Chapter 84: Chapter 84

RUBY.

"We don't know for sure but what we do know is that Mr. Daniels must have an idea on the trust situation."

"Toby," I said in disbelief.

"No, his father."

"Why do you think so?"

"Your mother has some relation to the British aristocracy so they had this dowry system in place along with the trust. When your father married your mother he came into wealth. You had your separate trust, your mother's just got added to yours and you also had your separate dowry. When Toby married you, your dowry was paid to the Daniel family account."

"Does Toby have any idea about this," I said trying to take in the information?

"We don't know about that, as I said it was passed into a family account and not his account."

"So he was in the dark as well."

"I can't say for sure but I would say that's the most likely." For some reason, I heaved a sigh in relief at her statement.

"But dad said we were going bankrupt and also, the Daniels are so rich, what would my dowry even mean to them?" I questioned further, confused.

"Well, your father isn't wrong, he's going bankrupt, he's going crazy for money, you're the key. And about the Daniels part, there's a saying that the rich always want more wealth, that's why they stay rich. It's never enough and trust me, no matter how rich they might be, they get tight on funds too, coupled with the election campaign, things like that need money, your mother was extremely rich might I add. You didn't think the Daniels are people who would decide to just let you marry their only son if you were worthless, did you?" He explained while I literally had my mouth open.

"Wha... what? All these while, I thought the Daniels were doing my family a huge favour but in actuality, they are helping eachother?"

"Exactly. It's a give and take situation for both of you."

"But nobody knows the truth about my mother's death except the witness, right?"

"None that we know off, a few people might have suspected like your aunt but as far as I know of, nobody has come this far with the investigation."

"What am I supposed to do with all this information, what next?" My first instinct was to go confront my father but I knew better than to do that. At least good sense hadn't fled me and I was still thinking rationally.

"We beef up security around you and we wait."

"No, I'm not sitting around and waiting until he decides to kill me. We can hang him with the evidence in that video, I say we go to court," I said, my temper rising steadily.

"We can't do that, as I said your mother's family has connections to the British aristocracy. They are a very wealthy and revered family, hence the need to keep this matter under wraps. If we go to the courts with this it won't be long before the tabloids get a hold of the news."

"I don't care."

"I'm sorry but it's not your call to make."

"Then who's call is it? This is my life we are talking about here."

"I know but your aunt wants what is best for you and the entire family."

"I want to meet with her."

"I'm sorry but that's impossible."

"Why? At least give me a name or a phone number."

"Any contact with your mother's estranged family members at this point would be very suspicious. We've been here for too long, I need you to head back to your normal life and act like everything is still the same."

"That's impossible," I huffed.

"Well, you need to try, your life depends on it."

"I would have been better off not knowing any of this."

"Now you have this information, nothing will take you by surprise. There is an attack coming and you know it."

I left the tea shop in a daze that I would move through for the next few days. I wake up every morning from dreams filled with my mother's screams and then trudge out into the world not knowing who to trust.

Toby looked worried about me, he kept asking what was wrong but I couldn't tell. He felt safe, it seemed like I could trust him but I had felt the same way about my dad. Look how that ended so I kept my lips sealed and pulled it into a smile each time he asked. He looked like he saw right through my bullshit but who cares? He had his secrets and I had mine.

I walked around in disbelief for ages but I finally came to accept everything the first time I saw him after the truth was revealed to me. I saw the cold evidence in front of me but it took me weeks and finally seeing his face to come to a place of acceptance. When I saw him at Clara's dinner party, pure rage coursed through my veins. Our relationship was already strained as it stood but I never saw it reaching this point. All I felt for him now was anger so potent that it made me feel like I was capable of murdering him and that scared me. I schooled my features to look calm and indifferent each time attention was on me.

"How is the baby?" I didn't catch who asked the question but I smiled a genuine smile for the first time that night.

"He's doing great, growing every day. It's almost like if I blink something new happens," I said.

"Babies are like that,'' someone said and half the conversation on the table moved to babies. Distracting me from thoughts of how to murder my son's grandfather.

I didn't know I was such a good actress until later that night when I kissed the murderer goodnight.

"Good night Ruby," he said, giving me a side hug before kissing my cheek. I found myself dissecting every action and word as we interacted. Like how he gave me a side hug for just a few seconds or how his interaction with Sapphire was so much warmer. She was the love child while I was the one borne out of his greed.

"Good night," I managed to say in return.

Clara dragged me out to do some cake tasting for Toby and I's anniversary party. She wanted me to make all the decisions she didn't let me make during my wedding, I think she was feeling guilty for how she treated me.

"I didn't know people did cake tastings more than once," I said to her as we waited for the chef to serve us. This was our second time coming for cake tasting, apparently this time around she was going to give us a combo of all the flavours we liked the last time we came.

"With the amount we're paying for the cake we can come as many times as we want," she said as they brought the chef came and brought in trays of cake.

"Everything smells so nice," I said as they placed the cake in front of us.

"It all tastes as good as it smells," the chief said. Let's see I thought as I dug in. Everything was so good it was hard to choose. We settled on a chocolate coffee cake and vanilla cake with strawberry and buttercream filling.

"You made a good choice, I would have gone for something with a more gourmet touch than plain old vanilla and chocolate but it's a good choice," Clara said on the ride back.

"Clara, there is nothing plain about that vanilla and chocolate cake but I know you'd have picked something classier," I said just thinking about the decadent goodness.

"I want to apologise for not letting you make all these decisions during your wedding and I'd like you to call me mum. I mean it's been two years and one grandchild later it's long overdue but better late than never." Tears welled up in my eyes as she rambled on.

Could I finally be getting the mother figure I longed for?

Could it just be yet another facade?