- Chapter Five -
Rotten Apples
Not worth anyone's attention when they had gathered together in the living room, that all changed when the screen lit up like a bonfire on a cold summer night. Font bold and flashing a lemony gold on top of the standard fire engine red to be purposefully eye-catching, the words 'breaking news' suddenly appeared on the screen and nabbed everyone's attention. Frankly the thief was more invested in the story being laid out and what that meant for his wallet, yet the woman noticing what was being televised interrupted that goal, leaving him with little other choice than to look over. That was something that he and the heiress had in common, but the surfer only seemed to care because of all the bright colors being thrown out.
Obliging the means of his livelihood, the grizzled brunette lifted his gaze from the almost grown woman nuzzling up to her mother to check out what was so engrossing as to pause the narrative. Smoldering in an onyx haze, the building being covered initially appeared to be a picturesque library or a pristine campus. Could have been some kind of other government establishment in some patriotic corner of the United States with how nicely the bricks were tanned and mortared. Fenced off with heavy iron bars and shaded by twin elm, the plaque over the archway was bronze and gold.
Ah.
Engulfed by the hungry flames of a homemade blowtorch and the rest blasted away by an explosive with a sizable blast radius (the most likely offenders being Shoreline's excavation tool of choice or the favored security measure of paranoid pirates), there was next to nothing left. Though she had probably never even seen of list of all the things her paternal linage had donated through the years, just seeing the melted moniker among the destruction couldn't have been easy after waking up with the fear of thinking that the family name was as dead as her forebears. Despite the momentary break in her bad luck, Drake couldn't help but feel bad for how much this was visibly twisting the poor kid.
"That building..." Daniella pulled away from her mother as much as the older woman would allow, her index finger shaking when she pointed it at the screen. Effort to speak still very real for the teen, there just wasn't enough steam to clarify how she recognized the rubble.
In truth, the heiress had a long history of visiting that exact site. Leftmost elm being closer to the staff building where her step-father had worked, both the girl and the first tree she had ever climbed bore the scars of a broken limb. So what if she had disobeyed the rules of remaining in the courtyard at all times? Her mother's husband had been to blame when he frightened her so badly that she lost her footing. Years later during a meteor shower, when she had showed off the spot she had taken the tumble, Daniella had gotten her first kiss underneath the emerald canopy. Not all pleasant experiences, the teen had been locked in the storage closet on numerous occasions, smashed her finger to the point of needing a splint when a door closed on it, and gotten so drunk that she had misplaced her chucks. She really loved those shoes too.
Gathering that this blip was of importance from the attentive way that the bespectacled woman fixated on the screen, Sam picked up the remote to turn up the volume. If he had to endure spending this time dancing in the woman's palm, he may as well educate himself on as many "facts" as he could.
"-devastating blow. While the Adler family had donated generously since its foundation, it was Rafe Adler that first opened the doors to the general public in celebration of the birth of his daughter. In a statement issued shortly before he tragically met his death traveling through Madagascar, the new father laid out his wish that the girl follow his example to strive for excellence."
Just like Mama always said. Glad to hear as much coming from someone else, the teen cracked a small smile - she idolized the image she had built of her father, and to be told that she was doing his memory honor meant the world. Add in the timing of her darkest day, and it lifted her spirit considerably.
On the take and spinning the truth to suit the pro-Adler agenda, the salt-and-pepper journalist added more than three of the four viewers were comfortable with. For the ex-con, the barrage of paparazzi snaps and additional information just made the target on his client's back that much bigger, but for the women it was much more personal.
"Now nearing her eighteenth birthday little Daniella has yet make her own mark on the world, however our investigators reveal that she is indeed following in her father's footsteps by volunteering within the community. Last seen twenty-four hours ago at this very spot, when asked by members of our team, three of the bombing survivors reported that Daniella failed to report in for the day. Though it was no doubt initially shocking to her peers and superiors, this latest development comes on the heels of a break-in at the home of prestigious international businesswoman Bai Wen. Wen - who is also the mother of Daniella Adler - was formerly employed by the Adler family prior to taking over after the tragic death of her boss and lover-"
Eyes narrowing at the screen as if her stare could go through the glass and kill the reporter on the other side, it was clear that Bai had not approved of this report. "I earned my position, thank you."
