The convenient marriage - Chapter 51: Chapter 51

The home of the Langdon's branch family
"How could you tell Zane that Aileen stole the contract? You should have denied it until the end! He had no way of finding out that woman did not tell Aileen beforehand of the contract. There were only circumstantial evidences, he can't build a real case on that..." Patricia uttered continuously the blaming words she had repeated for at least three or four times already, her tone as prickly as it could be.
Although Patricia was by no means a lawyer, being married to one for so many years already, it couldn't be said she knew nothing of his line of work. The problem was that what she knew was still far too little.
And not only this, another factor should have also been considered. For someone like Zane with more than enough money and influence in all areas of society, from the private sector of business to the public sector, which naturally included the government and law enforcement... How difficult would it be to turn those circumstantial evidence into real proof?
He had all the means to frame someone unjustly if he so wished to, Darren had no doubt about it. Not to mention that the current felony was actually indeed real. He did not even need to call on any favors from any of his connections, apart from asking for a fair trial.
Knowing these facts with certainty, Darren was already boiling with anger. He had only kept quiet on the way back because he still needed to maintain his well-mannered appearance. After all, they had been forced to take a taxi home after Zane's men practically quite forcefully left them in front of the hospital. He couldn't vent out in the open in front of strangers.
And now his wife was even daring to refute his decision. She had kept blabbing about since they entered through the door. What did she want him to do, lose his license? Did she want him to take the blame for what her daughter had done?
"Dad, is your work more important than me? How could you say I stole the documents?" Aileen asked with the same amount of outrage as her mother if not more, when she had noticed her father had no intention of justifying his actions.
She could understand that on the way home they could only keep quiet, and only begin speaking of this matter when they arrived home. But even now in the privacy of their personal space, her father had not open his mouth even once.
This was her father, how could he not protect her? Was his job more important than her? How could he sell her out so fast to protect himself instead of her?
Only the loud sound of a slap was heard before a perfect silence settled down.
The slap hurt Aileen more than anything in her life did before. But because of the shock she received, she hadn't even been able to voice the pain. Even her mouth could not urge itself to open and speak her grievances.
"Darren, how could you hit Aileen? Honey, how are you?" Patricia asked worried after finally recovering herself from her bewildered state. Checking the wound on her daughter's face, as she protectively placed her hands around the young woman's shoulders, some words of blame towards her husband almost spilled out uncontrollably. But Darren's cold face and angered state made her unable to voice more of her thoughts honestly. Even her tone had lost its initial harshness.
Aileen had been a precious pearl raised without the slightest harm done to even a strand of her hair, as such this slap had not hurt her as much physically as it did mentally. It made her discontent beyond measure, instead of causing her to introspect her actions and admit her faults.
"Were you the one who told her about the contract?" Darren was in no mood to explain his actions nor care about the look filled with grievances of the two women.
"I told you she shouldn't find out about it, how could you be so stupid to tell her?" He continued loudly, seemingly preparing to deliver another slap were his wife to admit to his assumption.
"I did not tell her about anything. I really did not." Patricia readily denied, sensing the foul mood of her husband turned towards her as well. She had never been hurt before by her husband, but neither was her daughter previously. If Aileen was hit, who was to say she was not the next in his anger?
"Does it matter how I found out? I only thought to hasten the process you planned. Zane is already smitten with her, but you did not dare act... did not dare help me. By the time she gave birth, it would already be too late." With everything in plain sight, Aileen had no choice but to lay out all her thoughts frankly.
"You... you are really good. You sneaked around, listened to our talk and did such things behind our backs. Instead of discussing with us, you took matters in your own hands and didn't at least do a good job with the information you stole. And now you still don't understand that what you did was stupid!" Darren exclaimed outraged by her words. She must have heard the conversation he had with Patricia from some time ago, the words coincided too much with what they had discussed.
The wronged look on his daughter's face because of his slap and the sharp eyes that still dared to stare at him without the slightest intention to look away out of guiltiness, made Darren even angrier and more determined that his choice today had been the best. Aileen did not deserve his sacrifice. How could he place his future expectations on her?
"And if I waited for Aria to give birth it would have been better? She would have had Zane wrapped around her little finger by then. I'm not wrong, this solution was the best... I just did not know the phone would still keep the image and not delete it completely."
Her rash actions that even implicated her entire family's well-being without a care for the others, and the audacity to still question his decision and contradict him... if he were to lose his license for her sake, she wouldn't bat an eyelash in the future if he counted on her to marry in a good family, and support their household.
