Four Brothers and a Bride-Chapter 149

ASHER

Hugh Spellman has never looked smugger as he swirls a snifter of brandy in his hand with one leg crossed over the other in our living room. By his side, Liam sits, donning a white, unbranded tee-shirt and jean pants. Like his father, he smirks unabashedly. Mila is the only family member who sits with a little compassion coloring her cheeks.

Father draws in a deep breath and glances across the room at my brothers and I. The fire in his eyes have almost winked out. Our stocks have never crashed so low. Our reputation has never been this muddy. The negative outpouring of hate from the people that once worshipped the ground we walked on has been unbelievable.

Now, as we try to negotiate with Billion-Err who recently called us out for murders, Hugh is enjoying the fact that power has shifted hands. Following our nosedive, Spellman group has been basking in the euphoria of their upliftment after our downfall. Their company has directly benefitted from it and is currently topping.

"Liam?" Father repeats, the cool edge of his voice about to fray. He has spent the last few minutes justifying his right to privacy and alerting our guests to the dangers of their damaging posts but all seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Liam peels off his glasses. "Mr. Rollins, I have heard everything you have to say but my answer remains the same. I don’t fabricate lies on my blog. I get direct messages leaking information about the wrongs committed by influential families in our society which I only post after verification." He turns to his father with a humble look. "I failed my father once because I refused to take accountability for my actions. I nearly wrecked the company he built with his sweat and blood. Our relationship suffered because of it. I was estranged from my beloved family for almost a decade to the point that everyone forgot the Spellman family had a son."

His eyes twitches as he scans our faces. "I know you all would like to believe that I started my blog with an ill intent to personally attack your household but that’s not the case. I hold myself to the highest standards of impartiality and won’t hesitate to call out my own family if our errors are brought to Billion-Err’s attention. My father understands that." He glances at Hugh who bobs his head in agreement. "Unfortunately," Liam continues, wringing his hands, "my DMs constantly get flooded with your family’s secret more than any other. I don’t know why that is but if you’re trying to get me to ignore the messages, I won’t do it. I owe the people of this country the truth and you owe them your best behavior."

I ball my fist to strap down on the clawing urge to punch the daylights out of his smug face. We all know he doesn’t mean a word he just said. We all know he intentionally created the damn blog to take down my family-their biggest competition- so his could top the market. I keep my cool because I still have no idea what sort of evidence he as regarding the shopping mall accident, Tobias’ murder and every other accusation his last blog post teased about.

My eyes rake the Spellman family. They’re all a bunch of liars.

"Can you at least divulge the names of the people who leave you these messages about my family? I just want to interview them to know their source. The authorities have been monitoring my family like hawks. Charges are on the brink of being filed and all because some faceless and nameless people keep pedaling lies about my family. Can’t you understand the gravity of the situation?"

Liam tosses his hair back and stares at father. "I’m sorry but the system for leaving Billion-Err information is obviously anonymous. I wanted people to feel safe and free to share their truth."

"Or their lies." I cut in, earning a sharp look from father who had already warned us to allow him steer the conversation because of how hot-tempered we can be. I ignore him and lock eyes with Liam. "Did it ever occur you that a system like that could fester unfounded lies against innocent families?"

"Yes, it did. That’s why I never take any information at face value. I do my thorough investigation and verify such information before putting it out on my blog. I knew for a fact that the kind of content I put out will ruffle the feathers of powerful people and I needed to protect myself, especially since I was alienated from my family at the time. I guess it was a wise decision on my part because the truth behind my posts is the reason I walked out a free man after you had me arrested."

His eyes narrow to slit at that last part. It’s just like I guessed; he’s pissed at us. He’s holding a grudge. Despite how calm he’s being, I can tell he’s harboring a deep-seated hatred for us. I can see it in his eyes. My heart pounds as I wonder what else he knows and how he plans to ruin us in the guise of doing the society a service.

"Some of the information that has featured on your blog have to have been spilled by someone very close to us." Ashley cuts in, mirroring my defiance against father. "I wager you know exactly who that is." When Liam shrugs, Ashley inhales. "My soon-to-be ex-wife already confessed to being your major informant and leaking some sensitive family secrets to you, but nothing of the gravity of criminal accusations you’ve been posting. I want to know. Did that arrangement happen before or after you two started having an affair?"

The atmosphere chills as both men engage in a brief heated stare. However, a different chill flows from father’s direction as his ears twitch at Ashley’s words. Ashton bites down on his lower lip, then turns to give Ashley an icy look for ratting Demi out just to make a point.

I simply stifle a smile over Ashley’s wise move. Demi hasn’t unequivocally confessed to anything but if she’s indeed working with Liam, maybe we’ll find out soon.

"My relationship with Ms. Branson is unconnected to my blog. If she ever slipped me a tip anonymously, I wouldn’t know."

Ashton grits his teeth at the bold-faced lie but rather than engage with Liam who seems overprepared to deflect any missile thrown his way, he turns to Mila, the ostensibly weaker link in the family given her remorseful demeanor.

