Bab 303: Chapter 303
Pearl and Jim found Sebastian asleep on the couch in the living room with Christian asleep on his chest.
Pearl picked up Christian and laid him in the travel bassinet they had set up downstairs. One of the kitchen staff had taken over as a temporary nanny and was doing an incredible job with the baby, buying him necessities and helping with feedings. She came in and said she would keep and eye on him.
"Thank you, Tia. Really. You've been amazing." Pearl said, hugging her.
"I like this much better than doing dishes." She said, smiling.
Sebastian stirred and sat up. "Hey. How did it go?" He asked.
"We need to talk." Pearl said with a look on her face that Sebastian had never seen before on Pearl. It looked like sorrow and fear and even a little panic. Whatever it was, she meant business and he knew it.
"Ok." He said. He got up and walked to the study, tucking his dress shirt in, his muscular body moving stiffly as he put himself together.
"So what's going on? What did you find out?" He asked. Pearl poured a drink.
"Pearl it's like two in the afternoon." Sebastian said. She slammed it and poured another one, this time for him, then handing it to him.
"Alright then, it appears we are drinking early today I see." Sebastian said. Pearl waited for him to finish the glass and then poured him another one. "Pearl, I'm going to be knackered before supper. What is going on?" He asked. She sat down and handed Sebastian the blue folder that Mary-Elizabeth had given him and took a deep breath as he opened it.
She watched Sebastian try to process what he was seeing.
"What is this?" He asked.
"It's the numbers and the release to a lock box at the post in town. It took us a bit but we figured it out." Pearl said.
"Why is Anna's name on it?" Sebastian asked. Pearl sat down a book and two pieces of paper in front of him.
"This is what we found inside the lock box." She said.
Sebastian looked at Pearl and Jim and back down again. He opened the book and saw that it was a daily planner from four years prior.
"Look at the month of August." Pearl said quietly.
"She was killed in August of the year of this planner." Sebastian said.
"I know." Pearl said, her voice shaky from choking back the tears and wrenching she was trying to hold in.
He looked at her again and then turned to August. She watched as his eyes moved to August 12. "Meeting with Edward and Erik. 3 pm. Ultimatum or exposure." It said. It was the last entry.
Sebastian looked confused. He picked up the next piece of paper. It was a hand written letter.
"If you are reading this, whoever you are, then something has happened to me and you were cunning enough to find the nuns, like I did. I realized the truth about Erik and Augustus's lineage when I began to process records at my new job here at the clerk's office. I found Erik's real identity. I am going to discuss this with Edward and Erik tomorrow and give them an ultimatum. Either they tell Sebastian and give him his rightful place, which he deserves more than the two swine ahead of him, or I go public and tell Sebastian myself. I am also prepared to expose what I know about Erik and Auggie's real father and manner of his death. I hope this never needs to find anyone, but if it does, I promise you, I am not missing and if I am dead, it wasn't an accident.
-Anna."
Sebastian looked up at Pearl. It was the most gut wrenching thing she had ever witnessed. He looked destroyed. Sad wasn't even close to how she would describe it. He looked like he was about to crumble into pieces right there.
Pearl moved the last piece of paper over to him.
He wiped his eyes and looked at it. It was the original copy of Erik's birth certificate from the nuns. Pearl convinced Mary-Elizabeth to give it to her. He looked up at Pearl again.
"Look at the name, his father." She barely was able to say, for fear of breaking down at the pain in her heart for her wounded friend.
"Lachlan Findlay? I... what?" Sebastian asked, looking at Jim and then Pearl.
"The same one. Yes." Jim said. Jim had filled Pearl in on the way home. Lachlan Findlay was the son of a Scottish man and an Arabian oil heiress. He was the only thing standing in the way of England taking over the company his mother had left him and the Saudi oil that came with it. Two days before his 30th birthday, his car lost control on a mountain pass where he hit a semi head on and died instantly. He left the company in a will to the crown. It was huge news in the 80's. After his death, the royal family took over the weakened company and became oil independent and insanely wealthy because of it.
"Frances had an affair with her husband's family's biggest financial threat. And bore him a child, at least one that we know. We haven't been able to figure out if Auggie was his as well." Pearl said. "Who has a will at twenty nine years old?" Pearl asked.
"Someone put up to making one or someone forging one." Jim answered.
"Was Frances in on it, too?" Sebastian asked.
"I don't know. I'm not sure how deep this goes but it ain't good." Jim said.
"Bash, Anna had figured out a deceitful, wicked and vile thing that the most powerful family in the world carried out. And she was going to expose it all. She didn't just know about Erik. She knew about this, too." Pearl said. "And I can't prove it, but I believe they killed her for it."
The words came out of her mouth and hung in the air like dead flowers hanging to dry. They were brittle and fragile.
Sebastian just sat in his chair, nodding his head and continuing to process it.
"Should we go to the police?" Pearl asked, looking at Jim and then Bash.
Jim shook his head. "You don't go to the police on something like this, Pearl. Not unless you want to end up like Anna did. They are not on your side when it comes to these things. These are powerful people. We are all in danger now." He said.
Sebastian composed himself and nodded. "We need to handle this ourselves. And we can't let them know that we are aware of anything. Nothing. God, Anna! Why were you so stupid to go to them alone! You don't give princes ultimatums. You just don't!" Sebastian shouted at the ceiling. "Jim, call you intel guy and invite him for a friendly dinner here in Scotland. I will do the same. We will all sit down and form a plan. Pearl, I need your best acting performance for time being. Erik and his family can't sense that anything is off. This stays here until the right time comes. And when it does, we need to be ready." Sebastian said.
Pearl nodded.
"Pearl, I'm proud of you. You are brilliant and bright." Sebastian said.
"I couldn't agree more." Jim said, patting her shoulder.
"I wish this wasn't what I found out." Pearl said, looking down. "I'm so sorry Sebastian." She said.
"I need some time. Alone." Sebastian said to them.
"Of course. Let me know if I can do anything. I'm so sorry." She said again.
He nodded and looked away. He was going to break down and she needed to give him the privacy to do so.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone