The Gilded Cask: 1:00 AM
While Scott was building walls of protection, Theresa Blackwood was busy trying to tear them down.
She sat at the bar, her third martini sitting untouched in front of her. Her makeup was perfect, but her expression was one of pure, jagged ruin. Paul Clad sat beside her, his hand resting cautiously on the bar near hers.
"He chose her, Paul," Theresa whispered, her voice trembling with a cocktail of rage and grief. "He chose a girl who probably doesn't know how to pronounce 'Chateauneuf-du-Pape.' He humiliated my father. He broke the merger. He threw away us."
"Tess, maybe it's for the best," Paul said softly, his heart aching at the sight of her pain. "Scott is... he's a complicated man. He was never going to give you the softness you need. You deserve someone who doesn't have to be convinced to love you."
Theresa turned to him, her eyes narrowing. "Softness? I don't want softness, Paul. I want what is mine. I've spent twenty years grooming myself to be the Queen of Stone Industries. I won't let some foster-system stray take my crown."
"What are you going to do?" Paul asked, a note of dread in his voice.
Theresa leaned in, her voice dropping to a hiss. "Scott thinks he's blocked every legal way to hurt her. He thinks he's a genius because he talked to his grandfather. But he forgot one thing: Edna Rivers has a past. Everyone has a skeleton, Paul. And I have the money to dig until I find hers."
She reached out, grabbing Paul's hand. Her touch was cold. "You're a venture capitalist, Paul. You have contacts in the private intelligence sector. I need you to find out who Edna Rivers really is. Where did she come from? Who were her parents? There's a reason she was in that foster system, and I'm going to find the rot in her roots."
Paul looked at her—at the woman he had loved since they were children—and saw the monster the Stones had created. He should have said no. He should have walked away now that he had the chance.
But as she squeezed his hand, her eyes pleading for an ally, his resolve crumbled. "I'll see what I can find," he whispered.
. "But Theresa... if you do this, there's no coming back. Scott will never forgive you."
"He'll definitely thank me," she said, a chilling wicked smile touching her lips. "When I show him that his 'honest' girl is a lie and a fraud,he'll come crawling back to the only person who actually belongs in his world which is no one else but me".
She leaned her head on Paul's shoulder, using him for comfort while she planned the destruction of the only woman Scott had ever truly seen.
The Next Move
The battle lines are drawn. Scott has secured the company, but Theresa is hunting for Edna's secrets and she won't rest until she got it.