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"Did something happen between you and Adrian?", Bryan inquired.

"What do you mean?",I asked nonchalantly.

"Well...I am just trying to find the cause behind Adrian's firing a shit ton of people from the office. There are just two people in this world who could make him that angry, as far as I know. Since his dad is still on bed rest, I thought the fight might have happened with you.", Bryan said, from the other end of the phone.

"Why didn't you ask him rather than guessing it's me?", I said, trying to avoid his question.

"Do I want to get killed? Ever since he has found out that I have been seeing Charlotte, he has been distant so until he finally accepts my dating his sister, I'd rather not interact with him when he is angry."

"Umm...well he kind of found out that I was seeing Blake tonight.",I sighed.

"So? Blake is your boyfriend, you can do that."

"Yeah! But not after I kissed Adrian.", I bit my lower lip, anticipating Bryan's reaction.

"You...WHAT!", he screamed.

"I know, it was a stupid thing to do and probably even selfish. I just...suddenly everything in my life is revolving around Blake, his lies and his schemes but when I was with Adrian last night, everything was so peaceful and quiet, I guess I just wanted a little bit of comfort and happiness before all hell broke loose, again. But then I made the stupid decision of calling Blake while I was still inside the penthouse and ruined everything."

"Holy shit! But why did he kiss you back? As far as he knows, you are with Blake.", Bryan said.

"I don't know. Too much to drink I guess or maybe he might have figured that I would break up with Blake after, anyway.", I said, turning the car in the direction the GPS pointed towards.

"So you could be meeting up with Blake to do that, right?",Bryan asked.

"I tried to tell him that but the tone of my conversation with Blake gave it away."

"Tone of...you mean flirting?"

"Yeah! That.", I sighed, "Anyways, let's get back to what we are here for. Adrian, we can handle later.",I shook my head," I am reaching Blake's house in a couple of minutes. I hope you remember what we have planned."

"Remember? I have it memorised."

"In that case, what can go wrong, right?", I said uneasily.

The moment I stopped outside Blake's house, I started feeling that this was all a bad idea.

"What if he doesn't confess?", I asked, uncertainty suddenly hitting me like a train.

"He has to. Just get him high enough and try not to piss him off, in any case."

Blake's house, more like a giant manor was outside the city. When I said quiet place, he really did find a quiet place. A little too quiet maybe. This, according to the map was the only property here. The closest one would be a flying club but that was a good five minutes away.

If he tried to kill me, well, I don't know what I'd do. I really should not have done this all by myself.

"I won't.", I said, anxiously looking at the empty road ahead of me.

"You can not. He goes crazy when he is drunk. Last time he go..."

"Got into an ugly fight at a bar and was arrested. I know. You have reminded me about this for over a thousand times today...Okay. I'm here. I'm going in."

"All the best. Don't screw up.", Bryan said.

"I can't afford to."

I put the phone-that Steven had given me-in my handbag so that Bryan could record Blake's confession from the other end.

Let's hope the odds are in my favor because if they are not...well, I could only imagine.

I walked up to the door and rang the bell. Blake opened the door himself and let me in,"There you are! I have been waiting."

"Well, it's a long way from upstate New York.", I smiled.

"That's exactly why I chose it. I am in the public eye all the time when I am working so when I need to relax, I come here. You know, quiet place.",he winked and I smiled, getting the reference.

That wink would be so much more charismatic if he did not have blood on his hands.

I sat down on the sofa, looking around the house...more like mapping the house just in case I had to run as I placed the phone Blake had tabs on, on the table.

Blake handed me a drink and took one for himself from the side table as he sat down next to me.

I took a sip and then made a confused face when I didn't recognise the taste that I expected the colourful liquid to have.

"Is it not good?", Blake frowned.

"Where is the alcohol?", I mirrored his expression.

"Oh! That is a mocktail. I don't keep liquor in the house anymore."

"So you don't drink at all?", I asked, surprised.

Shit! This is such a great start.

"I tend to lose control over my behavior when I'm drunk. I do have a few now and then but I try to keep it limited."

"Haw! That is a sheer waste of good Cabernet.", I said, looking disappointed and almost sad.

"Cabernet?", He asked, confused.

"The wine I brought for us.",I explained, taking out a tall box with a Cabernet label out of my handbag.

"Oh! Um...", Blake looked at me nervously.

"Come on!Just a few. Anyways, you won't be needing control for too long",I winked at him.

Yuck! I could cringe at my own line. That sounded disgusting. What all would I have to do to make this bitch confess?!

He laughed and then accepted my suggestion,"Fine. But just one."

"Okay. Where is the kitchen?", I said, a little too hurriedly.

He gave me a questioning look but I laughed it off,"What? A girl can have a drink, can't she?"

"That way.", he pointed, smiling.

At the pace at which it was beating, my heart could drop out of my chest any moment now.

I picked up the box and made my way to the kitchen. I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself. This was already harder than I thought it would be.

I picked two wine glasses and poured wine in mine. His, I just filled half. The wine bottle I had bought was relatively smaller than the box it was in. So I had easily sneaked in another small bottle. This bottle, I emptied into Blake's drink, making it a point to remember which glass it was.

The bottle had Scottish Balkan in it. With eighty eight percent alcohol, an overdose could kill a man but half a glass, I felt was more than enough to get Blake talking. After all, it was one of the strongest drinks in existence.

If he could still stay sober after this, I had another bottle in my car as a plan B. Best part about this was that Blake wouldn't suspect a thing. The drink was colorless, odourless and tasteless. No wonder it took Steven all of yesterday to find it. Well, I might not be the best judge of character but I was damn good at planning revenge, that was for sure.

