"We have proof that Emline had contact with Lucas Dirge," Matteo said with a frown.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a series of photographs, all of them featuring Emline in her ridiculous disguise. In fact, it was awfully similar to the photograph Aiden had shown her earlier, in his bid to get her to trust him.
Her lack of reaction made Matteo pause. "Alia, do you already know about this?"
Alia smiled awkwardly and nodded, "Yeah. Actually―"
"I already told her about this, Brother, your news is slow," Aiden interrupted smoothly, standing up to jab an errant finger at the photo, before pulling out a nearly identical photo from his pocket. Judging by the composition of the photo, it was simply taken from another vantage point.
"See? I just got this today."
Matteo’s face darkened. "And why were you following Emline around?"
"Well, I needed to get so blackmail on her!" Aiden said with a cavalier shrug. "Don’t tell you’re feeling possessive over her. I can stalk her too!"
Alia snorted, and Matteo shot her a vaguely betrayed look. She patted him consolingly and then asked Aiden. "Since you already have this photo, you should be attempting to ruin your own engagent now, yes?"
"I would, but unfortunately, I’m not in Old Man Horace’s good books at all," Aiden said frankly.
"Probably because you keep calling him Old Man Horace," Matteo grumbled irritably. "Could you pretend to have so manners in front of him?"
"I have so! But it’s difficult to be polite when he wants to ruin my life by saddling his hellspawn with !" Aiden complained. "He should have whacked Emline more when she was a kid. I should have whacked Emline more when she was a kid. Fuck."
"We all have to live with our mistakes," Alia said drolly, while Aiden sank back into Matteo’s leather sofa and sulked petulantly, his hands twisting his cushions while he complained.
"If I bring this up to him, he’s not going to listen to , and Emline is going to spin a sob story about how everyone is blaming her. And look, if she did have sothing to do with Alia nearly dying, that old man is going to want to marry her imdiately to stop her from lusting over you!"
"That’s true," Matteo added, sounding remarkably unsympathetic to his half-brother’s plight. "I am tempted to march you down the aisle towards her right now, and then send the both of you to a deserted island together."
"Co on!" Aiden whined. "You know better than anyone that shit would be useless. She’d just be cucking with you the mont she finished terrorizing the wildlife! Tell you can send her to prison sowhere... right?"
"Do you have a confession from Lucas Dirge? You were out for hours..." Alia asked hopefully. After all, Matteo would not be out of the office for no good reason. His little excursion had to reap so reward.
Matteo’s lips quirked into a brief smile before an angry, vicious look entered his eyes. "I paid him a little visit after Emline left. He tried to keep mum, but the threat of retaliation did rattle him enough that he spilled so information from his odious lips."
"According to him, Emline first approached the father-daughter duo when she saw them at the resort and offered him money and connections for his businesses if he agreed to his request. In his words, his daughter Lilie was supposed to do nothing more than bump into you on the slopes, causing you to stumble. She wanted you to fall, but not die."
Aiden snorted. "And you believe that?"
"Of course not," Matteo said darkly. "I’m pretty sure she wanted Lilie to bump into you when you were mid-way down the slope, not when you were already close to the bottom so that gravity could do the rest. Thankfully, Lilie misjudged the timing and bumped into you when the slope was ending. You could have been paralyzed otherwise."
Alia suddenly felt very grateful for Lilie’s unintentional actions.
"I’m glad to know that at least Lilie wasn’t an accessory to murder. She’s just a kid― this incident would follow her for the rest of her life." Alia sighed, wondering at her cousin’s ruthlessness.
Who else could so easily misuse a child’s innocence for her own ends? In the end, Emline didn’t want to get her own hands dirty― she’d rather stain the soft hands of a girl who barely ca up to her knee.
Utterly cowardly. Alia’s opinion of her beloved cousin could sink no lower.
And Lilie’s own father was willing to sell her out in this manner too! Alia would bet that Lilie wouldn’t see a single penny of the money.
"So this counts as proof right?" Aiden perked up, delighted. Hope seed to radiate from his very being. "She’s going to prison? Please say yes. She endangered a minor!"
"No," Matteo said, ruthlessly crushing the hopes and dreams of everyone in the room. "He only had a verbal testimonial. Emline was sly enough to ensure that the entire agreent was only verbal in nature, most likely so that she could deny it if he testified. And the courts will not listen to Lilie’s testimonial. She’s just a child."
"What about the money?" Alia asked. "Surely she had to give him sothing after his part in my injury."
"She handed him the money in cash. There are no electronic records we can use in court if we wish to prove absolute guilt," Matteo scowled heavily.
Needless to say, they would have to go to court. There was no way to avoid legal proceedings if they wished to take down soone as powerful as Emline Hawthorne. For all her flaws, she still had the backing of the Hawthorne family.
Alia sighed in disappointnt.
Without electronic evidence, it was just a ga of he-said she-said. Emline could simply deny everything, including her little outing today.
"No..." Aiden lanted, "Noooooo..."
Matteo ignored his tragic cries and turned to Alia. "There’s sothing else, even though it’s not entirely related to this incident. I have people tailing him and Lilie. The mont we have proof of his abuse or neglect, we can swoop in and take her away from him."
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