"How long have you known that your brother here was behind the blog that was wreaking havoc in my family?" Mila’s lips quiver but before she can respond, Ashton continues. "Did you also slip him information too? Was that the whole point of your pretentious affection for us while we considered you family? You came in here to spy on us?"

"ASHTON." Father calls in a low voice.

"Did you miss the part where Liam mentioned he has been alienated from our family?" Mila replied, rising. Her eyes are cool against the heat in Ashton’s. "I only came to know about his connection to the blog after his arrest so don’t apportion blames just because you aren’t prepared to believe Demi might have stabbed you in the back. If anyone within your family was slipping information to Billion-Err, it wasn’t me!" She sinks back in her seat with a conspicuous frown.

"We have every right to suspect you." Ashley presses on. "I personally asked you about Liam days before his arrest and you clearly lied about knowing him. How do you expect us to believe you are telling the truth this time around?"

"That’s enough!" Hugh chants, rising. "This is clearly a setup to hang the blame of your frustrations on my family. I just got reunited with my son after so many years. We have told you everything we can but it’s apparent that both father and sons were never prepared to take the bitter truth. I’m sorry that things have turned out this way for your family and company, Brett. My apologies. But like my son explained, he only posts the truth. He doesn’t fabricate lies or alter the truth. I advise you figure out a way to plug the leak within your household to stop your dirty secrets from flowing out and into the blog." He gives father a childish pat on the shoulder. "All the best."

A gust of silence envelops the living as they all leave.

"What was that talk about Demi dating Liam and leaking information to him?" Father asks with arched brows the second we are all alone.

***

My cheek stings after father’s hot slap. All I did was bring him up to speed about Demi being Camille Branson’s daughter.

"FOOLS!" Father yells at us. "YOU’RE ALL A BUNCH OF FOOLS! How could she have gotten past you? Perhaps, I am the bigger fool for choosing to trust you all when I could have handled the investigation myself. You, Asher. Didn’t you promise me you were going to run a clean sweep after her marriage contract with Ashley?"

"Father, I apologize. I did do my due diligence but nothing came up. I even had her phone tapped and her movement monitored for weeks afterwards but she was clean. I’m sorry I failed you."

Father paces around angrily, his breathing labored. "Where the hell is she now? Get Duncan and his men to drag her here by her hair if they must. We must stop her from doing further damage."

Ashton walks up to father. "You won’t hurt her. you hear me? You want to question her, fine, but your thugs won’t harm a hair on her head, you get that?" Like a reflex action, his hand shoots up and stops father’s incoming slap. They lock eyes for a hot minute.

"You ungrateful bastard! You fool! Everything we did was to protect you and this is how you behave? I should have had you thrown in jail at the time! After all my efforts to shape you into a powerful man, you go and fall face first in love with a nobody? What’s the point of having a bunch of incompetent sons? You all seem pretty determined to raze my empire to the ground with your recklessness..."

Ashley and I move forward simultaneously to stand behind our brother, making father reconsider his harsh words.

Father wrenches his arm away from Ashton’s grip. "Great, now you’re only missing the sick one."

"No, they’re not."

Our heads crane towards the door where Ashal stands with a carry-on in one hand. "There isn’t a sick one in the group anymore, father." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

He leaves his bag and walks up to us with both hands jammed in his pockets. "We are just four incredible brothers with distinct personalities not everyone can handle. You don’t have to be mean just to distract from the fact that your imperfections are the core reason our family was plunged into this mess."

"Fresh out of rehab and he already thinks himself a normal man." Father scoffs. "I didn’t expect this rubbish from all of you but then, you can’t really fight blood, can you?"

Our eyes flash at his hurtful insinuation. He calls Duncan and some other men.

"FIND DEMI AND BRING HER HERE AT ONCE. YOU HAVE ORDERS TO BRING HER ALIVE BUT NOT NECESSARILY IN ONE PIECE." He glares at us. "IF ANY OF YOU DARES TO INTERCEPT THIS, I’LL GLADLY DISOWN AND DISINHERIT HIM!"

"Father, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Demi knows way more secrets than you think and she clearly threatened that everything will be revealed on the news if any harm comes to her."

"Dead men tell no tales." Father casually throws back at me.

Before Duncan can leave, Ashton grabs the gun tucked behind the guard’s back and brandishes it at father.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing?" Father snarls at him with dim eyes.

"If you bring Demi in, she won’t be the only one being interrogated here. I have some burning questions of my own too and they are for you, Brett Rollins, courtesy of a tip I received anonymously months ago, a tip from a stranger who knows more about you than anyone else and wants nothing but your destruction. I tried my best to ignore it but every day you continually raise my doubts so Billion-Err may very well receive this tip if you push me to the wall by touching Demi!"

"Rubbish. You can’t fool me with those lies. Get on with it, Duncan!" He turns to leave.

"What exactly happened to our biological parents, father? How did we come to become your sons?" Ashton yells, shoving the gun into Duncan’s hands. "You can either tell us the truth or Billion-Err will after their investigation!"