4. Darius
DARIUS
When Darius spoke, his voice carried the smooth, practiced authority that had steered dozens of corporate boardrooms, but today his focus was dangerously frayed.
Every time he took a breath, the subtle, clean scent of jasmine and warm vanilla drifted over from Linda’s seat beside him, dragging his mind straight back to the dim shadows of the alleyway.
The lingering, electric warmth of her lips left a persistent tingle on his own lips.
He forced his fingers to tighten around the ceramic curve of his coffee mug, fighting a silent, internal battle to lock his thoughts back onto the conversation around the table.
This was his operation. Darius had built the trap, and he was the one who had to sail this ship safely into harbor.
"Okay, so now we understand the entire Charleston layout and how it overlaps with the threat to the Hearts Hotel.
" Isabel’s sharp, grounding tone cut through his drifting thoughts, pulling him firmly back to the center of the table.
He braced himself, recognizing the tight, defensive line of his sister's jaw.
He knew exactly what she was about to demand.
"Do you want to explain what is currently going on right here in Sweet Blossom Bay?
" Her brow furrowed, and her eyes shifted meaningfully between Darius and Linda.
"Yeah, and from the absolute beginning, please," Owen added. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he scanned the faces of the people gathered around the teak table—each of whom had consciously chosen to keep him in the shadows.
"But before you start," Isabel said, her gaze locking icily onto Darius’s face, "I want an honest answer to one question.” She paused and let her eyes bore into Darius’s for a few moments for dramatic effect and to show him just how mad she was with him.
“If Owen and I hadn't happened to stumble across you and Linda in that alleyway behind the ice cream shop today, would we even be sitting at this table right now? "
"Yes, would you have kept us in the dark?" Owen asked, his voice suddenly hard and demanding. "And if that was the plan, why?"
Darius let out a slow, quiet sigh, running his one hand over his face. He had fully expected his sister to corner him on this. Isabel had always possessed an uncanny ability to spot a defensive perimeter from a mile away, and she despised being managed.
"Honestly?" Darius answered, his gaze holding Isabel’s with steady, unblinking candor. "We were hoping to keep both of you out of this altogether."
Isabel let out a sharp, derisive scoff, her eyes flashing as she glared across the table at him.
"I see," Owen said before Isabel could, a quiet, thoughtful look settling over his features.
He didn't rise to the bait. Instead, he turned his head to look directly at Isabel, his expression softening instantly.
"Isabel, I did know about some of what has been discussed here around the table.” He gave her a small apologetic smile.
“I knew about the offshore shell corporations tied to South Coast Holdings.
I also knew about the preliminary land survey that Anna conducted six months ago on the Hearts Hotel grounds.
I knew about how the cracked foundation of the resort pool was likely tied to a deeper geological anomaly.
" He reached out, his hand open and sincere on the wooden table.
"I want you to know I wasn't deliberately keeping it from you.
With everything we have going on with the boutique, the zoning boards, and the new ground survey of the hotel, there simply wasn't an appropriate time to bring it up. "
“I promise I didn’t know who Dr. Wineberg was,” Isabel confessed. “Or what my cousin and brother were up to.” She glanced at Linda. “I actually thought my brother was trying to use Linda to get information about Hearts Hotel.”
“No, I was not,” Darius reiterated and looked at Linda. “I did tell you this.”
“I know,” Linda gave him a warm smile and patted his arm affectionately.
“As soon as we have a chance,” Owen promised Isabel, “I will tell you about Debbi and…” He glanced at Gill briefly. “And why I left my home in Charleston to end up here.”
“Owen,” Isabel said, taking his hand and smiling at him, “I understand.” Her smile grew as they stared at each other, and Darius could see some of the tension ease from Owen’s shoulders. “We’ve both still got secrets and have had a life before this.”
“I want to know it all,” Owen said. It was so soft that they barely heard him.
“Me too,” Isabel whispered back.
“Okay…” Penny said, snapping the attention back to the matter at hand. “Getting back on topic…” She looked pointedly at Darius.
Darius’s eyebrows shot up slightly as he watched the exchange. He didn't miss the raw, protective intensity in Owen's eyes as he spoke to Isabel, or the way the tension in Isabel's shoulders seemed to ease under his steady gaze.
