Chapter 191
Gideon’s POV
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I’d only just returned to my office when I received a call that bypassed Xavier’s desk and came straight to mine. That could only happen if someone had my extension number, so whoever called had to be someone who knew me well.
I picked up the phone, expecting a friend.
“This is Gideon.”
“Things don’t have to be this way,” Daphne replied.
Not a friend. Very much not a friend. But someone who still remembered his extension. He made a mental note to change the numbers as soon as possible.
“I’m hanging up,” I announced, so that she would get to the point sooner. If she didn’t say something of consequence in the next two seconds, I was going to hang up this phone and not answer it again.
“Claire’s going to have a hard time,” Daphne continued. Her voice was slightly more rushed, but no less cruel. “And that’s not entirely on me. That’s just the nature of these things. Being a princess. Being in the limelight. But I could make this all go away.”
I gritted my teeth. From the letters we had found, I knew damn well that Daphne was stirring the pot on this, even if she wasn’t the one who had started it this time. That she had included Susanne in the letters added more suspicion. Daphne was not loyal to anyone but herself.
Yet, Claire was having a hard time of things, with people being so quick to assume she was faking things, or only wanted the money and fame that came from being a royal. How was I the only one that could tell that couldn’t be farther from the truth?
These people didn’t know Claire. They didn’t try to know her.
If they did, they would understand that she would never do anything for fortune or clout. She would only do things that felt right in her heart.
Though, I realized with great regret, that I too had fallen victim to these assumptions in the past. Like that soldier today, I had listened to Daphne as she had whispered poison in my ears, believing her over the mother of my children.
I’d been the worst kind of fool, but I knew better than anyone how easy it was to become one and how difficult it was to admit to yourself that you had.
This was the only reason I didn’t hang up yet. Daphne, vile as she was, had the gift of persuasion. And if I could use that to my ends…
“You only have to let my father go,” Daphne said. “Return him to me, and I’ll help you.”
No. I shook my head, internally scolding myself for almost becoming a fool a second time. Daphne was not the type to be trusted. She could not be negotiated with. She was a masterful manipulator who only saw people as a means to achieve her own ends.
“No,” I told her flatly.
She chuckled a little. “I thought you might say that, but you’ll regret it. You’ve made powerful enemies, Gideon, inuch bigger
than me.”
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9:16 am P PPO
Chapter 191
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A hint of fear rose up inside of me, remembering the poisoned necklace that Victoria had given to Claire. I wasn’t ready to accuse the Queen of anything just yet, but I was cautious about it. Victoria would never be alone in a room with Claire again, if I could help it.
But even if the Queen herself hadn’t poisoned the necklace, someone in the royal palace had.
“How powerful?” I asked.
Daphne laughed and laughed. “I’ll be waiting for the moment you come crawling to me, begging for my help,” she said, and then hung up the phone.
I, too, lowered the phone to the receiver and then sat down calmly at my desk. Externally, I was keeping myself expressionless and still as a statue. Inside, my worry began to bubble up at an alarming rate.
If any of the royal family was against Claire, my little family was in serious trouble. I could work against pack corruption, but how would I stand against the royal leaders of the entire kingdom?
For my family, I would do so. To protect them, I would go to war with the entire world itself. But I wasn’t sure my pack would stand behind me, and I didn’t know how long I’d be able to save them on my own.
I’d protect them to my death, but what would become of them afterwards?
In this moment, all I could do was really, really hope it didn’t come to that.
Xavier knocked on the doorway and came in. If he noticed anything wrong, he didn’t say so, but his face was also stone–like.
I gestured to my phone. “We need to change the extension numbers.”
He nodded, then passed me a manila envelope.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“The results from the tests that were run on the necklace that we ordered after the banquet.”
I opened the envelope. The results were clear. Positive. The pendent of the necklace had been coated in a long–lasting poison that could seep in through the skin.
This would account for Claire’s condition, how sick she became as we left the royal pack.
I wondered, with regret, if this had been how Lena had died.
“Thank you,” I told Xavier, then stood. I needed to tell Claire at once.
I found her in her bedroom, sitting on the foot of the bed. In her hands, she held a picture of her mother and her uncle. She glanced up at me as I entered, gave a small smile, then looked down at the picture again.
“I wish I could just ask them what happened,” she said, her eyes sad.
“It would make things a lot easier,” I said, trying for a joke to brighten her somewhat. It didn’t really work, though she faked a second smile for a moment. It wasn’t real, however, and quickly faded.
“I wish I knew them,” she said. “My mother died when I was too young. But Daniel was alive until only recently. If I’d have known… If I’d have reached out… He must have felt so very badly.”
Ivan had told her that Daniel had drank himself to death in his guilt and mourning. I very much hoped Claire wasn’t blaming herself for this.
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3:16 am P p pa
Chapter 191
I walked closer to her. I didn’t touch her but I hoped she could take comfort from my warmth and closeness.
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As I did so, I thought of what she’d said. Daniel had only died fairly recently, a few years back. And Delilah had said that he was Lena’s confidant. That they had secret plans. He would have known everything, even what happened to her.
Or at least he would have had a better idea than anyone else.
He was gone now, but what if…
“What if he left something behind?” I asked.
Claire looked up at me again.
“A journal… letters… anything,” I said. “Maybe he left a trail that could lead us back to what happened to Lena.”
“What if he didn’t?” Claire’s voice was small.
“Then he didn’t, and we’d be in the same place we are now,” I said.
Hope sparked determination in Claire’s eyes. “We should go there. To the place that he died. Where he lived his final years.”
I nodded. “If he left no clues, we lose nothing. But if he did…”
She finished, “We have everything to gain.”
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田
A5
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