Chapter 59 #2
“You'd better not let her lose, Rydell. All the law firms would talk. And I don't think I could smooth over your reputation once you come back to D.C.”
“Good thing I'm not planning on coming back.”
Troy gave Davian a sideways glance that could have meant anything.
“What a shame.” Gideon hesitated, chuckled quietly, and nodded as if he regretted something, but he seemed just as artificial as everyone else here. “You were really good.” He smiled. “Too bad I’ve taken over all your cases now.”
He and Lucas belonged in the same category, I was sure of that.
“If I win with Mr. McMillan, Davian will have no future at Maplecrest.”
Davian broke his tense stare from Gideon, whose attention now shifted to Troy.
“And you are?”
Troy seemed flabbergasted, and Davian snorted with amusement.
Good God, the tension between these three men.
“Oh.” His eyes widened slightly, filled with an amused spark of recognition. “The director’s nerd son.” He pointed at him with a wiggling index finger. “Second best in our class. Your father owns this place here.”
Now I had to grin, while Lucas looked down at the floor.
Troy seemed as if he would love to strangle the man in front of him.
I wondered who had been the top of their class.
Davian looked triumphantly at Troy, but any triumph vanished when Lucas stepped aside, so that Arnold Fitzek came into view, together with my father, Arnold with a cigar in his mouth.
Under Questioning
Luke Richards
“Mr. Clinton.”
Gidion straightened his expression and nodded to Arnold.
“Director Fitzek. Professor Richter.”
No matter how hard I tried to appear confident, my father's mere gaze was enough to crush my self-esteem.
I looked down at the floor and spotted Davian's hand, within easy reach. But I couldn't. I wasn't allowed to...
“It appears you have already met our first winning candidate.”
Arnold looked at Lucas, who forced a restrained smile.
Gideon regained his easy-going manner.
“Let's see how long he remains the winning candidate. If there were bets, I'm sure many would bet on Rydell's student. After all, she's learning from the best.”
He looked at Monica, who had left her old conversation and was now eyeing Gideon as if she would also like to hold a blade to his throat.
Gideon seemed intimidated, lowered his gaze to the floor, and cleared his throat.
“Anyway. Director Fitzek.” He looked up again. “Rumor has it that an anonymous erotic author is terrorizing your university.”
Immediately, my father pinned me with his eyes.
He thought it was me...
Great.
Arnold's expression darkened and he took the cigar out of his mouth.
Only now did I notice that two of the few reporters who must have gained access to the estate appeared behind Arnold.
“No one terrorizes Maplecrest as long as I am director here.”
It grew quiet around us.
Gideon looked down at the floor in shame, finally excused himself, and the guests resumed their conversations. Some headed for the dance floor, and Troy also pushed Lucas toward the nearest guests to proudly introduce him, which Monica took as a sign to also withdraw and get a drink.
Arnold's gaze fixed on Davian, who was also staring at the floor. Or... at my hand.
My heart skipped a beat, but I was unable to ignore my father, who was now standing diagonally across from me.
“Rydell.” Davian looked up at Arnold. “Joseph told me you want to marry his daughter?”
Startled, I looked up, but Arnold was too focused on Davian to notice. Only my father stared at me with a grim expression.
Davian was also speechless.
“I…”
“You should go dance with her.”
Davian pressed his lips together and fixed Arnold with a tense, determined stare. However, Arnold was good at this game and stared back at Davian until the tension between the two became unbearable and my father cleared his throat.
Davian's attention shifted to him.
“You shouldn't embarrass Brittany by keeping her waiting any longer.”
I looked around and spotted my half-sister on the stairs, waiting and looking in our direction.
When my gaze met Davian's, he gave me an apologetic look.
He would always fall back into his role. Because he had trained himself to do so over the course of twenty years in order to survive among all these crazy rich people. And I would have to accept it.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him, nodding with a fake smile.
Davian needed some seconds, and I could see it working in him. However, he did what he was best at, the right thing, and turned away from me, his one hand clenched into a fist, before making his way to Brittany and leaving me alone with the two most intimidating men in this town.
Castle
Halsey
Every fiber of my being fought against it, but I forced myself to look the two men in front of me in the eyes.
The little wounded girl inside me wanted to stick her chin out and push them to their limits. Both of them. But this was the wrong moment to expose my father. His time would come. I would make sure of it.
“Schau sie dir an, Joseph. Dieses einf?ltige Gor denkt wirklich, wir h?tten nicht schon l?ngst über ihre Zukunft entschieden”, Arnold snorted amusedly in German to my father, taking a drag on his cigar, his gray-blue eyes sharp and cold as always.
“Dabei gibt es nur einen Ort, an den Weibsbilder gehoren. Und dieses hier h?tte dringend eine Tracht Prügel notig.”
My father's expression stiffened and he seemed unable to take his eyes off me.
I really had intended to remain reasonable, but failed at that moment.
“Ist es das, was Ihnen Ihr Mentor beigebracht hat, Professor Richter?”, I replied, also in German, and looked at my father with a raised eyebrow.
Arnold had just been about to put his cigar to his lips, but paused in his movement.
“Frauen zu verprügeln?”
My father’s jaw clenched, grinding against his cheeks, his brow twitched, as did the tight fist at his right, outside Arnold’s field of vision.
He was exactly where I wanted him. His white sheet of paper in the middle of the table. My inkwell directly above it. Open.
“Who are you?”