Linda was absolutely right, Darius thought, a sudden wave of protective clarity hitting him. He is in love with my sister.
Darius subtly shifted his gaze to look at Gill. She was sitting perfectly still, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her eyes fixed on Owen and Isabel with a quiet, bittersweet nostalgia.
Darius felt a tightness behind his ribs.
While he was fiercely protective of his younger sister, who hadn't looked at a man with that level of soft, unguarded trust since her husband passed away, he was also deeply sympathetic to the sheer weight of Gill's position.
Coming face-to-face with the man she had loved and lost, only to watch his heart clearly beating for someone else, had to be an incredibly brutal pill to swallow.
Yet, from everything Darius could read in the room's shifting dynamics, Owen's heart had truly and permanently moved toward Isabel.
There was no lingering romantic static between the past and the present—only a profound, respectful closure.
Still, Darius resolved to keep a very close eye on the situation. Isabel had walked through enough emotional storms in her life; she did not deserve a broken heart, especially not from a complicated past she had no part in creating.
And that, in truth, was the exact defensive logic that had driven their secrecy from Owen and Isabel.
It wasn't just corporate security; it was deeply personal.
Linda, Penny, Maggie, and even Martin had spent the last few weeks watching the quiet, beautiful romance budding between Owen and Isabel.
The very last thing any of them had wanted was to throw a wrench into that delicate foundation by forcing Owen into an abrupt, high-intensity confrontation with his long-lost love before they had a chance to secure the perimeter.
"Right after I called Linda to ask her to meet me for lunch, my personal cell rang," Darius explained, leaning forward to keep the timeline perfectly straight.
"It was Baxter. He called to warn me that Dr. Wineberg had caught wind of our structural delay and intended to head straight to the Hearts Hotel to aggressively pitch her analysis company for the excavation. "
"I tried to tell her it might be wiser to schedule an official appointment," Baxter took over, a faint, dry grimace touching his lips. "But Debbi had other ideas. She was convinced that an unannounced arrival was the superior tactic. She actually told me that surprise is the best angle because at least it prevents people from fabricating things before she gets a look at the site. Her plan was to snoop around the digging perimeter. It’s the swimming pool area, after all, and since it’s a public hotel, she figured she had every right to simply stroll the grounds. "
Darius offered a tight nod. "That's when Baxter casually mentioned to her that the Wayne Group was already actively scouting a different independent analysis firm to audit the initial survey data."
"And Debbi snapped at the bait immediately," Baxter continued. "She said that was perfect, because she could personally recommend her uncle Hyrum’s renowned firm to handle the contract. I told her I couldn't authorize a vendor shift on my own and would have to run the proposal by Darius first."
"Baxter did everything in his power to stall her and buy us time," Darius told the table, his analytical gaze resting briefly on Linda.
"He explicitly reminded her that my sister was living on the property, and that I had been intentionally getting close to Ms. Heart.
He warned her that he didn't want to stir up unnecessary trouble, especially since Linda still had no idea who I actually was. "
"I absolutely didn't like the sudden, predatory look in her eyes when I dropped that piece of information," Baxter admitted.
"The second she realized Darius had a vulnerability, she smelled blood in the water.
I hung up and immediately dialed Darius to warn him that she was already on her way across the causeway. "
Darius let out a quiet, dangerous chuckle. "I told Baxter that if she wanted a performance, we might as well give her a show."
"Darius refused to let Debbi get the drop on him," Baxter explained, looking at Isabel and Owen. "He knew she wouldn't hesitate to use his real corporate identity to leverage or blackmail him with Linda if she got to the hotel first."
"That is exactly the kind of toxic game she would play," Owen muttered under his breath, his jaw tightening as his long-buried memories of his ex-wife surfaced.
"So we chose to preempt her strike entirely," Darius said, a smooth, confident ring returning to his tone.
"The second I got off the phone with Baxter, I called Linda and asked her to come over to the beach house immediately.
Then I reached out to Michael, Martin, Penny, Anna, and Maggie.
