"Jacques," Nicholas Schnee I said through his coughs. "I know my son has been running my company since I -"

"Dad, I can't do this anymore!" Nicholas Schnee II said, then sighing heavily. "It's too much stress, and it's your work, not mine. I'm happier as a member of the Atlesian military. Running a business was never going to work out for me, and we're struggling to continue to be profitable –"

"I can change that," Jacques said, sending the man a sympathetic and pointed look. "Nick, I know you and your wife want to return to the lives you had a year ago with her as a teacher and you as a high-ranking military official. Besides the point is that you don't need whatever small bit extra you've made off the company in the last year. Willow and I are more than stable, and –"

"I'm not sure my wife has anything that I would call 'trust' regarding you with our daughter," Nick began to pace. "More to the point, I'm concerned about Weiss and Whitley –"

"They're fine," Jacques said, a hint of indignance in his voice. "And I can manage whatever comes my way. As I was saying, however, you don't need, nor do you want the money that you've gotten extra. Emmett and Cristal are both in their thirties and have steady work. Your youngest daughter, Caitlin, is in grad school and still working on her PhD in neurobiology, while your youngest son, Ryan, is at university as well. You've never had any issues paying for your children's studies while maintaining your lifestyle. You don't want the company, and more than happy to take it off your hands and, of course, your father's."

Nick scowled at him for a moment but then nodded curtly. "If you don't do this right, I'm going to condemn you for –"

"That won't be necessary," Jacques said acidly. "And I will bring this company to profitability even with things being as bad as they are right now."

Nick glanced to his father and then stormed out of the room.

"I…" Nicholas I coughed again and motioned his lawyer towards him. "Bronson, I would like to officially alter my will. As the Schnee Dust Company is still in my possession with my son merely acting in my place as CEO and chairman of the board, I would like to formally – and, more importantly, legally – designate my grandson-in-law, Jacques Martin Gelè-Schnee as the inheritor of the company and all of its assets."

Jacques' lips curled up into a sick smile as he nodded.

"And," Nicholas I paused for a moment but then went on. "I would like to designate the remainder of my personal wealth to Jacques and Willow."

Bronson noted such and then presented the draft of the document to the man. "Is this what you want?"

Nicholas I eyed it carefully and then nodded. "Yes."

"I'll get this officially updated by the end of the day," Bronson informed him, slipping the paper into his bag alongside his other files. "Good day, sir."

"Many returns," Nicholas I began to cough violently again. "I don't know how much longer I have to live."

"Whatever happens, I'm sure it will turn out for the best," Jacques said as he sat down beside him. "I promise that I will take good care of your granddaughter and her children and, of course, your company. I won't let us become scandalized."

Nicholas I sighed. "I am not concerned about scandal. You love Willow, don't you?"

Jacques hesitated, uncomfortable with the lie he had continued to tell in order to get into the family.

"Jacques?" Nicholas I pressed. "Are you alright?"

"Of course," He said. "I'm simply…concerned about what your death might do to Willow."

"Everyone will accept what happens in due time," Nicholas I told him. "For instance, my two youngest grandchildren hold my wealth and divorce from their grandmother against me because I've spent several extended periods estranged from my son. I assume that was instilled in them by their mother as well as Emmett and Cristal, all things considered. Willow is my only grandchild that has ever respected my advice and choices, and I am so glad that her parents let her marry you. You're a better man than most, and I think you'll take this company in the direction it needs to go."

Jacques nodded. "That's my hope."

"You're a good man," Nicholas I broke off in another coughing fit. "And I trust you. You're going to take good care of everything. I know it."

"He did what?" Anne Schnee stared at her husband incredulously as she pushed her dyed-blonde hair over her shoulder. "He can't seriously think that's a good idea. Nicholas, you and I have never truly liked Jacques, but we didn't want to break Willow's heart either –"

"I know," Nick said, sighing heavily. "But it's up to my father, not us."

"Jacques is one of the people I refuse to speak with," Anne reminded him. "I don't take shit from people, much less people like him. Willow might not like to hear it, but I ain't gonna lie to our children with respect to what I think about their partners. I'm sorry, but your father is making a terrible choice here, and I am going to make that overwhelmingly clear to him."

Nick looked to her in near-shock. "Are you serious?"

"How often am I not?" She exclaimed. "This is a disaster! Winter has all but ghosted her father because the way he is, but no one has truly been able to prove that he's abusive – even Kiara said the evidence isn't enough and that the courts would favor him! Weiss is cold, emotionally distant, and Whitley is a…he is an entitled, inflated young man that has yet to learn that his life is only as seemingly good as it is because his part of the family has created a façade. No one knows who we are; we're not famous, and we're not sinfully wealthy. We are normal, upper-class people, and yet Jacques acts as if the entire world has to center around him, and his –"

"Anne," Nick said tiredly. "This isn't going to be as bad as it seems. Maybe we just need to take a step back, maybe we just need to let things lie for a while."

Anne snorted. "Because that's going to work well for us."

