Marry My Billionaire Second Husband - Chapter 184

Chapter 184: Crafty Snake
“We have proof that Emmeline had contact with Lucas Dirge,” Matteo said with a frown.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a series of photographs, all of them featuring Emmeline in her ridiculous disguise. In fact, it was awfully similar to the photograph Aiden had shown her earlier, in his bid to get her to trust him.

Her lack of reaction made Matteo pause. “Amelia, do you already know about this?”

Amelia smiled awkwardly and nodded, “Yeah. Actually―”

“I already told her about this, Brother, your news is slow,” Aiden interrupted smoothly, standing up to jab an errant finger at the photo, before pulling out a nearly identical photo from his pocket. Judging by the composition of the photo, it was simply taken from another vantage point.

“See? I just got this today.”

Matteo’s face darkened. “And why were you following Emmeline around?”

“Well, I needed to get some blackmail on her!” Aiden said with a cavalier shrug. “Don’t tell me you’re feeling possessive over her. I can stalk her too!”

Amelia snorted, and Matteo shot her a vaguely betrayed look. She patted him consolingly and then asked Aiden. “Since you already have this photo, you should be attempting to ruin your own engagement now, yes?”

“I would, but unfortunately, I’m not in Old Man Horace’s good books at all,” Aiden said frankly.

“Probably because you keep calling him Old Man Horace,” Matteo grumbled irritably. “Could you pretend to have some manners in front of him?”

“I have some! But it’s difficult to be polite when he wants to ruin my life by saddling his hellspawn with me!” Aiden complained. “He should have whacked Emmeline more when she was a kid. I should have whacked Emmeline more when she was a kid. Fuck.”

“We all have to live with our mistakes,” Amelia said drolly, while Aiden sank back into Matteo’s leather sofa and sulked petulantly, his hands twisting his cushions while he complained.

“If I bring this up to him, he’s not going to listen to me, and Emmeline is going to spin a sob story about how everyone is blaming her. And look, if she did have something to do with Amelia nearly dying, that old man is going to want me to marry her immediately to stop her from lusting over you!”

“That’s true,” Matteo added, sounding remarkably unsympathetic to his half-brother’s plight. “I am tempted to march you down the aisle towards her right now, and then send the both of you to a deserted island together.”

“Come on!” Aiden whined. “You know better than anyone that shit would be useless. She’d just be cucking me with you the moment she finished terrorizing the wildlife! Tell me you can send her to prison somewhere… right?”

“Do you have a confession from Lucas Dirge? You were out for hours…” Amelia asked hopefully. After all, Matteo would not be out of the office for no good reason. His little excursion had to reap some reward.

Matteo’s lips quirked into a brief smile before an angry, vicious look entered his eyes. “I paid him a little visit after Emmeline left. He tried to keep mum, but the threat of retaliation did rattle him enough that he spilled some information from his odious lips.”

“According to him, Emmeline first approached the father-daughter duo when she saw them at the resort and offered him money and connections for his businesses if he agreed to his request. In his words, his daughter Lilie was supposed to do nothing more than bump into you on the slopes, causing you to stumble. She wanted you to fall, but not die.”

Aiden snorted. “And you believe that?”

“Of course not,” Matteo said darkly. “I’m pretty sure she wanted Lilie to bump into you when you were mid-way down the slope, not when you were already close to the bottom so that gravity could do the rest. Thankfully, Lilie misjudged the timing and bumped into you when the slope was ending. You could have been paralyzed otherwise.”

Amelia suddenly felt very grateful for Lilie’s unintentional actions.

“I’m glad to know that at least Lilie wasn’t an accessory to murder. She’s just a kid― this incident would follow her for the rest of her life.” Amelia sighed, wondering at her cousin’s ruthlessness.

Who else could so easily misuse a child’s innocence for her own ends? In the end, Emmeline didn’t want to get her own hands dirty― she’d rather stain the soft hands of a girl who barely came up to her knee.

Utterly cowardly. Amelia’s opinion of her beloved cousin could sink no lower.

And Lilie’s own father was willing to sell her out in this manner too! Amelia would bet that Lilie wouldn’t see a single penny of the money.

“So this counts as proof right?” Aiden perked up, delighted. Hope seemed to radiate from his very being. “She’s going to prison? Please say yes. She endangered a minor!”

“No,” Matteo said, ruthlessly crushing the hopes and dreams of everyone in the room. “He only had a verbal testimonial. Emmeline was sly enough to ensure that the entire agreement was only verbal in nature, most likely so that she could deny it if he testified. And the courts will not listen to Lilie’s testimonial. She’s just a child.”

“What about the money?” Amelia asked. “Surely she had to give him something after his part in my injury.”

“She handed him the money in cash. There are no electronic records we can use in court if we wish to prove absolute guilt,” Matteo scowled heavily.

Needless to say, they would have to go to court. There was no way to avoid legal proceedings if they wished to take down someone as powerful as Emmeline Hawthorne. For all her flaws, she still had the backing of the Hawthorne family.

Amelia sighed in disappointment.

Without electronic evidence, it was just a game of he-said she-said. Emmeline could simply deny everything, including her little outing today.

“No…” Aiden lamented, “Noooooo…”

Matteo ignored his tragic cries and turned to Amelia. “There’s something else, even though it’s not entirely related to this incident. I have people tailing him and Lilie. The moment we have proof of his abuse or neglect, we can swoop in and take her away from him.”