Chapter 82 Fine

• “Fine.” Jared belligerently tapped the table as he went on. “But you will not hold Christabel and Alicia hostages to your personal or financial interests.” His hands cut a decisive scissorlike movement. “They’re free of you now and they’ll stay free of you.”
Rafael leaned forward, his eyes glittering scorn. “But are they free of others, Jared? Do you imagine that I am the only one who has a personal and financial interest in the Kruger fortune? Alicia is a hostage to anyone who wants a bite of it.”
Jared leaned forward, boring in. “You’re the one Christabel fears most. You’re the one she fled from.”
Rafael flung a hand out in brusque dismissal. “A misconception.”
“Then clear it up, Rafael. Now!”
Jared sat back, ostensibly prepared to listen, but he left the air between him and Rafael Santiso electric with challenge. Adrenalin was pumping through Christabel. She seethed over the word misconception, all primed to pounce on any clarification she knew was false.
Rafael frowned momentarily as though gathering his thoughts, then with an open-handed gesture that suggested he had nothing to hide, he said, “Let me explain to all of you that when Bernhard Kruger died, the arrangements made in his will were not to the liking of two powerful factions within the company. It was…a dangerous time.”
His gaze swung directly to Christabel. “The precautions I put in place to protect you and Alicia were necessary. I know you felt imprisoned and you saw me as your gaoler.” He shook his head ruefully. “There was nothing I could do to alter your view. In effect, it was true. At the time, I believed it was the only way of discharging my duty as Bernhard’s appointed trustee.”
If it was an appeal for her understanding, it fell on stony ground. Christabel stared back at him, unmoved. She was sure he had Laurens’s blood on his hands, and it would only be a matter of time before he’d be planning Alicia’s demise, as well.
He held her gaze, determined on getting through to her. Seeing her resistance he pressed, weighting his words with very deliberate purpose. “I was more aware than you were of how quickly, how ruthlessly, a life can be snuffed out when that life can influence what happens to a fortune.”
Was he warning her? Threatening her?
He paused, looking for fear in her eyes? Christabel could feel the pulse beat in her temples but she would not bend to any pressure from him. Jared would stop it somehow. Jared and his brothers.
“Remember Laurens?” Rafael continued in a softer tone.
A taunting reminder that her husband was dead? That Jared, too, could be dead if she didn’t come to heel?
“It was not an accident that killed your husband, Christabel.”
The shock of that open admission jolted her into speech. “I never believed it was,” she flared at him, then couldn’t stop the churn of truths that had driven her to take the course she had. “To me the only question was…who was behind his removal from the Kruger power pyramid? And the answer…” She stood up, needing to fight, to force him into more admissions. “…the answer, Rafael…was written in the outcome.”
Her fists pressed onto the surface of the table as she leaned over it, pouring out the line of logic that couldn’t be refuted by the man who’d profited most by Laurens’s death.
“His death served your purpose so very neatly, putting you at the head of the South American network in his place, which brought you directly into Bernhard’s inner circle. It gave you the chance to win his confidence and you do that so well, Rafael…winning people’s confidence. You got it all, didn’t you? And before Alicia is eighteen, no doubt you’ll find a way to eliminate her, as well.”
The blistering indictment had no visible effect on him. He sat quite still.
There was a breathless silence all around the table. A pin dropping would have been a shattering sound. Christabel realised she was trembling and abruptly sat down, breathing hard as though she’d run a long race. Jared took her hand, pressing warmth and reassurance.
Hans Vogel coughed and leaned forward, looking as though he was about to protest. He was a heavy-set man, bald and bespectacled, with a bullish authority that didn’t suffer fools gladly. Christabel glared at him, refusing to be reduced to a mere cipher he could roll over.
Rafael Santiso simply raised his hand and the lawyer settled back again. “So I was the bête noir all along,” he softly mused, then looked inquiringly around the table. “And this you all know—Christabel’s belief that I had her husband murdered?”
Nathan, Miranda, Jared and Tommy all remained silent, watching him, giving him nothing to hit off.
Elizabeth spoke, shock evident in her tone. “You didn’t inform me, Jared.”
“I didn’t know of it until last night,” he answered quietly. “And it was irrelevant to the action being taken this morning. I wanted you to bring them here. It’s the best place to deal with the situation. We were all agreed on that and since you now know the score…” He swung his gaze to the man who’d charmed his mother “…let him answer the charge.”
To Christabel’s ear, there was a relentless beat in Jared’s voice that carried the message it was Rafael and his men who were cornered, not her and Alicia. She squeezed his hand, her courage lifting with having him so staunchly on her side. Rafael Santiso shook his head, as though in disbelief at finding himself in this position. His running glance from Nathan to Tommy left him in no doubt that the King brothers were sitting in judgment on him. Christabel wondered if he was remembering the country he’d flown over to get here, whether the isolation of it was hitting him now.
Then his gaze targeted her, snapping her mind back to red alert. He thought she was the weak one to be worked upon, twisted around. Not today, she silently vowed.
“You hid your suspicion well,” he remarked, displaying no hint of acrimony over her accusations. “I would have corrected it, or asked Bernhard to correct it, had I realised you believed me to be behind Laurens’s death.”
“As you well know, Bernhard is beyond speaking for you,” Christabel retorted, showing her scepticism.
He shrugged. “The train of events will speak for him. As it was, you were deliberately cocooned from what was going on. You were heavily pregnant. There was concern for both your health and the child’s.”
Another reasonable stance. Christabel would have none of it. She attacked straight back. “When I spoke of my doubts about the accident to Bernhard, he dismissed what I said out of hand, Rafael. Why should I even begin to believe what you say of that time?”
“It was men’s business, Christabel. You were a young woman of twenty-two. You lived under Bernhard’s wing for almost three years. From your own experience of him, do you really imagine he would discuss something so personal as the murder of his son and heir with you?”
He paused, giving her time to remember the old man’s patriarchal arrogance and his limited view of his daughter-in-law, then pressed home a truth she could not deny. “Your only function to Bernhard Kruger was to be a good mother to his grand-daughter.” His voice softened as he added, “In that, may I say, you have always excelled.”
Christabel instantly bridled.
“I advise you that repeating Bernhard Kruger’s attitude towards Christabel is not acceptable,” Jared inserted coldly. “At this point, facts will serve you better than any sentiment which reinforces her position as Alicia’s mother and ignores the respect due to her as a person in her own right.”
Once again she was surprised at how closely attuned Jared was to her feelings and took deep comfort in how at one they were.
Rafael raised a challenging eyebrow to Christabel. “Have I accurately summed up your situation in the Kruger household?”
“Yes. Before and after his death when you took over,” she answered bitterly, all the old resentments at being treated like a brainless chattel burning through her. “I was very young and very naive to have ever married Laurens in the first place. But then you banked on that, didn’t you?”
He actually looked surprised at her reading this much into the part he’d played. “It was your choice, Christabel.”
“Under pressure from my parents.” Her eyes hotly accused him of being the source of that pressure. “You brokered a deal with my father. Don’t bother denying it. He confessed it after I fled to Rio to get help from my family. A bigger better jewellery business in exchange for a daughter to beget another Kruger heir.”