Interruption meaning nothing to the live broadcast, the story resumed, "Transition to power less than smooth, the fearsome black widow's name once more became recognizable to the everyman when she recently married again, this time to a notorious shipping mogul purported to-" And mute.
Through his travels and various other dealings, Drake had heard in passing who Bai had moved on with, but the doe-eyed youth listening in didn't need to hear what her late step-father was. That is if she didn't know already, which from the look of naive innocence radiating from her, the brunette would guess that she was in the dark about a lot of things. All the same, silencing the audio did nothing to keep the girl from seeing a leaked color photograph of the family leaving the funeral.
Irrelevant as it was to the situation at hand, Sam was amazed to see that beneath the aftermath of what was surely a harrowing escape, Bai hadn't really changed all that much. Physically speaking, time had etched deeper lines into the corners of her eyes and the stress of work had caused shoots of silver through her hair, but her features remained as stern as ever. Glasses the same frame type as they had been twenty years ago, the ebony suit in the picture was sharp and opened just enough to remind everyone that she was a woman. A gold band hung from a fine chain of leaf-like links around her neck, and a netted veil framed her low cheeks, but there were no other accessories visible. Personality-wise, she wasn't showing much of an improvement.
Case in point, the woman still was not above attacking the ex-con for anything she possibly could. "To be fair, I suppose that there are those that would make the argument that there different ways to earn your keep. But you'd know all about that, yes?" Sapphires dancing over to where the clueless surfer sat in awe of the discovery that the teen was from old money, Bai really sunk her teeth in the poison apple. "Tell me true, it crossed your mind to take advantage of the situation, didn't it?" Kissing the side of her daughter's head once more, she cooed to Daniella without really taking her eyes off the brunette. "You're such a pretty little thing, so much like your father."
Unable to readily recall the last time he spoken to Bai, the cord she just struck confirmed that his memory failed for good reason. At the core of it, it had been a mutual decision made of equal parts cowardice and having nothing to say to one another. Personal relationship aside - if the short-lived icy fire of yesteryear could be called such - he was just as much to blame for the demise of her daughter's father as anyone. More so even, considering the fact that of all the people directly (or indirectly) involved in the hunt for Avery's treasure, Bai had known Sam the best. Shouldering his fair share of guilt, in his worst moments he would tell himself that there was also Nadine's involvement to account for, however the explorer had no problem imagining that the one-time leader of Shoreline had paid her respects and owned her share of the responsibility.
Old adage about hindsight a kick in the boys, she might have been the only one among them with even a shred of decency. Not that he would ever admit that he found Nadine to be admirable in that light.
Back when it should have been time to say that he was sorry to the little girl for having to grow up without her father, there was a reason why it had slipped his mind to mention to his little brother that Rafe had left behind a family. Nathan would have been on him about making amends to a freaking baby - which Sam agreed that he owed her that much - yet he couldn't find it in himself to feel remorse. Rafe was a monster therefore she was so much better off for not knowing him, and on the other side of that coin was the argument of self-preservation. If he hadn't thrown his brother that broken sword, neither of them would be here today. Given how far he had fallen at the climax, there wasn't even a guarantee that Rafe would have survived the ship going under and the mountain face collapsing on his own.
"Mama!" Barely able to take a compliment as it was, after hearing about herself on the news the teen was quickly growing less comfortable with all the attention she was getting. Whatever pride she felt at the notion of living up to her father's life had instantly been vaporized.
Pinching Daniella's jaw with a jade manicure filed to lethal points, the bespectacled woman shook the girl's head with a sigh, "You do lack his energy though. The man knew that he was a catch, but it takes so much work to show you that there's something worthwhile in your reflection. I suppose it was inevitable that I would make a mistake somewhere with you."
