for a long mo ment, then nodded slowly. He pulled out his phone.
"Then we go," he said. "But we go on our terms. Not theirs."
He dialled Tye’s number and put it on s peaker.
"Boss," Tye answered imm ediately. "What’s the call?"
"Tye," Axel said into the phone. "Prep the jet. We ’re fl ying to London in twelve hours. Full security detail. And send an advanc e team. I want the perimeter of this Blackwood Manor secured and surveilled before we even land."
He paused, lis tening to Tye’s response.
"And one more thing," Axel added. "Run ful l background checks on Lady Isabelle Huntington and her son Julian. Fin ancial recor ds, le g al disputes, everything. I wan t to know what sk ele tons they have in their closets before we walk through that door."
"Copy that," Tye said. "What about Pennyworth? Should I contact him?"
"No," Axel sa id, locking his eyes with mine, a dang erous smile playing on his lip s. "Pennyworth can wait. We’ll call him when we’re already on the gro und in England. Let’s see how much t he ’family’ panics when we show up unannounced."
"I like the w ay y ou think, Boss," Tye said. "I’ll have everything ready. Helena says good luck, and to call if you need anything."
"T ell her thank you," I said.
Axel hung up and stood, offering me his hand.
"Pack your bag s, Mrs. O’Brien," he said, pulling me to my feet. "We’re going to England."