But I specifically asked Linda to arrive thirty minutes before the rest of the group. "
Linda offered a small, remarkably tight smile from her corner of the table. "I went over there, and I must admit, I was... well, I was not amused. But I chose to sit down and hear him out."
"Then the rest of us arrived in a rush," Penny took over, her professional focus sharp.
"Darius laid out the layout. He told us Debbi was already en route to the Hearts Hotel to corner Linda.
To counter it, Darius needed to show up in the lobby right on time, and Baxter would 'innocently' introduce him to the Heart siblings in front of her. "
"Creating that massive, chaotic scene in the lobby," Isabel finished for them, the pieces finally aligning in her mind.
"Exactly," Baxter nodded. "We needed Debbi to believe with absolute certainty that Darius had no personal or romantic interest in Linda—that she was nothing more than a local obstacle in his path. It forced her to focus entirely on the commercial angle."
"We had to make her think Darius was all-in on a hostile corporate takeover," Penny added. "Which became totally believable because he’s been secretly buying up every fraction of the outstanding hotel debt that was still hanging over the property."
Isabel sat back, her eyes wide as she processed the sheer scope of the trap. "So you're basically herding the entire Wineberg family right toward you, using their own greed to lock them down on the harbor tract in Charleston and the land right here in the bay."
"Yes," Darius confirmed, his expression turning thoroughly lethal. "Now I hold the upper hand."
"I have to admit, that is quite brilliant, big brother," Isabel drawled, her tone dripping with a mix of reluctant admiration and lingering annoyance.
"I still don't like the fact that you kept Owen and me entirely in the dark.
" She pursed her lips, clearly impressed despite herself.
"But I can see the structural logic. Now the Winebergs will move heaven and earth to ensure their neatly placed 'artifacts' in Charleston are authenticated as real to force our hand... "
"And the authentic Calusa findings found right here at the Hearts Hotel will be publicly branded as planted fakes," Owen finished, leaning back in his chair as the academic strategy clicked into place.
"And since they have already successfully discredited one of Anna's historical claims here at the hotel decades ago... "
"Their public claims of the findings being fraudulent at the Hearts Hotel will carry immense weight with the state heritage board," Isabel realized, a chill running down her spine.
"And my name is also heavily linked to the original ownership files at the Charleston harbor dig," Anna noted with a soft, humorless snort. "Which will only help them authenticate that site, too. They'll tell the press that I’m the corrupt factor trying to sabotage both developments."
"But they're walking into a complete lockdown," Darius told them, his eyes shining with cold triumph.
"Myself and Gill's father privately control two entirely independent, un-affiliated auditing firms. The moment the Winebergs file their official reports, our teams will come in on the quiet and perform a definitive forensic assessment on both properties.
While they do that, I will feign total corporate panic with Baxter, who will ensure that Rory and his technical team continue to leak our fabricated metrics. "
"You're going to catch them red-handed on two separate properties at the exact same time," Isabel concluded, a sudden surge of adrenaline hitting her chest.
"Yes," Darius nodded.
"It's incredibly elaborate," Isabel said, her brow knitting as she studied her brother's face. "But couldn't you have just bypassed the drama and ordered standard independent analysis audits from the start? Why orchestrate this entire theatrical layout?"
Darius’s expression turned unusually grim, the corporate mask dropping to reveal a hard, protective reality.
"Because standard regulatory audits only result in civil fines and administrative delays for people with the Winebergs' level of political backing. We have spent the last six months uncovering the fact that this family will not hesitate to financially ruin, legally bankrupt, or completely destroy the reputation of anyone who stands in their path. If we just filed a complaint, Thompson’s campaign office would have buried it in committees before the ink was dry. "
Baxter shifted in his seat, his gaze sweeping over Anna, Owen, and Gill.
"Darius is running the operation this way to ensure there is minimal legal or financial impact on the Heart family.
And more importantly, it's the only way we can legally clear Gill's name, expose Debbi's plagiarism, and permanently erase the toxic stain that has hung over Anna and Owen for the last ten years. "
Maggie let out a slow, appreciative breath, a sudden spark of dangerous excitement lighting up her features. "Well," she said, looking around the table at her family. "It's certainly not every day we get to scheme together to take down a corrupt politician and his evil family."