The sound of a loud thunder rumbled and the sound of rustling leaves filled the massive villa. Morris pulled out a wooden box from the drawer in his library and placed it on a table.
He glanced at Judith who was looking at him with a confused look on her face, wondering what the problem was. “What did you say I needed to know? And what is that?” She asked, pointing at the wooden box.
“I have finalized the documents that will place James as the new CEO of this company an-”
“What?!! Really?” Judith’s lips widened in a huge smile. She scooted over to the edge of her chair, leaning in to hear more. “You are not joking right? You mean our dream is finally coming true? You mean I will really get to be the chairwoman of this company? Oh my goodness…”
“Calm down….” Morris muttered, eyeing her. “…. If you spill this to anybody before I make it official. I won’t take it easy with you so you b-”
“Don’t worry about that” Judith waved him off “… I won’t get ahead of myself this time. As soon as everything will turn out my way at the end, I can hold off a bit longer”
Morris nodded. “I see. That’s good”
Judith smirked, feeling high and proud. “I can’t believe I’ll get to see the day where I finally overthrow Patricia and take my rightful place. I thought I’d be old and gray before you finished our plan”
Morris paused and eyed her before opening the wooden box. “You’re just talking about yourself and your dream instead of asking the important questions”
Judith glanced at him. “Is there any need for that? You already said you have your way of getting Patricia and George out of the picture. Besides, Rachel will be gone soon as they have less than two months before their marriage contract is over”
“The plan I had for Patricia and George would have gone smoothly but unfortunately…”
Judith’s ears perked up at the direction this conversation was going. She was already so close, very close to her plan. At this point, she was even more desperate than before, nobody had better stand in her way.
“What is it this time?” She asked dryly
“Patricia knows everything about our plan. Absolutely everything.”
“What?!!” Judith shrieked. “Ar-are you for real? Why didn’t you say anything?! You mean she knows why you married her? She knows what we are really after?”
“Yes. Everything”
“When did you find out?”
“A few weeks back. She stormed over here and threatened me after you talked too soon about me picking James as the next CEO. All thanks to you!” Morris muttered coldly, eyeing Judith.
Judith blinked and looked away. “Well, it’s not exactly my fault. Besides, it’s because of what I did that we were able to discover what Patricia is really thinking. I can’t believe this. No wonder she had been acting strange lately. What do you plan to do?”
“I want t-”
“Wait a minute…” Judith held her hand up and fear crossed her gaze for a moment. “… Does she know about what I did to George? The car accident?”
Morris paused for a moment, the library became still quiet. After a few seconds, he answered “I don’t think so”
“You aren’t even sure about what you’re saying. How do you expect me to believe you?” Judith shouted. “What if she knows about it and she’s just pretending, playing along?”
Morris remained silent.
“Are you really not going to do anything? Don’t you think she is probably planning something? She’s so quiet and not saying a word!”
“What do you expect me to do, huh? Tell me!” Morris yelled at her “We are at a critical moment, can’t you see that? What? Are you going to tell me to kill her or her son? Can’t you think clearly for once instead of acting impulsive over everything?!”
“Yes! I am thinking clearly and I believe that your plan to divorce Patricia is not good enough! She has to die! As soon as possible!”
Morris sneered at her. “Can you actually hear yourself? We have James CEO ceremony coming up in a month’s time and you expect me to suddenly kill Patricia and George just like that? What do you expect outsiders to think? What sort of coincidence will that be? All eyes would be on me, especially you and James as suspects of their death! It will be too obvious!”
Judith sighed angrily. He made perfect sense which annoyed her further. She was so tired of wondering what Patricia was up to, she wanted her out of the way already! Pulling herself together, she whispered “So what are you going to do since my method can’t work? Instead of killing both of them, you could get rid of just one of them”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“Killing George when James will become the CEO very soon will make it look like James killed him to take his place” Judith shook her head in disapproval “That would create a bad image for James. Instead, a better option is to kill Patricia and leave George alive. All you have to do is make Patricia’s death look normal and that’s it”
Morris exhaled as he stood up from his chair, choosing to pace around instead. “That’s a better idea. Though, so far, she has not done anything that would make me consider killing her. I want to believe her threat is an empty one”
“Morris! Don’t be a weakling! Do you have to wait for her to act before you act?” Judith yelled in irritation. “Of course, if she wants to get back at us, she’s probably coming after the thing that matters the most to us, especially yo-”
Morris blinked, a confused look on his face.
“I am referring to this company. The easiest way to get back at you is getting this company in her name just like before”
“She wouldn’t dare!!” Morris spat, his eyes flaming red. Not after everything he had done to maintain full control of this company! All his dirty work and patience over the years couldn’t go wasted. He would crush her if she dares. Turning to Judith, he repeated “She wouldn’t dare!”
~~~~~*~~~~~
“You mean Judith was the one behind your car accident?” Tony asked as shivers ran down his spine. The early morning rain didn’t even make him shiver this way. He looked at George who was sprawled on a couch “And your father, Morris did nothing about it?”
“He is not my father. Don’t call him that” George muttered coldly. “And yes, she is the one behind my greatest moment of pain and torture.”
“I can’t believe this. Here I am still trying to wrap my head around Morris being the one behind Arthur Reeves fake allegations….” Tony scoffed and rubbed his neck “… And now it’s Judith behind your accident?”
“They make a lovely couple, don’t they?” George joked.
“I am surprised you still have the liver to joke around…”
“It’s a way of coping.” George whispered quietly as his smile disappeared.
“What sort of place is this?!”
“I have no idea, trust me. These days, I am so scared to even eat breakfast, lunch or dinner because I don’t know if I am about to be poisoned. It’s scary in here”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through all that while the culprit was walking around freely all these years.” Tony sighed. “Does your mother know about this? Is she aware?”
“Yes, she is the one who spilled the news”
“Wait…” Tony frowned. “…. She knows about it and she is still not doing anything. She can file for a case against both of them quickly and get through with it if she has the evidence. Besides, even after giving this company over to Morris, she is still stinking wealthy. What is she waiting for?”
“It’s not like that. She plans to get back at him by getting the company back in her name. I’ve tried to talk her out of it, I hope she listens.”
“Whoa! Morris better not hear about that unless he is going to lose it. Both the living and the dead know that no human being is as important as this company to Morris. Especially with all the ‘dirty’ things he did to get full control of it, he won’t let it go so easily.” Tony replied
“I know right. I’ve been thinking about it too. He never liked my mother so harming her in any way would be easy for him.” George voiced out “He better not try any nonsense. His cup is already full”
Tony shook his head as another shiver ran down his spine. “It seems like the days ahead might not be as easy as we think. Evil people never rest, always plotting the next thing.”
“We’ll figure it out. We have to”
“By the way, are you still going to meet the new investor this afternoon? This one is very important. You can’t miss it”
“Sure, I am. In two hours, I should be out”