Brian thought he was in love with Danny. If so, why would he endeavor to hurt her like this? If Danny ever found out about this, she won't forgive Nick ever. So what on earth could that idiot been thinking?
He had promised Darrell Walcott he would take care of his sister for him and Brian intend to make good his promise. He had known Darrell since childhood and Darrell trusted Brian like he never trusted anyone before. Brian knew of Danny long before Nick ever knew she existed. He knew everything there is to know about her, everything that her uncle knew, Brian knew. She was in effect, like his own niece. He cared for her as much as Darrell does.
The guys didn't know that Brian knew the Darrell Walcott, CEO of a business empire he built single-handedly from scratch with nothing but sheer persistence and determination combined with his own intelligence. He was reportedly one of the most brilliant men of the century, on par with Bill Gates, only his forte was acquiring companies which had potential but was ill-managed. he cleaned them up, turning them into gold mines and selling them for a huge chunk of money.
Darrell was 30 years old and one of the richest man in the entire world. And that was before anyone counted his inheritance that his dead sister left behind for him. That would make Darrell one helluva rich bastard, not to mention influential.
Obviously, Danny was very close to her mother's brother. Danny was like the daughter Darrell never had. He doted on her and treated her like a little princess. Danny confide everything to her trusted uncle. Darrell kept most of her confidences, aching to tell his beloved niece what a slut his sister was, but knowing instinctively that Danny wouldn't believe him. So instead of forcing her to face the truth and risked jeopardizing their relationship, Darrell opted for silence. He breathed not an insult against his mercenary sister and let Danny continuing thinking that Sylvia was a virtual saint.
Darrell also knew of his niece chance meeting with Nick Carter, knew that she was attracted to him, that was why he told Brian of their meeting, so that he could help Darrell keep an eye on Danny, make sure that she wasn't hurt by Nick. Darrell didn't have a high opinion of Nick, or anyone in the entertainment business. 'Blood suckers, the lot of them,' was his exact words. That was precipitated from his dealings with actresses and singers and models who traded their bodies for some of his wealth and influence.
Brian thought it was highly amusing that the one person Darrell trusted belonged to the same group of people he detested.
Raking determined eyes over AJ and Nick, Brian promised himself that he would do everything, short of telling her their stupid plan to make sure that they won't come with a centimeter of her.
Cato Wilson gazed into a picture of his beautiful, cold, scheming wife. He saw her in his mind's eyes again how beautiful she was the first time he met her. How she had so quickly wrapped him around her little finger and played him for the fool. She was a clever little actress, showing him a woman he liked and hiding the type of woman she really was. And the fool that he was, he had not seen the trap until it closed over him. Only until the foul deed was done, had he realized he was duped. By then, there was nothing Cato could do. If he divorced her, she would demand a sum of alimony so huge that it would cripple him.
Despite knowing what she really was like, Cato hadn't quite been able to convinced himself that the woman he had fallen for hadn't been real. He couldn't convinced himself that she was that good an actress. Despite everything he knew about her, he still tried to make her love him. But Sylvia loved only money, the things that they could buy and their daughter.
She hated her son and husband and showed them not an ounce of her love. The little boy reminded her too much of the sacrifice she had to make to get her the riches she wanted. But the golden-haired little angel was her heart and soul. Birthing her had nearly killed her, but instead of hating the child because of that, Sylvia loved her. She spent more time with her than she did anyone, spent more money on her than she did herself. She adored her beautiful baby. Showered her with all her love. The same emotion that she denied her husband and son, she gave freely to her young and innocent daughter.
Because she so adored her daughter, she had tried for her sake to appear to love her husband. It lasted for a full year before that facade crumpled. Sylvia found a man, a penniless one at that. But according to her, he had something to offer her that Cato didn't. She wanted to divorce him and take their daughter away from him.
Cato couldn't wait for her to get out of his sight, any love he ever felt for her was long dead. But the fact that she wanted to take his child to her lover had enraged him. How dare she suggest doing something so vile! Danny was his daughter and she would remain so always. Cato loved his son, and the same emotion extended to his daughter, but the bulk of his time was devoted to his business empire, and what time he had left was given to his son, who needed his father as much as he needed air. He lacked a mother's loving touch, Cato wasn't about to let him lose his father too. Between his business and son, he had no time left for his daughter. Later, his young son had gotten very ill, and his wife hadn't cared a hoot about him, Cato had to devote even more time to him. When his son had succumbed to the wasting disease a short time later, Cato hadn't been able to dredge up any energy to go to work, to feel anything, much less take notice of his daughter.
He had only 'surfaced' when his wife threatened to divorce and take his daughter away from him. It took a shock that magnitude to wake him up. He had vented his anger at his son's unfair death and his scheming wife's bold threat that night and he still regreted his actions till today. His loss of control that fateful night had caused him his daughter and his mobility. His conniving wife didn't count, he had lost her the moment the wedding vows were spoken, when his assets was in her grasp.
When her mother died, Danny was mad with grief, and Cato was so strange to her that she didn't accept his comfort, only her uncle's. She talked a lot about her beloved and wonderful mother to Darrell and Darrell was thoroughly disgusted by the lies his sister told to her naive young daughter. He couldn't believe the lies she told Danny, that bitch had turned her daughter completely against her father by the time of her death. The damage was done and nothing Darrell could tell her would convinced her otherwise, so Darrell didn't even try.
Danny was fiercely protective of her mother and would allow no one to speak bad of her. To her, Sylvia was a saint, to Cato and Darrell, Sylvia was a witch and Danny was the guileless little angel they had to protect at all cost. Even if it meant that she would hate Cato.