"Aileen." Patricia murmured slowly, seeing her daughter arrogantly contradict her father. She wanted to calm her down for fear that Darren would hit her again. She also exerted a bit of force, pressing the shoulders she still kept in her embrace in an attempt to gain her attention. But unfortunately the latter payed her no mind, as she kept on talking.
"Anyway what's done is done. At least that fake heiress might lose her pregnancy or even better her life. I can't stand her! She took everything from me! She deserves to die!"
The viciousness, which surpassed even his own, sent a chill directly in Darren's heart that as an opposite effect made him calm down, instead of getting angrier.
"If something truly does happen to Aria, do you think we will be able to get out of this with only you paying a fine or some small punishment for stealing the documents?" He asked calmly, but a bit of a sarcastic undertone could be sensed. It was as though the situation did not implicate him as well, it was as though he was completely detached of the matter.
"What can he do more than that? He doesn't have shares in our company or dealings with it. And he can't bend the law in his favor and cause troubles for our firm just because he wants to, no matter how much power he has. Just a fine... it's not like we can't pay." Aileen expressed confidently, a small smirk decorating her mouth.
Her love for Zane was starting to cool down after he had strangled her without the slightest discomfort in doing so. This fact coupled with the feeling of hatred towards Jillian, which overwhelmed her heart more than her love, made her satisfied of her actions even though she would have to suffer some consequences in the end.
Plus she hadn't really physically stolen money or something valuable... in fact it could not even be considered a theft. A smudge on her criminal record did bother her, but as long as Jillian got what she deserved it was still good.
"Do you really think that will be the end of it? Stupid and naïve until the very end... You better pray Aria is alright. I'm afraid all of us will lose everything we own and more if something happens to her and the children. It all depends on how quickly she recovers and your honest apology. Be prepared to come to Zane's office with me tomorrow, we can only try to lighten his anger with your confession."
The triviality that his daughter was so easily attributing to the future consequences baffled Darren. How could it end so easily like how she claimed?
"I don't care. You can't force me to go to his office and confess I stole the documents. I won't admit it, no matter what." Aileen cried bitterly at his words.
Darren was in no mood to explain more, he had his ways to make her listen to him after all. Without a second glance he turned around, and briskly let the two mother and daughter alone in the living room.
His daughter had been young when he took over the company all those years ago. So Aileen was unaware just how he "inherited" the company... hardly anyone knew now. But files from that period still existed, notarized documents still sat on the shelves of the public administration.
He could hide everything he did back then if it was only internally done inside the company, but unfortunately he had been the legal guardian of Jillian too. The shares of the company that he transferred from her for a measly sum towards himself naturally had to be declared.
If no one asked about it, then it would just remained dusted away. After all, who would specifically search for the interests of one small girl, especially since he had "gifted" some presents to the officials that dealt with such matters. But if now someone dug deep enough, moreover if that person was Zane...
He could only hope that Zane's revenge would stop at Aileen, or if he did direct his eyes towards his company too then... he could only pray his team did not search so far back.
The hospital of the Blacks family
The wait had been unbearable, the feeling of hopelessness even more so.
The uncertainty for the future had overshadowed all other matters. Even his anger had long dissipated, only to be replaced by one single thought, one single person... Aria.
Even when his mother had tried to talk to him in this whole while, he barely nodded his head to signify he was listening. But whether he indeed had paid attention or not, no one could tell. Not that Victoria attempted too many conversations herself.
Words exchanged between themselves were the last thing they all thought of at this moment.
Seconds turned into minutes, minutes gathered into hours, and soon more than three hours had passed.
Perhaps even if a day passed in this manner no one would have felt fatigued, no one would have uttered a single word in complaint. They hardly ever even moved from one place to another relaxing their strained nerves.
The only sign of changing their current state occurred when the doors of the surgery room opened once more, and a pair of white clothed doctors graced them with their presence.
Rushing forward with a loudly thumbing heart, Zane's hope was completely extinguished when the doctors confirmed the safely delivery of two small baby boys, but did not offer more details of an improvement of Aria's state.
It was only natural, the doctors had performed a caesarian, it would not influence her coma, it would not help her regain consciousness. But for the man who could faintly think straight right now, to deduce such matters seemed difficult.
He could only comfort himself with the fact that although Aria's health hadn't turned for the better, it also hadn't worsened. Only this fact kept him from going truly mad... hope for her recovery.
"Let's go see the boys. The two of them should have already been sent to the neonatology department." Victoria said and lightly touched her son's arm, urging him forward. Although not as helpless as her son, no happiness could be seen on her face either.
"You go. I'm going to wait for Aria." Zane refused and leaned himself on the wall again, his hands fiercely brushing over his face in frustration.
"It will be a while longer until they will bring her to the intensive care unit. The doctors have already said it will be at least half an hour more." Victoria tried to convince him.
