“I don’t give a damn about him screwing you,” I growled before storming over to the bed. “I knoweverythingyou two had planned.”
Eddie was just about to get up when I knocked him back down again, my knuckles throbbing right after connecting with his jaw.
Quinn
“Jasper, what the hell?!” Eddie growled, clutching his jaw as he glared up at Jasper. “What is wrong with you?!”
“I spent the last few years of my life bedridden because of you,” Jasper spat. “Blaming myself and wondering what I’d done to deserve a rapidly deteriorating body while I was just in my twenties! And now come to find out, it was all you!”
“What are you talking about? You sound crazy!” Eddie shook his head. “I am not the cause of your debilitating health, Jasper. It’s not like I can control your body! You have an illness and I’m sorry about that, but you can’t take your anger out on me! I don’t know what–”
“Cut the crap, Eddie!” Jasper yelled. “The sick game that you’ve been playing with me for years now is over! I heard you and Crystal talking about the drugs that you’ve been giving me to make me sick! It’s all a part of your little scheme to get your hands on my billions, isn’t it? Well, you can forget all about that! I’ll be damned if you touch a single penny!”
“Jasper.” Eddie’s demeanor changed in the blink of an eye. The faux concerned and confused expression melted off his face as he slowly stood up, narrowing his eyes. “You didn’t hear anything. How could you have? Crystal and I were here at my house and you were off somewhere else. You’re just paranoid. Maybe this illness is affecting more than just your physical health. Maybe you’ve been experiencing bouts of paranoia and sudden rage. You’re mentally unstable and incapable of taking care of yourself, let alone King Industries. I bet the media would eat that story up. Wouldn’t they, Jasper?”
“Is that a threat?”
“I’d hate to have to stoop that low, Jasper, but I’ll do whatever I need to in order to get my hands on that money, so if convincing everyone that you’re mentally ill is the route I have to take then so be it. I won’t let you ruin—”
Eddie’s mouth snapped shut, the sound of his voice infiltrating the room as I held my phone up, staring at him pointedly as I played the recording that I’d taken less than thirty minutes ago. I’d never seen a person break into a sweat so quickly in my life. The man visibly paled, gulping as he stared at my phone with panic written all over his face. He was stiff as a pole, practically frozen in place as he listened to the self-incriminating evidence the police would need to throw him in prison for the foreseeable future.
I smirked when his beady little eyes finally drifted up to look at me.
“You–” he started, pointing a shaking finger at me. His face was turning from grey to red, his chest rising and falling quickly and his voice straining with anger. “You damn–”
Jasper shoved him back the moment he attempted to take a step toward me. “What did you poison me with?”
“I-I didn’t–”
“The jig is up, Eddie. We have evidence! Weallheard that recording just now! What did you poison me with?”
Eddie refused to look at Jasper, his jaw clenched as he refused to open his mouth.
“Fine, you don’t want to answer that? How about you answer this; How could you do something like this?” he shouted. “Whywould you? It’s not like you’re in need of anything! I’ve paid you handsomely for you services! You were making more than any other law student right after law school, and your compensation has only increased since then. You have a nice house, nice cars, a closet full of designer clothes! You take weekend trips to Ibiza using my planes and eat lunch at fancy five-star restaurants on my tab! Why the hell would you betray me like this? How could you throw away a nearly lifelong friendship over money that you don’t even need?”
“It wasn’t my idea!” Eddie finally looked at Jasper, eyes pleading. “I got wrapped up in it! This whole thing was completely Crystal’s idea–I went along with her plan because I was head over heels in love with her! You know how that feels, don’t you? Wouldn’t you do anything for Quinn?”
“Well, I’d never ask him to poison someone in order to get my hands on their money, so let’s start there,” I grumbled.
“You’re a liar!” Crystal stormed over to Eddie, and I winced as she slapped him as hard as she could. The sound rang throughout the room long after her hand had connected with his face. He stared at her with wide, watery eyes, a handprint already forming on his cheek and rage beginning to morph his facial features. “This was all his idea from the very beginning, and I’m the one who got sucked into it! All I wanted was to make enough money to live the rest of my life comfortably, and that’s why I agreed to the engagement in the first place! I thought I’d be set for life if I married you, Jasper, but then you backed out of it! I was happy when you offered me financial compensation for the failed engagement, but then Eddie told me that he knew of a way for me to get evenmoremoney! Then he told me all about his stupid plan to take you out of the picture and gain access to all your fortune!”
Eddie scoffed, stuttering and fumbling with his words as he tried to come up with something to say to combat her allegations, but he seemed to come up short. He nodded his head after a moment, letting out a bitter chuckle as he held his arms out and then let them drop to his sides in defeat.
“Fine. It was my plan, okay? You happy?”
“Why did you do it?” Jasper repeated slowly.
“Well, aside from my gambling debt,” he sneered. “I did it because I’m sick and tired of being in your shadow.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know.” Eddie rolled his eyes. “I’ve been living in your shadow since we were kids. In boarding school, you were always the cool, fun one that everyone wanted to hang out with and I was just a tagalong. I thought it’d be different in college, but nope, it only seemed to get worse.
You got invited to all the parties, and I was only welcomed to come as long as you’d show up. You never studied or picked up a damn pencil, and yet you got better grades than me despite how hard I worked. All the girls that approached us only came up to us because they wantedyou, and if I was lucky, I’d get your rejects and sloppy seconds. Everyone always felt sorry for you. They always brought up the fact that you’re the sole member of your family left after such a horrible tragedy. What about my suffering? My dad was on that plane too.
He was your father’s lawyer for years! Did anyone sympathize with my pain? Nope. Did I get to go on television and talk about the last time I spent with my dad or of how I felt when I learned the plane he was traveling in with your family had crashed? Nope. I was overlooked. Always overlooked. You threw your money around, spending thousands on dinners and drinks at bars, sending people you hardly even knew on shopping sprees just to show how wealthy you were. Who pays for their entire graduating class to go on vacation? You did, and the God like worship for you became never ending.
I thought things would change after we left school. I figured I’d studied hard, worked harder and would finally become on the same wealth scale as you. I studied your family business and took a bigger part in it than you did. I figured that with time and patience, sooner or later, I would take your spot as CEO—a role in which you do fuck all. Can you ladies imagine that? He’s the CEO of the company but does none of the duties except collect a salary—and the roles would be reversed. You would be a loser, long forgotten by everyone, and I would be the one enjoying fame and fortune while you watched from the sidelines. But no, that isn’t how it happened.
