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“She didn’t ever cry,” Vilma said proudly.
“Which means she took after Mairi’s mother rather than us,” Norah admitted ruefully. “She was a well-behaved baby, the only one among us three.”
Taking a seat next to her nephew-in-law, Vilma exchanged glances with her sister, asking Norah silently if now was the right time to speak of their concerns.
Attuned to the sudden undercurrents in the room, Damen looked up. “What is it?”
“We have been hearing things,” Vilma confessed. “We’ve still been keeping track of your mother’s actions. Recently, we’ve heard reports about Esther frequently meeting with unsavory members of the press.”
Damen frowned. “Unsavory in the sense of...?”
“They specialize in hacking celebrities’ accounts then blackmail those same individuals. If they don’t think they can get away with it, they then auction off the information and the highest bidder gets to dish out the dirt before anyone else.”
Damen’s lips compressed at the news. If he had his way from the start, he would have taken everything away from his mother. Revenge wasn’t even his motivation. All he wanted was to ensure she could never do his wife harm.
But Mairi, the woman Esther had hurt the most, was also the one who had stopped him from doing anything. His wife had pleaded with him.‘Let’s just put the past behind us,’Mairi had told him.
And because he had wanted to please her, he had reluctantly promised to do as she said.
But now...
“Thank you for letting me know.”
Norah repressed a shiver. Although Damen’s voice was gentle, it had a cold note that boded ill for his own mother. “You won’t do anything drastic, won’t you, dear?”
“Absolutely.”
When Damen left, Nala in tow, Norah glanced at her sister anxiously. “He won’t go off the rails on his mother, would he?”
Vilma shrugged. “As long as he can keep our niece out of harm’s way, I don’t really care what he does to Esther Leventis. Too much power’s made that woman crazy. It’s time she’s taught a lesson.”
Chapter 6
“DO WE HAVE A DEAL THEN?” Leaning back against her chair, Esther Leventis raised a brow.
Irwin nodded. “It’s a deal of a lifetime. I’d be crazy to resist.”