Chapter Three
1158 Words
Ella could not move.
Greg’s words still hung in the church, but the humiliation of seeing him kiss Susan had already been replaced by something far more frightening. There was something in his expression that she had never seen before. The man she had trusted for fifteen years was standing beside another woman without a trace of guilt, as though destroying everything they had shared meant absolutely nothing to him.
“Why?” Ella finally managed to ask.
Her voice trembled, and she hated that everyone could hear it.
Greg looked at her for several seconds before letting out a quiet laugh. There was no affection in it—only contempt.
“Why?” he repeated. “You really want to know why?”
Ella stared at him.
“Yes.”
Greg glanced toward George, who was still seated in the front row. Her father looked exhausted, his face pale beneath the church lights, but his eyes were fixed on Greg with growing suspicion.
Greg noticed the look and smiled.
“I have been waiting for this day for a very long time,” he said.
George's expression hardened. “What are you talking about?”
Greg turned toward him.
“I have been waiting for you to die.”
The church fell into stunned silence.
Ella's breath caught.
“What?”
Greg's smile widened.
“You heard me.”
George slowly pushed himself up from his seat. “Greg.”
“You spent fifteen years in my household, at my food, drank my water,” George continued. “I took you into my home after your father died. I educated you and gave you a position beside me. Yet this is how you repay me?”
Greg disregarded everything George said and replied in a cold tone.
“But all I ever saw was a man sitting on everything that should have belonged to me.”
Ella shook her head. “Greg, stop.”
He ignored her.
“You want to know why your father has been getting weaker?” Greg asked, looking directly at Ella.
Her face tightened.
“What do you mean?”
Greg looked toward George again.
“Your father has not been dying naturally.”
The words struck Ella with such force that she almost forgot how to breathe.
George's hand gripped the armrest of his chair.
“Don't,” he warned.
Greg laughed.
“I have been poisoning him.”
Ella stared at him.
For several seconds, her mind refused to accept what she had heard. Her father had been sick for months. Doctors had treated him. Everyone had assumed his age and declining health were finally catching up with him.
She looked at George, searching his face for some sign that Greg was lying. All she found was the look of surprise and betrayal written all over her father's face. This was news to him also.
“How?” George whispered.
Greg's expression remained calm.
“Small doses. Nothing obvious. Nothing that would make anyone suspicious. A little at a time was enough to weaken you without killing you too quickly.”
Ella's stomach twisted.
All those hospital visits.
All those nights her father had struggled to sleep.
Greg had been behind it all.
“You were poisoning him?” Ella asked, her voice barely audible.
“Yes.”
She took a step backward.
“You were his second in command. He trusted you.”
“I know.”
“You were like a son to him.”
“I know.”
“Then how could you do this?”
For the first time, something resembling anger crossed Greg's face.
“Because I never asked for his pity.”
George stared at him.
“I gave you everything I could,” he said quietly.
Greg's eyes hardened.
“You gave me a life built on my father's grave.”
Ella looked between them, confused by the hatred burning in Greg's eyes.
But before she could ask what he meant, Greg turned his attention back to her.
“And then there was you.”
Ella froze.
“What about me?”
Greg looked her up and down with open disdain.
“I was expected to marry you.”
Ella felt another wound open inside her.
Greg shook his head.
“Do you really think I wanted that?”
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
“You were weak, Ella. You always have been.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
Greg continued without hesitation.
“I spent years watching your father prepare you for a future you were never capable of handling. He wanted me to marry you, stand beside you, and eventually rule this organisation with you.”
He gave a bitter laugh.
“Why would I tie myself to a weak woman when I could have everything without her?”
Susan moved closer to him, placing a hand against his arm.
Ella noticed the gesture.
It hurt more than she wanted to admit.
“So this was all planned?” she whispered.
Greg looked at Susan.
“She was always the woman I wanted.”
Susan lowered her gaze, but she did not deny it.
Ella's chest tightened.
Then she noticed something.
The people surrounding them were no longer looking shocked.
Some were watching Greg.
Others were watching George.
And several of the men she had known all her life were standing completely still, their hands hidden beneath their jackets.
Ella knew those men.
She had grown up around them.
She knew their faces, their positions, and their loyalty.
Her eyes moved slowly across the church.
One of George's senior men stood near the aisle.
Another was beside the rear doors.
Two more were positioned near the walls.
They were not looking at Greg with surprise.
They were looking at him with obedience.
Ella's heart began to pound.
“Greg,” she whispered.
He smiled.
Only then did Ella understand.
This was not a betrayal carried out by one man.
It was a takeover.
“You thought I was standing here alone?” Greg asked.
Ella stared around the church.
More men began stepping forward.
Some removed their jackets.
Others revealed weapons beneath them.
George's face changed.
“Impossible.”
Greg looked at him with satisfaction.
“For fifteen years, you taught me how to run your organisation.”
He paused.
“You never realised that I was learning how to take it from you.”
Ella's eyes widened as more members of the Clove organisation moved toward Greg's side.
Men she had trusted.
Men her father had trusted.
Men who had stood beside the Clove family for years.
They had already chosen Greg.
Ella slowly looked back at the man she had once believed would become her husband.
She finally understood the truth.
The wedding had never been the beginning of Greg's betrayal.
It was the final step of it.
And she had walked willingly into his trap.
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