Chapter 9
The group was armed with knives, looking like they were ready to trade lives with Evander if it came down to it.
Just as the blades were raised, Samara stepped in front of him.
"Take me with you," she said firmly. "If he can't come up with the money in three days, you can do whatever you want to me."
But nobody even glanced her way.
She continued, "You're after the money, right? Even if you kill Evander, you still won't see a dime.
"I can sign an agreement right now. If I end up dead, it won't be your problem.
"Let him try to get the money. That's your only chance to get paid."
Samara was taken away.
She'd saved him again.
But the very woman who kept saving him was also the one who orchestrated scheme after scheme against him.
Looking back now, maybe even that whole wage protest had been her plan from the start.
All was just to win his trust and take it away.
Lavinia cast a brief glance at Evander and let out a quiet sigh beside him.
"Mr. Hale, if you care, don't miss your chance. No one's going to stand around waiting for you forever," she said softly.
"Lavinia, don't forget your place. If the Storm family hadn't begged me for this marriage, you wouldn't even have the right to lecture me," Evander retorted.
Their marriage had always been nothing but a business arrangement.
Everyone around them suddenly looked at Lavinia with obvious disdain.
"The Storm family's no saints either. They sold off their daughter just to get ahead," someone sneered.
Lavinia cast her eyes down at the diamond ring on her finger, a faint irony flickering in her gaze.
She let out a soft, self-mocking laugh, didn't say another word, and stood up to leave the room.
The whole incident blew over in no time.
The crowd in the private room went right back to drinking and bantering, though every so often, someone would make a crude joke about Samara taking her clothes off earlier.
The grating voices kept ringing in Evander's ears, and finally, he snapped, sending every bottle on the table crashing to the floor.
"Get the hell out of here!" he roared.
He grabbed the loudmouth who kept running his mouth about Samara by the collar.
"Don't ever let me see your face in Bryston again!" he snarled.
The room fell silent in an instant.
Evander dropped onto the couch, chain-smoking, but Dorian's words kept him restless and on edge, no matter how many cigarettes he burned through.
'She really had the nerve to leave?' he thought.
His fists clenched so tight the veins popped, his whole body taut with fury.
"Get me all the info on Samara's mother. Now!" Evander snapped.
Dorian started searching right away, not daring to waste a second.
When he saw the hospital info, his heart dropped.
"Mr. Hale..." Dorian murmured.
He swallowed hard, trying not to show his nerves.
"Miss Thorne's mother has passed away..." Dorian said quietly.
Something inside Evander snapped with a sharp jolt.
'Samara's mother is dead?' he thought, stunned.
The news struck him like muffled thunder crashing in his chest.
Not long ago, he'd heard she was in perfect health. He even had photos of Samara taking her mother out shopping.
'No way. How could she just be gone?' Evander thought.
Evander's gut reaction was suspicion. Samara had to be up to something again.
He'd been investigating nonstop, trying to uncover the mastermind behind his mother's kidnapping. That was why those kidnappers, who should've been executed ages ago, were still locked up. He refused to let them go until he got the truth.
It wasn't until last year that he finally got the news.
"Mr. Hale, we've tracked down the mastermind behind Mrs. Hale's death," his subordinate reported, looking uneasy.
His subordinate looked uneasy as he delivered the news.
"It was the Thorne family," the subordinate said.
Evander was floored. He'd racked his brain for every possible suspect, but the Thorne family was the last people he'd ever suspect.
"No way!" he snapped.
He told his guy to check again, but the answer didn't change. In fact, it got even uglier.
"The Thorne family didn't just kidnap Mrs. Hale back then. They were also behind your kidnapping during the fire, all just to set up their only daughter…" the guy stammered, voice fading.
"That's enough! Get out!" Evander roared.
He just couldn't accept it. He locked himself away for three whole days, unable to face the truth.
Every day, Samara waited outside his door, worried sick about him.
"Evander, I'm here," she'd say quietly, her voice gentle through the door.
She promised she'd be there for him, no matter what, his rock if he needed one.
But his mind kept screaming that everything she did was just another scheme, all for the Hale family, never for him.
But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't bring himself to truly hurt her.
'As long as she's hurting, that's enough. I don't need to end her...' he told himself.
For the past two years, he'd been drifting between different women, taking pleasure in humiliating Samara whenever he could.
Only by doing this could he keep his inner balance barely intact.
But now, even that snapped so easily.
He could still remember how careful Samara had been that day when she spoke to him.
"Evander, could you lend me 70 thousand dollars?" she asked, her tone careful.
It was the first time she'd ever asked him for money.
'Just as I thought. She couldn't hold back any longer,' Evander thought.
'Maybe she sensed she'd been found out, so she went straight for it,' he mused, a cold glint in his eyes.