The Replaced Bride’s fortune

Chapter 30

Adrian’s POV

“I suppose you’ve been expecting me.” I declared, shuffling into the Stewart mansion.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Max Stewart growled through his teeth. He was waiting at the passageway. His security system wasn’t entirely useless, given that I’d had to force my way in.

“How did you even get in? Why do you have my sister?”

I shrugged. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I glanced at my wrist, it was getting late, I certainly didn’t have time for this. My wife was waiting. “Get me your father pretty boy, we have something’s to discuss.”

Not even a beat later, Max Stewart appeared at the entrance. Great.

“Am I getting invited in, or are you going to leave your daughter and me out in the cold?”

Emily must have figured we were at her parents house given she was blindfolded and ear plugged. She screeched, “Dad, is that you? Help me please!”

Barrett quickly covered her lips with his hand. Making her muffled screams even wilder.

“Adrian,” her father started with Ezra watching the whole scene with a hard look on his face. “Please.”

I caught movement behind Max as Ezra reached for his phone. I let out a slow sigh. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Max turned and shot him a look that made him stop in his tracks. When he turned back, his gaze was hard, jaw set. “Adrian. Give me back my daughter.”

“Which one?” I shrugged. “This one ” I gestured behind me, “ or the one in my bed right now. The one whose life you ruined.”

He went pale.

Good. I’d make sure I was a constant reminder of what he’d done for as long as I lived.

“The clock is ticking, do we come in or not?”

Finally, but quit begrudgingly, he made way at the entrance, his shoulders tensed and ears red with fury. “Come in.”

“Thank you, I’d have believed this family had no manners.”

I walked right in, beckoning Barrett to follow. He dragged Emily along despite her deafening screams.

The house was decent enough — grand, even — but the cold that licked the hairs on my skin the moment I stepped inside was something else entirely. I resisted the urge to check my surroundings for coffins. What were they, vampires?

Once inside, Barrett practically flung her toward her brother, who quickly tore off her blindfold and earmuffs.

Max visibly relaxed as he glanced over at his daughter, now sobbing against her brother’s chest and muttering between broken breaths.

I rolled my eyes, my sardonic gaze settling on her father. “Do we talk here, or do you need time to go over my proposal?” I asked. “I’ll give you a moment for your little family reunion.”

He must have realized it wasn’t time and place for us to talk. “Adrian,” I shot him a glare, he cleared his throat. “Mr. Maserati, why don’t we set another date to go over this? I don’t find that the timing is appropriate.”

Max was considerably more tame now compared to the nonsense he had pulled earlier. He must have realized I wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

I assumed Barrett had already delivered my little present — a sharp tank in his stocks was message enough.

Just as he spoke, an older woman descended the stairs. She bore an uncanny resemblance to Emily. The mother, I presumed.

She had frown lines etched around her mouth, even thought it was quite obvious she had gone through multiple rounds of face fillers.

I tsked, she will be needed more than o round to fix that.

“Max,” she called, her eyes sweeping the room. “What’s going on?”

Then she caught sight of her daughter and her face crumpled into something caught between a wail and a screech.

“Emily, baby! Where have you been? Your father and I have been looking everywhere for you!”
Interesting. So he hadn’t told his family a single thing.

I found myself wondering how Brianna had survived all these years under this roof.

I let out a slow yawn, thoroughly unbothered by the whole theatrics playing out before me. “Let’s do this some other time. I have better things to do”

“I’ll advise you take my words seriously.” I lingered at the entrance, adjusting my cufflinks with the kind of calm that I knew unsettled people far more than any raised voice ever could. “For my wife’s sake, I’ll spare you and your family. But pull a stunt like that again and I’ll bloody come for every last one of you.”

The heated glares of the entire family fell upon me in waves. I held each one for just a moment longer than was comfortable before I turned my back on them. The door shut hard behind me, rattling against its frame like a full stop at the end of a threat.

“Would you really be sparing them?” Barrett asked from my right as we walked back to car, his voice low and even, curious.

The gravel crunched beneath my shoes, the cold night air settling around us like a second skin.

I glanced back at him, a sinister smile pulling at the corner of my lips. “What do you think?”

By the time I got home it was already half past ten. I’d promised my wife I’d try to be back early, but I clearly hadn’t managed that.

“Where have you been? I’ve been calling you! You didn’t text back.”

I felt like I’d seen a ghost. My wife stood at the entrance, hand on hip, with a glare that could turn a man to stone. “Why weren’t you texting back? You’re so late. You said you’d be back soon.”

My heart warmed at the thought of her staying up waiting for me. “Baby,” I cooed, drawing closer until her glare stopped me dead. “I replied to your text. It… it just took longer than expected.”

I know, I know. I lied again. But what would I have done when she stood here glaring at me like I killed a puppy. I got scared, okay!

“No, you didn’t. You never responded to my last text.” She paused, her eyes scanning my face carefully. “And why were you—” another pause. “What is that on your face?”

I touched my face, wondering what she saw and why she had suddenly gone pale. “What… what do you mean?”