Page 43 of Scarlet Embrace

Lucas was still asleep when I got out of bed, and I picked up my clothes and put them on the table. I had crossed a huge line just by being intimate with Lucas, and while I didn’t have any regrets about the act, I felt guilty. How would I have my revenge against the Cruz family if I was intimate with Lucas Cruz, the heir of the Cruz empire?

All throughout law school, the one thing that had kept me going was the desire to have my revenge against the people who had destroyed my family, but now, there’s no way I’m going to get that. There were a couple of files on Lucas’s table, and I noticed an address on one of them. The address was familiar because it had been the location of my father’s nightclub.

“What’s this?” I picked up the file and read through it.

It was a detailed breakdown of how the land had been acquired through auction and sold to a man named Shane Abbot. Shane Abbot had bought not only my father’s nightclub but also the store and the apartment my father had been working on before he died. I looked at Lucas, who was still asleep, and I wondered if he was looking into my past. I grabbed the nearest chair and went through the files, my eyes widening as I discovered that the file covered everything about my father’s estate and how it had all gone to one man. Shane Abbot.

“Who is this Abbot?” I asked.

All my life, I believed that the Cruz family had been involved in my father’s death since they were the ones who benefited from his death, but the files in front of me were saying something different. The man named Shane Abbot had acquired them for cheap and sold everything to Andrew Cruz.

I looked through the files, and one name popped up. Rufus Cruz. Lucas had nothing on the man named Shane Abbot, but he had it that Rufus Cruz had brokered the deal between both men. If there was anyone who could provide answers to the death of my father, it had to be Rufus Cruz.

At that moment, Lucas turned, and I was scared he was going to wake up. He went back to sleep, and I let out a sigh of relief. I can’t let him get in my way. Putting on my clothes as quickly as possible, I rushed downstairs. Getting out of the mansion would be quite the trick, but luckily for me, Thomas was at the gate talking with the guard.

“Lucas asked me to meet with Rufus. He told me to get something from him,” I told Thomas, who simply looked at me warily. I had the feeling that Thomas didn’t trust me fully, and I didn’t blame him. If I was in his shoes, I would be suspicious of myself as well.

He drove me to Rufus’s place without a word, a gesture I was grateful for. Confronting Rufus might be the only chance I have to know the real person who was behind the death of my family.

“What brings you here, Elena?” A rather sleepy Rufus asked over the intercom.

“A message. Lucas wants me to pass a message to you,” I told him.

It was a lie, one I hoped would work, and when Rufus opened the estate gates, I smiled to myself. Rufus had met us at the door and had ushered inside, commenting on how cold it was.

“It must be something quite important if Lucas had to send you,” Rufus commented.

“Yes, it is, and it’s the reason why I am here,” I answered. I told Thomas that he could leave since I would go to my office from Rufus’s place.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have someone drop her off,” Rufus assured him after noticing how skeptical Thomas was. Once Thomas was gone, Rufus turned to me and asked about the message Lucas had asked me to deliver.

“Let’s discuss it over a cup of tea if that’s fine with you,” I managed to smile.

Having him comfortable would make it easier for him to spill the information I needed. He went about preparing a cup of tea for the both of us while I struggled to gather my thoughts together.

“What is so important that you’d come alone, my dear?” Rufus asked after he handed me my cup.

“A name. He wants me to ask you about a name,” I answered.

“Really?” Rufus asked with a raised eyebrow. “What’s the name?”

“Shane Abbot,” I mentioned, noticing how Rufus’s face seemed to pale at the mention of that name. That was the face of a guilty man, and tonight, I’ll be getting the answers to the questions I have.

CHAPTER 19: CONFRONTATION

My phone woke me up, and I recognized the caller’s voice as Thomas. There was no reason for Thomas to be calling me this late, and he informed me that Elena was at Rufus’s place on an errand I sent her.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes.

Elena was nowhere to be found, and at first, I thought she had gone to the bathroom, but I realized her clothes were gone. I asked Thomas to explain exactly what he meant by Elena at Rufus’s place.

“She mentioned something about a message of some sort,” Thomas answered.

Message? What the hell is he talking about?

I noticed the files on my desk, and almost immediately, I pieced everything together. Elena must have looked through the files. “Come back home this time. I need you to drive me to his place,” I told Thomas as I picked up the files.

Shane Abbot. Ever since Elena told me about Marcus referring to the man who helped them steal the car as the old geezer, I’ve been looking into a number of people who had both the influence and power to use our own resources against us. In the end, I came up with three names. Alexander Cruz, Andrew Cruz and Rufus Cruz. The three brothers were the only ones who could wield such influence and loyalty.