“Oh wow, fancy restaurant? Fancy small portioned meals,” Harper said after a while. She had been sitting with Frances and Carl at the table. It was like they were so obsessed with making small talk that they did not go into details about the reason they had brought her out there.
“I told Cael that we had to treat you to dinner,” Frances said with a smile as she gestured to the table. She and Cael had spoken and they knew that they had to take Cade down no matter what. Frances barely had a proper position in her father’s company but now Ophelia was a CEO and they knew she was going to climb higher on the ladder and even become stronger. They were sure that this was going to be an advantage for Cade and Ophelia if they did not find a way to ruin them.
Charles would definitely give preference to the person who had more connections; they needed connections for the company to grow more, and the more power their in-laws had, the more power they had. Everyone knew that marriages like these were alliances.
“Treat to me dinner? Why?”
“I mean, you are new in the city, and you came to the party the last time, and it was even under short notice,” Frances said. She heaved a sigh of relief at thinking of that when she was put on the spot.
“Oh well, so you thanked everyone who came to the party and treated them to dinner?” Harper asked. She could see through me and knew they had plans against Cade, but she was not going to help them unless they told her about it directly.
“Of course,” Cael said, taking a sip from his whiskey glass.
“Yeah, we just thought you would be good friends with us, and it would be wise for us to begin this friendship now,” Frances added nervously. She was not good at all the things she had been forced to do, but her mom had told her to do all she could to make sure that their family secured a spot with the Vale family. They had to be in-laws.
“So you want to be friends with me? You know that I would always take Cade’s sister, but you want to be friends?” Harper asked with one of her eyebrows going up in a questioning manner.
“I mean, I thought we clicked so well during the last party,” Frances retorted. It seemed like Harper was catching onto her. She had planned to find a way to use Harper without her knowing she was a tool to bring down Cade, and after that, she was going to dump her. She did not care for her, and she would never care.
“Oh, so you think we can be BFFs, take shopping trips together, take pictures, and plaster them all around the internet?” Harper asked. She knew the emotion she was trying to go for, and she was not going to back down until she got it. She knew that at this time she was at their mercy; she needed to turn the tables or at least make it level so she could at least survive if anything went wrong.
“Of course, we should schedule a shopping trip this weekend,” Frances said nervously. Her dad would kill her if she got into any trouble with the media. The only things he wanted to see from her were good news. “Or maybe next weekend,” she added in a strained voice.
“Look, I know what you want.” Harper leaned in like she was in some detective movie, and she was trying to strike a deal with the bad guy.
“What do you mean by what I want? I just thought it would be cool to have a friend in.”
“Cut the crap, okay?” Harper cut her off with her palm raised in the air.
“Okay, so what do you know?” Frances was sure that she had been discreet and that she was going to guess wrong.
“So I know from all I have gathered so far that Cade seems to be the choice of Chairman Vale for the succession, and you and Cael here are not happy about that, and you are looking for ways to bring him down, and you think that I can be of help to you.”
“That is crazy; how can you guess that at once?” Cael asked, leaning in with excitement. Frances hit his side; she could not believe he was happy about this. Their plan had been blown by a puppet, and yet he was excited. “Why did you do that?” he yelled, and she smiled.
“My hand slipped,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Did it?”
“Cael, can we please focus on the important matter at hand?” Frances said, and he nodded, gesturing for them to go on. He did not want to get into the details of the conversation. If the plan went haywire, he would just blame it on both ladies sitting in front of him now.
“So you know about this? How did you find out?”
“To be honest, while I was in college, I hung out around a lot of chaebols, and I got the gist of what their life is all about; they are always trying to find a way to take each other, and seeing how hard you tried to get me to that party and how you acted around Ophelai, I am led to believe that you are against them.”
“That sucks”
“Why?”
“Because we know how much you love Cade and there is no way you would want to help us take him down. How would you want to be with a man who would not end up as the CEO? If he also realizes you are part of this, there is no way he would go to you,” Frances said. She was only saying the truth about the matter.
“Oh well, I guess you have lucked out today.”
“What?” Cael and Harper chroused. They had expected her to stand up and storm out but only after calling her names for trying to do a terrible thing to Cade.
“I mean, I came from nothing. I have been basically ruining my life all by myself, so I do not care if he is the chairman or CEO; as long as he has enough to get us by, I am good.”
“Are you saying you would help us?” Cael asked, leaning in. There is no way the universe just helped him against Cade. How can help just drop to his lap so easily?
“Of course, but I have one condition.”
“Just one?” Cael was excited to hear this and this was a conversation he would love to be a part of. First, hear it.”
“Cade has to keep a position in the company.”
“Deal”