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“Admitting that the rumours are true will give you an excuse to leave me and give you a way out of this mess. Franz will get caught in a trap and I will be stigmatised as someone who had an affair with your half-brother. It will be benefits you in many ways.”
Odette thought she was in a position of strength as she laid out her plan. Bastian sat in silence, Odette’s shadow fell across the table. As she moved closer, he caught her unique scent and his hands gripped the cutlery tighter.
He sighed as he poured out another glass of velvety red wine. The flickering light of the fire made the deep shadows of his face even deeper and more tired.
“Please, accept the divorce and let me go, I’ll bear all the blame and troubles,” Odette said, keeping her voice flat.
Bastian sipped at his wine. It was probably due to the accumulated fatigue that his headaches were getting worse. With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. Days of relentless struggle against the tempest within him had left his heart feeling empty.
“What I mean,” she began, her tone sinking even deeper into the frosty air, “is that I want to make a deal with you.”
Finally she will be abandoned.
The moment Odette learned of the scandal, she had an idea to use it to her advantage. Bastian Klauswitz, of anyone, should have a clear understanding of the repercussions of being with a woman of questionable repute. Staying with her was only going to tarnish his reputation beyond repair. No matter how important revenge was to him, would he still be willing if it meant taking such a fatal loss?
“No amount of explanation or evidence is going to sway public opinion, so wouldn’t it be best to use this to gain some practical benefit?”
“It definitely sounds like a good deal for me,” Bastian said, readily agreeing to his father’s downfall and Odette’s ruin. It was a golden opportunity to end both at once.
But there was Odette. Like a thorn in his side, her name kept clouding his judgement.
“I will keep our secret safe and I will not claim any rights to the child.”   A glimmer of hope sparked in Odette’s heart.
Bastian hard to believe that she forced him to cast her out in the middle of winter, penniless, and bearing a child in her womb.
The best revenge…he suddenly thought, would be to grant her wish. Her child would have no link to the Imperial family, her Uncle, the emperor wouldn’t accept the child, who was born in the worst scandal.
If he could use this to his advantage, get out of the quagmire and away from a child that was now nothing more than a scandalous shackle, he could cast her into an abyss she would never be able to crawl out of. A punishment that would be far greater than losing a child.
“Nothing will change, Odette,” Bastian said and reached for his cutlery again.
He didn’t know why.
Everything about Odette defied the logic he couldn’t calculate.
Rejecting the Emperor’s order to marry was a simple task for him. The Emperor couldn’t force him. But he didn’t try to resist in the slightest, choosing instead to become the emperor’s pawn.
When he needed a fake wife for two years, only Odette came to his mind. Though he knew that the emperor’s niece was the most difficult person to manipulate, but he didn’t care.
Odette, he just wanted her.
Ever since the first moment he had seen her all the way up until now, he wanted her no matter the losses or gains. No matter what it would take, even after love and fondness had turned to hate and malice, he wanted her and no other.
“Please be rational, Bastian, I’m begging you.”
Odette lost herself in thought and implored ever more desperately. Her heart became heavy and sank to the floor, a lump formed in her throat. This man was a monster that could not be reasoned with.
“If you leave, what do you think will come next?” Bastian said. “Are you going to spend the rest of your miserable life carrying the child of the man who ruined you? Constantly hounded by the stigma of being divorced because you had an affair with my half-brother? Living in cheap lodges and hostels, is that what you really want, Odette?”
Why? Odette tried to swallow the strangling lump in her throat, confusion made her head swim. Does he still think this child is useful? Does he think I haven’t paid enough for my betrayal? She had prepared herself for any answer, but she still didn’t expect the answer he gave. She thought hard, but couldn’t find an answer.
“You’re the only one that wants to see me miserable,” Odette blurted out, staring at Bastian straight in the eyes. “You got what you wanted, so why are you being like this?”
“That’s enough, Odette, how much more of this behaviour do you think I will put up with?”
“You don’t need to do this any more, you can just throw me away, let me leave.”
