Chapter 138: Chapter 138

Christian watched as a glimmer of horror flashed in Camille’s eyes. It was almost indescribable, the wave of satisfaction that he felt at that moment.

He wanted her to be more frightened. He wanted her to be terrified of his family, and of him.

“Mason Parker,” he said. “You know him, don’t you?”

He watched with glee as Camille stiffened in her seat.

“What are you…” she began.

“Of course you do,” he said with a laugh. “He is — sorry, was — your biological father, after all.”

Her features twisted in anger. “What the hell? What are you trying to pull?” she demanded.

“Nothing, nothing,” he shrugged. “I just wish to inform you of something.”

“Which is?”

“Did you know? Back in the day, my dad was a big investor in several startup companies. He wanted to see if there were any potential ones, and if their profitability would hold up in the long run.”

Her tone turned wary and impatient. “What does this have to do with my father?”

“Does the name Alexander Sterling mean anything to you?”

Camille’s eyes widened.

That name!

“Judging by the look on your face, you do know him,” Christian chuckled, as if he found it all so amusing. “Alexander Sterling was my father’s alias back then.”

Camille resisted the urge to bite her lower lip out of nervousness. Christian didn’t know that she was already aware of who Alexander Sterling was.

Still… where was he going with this?

And why was he telling her all this?

The tension started to coil in her stomach. The feeling of foreboding was growing, but she couldn’t run away.

Christian continued, “Once upon a time, Gregory Callahan agreed to invest in a startup hotel business that had two partners, Luther van Gowen and Mason Parker.

“He thought it had great potential, with a good opportunity for long-term profit. He wanted to make a lot of changes to the business, but unfortunately, one of the partners did not want to go along with his ideas and had his own views about what should be done with the hotel.

“This upset my father, so he decided to stage a betrayal between the partners. He manipulated Luther van Gowen to turn against Mason Parker by promising him a greater share of the profits. So, Luther van Gowen betrayed his best friend out of greed, but what happened next was a tragedy that even my father could not have foreseen.”

Camille’s breath caught in her throat.

She already knew this part, but her heart still tightened. It was even worse since Christian was the one telling her all this.

“But the accident worked in my father’s favor. Did you know this, Miss Parker?” Christian chuckled. “The man behind the wheel of the hit-and-run was Samuel McGregor, John McGregor’s younger brother and also Michael McGregor’s uncle.”

Camille stared at him in shock.

What the hell?!

Christian nodded. “It’s true. But what’s more important is that Samuel McGregor had plans of his own that angered my father.”

“. . .” Camille was still trying to process things.

Michael’s uncle…?

She had heard of John McGregor having a brother, but after the latter lived abroad, reporters barely spoke anything about him.

“Do you remember my mother?” Christian suddenly said. “Nobody knew this, but she wanted to run away and elope with Samuel McGregor, the man she was in love with. So, my father had to stop her.

“The moment he found out that Samuel McGregor was involved in the accident, my father decided to use it to his advantage. He called Samuel and proposed a deal: if he told Pamela Callahan that he never loved her and that he was only with her for the money and fame, my father would not give the footage to the police and would destroy it so that Samuel McGregor wouldn’t ruin himself and the McGregor family.

“But my father was devious. Samuel kept his promise and did as he was told, which devastated my mother, but my father had no intention of keeping the deal. Instead, he gave the evidence to the police anyway and let Samuel deal with the mess himself.”

Camille stared at him, shocked.

Christian kept on talking. “This made John McGregor furious, and he had to pay a lot of money to get his younger brother out of jail and close the case as a mere hit-and-run accident. Then, he sent Samuel McGregor abroad to keep the incident from being brought up again and to maintain the McGregor family name. Interesting, right?”

“What the—” Camille almost shot up from her seat but stopped herself at the last moment, remembering that she was in a public place.

Instead, she glared at Christian. “What makes you think it’s okay to play with people’s lives like this?!” she hissed. “Do you get some kind of sick satisfaction out of it? I can’t believe that even Mr. Callahan is the same bastard scum of the earth as you! Aren’t you even ashamed? And the way you tell the story is even more spiteful! You talk as if it’s just a funny story or gossip! That was your mother, and that was someone else’s father that you ruined! Someone else’s brother, too! You are really—”

“Huh? Is that so? So you condone my mother’s cheating back then?” Christian asked with a raised eyebrow. “I never thought of you as someone who would encourage and approve of women to have affairs in a marriage.”

“That—” Camille bit back her words. “Well, Mr. Callahan could have just confronted her himself instead of going to such lengths! He could have divorced her—”

“Sure, but still, my mother made a mistake, and my father made sure to punish her for it.”

“There were better ways to handle the situation! It could have been resolved if the two damn adults had just communicated properly! I do not condone their actions, but to go through such—”

“If someone crosses my father, he makes sure to get back at them tenfold, and it’s the same with me.” Christian smiled almost cheerfully.

There it was again. He always sounded so calm, with that cold look in his eyes. He had his own twisted set of morals and beliefs, and he thought of everyone else as pawns.

He and Gregory Callahan had no remorse whatsoever for those people whose lives that they ruined.

“Anyway, I now have the evidence I need to bring down Harold Huckington and also expose the actions of my mother’s family,” Christian said, leaning back in his seat with a relaxed posture. “It seems that they want to take down the Callahan family because they believe that my father had a hand in my mother’s death. Of course, there’s some truth to that, but let’s face it, they’re not doing this for their daughter. They’re just doing it for the money, publicity, and power because they’re greedy, just like everyone else.”