Hate Is A Strong Word

Ethan sighed. He recalled the reason he had made this trip alone. Everything was going well at the start. Until the representative of Galatea Bank came and gave him a rude wake-up call. Businesses he thought belonged to the crown, did not. 

The crown had revenue streams, but they were not as many as he had thought. Most of them were Laina's private businesses. The Yellow House was one of them. While it might have seemed that she had done this for her own benefit, It was not. 

In fact, she had been supplementing the Royal Coffers with the profits she had made. 

"You doomed me from the start," Ethan still did not see the error of his ways, "If I knew..."

"If you knew all these things you thought belonged to the crown belonged to me, what would you have done?" she turned the question on him. 

"Were you going to arrest me and take what rightfully belonged to me?" she asked.