Secret Scion

Radley Leonard promptly slammed his hand on the table and bellowed, "David Wakeford! Don't you try to weasel your way out of this!"

David was still chuckling cheerfully. "Weasel my way out of what? Are you really saying that I, David Wakeford, owe you money?"

"Fuck you!" Radley snapped right then. He did not expect David to be shameless enough to renege on a debt, and wanted to hit him right then.

That in turn drew a cool laugh from David. "Why don't you look around, Radley Leonard? Are you sure you'd be safe if you do anything stupid around here?"

Despite Radley's rage, he was reminded that David was involved in illicit business and his goons were everywhere in the bar. He hence eased his knuckles, pointing at David instead as he growled, "Miss Schmidt... He's clearly trying to embarrass you."

Rose, however, was not at all upset-she was actually smiling faintly. "Everyone only cares about their own profits these days, and two hundred grand is no small sum. Isn't that right, David?" David smiled stiffly. "Honestly, I haven't taken a cent from Radley here, Miss Schmidt. Why else would I keep denying it? So, how about this-If he can present evidence to prove that I did, I'll return the money right away."

"You bastard!" Radley snarled through gritted teeth.

David frowned in turn. "Radley Leonard, I'm sure you know that the only reason I haven't had you thrown out of my bar is because I am trying to show Miss Schmidt some respect. If you insist on stepping out of line, however, I'll have to do this by the book."

In fact, there were not many individuals who dared to disrespect Rose Schmidt, not to mention that David was one of Joel Harrison's boys. While David was nothing impressive and Rose could crush him easily, he had one reason to be disrespectful even in her presence because Joel has his back.

"Radley, are you sure that David has taken three hundred grand from you?" Rose asked. "Absolutely!" Radley exclaimed.

Rose nodded. "Good. Was it in cash or wired transfer?"

"Wired transfer. Central Bank."

At those words, Rose whipped out her phone from her handbag and flatly said, "A friend of mine happens to be a director there. I'll have her check your transfer records."

David furrowed his brow at those words-how on earth did he forget about the records?

"Forgive me for asking, Miss Schmidt... But what's your relationship with Radley?"

"He's the grandson of my grandfather's friend," Rose replied.

Radley seemed to puff his chest and smiled proudly at her words, while David was left panicking. He never expected Radley to be so well-connected, and he did not mention to him before

either... Truly, it was the least likely scenario coming true!

Pausing for a moment, he said, "I'll come clean, Miss Schmidt... I did take Radley's money, but I never said that I'm not returning it. Right now, I'm a little short, so could you wait until I can pay him back?"

Rose looked up at him and asked coolly, "You insisted that you didn't take his money before. What, so you were messing with me?"

Then, before anyone could stop her, she picked up her glass of wine and splashed it on David's face before adding, "You're just one of Joel Harrison's lackeys, David. He can't do a thing if I really want to end you!"

David's goons who were standing nearby promptly ran up to him when they saw this, ready to put the fear of God in Rose and Radley, but David quickly raised a hand to stop them. "No! Stay back!"

Once those goons had moved away, David flashed a smile and said, "Oh, I'd never dare to make an enemy out of you, Miss Schmidt... I just don't have the money right now, but if you want, you can call the cops on me."

In truth, Rose had splashed her drink on David so that she could affirm her superiority-David was clearly being conceited because he had Joel's support, but now he admitted that he had taken Radley's money. It did not matter if he had the money since he probably would not be returning it right away, and the statement would have continued if she did not try to make a stand.

Moreover, she would also uphold the end of her deal with Radley.

"It doesn't matter whether you have the money or not. You've admitted to your debt, so write down an IOU," she said then.

David naturally did as he was told without complaint, but when he passed it to Radley, he told him, "You better hold on to this. Lose it, and I'll renege on the debt again."

With that, Rose and Radley left, while David growled through his teeth, "Let's see if you'll be alive to collect your debt, Radley!"

***

Outside Viva, Rose fiddled with her hair and said, "You don't have to be worried about him not paying you now with that IOU, and I've upheld my end of the deal. Now tell me, where's Mikaela?"

However, Radley was left staring at the IOU and wondering how the hell it was the same as getting three hundred grand back. However, Rose had undoubtedly helped and even given David a figurative slap on the face-she obviously had a temper of her own.

Knowing that he had clearly taken up a poor deal, he bore with it and said, "Dynasty Hotel, Room

502."

Rose finally flashed a smile after all that.

***

Inside Viva, Maggie Lane had been staring at the washroom suspiciously for a while-Seth Harrison and Phoebe Webb had gone in there for a while now, but they had yet to leave. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her, and she headed there to check it out.

Worried that Phoebe would notice her, she tiptoed in through the door when she heard rustling and what resembled a struggle.

"What are you doing, Seth?! Let me go!" Phoebe was exclaiming in a hushed voice.

On the other hand, Seth was laughing coldly and did not care if he was heard. "Did you think you're going to dump me just like that? I gave you everything, and you fucking left me for Asher Crawford as soon as he came back! Why? What makes him better than me?!"

Everything was revealed in those words. It seemed that Phoebe had an affair with Seth when Asher was away from Alexandrius, and it went without saying what Seth was doing given the commotion in there.

Maggie certainly remembered that she owed Asher one after he sabotaged her engagement, or she would have ended up as Garrett Schmidt's fiancee. Since Phoebe was Asher's fiancee, she was not about to just let Asher get cucked, so she slapped the cubicle door loudly while squealing, "Asher Crawford is here!"

Once that was done, she made a dash out of the washroom.

***

Phoebe had been wearing skinny jeans, which made things difficult for Seth. It seemed to take all

his strength to unbutton it, and even before his hand could reach in, a voice suddenly called out, "Asher Crawford is here!"

Like a startled rabbit, Phoebe promptly scrambled to put her pants back on while exclaiming warily, "Who's there?!"

Even though she quickly ran out of the cubicle after that, no one was in sight-Maggie Lane had

managed to leave Viva and drive away.

Seth also stepped out and asked, "Did you see who it was?"

Phoebe was left seething. She could only tell that it was a woman, but not who it was since Maggie had been squealing. To make things worse, the woman knew what was going on between her, Seth as well as Asher, or she would not have said that.

It did not matter who it was, however, because someone now knew about her and Seth-if Asher found out, he would use that as an excuse to annul their engagement, and all her effort would go to waste.

However, what could she do?

Nothing.

***

Asher had a little too much to drink, and it was past ten when he woke up.

It had been three days, but the Schmidts had not made a move... It was something he did not expect at all.

After washing up, he headed to room 502 of the Dynasty Hotel, only to find the door ajar and a housekeeper cleaning up the room.

"Where's the guest staying here?" he quickly asked.

"She checked out last night," the woman replied.

"Checked out?!"

Asher immediately realized that something was afoot. However, all he knew was that Mikaela had moved out; he didn't know that Rose was involved. He headed downstairs and called Mikaela's number, but her phone was dead.