Now all I had to do was get the drink down his throat, without him passing out and then I could let the drink do the talking while Bryan recorded everything.

This was going to work out. It had too!

I went back to where Blake was and handed him his drink before I sat down next to him. I did my level best to engage him in small talk for as long as I could, without him suspecting anything.

I slowly broached the topic of Adrian's family once I felt that the Balkan was starting to have an effect on Blake.

"The Greys have so many cars, I don't even think they have used most of these cars. Most of them just sit as trophies, collecting dust. I mean even after the accident, Adrian could have used one of his other cars but nope, he went all out to buy a brand new one.", I provoked Blake.

"Well, Adrian is quite the show-off. It is one of the reasons why I hate him.", Blake said.

"Well, if you hate him so much, why don't you do something about him?", I said, testing dangerous waters.

"What do you want me do, kill him?", He laughed. Blake wasn't trying hard enough to mask his emotions. I hoped that it was because of the alcohol's effect.

"I am surprised neither of you has tried that yet. You both are supposed to be what? Arch nemesis, right?", I pressed further. By now, my hands were freezing,even though the heater was on.

I was literally waiting for the moment where he'd go...bitch you thought and then proceed to kill me like in every horror movie.

"You really asking me that?", He raised an eyebrow.

I laughed,"Well, I mean it. You both loathe each other and have all the resources in the world to do it so why not? It's a great way to eliminate competition."

"Maybe we have tried but it didn't work out.",he suggested.

Okay! This was getting somewhere. I drew in a breath of relief.

"When did you try?",I asked bluntly.

"Why does this conversation feel like an interrogation?",he frowned.

Oh no! Wrong move Vanessa!

"Well it is an interesting topic and you are my boyfriend, so I can ask, can't I?", I smiled innocently, batting my eyelashes. I guess he really was drunk...or else he would have noticed the beads of sweat forming on my forehand and trickling down my face.

"Hmm. Well, in that case, very recently.", He gave me a vague answer as he smiled, probably reminiscing what happened.

Even sitting next to him disgusted me right now. This was the man that killed an innocent man and brought another close to his death bed.

I should have given him some more Balkan and let him die of alcohol poisoning, when I had the chance.

I swallowed a hateful gulp of wine,"So what did you do?"

"Well, it all started this December...", Blake smirked and then went on to confess how he committed his crime. From how he paid Rebecca to do some snooping on Adrian to the actual accident where he paid a truck driver to hit the car, he spiller everything.

Well, he was surely going to regret all of this, next morning.

"Hmm. Now what?", I asked.

"I don't know yet. The President of Montexo wasn't in Seattle when I went there . His secretary said that he needed to fly out to Japan to see his sister who wasn't keeping well. When he returns, I'll get that deal.", Blake said, turning his head towards the ceiling and letting out a tired sigh.

"Sister? Well!", I smiled, remembering my call to Mr. Salvatore.

"Wow! You are quite a smart guy.",I said, pretending to be impressed.

"That I am." He said, raising his glass and then finishing the spiked wine in it.

"Hey! Why don't you go get us some dinner while I go to the washroom.", I suggested.

"Dinner is ready upstairs."

"Oh! Nice, then you go wait upstairs while I come back from the washroom, okay?", I smiled and he nodded, pointing to the bathroom.

I picked up the phone Blake had tabs on and then went inside. Once I shut the door, I drew a huge sigh of relief. This was all going to be over soon and I was going to walk out of the lions's den unscathed.

I changed Bryan's name to Dad in my contact list. Why ? Well, my escape plan was simple.

I was to go to the washroom and the moment I told Blake about that, Bryan would cut the call on the phone inside my bag and stop recording. I would change his contact name in the other phone and then go back to Blake. Exactly four minutes after cutting the call, Bryan would call me again but this time on the phone that I had just changed his name on so that I could pretend that Dad had called me and I needed to leave urgently. I would get out of here and then go to the police station directly and then Blake would be sent to jail.

It was all just a matter of a few minutes now...

I went outside to pick up my bag but it wasn't there. I assumed that Blake had taken it upstairs so I went up. Blake was there indeed and so was my bag.

"I am here.", I smiled and put my phone on the table.

"Let's have dinner.", Blake said, taking out food on a plate and placing it before me.

The food smelled delicious but wasn't very familiar. I sat down anxiously and cut through the food on my plate with a spoon and smiled at a Blake as I painfully swallowed it down my parched throat.

Why hadn't Bryan called? It was over ten minutes now. Did he forget? Did Adrian call him for some work? I could not sit here any longer. Every passing minute was testing now. I impatiently looked at my phone again and again as I finished my meal.

Blake suddenly held my hand from across the table, scaring me to death.

"Huh?", I loudly yelped before realising.

"You alright?", he asked.

"Sorry, I was thinking something."

I didn't know if it was possible but Blake looked a lot more sober than before. Where the hell was Bryan?

"That's a very nice bag.", Blake said, side glancing my prussian handbag.

What was he upto?

"Thanks..."I said, confused.

"I hope it has everything you came in with. Just look if you dropped something."

"Have I?", I asked.

"What?"

"Dropped something?", I asked.

"I don't know. Why don't you see for yourself.

"Um...give me a moment.", I said, taking my bag and rummaging through it's contents. Strangely the phone I had kept inside wasn't there.

The room was so quiet that I could hear every breath inhaled or exhaled.

He had my phone!

Blake had the phone Bryan was supposed to be recording with!

Did Blake see the phone when I went to the kitchen?

Did he cut the call before Bryan had recorded anything?

I looked up at him, straight into his murderous eyes,"Where is my phone?"

He held up my phone and smirked menacingly, " Right here, sweetheart."