Wounded by the remark, the heiress may have made her mouth quirk up in accordance with her mother's molding, but Sam could see in her eyes that she was anything but happy. "I know," still sounding like gravel being run through a blender, it was worth asking if she would always sound this way from now on. At that observation, the question became what had she even sounded like in the first place? "I need to work on that."
"So, correct me if I'm wrong here, but wasn't there a reason you sent your kid here?" Defending the girl without really defending her, the protective elder brother once more saw the teen as a proxy for Nathan. Sorry a substitute as she would have been, it was difficult to not make the connection. "Or did you set this whole thing up just so you could roast two birds with one stone?"
Civilian piecing together the identity of who the two women were and what they were probably doing there, Logan came back to the whole cradle-robbing thing. "Okay, so I get that the bae from the funeral sent the daughter of the dead rich dude ahead, but why? And what gives with the timeframe? I'm pretty sure that the daughter of the dead rich dude can't talk right now cause she spent all night crying, thinking that she had just lost her mom too. I know that if anything were to happen to my mom, I'd be a wreck. I definitely wouldn't think twice about banging the first person I saw." Shaking his head, he rotated the ring on his finger and thought a quick apology to his absent wife.
Both Sam and Daniella were quick to deny that anything of that nature had transpired through the night, the girl using the shield of her pedigree to hide behind while he had just refuted the act. His moral compass may not have pointed true north, but it wasn't that broken. Alas, all it took to convince the blood-thirsty shrew that something untoward had occurred was to take a good, hard look at her little girl.
Already against the man from the get, she just had to take this opportunity to really see her daughter for the first time since arriving. So far as she was concerned, the young woman wearing one of the man's shirts with little else was all the proof she required to issue the guilty sentence. Ignoring how distraught the girl must be, that it had been raining for days, that there been precious little time to prepare, all she could think about was how disappointed she was in Daniella. The one from Panama had a certain charm about him, there was no denying that, but to cave so easily...
"So that's how it is. I never expected much from you," leering at the ex-con, the businesswoman wasn't quite certain when she had let go of her daughter, only that they might as well have been on opposite ends of the room from one another, "but you I had high hopes for. I suppose you really are your father's daughter after all." She always knew that the one from Panama was no good, yet Sam wasn't the only one she was condemning.
Apparently a talented actress on the side, Bai appeared on the surface to recover from the upset as she turned her attention to Logan. Each seated on either side of the heiress, he was still close enough to shudder at the woman's blistering cold shoulder. Gulping deep from the back of his throat - harder even than when Sam had come in with the shotgun - the blonde was terrified of what she was going to say to him. As he had been the one to bring it to her attention that her little girl probably was less than pure, it probably wasn't going to be pretty.
Quieter than before to keep the black fury coursing through her veins at bay, the bespectacled woman inclined her head at the unexpected addition to the party. "Fortunately for you both, we've wasted enough time. I suggest that we get a move on to your safe house before someone else finds us - if the likes of your little surfer can find you here, anyone can track us. Really how they haven't already taken the girl and left you to die is beyond me."
The girl. Not my little girl, just the girl.
Unable to fully grasp how devastating it was to think for even a moment that her mother was dead and gone, her mom making it clear how little she thought of her daughter now was a whole different kind of pain. Under no circumstances was Daniella the type that could do such a thing; not entirely on her own merits, she was just too awkward and inexperienced to seize the opportunity. Not to mention that this was a stranger she was being accused of doing something with! Go figure that the one time anything had even come close to happening, no one was any wiser, but when nothing even remotely sexual happened, it was being treated like she was some tart!
Virtue still very much in tact (right?), Daniella had dealt with her mother long enough to know that the woman wasn't going to let this go. Regardless of the actual events, she had made up her mind and settled on the worst-case scenario. However that didn't mean that the girl was going to just accept the lies, "I'm still-"
Withering the rest of the defense with a single look, Bai didn't want to hear it. She never did. Wondering in some distant corner of her mind how her father would have handled this situation and the false accusations being hurled about, the teen fell silent. What mattered was that she knew the truth, Mr. Drake knew the truth, her ancestors all saw what really happened, so why fight? Her mother was already critical enough, and who knew, this might even make her lower the bar... Doubtful, but the heiress could dream.