"Willow," Cristal said, pacing through the library in their grandfather's lavish home approximately a half hour from the limits of the city of Atlas. "You know he doesn't love you, and yet you stay. What I want to know is why."

The forty-year-old woman hesitated, brushing her white hair back. "I'm not sure I want to get into this with you."

"Winter is eighteen and attending Atlas Academy, and she knows that," Cristal reminded her. "Weiss too, and she's only sixteen. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that even Whitley knows that Jacques is after two things: power and money."

Willow scowled. "That's unhelpful."

"And you're being unreasonable," Cristal countered, glancing to her twin brother. "Emmett, what do you think?"

"I think you're running into another trap," He replied, causing their younger sister to start laughing dryly. "I doubt there's anything you could say that would change Willow's point of view."

"Most people stay the miserable bastards they are they're entire lives," Caitlin remarked as she leafed through a book whilst also adjusting her thick-rimmed, black glasses. "So, unless she's going to have a dramatic change of heart, I'm going to have to second that motion."

"Cristal, you and Emmett have very different relationships with your spouses than I do with mine," Willow sent her siblings a pointed look. "And I'm not going to get into Caity's shitty dating history."

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "I'm smarter than most people as it is, you can cut me some slack for making a few mistakes."

"All I'm saying is that Emmeline is a very different person than Jacques," Willow said as she addressed Emmett. "And your thirteen-year-old daughter is in a different situation than my children, not only because you knocked up Emmeline before you two were married. Didn't you two start dating when you were twenty and she was twenty-five and, a year later, she was pregnant with Carleigh?"

Emmett crossed his arms, irritably tossing back his shoulder-length white waves. "Shut up, Willow. That's not fair, and Emmeline and I love each other."

"Fine," Willow said, turning towards Cristal. "Ozpin is extremely affectionate with you, and, on top of that, he is constantly concerned about your nine-year-old Lana, seven-year-old Edward, and five-year-old Courtney."

"That's because we have a healthy, loving marriage," Cristal replied, then sighing. "That's what Emmett and Emmeline have too. Why is it that you're so resistant to the idea of divorcing Jacques? He hurts your children –"

"Everything is more complicated than that –"

"No, it's not –"

"Alright, I have a solution!" Twenty-eight-year-old Caitlin declared, eyeing her elder siblings critically. "How about I scan all of your brains while we have a discussion like this to help get to the core of this issue?"

Willow raised an eyebrow. "And you think that would help?"

Caitlin shrugged. "It would help me."

"Sounds kind of fun," Emmett said. "Although probably not helpful."

"Nothing is," Willow said, fidgeting with her wedding. "You have no idea what any of this is like, you really don't."

"In here," Jacques said, guiding the medical team into Nicholas I's room. "He's –"

"Nicholas…" Anne said gently as the man struggled to breathe while her son-in-law and the medics entered. "I just don't think you're in a state in which you can make the right decision well. You're incredibly sick, you've had memory problems, and you can't even speak without coughing. Please, reconsider."

"I can't," He barely croaked out. "Or, to be more accurate, I won't. Anne, I know you and I – let alone your family – have our differences, but I am not going to go back on the choices I have made. You and I are similar in that way, and I want you to know that I'm proud of you and Nick, and I am sorry for what I have done. It wasn't fair to anyone."

"Nicholas –" Anne started.

"I'm sorry," He began coughing violently again and looked to his son. "Nicholas, you are my only child and I named you after me so that you could be a better man than I am. Please…please don't lose sight of that."

"I won't," He said, sharing a worried look with his wife as the medics began to help Nicholas I so best they could as Jacques was by them as well. "Jacques, get out."

"Don't be like that," Jacques said with a haughty edge to his voice. "I care about your father as much as you do –"

"Jacques," Nicholas I struggled to push himself up as he continued to cough. "Don't…don't be greedy, or…or…or…"

The medics all but panicked as he broke off in another strain but, within a few minutes, Nicholas Schnee I fell limply against the pillows with his pulse leaving him and everything stopping within him forevermore. Anne Schnee looked at her husband with wide as he looked at his father in horror before he pulled her in close to him and began to cry. Jacques, with some sincerity, offered condolences as the medics ushered all of them out of the room and one called the coroner's office. Anne resisted the urge to cry herself; despite everything, there was not a vengeful bone in her body, and she felt horrible for everything that had happened and cursed herself for her anger. Nicholas II all but clung to his wife as he cried, and neither of them noticed as Jacques slipped out to begin review of the Schnee Dust Company's records and profits. Without even comprehending what the moment meant, all of what the Schnee family meant changed and a rift that had already existed only grew wider.

Author's Note: Although this 64 chapter story relates (through the examination of characters such as Emmett Schnee, Emmeline Ciel, Elizabeth Morrell, Karissa Mar, and Kiara Davis (Veni Vidi Vici), Cristal Schnee and Ozpin (The Dark Side Of The Moon), and Edward Ciel, Spencer Ciel, Brianna Ciel, Ronnie Ciel (Caught Up In The Grey)) to prior works, that knowledge is not integral to understand this story although feel free to take a look at those stories as well if they interest you.

~ xoxo, Semblance