“How long have you been enamoured with my daughter?”
Ramses doesn’t pause when he answers. “Since the first day I met her, sir.”
“What do you want out of it?” Allan demands.
“I assure you, it’s nothing you can provide. Only Heidi. I don’t need or want her money, and I definitely do not want to be involved in any way, shape, or form in Verdune. But what I do want is for Heidi to have the freedom of making decisions for what she believes is the good of the company.”
Allan’s eyes squint, his jaw bites. “And if she fails?”
Ramses looks to me when he answers. “I’ll pick her up and stand next to her until she gets it working how she wants.”
Allan stops his interrogation of Ramses, turning his attention to me. “There is always the opportunity of selling the shares I give you, Heidi. Selling everything. Including Verdune.”
“Why are you doing this, Allan? Verdune has always been such an important part of your life.”
“And it always will be. But any company the size of Verdune will undergo a metamorphosis if you will, a fundamental change that alters the core of what was a family run business. Irrespective of sentimentality, corporate machinations of expectation ensures company visions are replaced by profitability. It’s not from bad management or lack of passion, it simply becomes too big a beast for anyone to tame.”
He takes a short breath before he goes on stoically. “I don’t want you to miss out on life. And before you suggest I’m being uncharacteristically demonstrative of my sentimentality; I assure you there is nothing wrong with me. I am not suffering from any progressive or degenerative disease or ailing sickness; Doctor Carlisle and his team did a thorough medical review before I came.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I offer.
“The only answer I need; Heidi, is if you are going to accept my offer of sale. The rest will come to you, or it won’t, but at least you will be in charge of your own fate.”
“The Board though, you’ve worked with them for such a long time. And they’re not just people you work with, they have been a part of our family for a long time.”
“They have been involved from the very start. But people change. Most certainly after Margot got sick, I relied on those people you are talking about more than I should have. They did commendable work. And they were also reimbursed accordingly.”
His face changes, his eyes get a flash of anger before he makes it disappear again. “Please tell me you will sign the deed.”
“Of course, I will,” I answer back quickly.
“And will you,” he directs his attention to Ramses, “look after her when I can’t?”
“Allan, you’re scaring me!”
“Don’t be dramatic, Heidi. Sign the agreement.” He barks at me. For the first time in my life my father uses his Alpha bark on me.
Besides me I feel Ramses start to take offence. He burrs up in an instant and gets protective, his arm falls over the back of my seat as he swivels slightly almost like he’s clearing the way if we need to run.
“Sorry,” Allan says, tempering his mood as swiftly as it rose. “Please sign it, and I will explain what is going on.”
He passes over a pen, and I sign the deed plus several copies. He does too before he asks Ramses to witness for both of us.
Once done, he smiles at me, as he twists around and pulls out another envelope from his briefcase, but before I can ask what it is, he uses a lighter and sets it alight. He looks strangely at peace as he watches the flames eat at the bundle of papers before he uses the rest of his drinking water to douse out the flames, leaving a soggy mess between us.
“I’d like you to call the police now please, Heidi. I’ve committed multiple murders.”
“What?” I gasp, my hand slapping over my mouth in horror.
He nods his head as he speaks in his usual pace. “I poisoned William, John, Troy, and Leigh. Nothing will save them, including me. It is a new toxin I developed, irreversible too. Death will be quick but excruciating because I purposely and intentionally manipulated the toxin to act that way.”
“Why?”
“I got the proof I needed. Finally, they showed their true colours. I have sent copies of what I discovered to Douglas’s legal firm, along with my own lawyer. In my bag is a copy for the police.”
“What proof?”
“Fortuitous timing linked in with your recent announcement it seems, is making our soon to be dead Executive team members irrational in their expectation of how their future will go. In their poorly executed attempt at coercion, they foolishly provided the irrefutable evidence of how they arranged the Alpha to attack you, as a means of intimidation. They went on to confirm they had one of their sons pass the drugged water to you. I’d always wondered how that happened. Of course, their evil plans included the theft and supply of Duratious to the Alpha for him to use on you.”
