Chapter 24: Masterminds

Inside a huge room decorated with a chandelier on the ceiling and antique wooden furniture painted in mahogany. Vases that were bought at auctions were placed on the floor and the top of the cabinets. More than a hundred books were neatly arranged on the shelves behind the desk where Nikolai was sitting.

The next second, the door burst open and a man in his late forties entered the room. He was wearing an office suit and was loosening his tie as he approached the desk.

For the first time, Nikolai was not seen inside the casino but in his home office reading documents.

The man who had arrived was Franklin Stevens, Isaiah's second son of his first wife.

"Brother, Dad is awake and the nurse that you bribed is in the police station," Franklin said.

"You should have knocked before you entered the room, Franklin," Nikolai scolded his brother.

Franklin halted as he looked surprised at his brother's calmness.

"Yes, unfortunately, he's awake," Nikolai said as he placed the document back on his table.

"Then, how can you be so calm?" Franklin asked him in disbelief.

"Because being anxious and paranoid will not help me, Franklin," he said and he got up from his desk and slowly walked onto the couch.

Nikolai was not rattled by the news at all. On the other hand, he was thinking of another way to kill Isaiah.

"Brother, are you sure that nurse will not snitch on us?" Franklin, the youngest son of his first wife asked Nikolai, his elder brother. Franklin could not hide the anxiety he felt and he kept pacing back and forth inside the room.

"No, he won't. And besides, they can not trace the payments he received from us. I made sure of it. So please sit down as you're making me dizzy." Nikolai reassured his brother while he poured a glass of bourbon and handed it to Franklin.

Franklin grabbed it and gulped the liquor in one go. He then looked at the couch and sat opposite Nikolai.

"What should we do now, brother?" Franklin asked Nikolai who was pouring himself a glass.

"We have to lay low for now. But don't worry, he won't live that long. I'm sure before the year ends, we will have his money." He answered him.

Franklin rested his head on the backrest and rubbed his hands on his lap while watching his brother sipping the liquid.

"But what about those two?" Franklin asked and he saw the annoyance in his brother's face.

"What do you mean those two? The bastard and the adopted?" Nikolai didn't even want to mention their names.

"Yes. Xavier surely has a share in his will and I'm sure Zarah, too."

"Yes. But we will make sure that they won't get it. Right now, Thomas is being investigated by our people in the police station. Now they will make sure that he will be pointing Zarah as the mastermind behind the poisoning." Nikolai's gaze turned sinister when he said it.

"What about Xavier? I still could not believe that he's still the same cripple four years ago." Franklin poured himself another glass of bourbon.

Xavier's sudden return had caught them off guard.

"Didn't he get into a car accident? I thought his condition worsened because of it. From how things worked, it seems like it helped him."

"You shouldn't be asking me that question, Franklin. I am equally clueless, too. I thought that you have completely severed the relationship between him and dad."

Xavier had been away for four years after that accident and they thought he won't be coming back again.

He only not came back but also snatched the company and the shares from Nikolai at the same time kicked Franklin from his CEO position in one of the subsidiaries.

If not for the money that they had stolen and deposited in overseas banks to be safe they were penniless.

"You're still one of the members of the board, Franklin. In tomorrow's board meeting, make things difficult for him." Nikolai told him.

The board meeting which was scheduled that Monday afternoon was canceled and pushed through the day after.

Nikolai wanted to know what he was up to.

Since he lost his shares and his position in the company, he could only count on his younger brother.

"Convince the board to question his eligibility in the position and find a replacement."

"Are you sure that it will work brother? With all our shares combined, he still has the final say. Unless we convince Dad to fire him which I think is impossible." Franklin told Nikolai the reality.

"Then dig some dirt on him!" Nikolai gulped the liquid and poured another one.

"I did but so far my investigators came back empty-handed. His records are clean in Sterlington City. They suspected that he is not an ordinary member of the Lockhart clan. Rumor said that he was Master Dylan's cousin though it was not confirmed yet. Master Dylan even allowed him to play with you."

