Chapter 42: Lock her up
Upon hearing her reply, Harry’s hand around his glass tightened. Since the moment he’d gotten the call that her purchase had wiped 200 million out of his account, and that she hadn’t bought the vase like he’d asked, he’d been overwhelmed with deep regret.
Part of him still couldn’t process the fact that he’d sent her at all.
Why had he?
He didn’t trust her. He didn’t even consider her his child. It was unlike him to grant her any requests.
"I sent you to get a vase."
"And I got a necklace. There’s only a slight difference between the two. You only noticed because you got fixated on the vase."
The sarcasm in her tone didn’t go unnoticed by Harry, whose anger only grew. She usually tremble when she spoke to him, unable to meet his eyes, but now, she was talking back?
"I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but I expect the sum of 200 million in my account today, or we put the necklace up for sale, you choose." Even though Harry’s voice was low, the threat in it couldn’t be missed.
He was giving her a chance to resolve this theft amicably between them, for the sake of the years she’d spent in the mansion.
If she refused, he’d have to use whatever means necessary to recover his money.
Violet stared at his back. He stood straight and looked commanding. She couldn’t use her mind push on him if he didn’t lock eyes with her, so she desperately needed him to turn around.
"I lost the necklace," she said, keeping her voice even despite the sting of the lie sitting sour on her tongue.
"Then search for it. I don’t care if you have to go to the ends of the earth. You had one job, purchase a vase, and you... I don’t even know, ’blew it’ isn’t even the right word for what you did." Her nonchalant replies felt like a knife piercing through him.
He grew more agitated with each passing second.
His eyes narrowed into a slit as he stared at her reflection through the thick glass in front of him.
"And what goddamn necklace costs two hundred million?" If the cheque hadn’t been processed by Mr. Shawn himself, he would have sworn she’d used the money for something entirely different.
But he would never know. To Violet, even if the necklace had cost billions, it would still have been worth it.
She had lived through the apocalypse. The experience from her past life had taught her exactly how important it was to have a space that could store everything, so she didn’t feel an ounce of guilt over the money.
Besides, Harry had never been a good father, he’d never spent a cent on her and had watched his favourites bully her without consequence, so this money would serve as repayment for that debt, and the balance she would definitely come collect later.
However, what she needed right now was to leave the house. And the key to getting Harry to turn around was riling him up.
"I can’t find the necklace in this house, so let me leave." she said firmly. "If you keep holding me here, I won’t let this slide."
Harry let out a low, mocking laugh. "Dylan saw you enter a five-star hotel. Where did someone like you get the money to afford that?" His voice was as cold as ice.
The only plausible response was that Violet had sold the necklace after acquiring it at the auction.
"Then Dylan should have also told you he saw me with someone." she shot back.
’So what if I have to use Kai’s name as a lie, he’s not here, and he’d probably never find out.’ she thought to herself.
Harry didn’t respond. He simply swirled his glass and took a long, slow sip.
"What? Too stunned to speak now?" she challenged, breaking the silence.
She knew he hated being yelled at, or spoken to disrespectfully. It hit him especially hard when it came from her.
’Please turn around. Look at me, not your back.’ she silently pleaded, nearly biting her lower lip.
’Perfect.’ Violet screamed internally as Harry slowly began to turn.
But before he could speak, or even lock eyes with her, his phone on the table vibrated.
His eyes flicked to the table, and he crossed the distance in a few quick steps.
Violet groaned internally. ’Is the universe against me?’ She suddenly wished eye contact weren’t so essential to her power.
Harry picked up his phone, shot Violet a quick glance, and walked to the door. "Wait here." he instructed.
It was a private call, so he stepped out of the room.
The moment the door clicked shut, Violet walked over to the table, scanning the documents laid across it. She wasn’t the least bit interested in the Sullivan Corporation, not yet.
’What call was so important he had to step out of his own study?’ she wondered.
Her eyes landed on a document stamped BUNKER ACQUISITION — CONFIDENTIAL across the top, outlining terms for the purchase of a private underground shelter, complete with a self-sustaining power supply and reinforced walls built to withstand disasters, exactly the sort of asset that could mean the difference between survival and death once the apocalypse hit.
Her brows knitted together as she reached for the document. It ran several pages, which she flipped through quickly without reading in detail.
It seemed Harry wanted to acquire it, but why?
There was no time to dwell on his reasons, he couldn’t possibly know about the apocalypse or how critical owning a bunker would become, so she needed to get her hands on this before he did.
She threw one glance over her shoulder before storing the documents in her space.
Harry stood in front of the closed door, the hallway empty around him.
"Mr. Kings will be here in a few minutes. I’ll let you know whatever agreement we reach." he said, before ending the call.
He huffed out a breath before stepping back into the room.
The moment he stepped back into the study, Violet knew the conversation was over.
His jaw was set tighter than before, he drummed his fingers on his thighs before he caught him. She knew then that his call hadn’t gone as he planned.
He picked up the telephone on the table immediately he sat down and called the head maid over.
Then he turned his attention to the laptop. He didn’t say a word to Violet for the next two minutes, which made her patience fray, her arms crossing tighter over her chest as she resisted the urge to snap at him just to break the silence.
"Since you’ve refused to be honest, you’ve left me no choice. You’ll be locked in that room and deprived of food and water until you remember where you lost the necklace." he said suddenly, without looking up.
Leo Kings would be in his study within the next five to ten minutes, and he needed to make sure everything in the document his PA had sent over was correct.
He couldn’t risk losing the acquisition of something as important as the bunker.
"You can’t lock me up." Violet said. "You can’t even say that to my face, what, are you scared to look your own daughter in the eye?"
Harry held her gaze for the briefest second before dropping it back to the screen in front of him.
Seeing there was no way to use her mind push now, Violet took a step back and spun around. If she left before the maids arrived, she was confident she could convince James to let her out through the gate.
And once she got out from—
Her thoughts were cut off the moment the door opened and Nancy stepped in, the same two maids trailing behind her.
She was led out of the room by the maids.
While she projected a serene expression outwardly, her thoughts were absolute chaos.
Once the door closed behind them, they took a few steps before Nancy stopped and turned to the maids. "Take her to her room. Make sure the door stays locked, and no matter what she says, do not open it for her."
While Nancy was instructing them, Violet spotted an opening, their attention was divided, and the hallway was otherwise empty.
Without a second thought, she bolted, running as fast as her legs could carry her.
’I just need to get to the gate. James will let me out, I know he will.’
Her heart slammed against her chest with every step.
It didn’t take long before Nancy and the other maids noticed and took off after her. "Stop her!" Nancy yelled pointing one finger at Violet.
The two maids went through different directions, one cutting toward the side hallway to try to head her off before she reached the stairs.
But Violet was quick, she rounded the final corner leading to the front entrance. Her lungs burned as she pulled the door apart. She didn’t stop even for a moment.
Footsteps thudded sharply on the floor. She threw a glance behind her to see that the maids were now six.
She cursed under her breath and returned her eyes ahead of her, but just then, her head collided hard with a solid chest, and a pair of arms closed around her to keep her from stumbling backward.