"It doesn't matter. I will wait here. You take care of them." He said resolutely, leaving no more room for other reasoning.
Sighing a bit, Victoria gave up and left to take over the paperwork for the children and also see them. The twins were born smaller than they should have been, their health was also not the best. They were defenseless at the moment and needed an adult to be there for them. If their father could not do so right now, then she would be the one to take over for the twins temporarily.
She could see it in her son's eyes, he could not concentrate on anyone else at this moment. Unfortunately there existed absolutely no wonder of becoming a new father on his face. Not even the least bit of happiness painted his visage, no curiosity of seeing his children.
Three hours and forty two minutes... this was how much time had passed since he had last seen her.
Three hours and forty two minutes... not a long time. His work kept him away from her for at least twice more than that.
Three hours and forty two minutes... a short time, but considering the incertitude of her well-being, it might as well be described as a life time.
Three hours and forty two minutes... this was how much time was needed for the most beautiful woman he had ever seen to change to her current frail and pale appearance.
White skin without the smallest hint of a rosy healthy color due to the massive blood loss during the caesarian, chapped dry lips regardless of the continuous intake of intravenous feeding, darkened skin ringed around her eyes that could perhaps be considered the only color on her sleeping face...
The once vivid expression, the once full of life tender rosy visage was nowhere to be seen.
Seeing her like this, his knees almost gave up from under him as he walked through the door of the intensive care unit. He felt as though he was about to collapse to the floor any second now, and he might have even fallen if it weren't for Malcom, who had insisted on entering the room with him.
The latter wasn't able to even properly look at Aria when he sensed the feebleness of his friend and quickly grabbed his arm. The tall and confident man, the ruthless businessman from before was nowhere to be seen.
"Zane..." He tried to say, but could not finish his words when Zane raised his hand as if to signify he was alright.
The unapproachable alienated man made no other attempts to discuss further. He only moved towards the bed, leaving Malcom behind him.
Lowering his head near Aria's immobile body, he only managed to place a feather like kiss on the warm forehead. The warm skin under his lips making him inhale deeply as he tightly shut his eyes. It was the proof that she was still alive. Even in this state she was still here.
"Wake up little one. Please once more... wake up." These were the only words he had uttered since he had briefly spoken to his mother. Not speaking for some hours coupled with his inner turmoil, his voice was hoarser than it had ever been.
Amidst the most wretched heartache he had ever felt since he had known her, no since he had been on this Earth, there was another feeling steadily growing inside his heart...
If he had to call it by some specific name it was deja vu... a familiar feeling that he had been in this situation before.
Yes, this was the same as that time when he had visited her after the accident. Similar care unit, the same person, the same coma state...
He had felt nothing then, no love, no sorrow, no pain or happiness... it was as though he was looking at a person who had nothing to do with him. So then why did he feel as though his heart was shattering into pieces now? Was this karma? Was it because he had not cared about the previous Aria so fate had taught him a lesson for his indifference?
If he had known this was how he would feel when he had decided to teach her the piano he would have never allowed himself to get close to her... no perhaps that even then he would have still approached her.
From the first time when he had seen her sleeping tenderly, her hands wrapped protectively around her belly, from the first time she had taken hold of his hand and made him touch the movement of the twins with her face showing the most beautiful smile he had ever seen... from that time he had already been like a moth to a flame.
"You are killing the heart I did not know I had." He slowly whispered near her ear, his hand gingerly holding her smaller one, as the other gently patted her head. He could not even embrace the petite woman for fear of causing her harm.
The next day, a conference room in the Blacks consortium
"Honey..." Patricia once more attempted with an almost unnoticeable voice.
Her face expressed a million grievances, her red swollen eyes were filled with countless pleadings, yet she barely dared to vocally utter an appellative before she was ruthlessly interrupted.
"Shut up!" Darren said getting increasingly angrier.
He had already made his decision, he would not change it no matter what Patricia would have tried to reason with him. Moreover letting her speak would only add to his anger. This was the hundredth time already. She had tried to talk him out of it each time she opened her mouth.
Patricia hurriedly fell into silence, as she took her eyes from her husband and directed them to her daughter. She was trying to find into the latter a support, perhaps Aileen could plead to her father on her own. Acknowledging her mistakes would surely soften him up. Last night she had defied him, that was why he did not want to listen to her, but by now his anger should have become lighter.
Sitting on a chair near her parents, her position was much more arrogant and firmer than Darren's and Patricia's. One leg crossed over the other, her hands in a similar position, and her face not showing the least bit of submission and guiltiness... But how could the mother not know that she was only masking herself with a cold and aloof exterior, only to be absolutely terrified of the future in the deepest corners of her mind.