Since Country A was thousands of miles away from Country Z, they didn't know much about the families there.

They knew that Xavier's mother was a Lockhart but she told them that she was from the distant branch families and not related to the main family.

And they believed that.

"Country A is very secretive. They just don't trust any outsider unless they're business partners or collaborators." Franklin said. Nikolai knew about this.

They tried to penetrate Country A but it seemed like they were banned from entering there.

Somehow, it made sense.

"Brother, do you think that brat suspects that we were involved in his mother's death?" Franklin suddenly asked him.

"It's a high chance. But what can he do? Dad had erased everything that could link mom and us to the crime." Nikolai confidently said.

Just then, the phone he left on his table rang. Nikolai got up and answered the call.

After a few seconds...

"What?!"

"What happened, brother?" Franklin asked but Nikolai was not done.

"Make sure that they won't investigate his death. Bribe everyone that's involved and start planting evidence that it was Zarah who paid him to poison him!"

He angrily ended the call and slumped on the sofa.

"What's wrong?"

"Thomas decided to commit suicide and die rather than betraying Zarah."

Franklin frowned as he gave it a thought.

"Zarah is something, huh? How can a nurse be loyal to her? Did they share a special relationship?"

"Maybe. I don't know. But seems like she's special to him as he immediately obeyed when we threatened that we would kill Zarah if he would not agree." Nikolai told him.

Nikolai then got up from his seat and grabbed the coat on the rack.

"Where are you going, brother?"

"To the hospital. It's time for us to visit Dad."

Franklin hesitated and asked, "Will we be allowed in there?"

Before the accident, Isaiah and his two sons had a huge fight. It was also on that same day that he got into this accident.

Was it just a coincidence?

Before he went comatose, Isaiah had arranged for Zarah as his health care proxy if ever his condition got worse. He could not trust his two sons to take care of him.

Especially after Isaiah discovered his gambling addiction. The shares the two brothers held were the shares they got from Isaiah's first wife.

Isaiah planned to split his shares between Xavier and Zarah since his two sons had already their shares.

Therefore when Nikolai knew of his plan from the lawyer, he confronted his father.

Nikolai fired the lawyer and hired a new one that day after the argument. He could no longer trust him after his betrayal.

"Why don't we try? Let's do the usual thing that we always do."

"Okay."

Meanwhile, Chris was on the phone and talking to the Police Commissioner.

"Thank you, Commissioner. Master will appreciate it." He ended the call and looked to his right where Xavier was sitting.

"What did he say?" Xavier immediately asked as soon as Chris put down his phone.

"The commissioner reassured us that Zarah won't be dragged into this mess. They will make sure that there will be a proper investigation. And if it's not in our favor, he'll intervene."

Xavier nodded in satisfaction.

"Aren't we going to visit the hospital, Master?" Chris cautiously asked him.

"What for?" Xavier got up and went back behind his desk.

"Oh! Nothing."

"He's important to Zarah but not to me." He said but continued the rest inside his mind. 'As long as he doesn't die, Zarah will not be sad.'

"Ask our men to watch over Zarah's apartment. I'm sure they would come and plant the drug inside the apartment."

Both Zarah and Xavier had the same thing in mind. Therefore she made sure to do something to stop them.

She grabbed her phone and open an app that monitored the CCTV footage inside her house.

She had installed hidden CCTV cameras inside the apartment after she bought it. Not even Josh knew about it. Almost every room and every corner had one.

She activated the trigger mechanism so that if someone snuck into the house without her permission, her phone would alarm.

Mr. McGuire informed her that Thomas' dead body was brought to the crime lab for investigation. She asked him if she could see the body first before the investigation was conducted.

They found out that Thomas had made sure that if something bad was to happen to him, Zarah had legal rights to everything.

She was shocked to know about this, too. She did not expect that Thomas would do such a thing.

Thus, she believed that Thomas was coerced to do the crime. It was not in his will.

Mr. McGuire escorted Zarah in. Zarah looked at Thomas' pale face and she could only shed a tear for him.

It was hard for Zarah to bid him goodbye but she had to.

***