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Chapter 7: Machinations and Manoeuvres Alliances Forged, Shadows Deepen

The hospital corridors echoed with a sterile hush, broken only by the measured footsteps of family members and the occasional, urgent murmur of medical staff. Walter Ashford remained in critical care after his heart attack, his condition drawing the entire family into a tense, fragile truce—at least for now. Yet beneath the surface, old rivalries and new ambitions simmered.

Eleanor assessed these shifting tides with shrewd calculation. Seeing the family thrown into turmoil after Walter’s collapse, she decided to put her plan to frame Ethan for embezzlement on hold. The time was not yet right, and for now, she needed to focus her efforts elsewhere.

With Walter incapacitated and the company’s future uncertain, Eleanor seized the moment to cement her influence through another avenue: marriage. She championed the idea of uniting Matthew and Lila, Tyler’s younger sister, believing that such an alliance would grant her more leverage within the Ashford dynasty.

Eleanor wasted no time, delicately orchestrating dinners, chance meetings and whispered encouragement. Matthew, always eager to please and sensing his own vulnerable standing after his father’s disastrous confession, found himself drawn into Eleanor’s web. Lila — charmed and flattered by the attention — grew increasingly receptive to the idea.

But Eleanor’s machinations didn’t end with matchmaking. The company’s financial woes demanded swift action, and so she approached Olivia with a proposal both bold and dangerous.

“If you could persuade your husband to consider a merger with our company,” she suggested, “we could safeguard both legacies. It’s the only way forward.”

Olivia, wary of Eleanor’s motives but desperate to protect her family’s future, agreed to broach the subject with her husband. However, she kept her doubts close to her chest.

However, Eleanor’s ambition had a darker edge. She saw Walter’s lingering presence as the last obstacle to her full control. In the quiet hours of the night, she conceived a plan to hasten his demise in the hospital, ensuring that decisions about the company — and the family — would soon rest in her hands alone.

But Olivia, ever perceptive, had been watching Eleanor’s moves with growing unease. Sensing the danger, she confided in Ethan, urging him to intervene.

“She means to do harm,” Olivia whispered, her voice urgent and low. “We must get Walter to safety. I’ll make the arrangements—take him to a private clinic, somewhere she can’t reach him.”

Ethan acted swiftly. That very night, with the help of a discreet medical team and Olivia’s trusted contacts, Walter was transferred to a secure, undisclosed facility. The move was kept secret from most of the family, especially from Eleanor, who woke the next morning to find her plans foiled and Walter’s hospital bed cold and empty.

With Walter safely sequestered and Eleanor’s schemes temporarily stymied, the fragile alliances within the Ashford family held—if only for a moment. But as each player manoeuvred for position, it was clear that the game was far from over and that the next move could change everything.

Eleanor paced the length of her sitting room; her eyes fixed on the rain scrawling patterns against the tall windows. Walter's disappearance had thrown her plans into disarray, and no matter who she questioned or what she threatened, no one could account for where he had gone. The rest of the family busied themselves with whispers and speculation, but Eleanor saw only one possible architect behind the old man's vanishing act: Ethan.

In her mind, Ethan had grown too bold—too important to the family, and now, too dangerous. If he could remove Walter from her grasp, what else might he be capable of? Her resolve steeled; Ethan had to pay a price for this betrayal, and Eleanor knew only one currency for such debts: retribution.

It was a plan woven in shadows and executed with chilling precision. She arranged for a ’malfunction’ in the brakes of Ethan’s car—an accident that would appear to be cruel fate.

The day arrived, grey and heavy with the threat of a storm. What Eleanor could not foresee, however, was that Matthew, ever seeking his adoptive brother’s company, would join Ethan for a drive across town.

The two brothers set out, laughter and easy conversation filling the car, unaware of the invisible hand that had marked their journey. As they crested a winding hill, the brakes failed with a jolt and a screech. The car careened off the road, twisting through a tangle of trees before coming to rest against a mossy embankment.

When the dust settled and the world held its breath, it was Matthew who had borne the brunt of the crash. The steel frame had folded around him, his body battered and bloodied, consciousness flickering like a candle in a gale.

Ethan crawled from the wreckage, dazed and gasping, his only thought for his brother. He pulled Matthew from the twisted metal, shouting his name, willing him to stay tethered to life as sirens wailed faintly in the distance.

Word of the accident spread quickly, sending shockwaves through the Sinclair household. Olivia wept uncontrollably. Tyler, stricken, could barely stand.

Eleanor, upon hearing that it was Matthew who hovered at the threshold of death rather than Ethan, felt a strange, cold twist of regret—yet not enough to break her resolve. If anything, her desperation sharpened, for fate had made the game more brutal than she had intended, and the stakes were higher than ever.