I was deep in sleep when I heard Vaughn's voice waking me up. Opening my eyes, the bright light from the windows blazed, and I plucked the pillow from my head and covered my eyes. "What time is it?" I asked him in a muffled voice. "It's eight in the morning," he responded. "Auden has been calling since six. It sounded urgent." He handed me the phone, and I sat up on the bed, putting the pillow aside. I called Auden immediately, and he answered on the second ring. "You b*stard, I have been looking for you since dawn. Did you oversleep and forget that we had a meeting?" "Yes," I responded calmly. The calmness in my tone made Auden shut up. "Okay. As suggested to Damien and Pa, I bought the largest shares in the Malta Daily LTD for both print and digital.""What?" I gasped. "I was only angry at that time. How much did that cost me?" Auden laughed. "Not much. Don't worry, your money is safe Mr. Billionaire." "Pfft shut up. What time is the meeting? I need to meet the team from

I tried to open my eyes, but they seemed too heavy. I could not move my body. The light above seemed to hit my eyes and then I blacked out again. When I came to again, I was lying on a bed. I opened my eyes and looked at my surroundings trying to get my bearing when I realized that I was still at the hotel, in one of the rooms. I tried to sit up, but my body was burning. I was in my underwear and all my clothes were placed by the seat. I could not remember what happened but there was a clear smell of perfume in the room. Vera Bexley's perfume! I hated that smell and I deduced that she had drugged me. I staggered to the couch and struggled to get dressed. I slowly walked to the bathroom and put my head under the sink. I needed to sober up. What did the damn woman do to me?After five minutes the haze had cleared, and I felt a little bit better. I walked to the door of the room and realized that she had chosen the room that Elaine and I used when we needed to rest. That f*cking b*

WADE'S POV Pacing up and down the office, I cursed. Vaughn had been compromised in this war that I had started when I returned to Valletta. The panic in Elaine's voice when she called me to say she couldn't reach Vaughn and that he had a meeting with Vera made my skin crawl.My mind raced back to Gideon's call demanding I rush up to the penthouse suite and when I walked into the room and saw Vaughn lying on the bed, I felt fear for the first time in ten years. My body trembled all the way to the hospital. The test results came, and I heaved a sigh of relief. But something kept nagging me at the back of my head.What was Vera's goal? I could not put a finger on it, but I knew that she would reveal it sooner or later. Auden walked into the office and immediately advised, "You need to calm down, Wade. Only then can you be rational and think of a plan to counteract this." "How? They drugged him, carried him to the hotel, and God knows what they did to him. Cleaned him up and then l

With it being a weekend, we all slept in. My phone rang and there was a text message from Uncle that made my body freeze. 'Wade, urgently come to my room.'Getting slowly out of bed so as not to wake Vaughn up, I rushed to the shower and a few minutes later I was strolling through the villa, headed to the west part of Uncle Malkiel's room.When I approached the wing, he was pacing up and down outside his door. I increased my steps and when he saw me, pulled me into the room and locked it. He paced by the couch and then said, "Wade, we have a huge problem. One of my friends from the congress party called me. Yesterday Sam met with some members, and he discredited the Malkiels. He said he had evidence to bring us down and that we should not be trusted. I suspect that is why Gideon left immediately after dinner because he accused the Secretary of State of supporting Beth Everette. The way his tone sounded in the accusation led to everyone believing that Mayor Beth and the Secretary of

Sam Bexley succeeded in releasing the picture to the media. A few media houses co-operated and pulled the article down. Only the bloggers remained adamant, and the articles were still online.Uncle Malkiel, Elaine, and Auden worked to quiet the story by releasing news of the art theft at the museum was a suspected inside job. We left Valletta the next day for Milan. Vaughn seemed to be in a better mood when we got to the house in Silo. He beamed with happiness. "You lived here for the past ten years?" he asked in wonder."Yes. Godfather bought this house when we settled here," I responded. Damien walked in and looked like a zombie as he toured the house. Vaughn scolded Gideon. "Don't leave him alone. You know that he will be sentimental since this was Morrice's house." "What the f*ck do you take me for? I am already threatened by the fact they were each other's first love. Who will understand me?" Gideon huffed. "Sorry." Vaughn put his arm across Gideon's shoulder. He nodde