“You act like you’re such a saint, making big sacrifices, but you’re just a selfish little brat and it makes me sick. You’re so willing to ruin your child’s life for the sake of your pride.”
Bastian’s face was contorted with rage and tears welled up in Odette’s eyes, making her cheeks go puffy and red.
“There is no way I will let any child of mine live in poverty, Odette,” Bastian said, his voice low and raspy.
Franz might have been the one to have committed the crime, painting Odette for the whole world to see, but it was Bastian she hated, she resented him and she wanted to hurt him. It was an emotion she was unfamiliar with and didn’t know what to do with it.
“Were you happy with a father who had no love for you?” Odette said, attempting to stab at Bastian’s heart, cut him deep and hard.
“Were you happy with a mother that had nothing but love for you?” Bastian said back.
A soft knock came from the door just as the two were about to cut each other with a knife of passion as sharp as any razor. Odette turned away as tears poured down her cheeks. Bastian gave a polite noise and the door opened. A maid came in carrying dessert.
“Please prepare something else for my wife, she can’t handle this dinner right now,” Bastian said coolly. “Warm bread and soup will do.”
“Yes, of course, sir,” said the maid and took Bastian’s empty plate and Odette’s untouched dinner away.
Why?
Why would you?
Just as she wanted to scream at the top of her voice, Bastian turned his head. Their frozen gazes met on the glass pane. That quiet stare lingered,  until the maid – who was dispatched to bring Odette’s meal – made her return.
*.·:·.✧.·:·.*
“Does that mean the newly independent sovereign stock that Franz has bought up has become nothing more than worthless slips of paper?” Jeff Klauswitz said.
He had been staring up at nothing in particular for quite some time. The secretary stood in the deafening silence, waiting for his response.
“For now, yes. The collapse of the stock value has created a little cash flow problem within the entire company. We are struggling to pay the balance of the railroad instalment and we have been seeking to get an extension.”
“Keep trying.”
“The Minister for Finance in Felia is being very stubborn. He says that if you default, then he will deal with you as per the terms of the contract.”
Jeff reached across his desk and plucked out a cigarette from the box. Felia’s finance minister, who had been the architect of the whole railroad business, decided to flip his hand in the face of Franz’s break-up.
When he had first heard the scandal, he dismissed it as nothing more than a childish sideshow. He reckoned he could make amends with reasonable explanations. Things might have turned out fine, if it hadn’t been for the interfering Count Klein.
He had fallen from the good graces and fell into the dark pits that had no bottom and Jeff had no idea where he was going to end up.
“I want you to process all the stocks we can squeeze cash from, ASAP,” Jeff said, sparking the end of the cigarette.
Bastian hadn’t failed to buy up all the stock, raising the prices before leaving this little bomb behind. Jeff was grateful for the noble blood flowing through Franz, else he would have gone down in even more scandal for beating the life out of his own child.
“That is very risky, would it not be better to abandon the railway instead?” the secretary said.
“How about you stick to your job as a secretary,” Jeff said firmly. He had lost enough already, he wasn’t about ready to give up the title of being the Railway King too.
“Sir, we have a problem.” Without even so much as a knock, the door burst open and a pale faced, middle aged man hurried into the room.
Jeff let out a huge, smoke filled sigh and rose from his seat. The pale faced man had gone out to assess the stock market. If he came back now, with news of a stock crash, Jeff was prepared for that, but in that moment, the pale faced man had other news.
“Illis has launched an initial public offering of stock in steel.”
“Steel? Are you sure? Steel, not the railway?” Deep wrinkles formed on Jeff’s face and his throat went dry.
The pale faced man nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, sir. They unexpectedly went public. They now have the largest holding in the steel industry, after several mergers and acquisitions. The stock market is in an uproar and barring any sudden catastrophe, Steel stock prices are set to double.”
The punishment had finally arrived. Jeff threw the ashtray across the room, just missing the pale faced man. The scream of anguish that echoed through the offices was that of a man who had paid more than double for betraying his son.
The Pale faced man and the secretary thought it a good idea to look for a new jo