Cato stared at Sylvia's flawless beauty, her rose-tinted cheeks, her elegant features, her graceful tilt of brows and marveled at how such beauty could hide such wickedness. He marveled at how alike both women looked. Danny inherited Sylvia's delicate beauty, refined to a perfection achieved only by the angels. Sylvia was almost perfect, their daughter was the personification of perfection.
Cato could only thanked God when it was clear that Danny possessed not a whit of her mother's scheming nature nor her deviousness. She possessed a strength of character that could only come from himself. A stubbornness that was inborn. She inherited his nimble mind and careful nature, his quickness to anger and to laughter. But the humility was strictly her own. Her ability to see beyond the surface to the inner sufferings of a person was also her own. Her finely honed sense of self-preservation, making sure no one got close enough to hurt her came from her mother's death.
Her need to love and be loved came from Cato and his inability to show that he did love her. Maybe even more than her mother had loved her.
Like her uncle, Danny was wise beyond her years and intelligent. Darrell was a genius, she was no exception. She had a photographic memory. She could commit things to her memory within seconds and mentally calculate a complicated mathematical problem and produced the answer within minutes. She was in high school only because she chose to, not because she had to. She should have graduated two years ago, but she didn't want to be the odd girl. Besides, Jade needed her. So, she hid her intelligence and pass well enough to warrant As, but not enough to be taken special attention of. His son and daughter were the only reason Cato was glad the marriage took place in the first place. He would have given them the world had they asked it of him. He would have given his life to revive his son.
A sharp rap on the door told him that Baxter had found his daughter and she was ready to see him. Cato quickly placed the photograph back into the drawer and closed it. He pushed himself upright in his wheelchair and composed his features into an implacable mask. Like his daughter, he had learned to hid his emotions from the entire world, showing only what he wanted. The only persons in this world he ever let his guard down with were Darrell and Baxter.
"Come in," Cato said, his voice rang strong and clear for a man of fifty-four and wheel-chaired bound.
The door opened without a sound and his daughter glided in, closing the door smoothly behind her. She turned back and faced him, making no move to come closer to him, all emotions wiped clean off her face, just like Cato. "You wanted to see me?" She spoke, but not meeting her father's eyes.
"Yes," Cato scrutinized his daughter's face, but there was staunchly no emotion present on her lovely face. She had perfected the fine art of wearing an emotionless mask much much younger than she should have. "Darrell called, he says that his secretary is taking a leave of absence for a month two weeks later, he wants you there to fill the position."
Darrell wanted her to help him? That thought was so impossible, Darrell never needed anyone's need, much less her own. Even starting out, he didn't need his brother-in-law's help, he didn't even touched the insurance money his sister left for him when his company was desperately in need of funds. He did everything on his own, earned everything relying on his intelligence and instincts and brilliant strategy, not because he was Cato Wilson's brother-in-law. Now he was asking for her help, there was something wrong.
"Why? He can hired someone to fill in the temporary position. He has two weeks to go about it, and with his wealth and power, I'm sure there are thousands of people out there fighting for this job, especially those women who dreams of capturing the heart and fortune of Darrell Walcott. He doesn't need me."
The truth of the matter was that, Darrell needed desperately for his niece to be there with him. His friend had just informed him of the little bet that was about to occur between a Nick Carter and AJ Mclean, whoever they were. Darrell loved Danny to bits, but as much as he loved her, he also knew he couldn't protect her forever. He knew that he could bring her out to him right at this moment, to prevent the bet from happening at all, but Darrell wanted it to happen. He had to let her fight her own battles, he had to see how she would deal, had to see if she had the emotion capabilities to deal with it or not. He also needed her to resolve her feelings for that Carter kid, not that he told that to her father, of course. He didn't want to disillusion her, but Darrell was shrewd, he saw the chance and took it. Granted, Cato didn't know that this was part of the reason why Darrell wanted Danny to be there with him. All Darrell told Cato was that he had evidence to support their claims of Sylvia being a world-class tramp. He delibrately withheld the information about a certain bet because Darrell knew that Cato would swooped right in to rescue his daughter.
They had decided that at seventeen, Danny was wise beyond her age and was more than ready to be disabused of her notion that her mother was a saint. When the bet was over, he intended to ship her to him and see how she fared before breaking the news to her. He had acquired enough evidence about his sister's promiscuity to convince her just what kind of woman she really was.
Darrell didn't want to do this anymore than he wanted to hurt himself, but the way he saw it, this was a chance for Danny to grow up emotionally. If she went through with this and was hurt, she would be better equipped in the future to deal with the same kind of situation. She might be hurt now, but she'll come out of the tragedy a stronger person. And there was a very slim chance that this Carter guy would surprised Darrell. Who knows? Perhaps Danny's secret crush could come to fruition and instead of learning the moral lesson Darrell intended to let Carter teach her, she might learn another type of lesson from him.
"You know how cautious Darrell is, he doesn't trust anyone, and as his secretary, the person would be handed top secret information, what if the temporary secretary he hired sold these information to the higgest bidder? Darrell trusts you, he needs you there," he paused, assessing Danny's reaction. "I want you there. You need to learn about business sooner or later, and this is as good a start as any."
Danny couldn't refute the truth of her father's words, and she couldn't quell her suspicions at the same time. But she did know that Darrell had never let her down, so if he really needed her now, she wasn't about to let him down.
"All right," she agreed grudgingly. Cato almost clapped his hands in glee, he could almost see the chasm between his daughter and him being closed after so many years, finally, the bitch would lose.
He nodded and Danny exited the room after giving him a weird look. She had glimpsed the anticipatory glint in his eyes and wondered how he had up his sleeve.
Chapter Six
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