Esther had no idea what Aleric meant and she doubted he would tell her the truth. She burst out of the room leaving Aleric with his drink.
The reason he appointed Elias as his successor was to buy time to investigate what happened that day Aurora was accused of killing Dario. Elias knew about this, but things changed when there was a possibility that his daughter was still alive.
Honestly, he also found the death of the baby suspicious because they were certain the child was a girl and not a boy but a dead boy was given to Aurora.
That was when he realized the enemy was someone very close to him. It was just a matter of time he might not have for everything was revealed.
His phone rang distracting him, it was Elias. He kept it on loudspeaker so that he could still enjoy his drink.