If it weren't for her father's threats of cutting all of her money and benefits, Aileen would have never dared come on her own accord to face the consequences of her actions.
She was not stupid, most likely they would make her sign a confession today and seal her future by her own two hands. So Aileen was absolutely not in any way willing to come. But her credit card, cash even her jewelry... all items that held some value had been sized by Darren last night.
Even if she were to go to the bank to retrieve money and go away until things died down, she could not do it. It had never held any importance for her in the past to have a different account than the one her father had provided for her, since he was the one who also filled it each month for her, so she had no resources at all at this time.
Moreover she was a person who was a constant appearance in the high society. And a person who socialized as much as she did could not be without money. All her life would be halted if she had no possibility of paying for anything.
Although not sharing the same common goal, the three people in the room were thinking about their next course of action when the door briskly opened.
With Zane's words the previous night, Darren had understood that Zane would be the one who would directly speak to him today. He could also use the personal meeting between them, coupled with Aileen's confession to placate the man and nip the conflict in the bud.
But after Ryan, the president's assistant, entered through the door followed by the same lawyer, who had previously handled the contract between Aria and Zane, no other person could be seen walking inside. As Ryan also closed the door behind him, it was certain Zane would not be here today.
Darren's instincts sent alarms through his brain at what this could mean. Was Zane unwilling to bother with them at all? Did he try to avoid having to listen to their reasons again? Or was Aria's state that dangerous? He truly prayed it was not the last option he thought of.
"Mister Langdon. I am sure you can remember lawyer Hunter. He will supervise the meeting today as your daughter writes her confession." Ryan greeted and already touched the subject of the meeting almost immediately. He did not even bother to acknowledge the real culprit or Darren's wife separately before jumping straight to the heart of the matter.
"I thought we were going to speak to Zane. Where is he?" Darren directly asked, barely masking the annoyance caused by the disrespect of the youngster before him.
"I am sorry. Mister Black will not attend this meeting. We will proceed without him today. Now then we would like for your daughter to write by hand the whole confession. Just so we do not have any doubts about the validity of a machine written document." Ryan replied simply, without giving an inkling of Zane's and Aria's situation.
"How can we just hand over the confession without knowing the final result of the matter beforehand? We should talk about Aileen's punishment, and also receive a written promise from Zane, in which he assures us he will not intervene in worsening the fair sentence a judge may give to my daughter."
Emphasizing the word "fair" did not escape Ryan's ears, but also did not affect him in the slightest. He kept his calm and started talking without any restrain due to the other person's status.
"Mister Darren, I feel there might exist a confusion somewhere... We are not here to discuss and compromise with your family. Our only purpose is to gain the written confession. As for other matters, I have no way of knowing the president's thoughts, but I can assure u this... they will be as fair as they can be in this situation."
The words that Ryan had uttered did not comfort Darren in anyway, but it also made him unable to rebuke his meaning. How could the situation be fair since they were the ones who caused Aria's declined health, this was the underline that Ryan had hinted to him.
"Can you at least tell me if Zane will conclude his revenge with this matter?" Darren sighed after waiting a little while. He had stared Ryan in the eyes this whole time, but could not find the slightest hesitation in them. It was clear that the assistant's words were actually Zane's.
On the side, Patricia's face along with Aileen's were getting darker by the second, and finally the arrogant face of Aileen was showing cracks.
"As I said before mister Langdon... I have no way of knowing my boss's thoughts. But seeing your sincerity would certainly help in your favor."
"Assistant Ryan. Aria... how is she feeling?" Darren asked with a downcast gaze, causing the two leaving people to halt in their steps.
"Mister Langdon, thank you for your cooperation." Ryan calmly replied. Answering with words that had no connection to the question asked by Darren.
It was clear he had no intention of replying, Darren was no fool of course he could understand this much. But he still wanted to try his best to find even the least bit of information.
Aileen was already deeply clenching her fists almost breaking apart the pen which she had used to write her confession, as the feeling of an unstoppable tremble overtook her whole body. While Patricia could only stay by her side and comfort her daughter with a reassuring pat on her shoulder.
Turning his eyes towards the door again, Ryan sneered in contempt. They had been in this room for more than half an hour, but only when he was about to exit through the door did Darren remember to inquire about his niece's health, and even then it was most likely due to their own fright of Zane's anger.
Once the two had left, Darren kept replaying the words they had discussed. For some reason he could not help but feel a strange doubt inside his heart. He was not sure if he truly made the right choice when he had shifted the entire blame on Aileen.
Why did he have the feeling that Zane's revenge was only getting started?