Not to sound insensitive, but if the harpy was right and there was someone after her daughter, the more time they wasted only increased the risk of their location being discovered. He also knew that if they remained on the topic much longer, it wouldn't be long before the mother lioness went for the jugular with extreme prejudice. Asphyxiation (and that other kind of kinky stuff the woman was into) not his cup of tea, personally the man was deeply opposed to blacking out at anyone's hands.
"Okay, who exactly wants the kid dead and why?" Sitting back in the chair, when he tapped his fingers against the armrest, the aging adventurer noticed that his hands were shaking ever so slightly. The heiress was alright so far as he could tell, but if he had to spend much more time with her mother, it wouldn't be long before he snapped and threw away months of hard work.
Making no attempt to pretend that her daughter was her favorite person in that moment, the businesswoman focused instead on buffing the dirt and gore off of her cloudy claws. Rubbing the surface with hands singed by gunpowder, she refused to look up from her task. "I recommend that you start preparing to move while I talk. But by all means, don't let me tell you how to do your job."
Openly mocking her, Sam immediately stood up at the invitation and began to move about the hotel room. Keeping his ears perked as he packed, the adventurer was actually glad that he didn't have to feel obligated to face a harpy that had as little interest in meeting his eye at any point during the debriefing. Grabbing the emergency pack he kept in the closet, the pickpocket began by restocking the empty medical supplies with what was in the restroom. If he had to babysit the klutz, they would obviously need all the bandages.
"Shortly after Daniella had been born, her father and I had came to a certain understanding. He agreed that as his legacy, she would be entitled to her inheritance at the age of eighteen." Rafe and Bai had taken ages to hammer out all of the thorny details, and the thief recalled Knot being left with the new born so often during that period that several of the men joked that the girl would probably end up calling him daddy instead of her actual father. "One of the conditions were that I would forfeit all rights as her mother if I were to ever go against him. I broke that promise just before he died."
Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no. Literally on the edge of his seat to fight for it if need be, Drake was promised good money and was going to collect. Even if he hadn't done little enough at this point to earn it. About to raise the issue of his fee, the woman cut him off in favor of answering to her daughter. Oh, bfd, so what if the kid had been lied to her entire life about being rich, she still had years ahead of her for therapy! He, however, no longer had that kind of time ahead of him.
Briefly granting the one from Panama a leer as he poked his head out from scavenging for antiseptic in the kitchenette, Bai sneered, "Oh relax, won't you? The money is still as good as yours." Despite the blow her daughter's reputation had taken in her eyes, the woman softened when she spoke of her offspring. "When I sacrificed the rights to my daughter, I guaranteed that she would get what was owed her. Besides, Rafe dying renders it all moot anyways. It got my baby back, and she has everything I fought for."
Daniella couldn't care less about the money. Yes, it had afforded her so much more than most ever got to know in their lives, so for that she was grateful, but it cost her everything she truly wanted in the deepest chamber of her heart of hearts.
"You gave me up?" Somehow that revelation hurt less than it should have, because being set off to the side for the business was just par for the course. What shook was hearing the words so directly, learning that everything before now could have all been the fabrication of a skilled liar. "Why would you even have to go against Baba in the first place?! Was it because Grandfather wasn't happy about you falling in love with an American?" It dawned on the girl that even that could have been a falsehood. "...Did you ever love him, or was I just a mistake?" The tears threatening to well on the corners of her eyes looked fatter than before, but that might have been because they might have been the last tears the girl would shed.
Fair a question as it was under the circumstances, it stung Bai that it was something she would ever have to answer.
Glass making its presence known to the teen only after she had lunged to her feet to distance herself from her mother, the girl winced in physical agony and pivoted on tip-toe to face her host. He was a completely unknown entity to her, yet he felt like the only one she could trust any more. Her existence must have been sorry indeed if she had to resort to finding trust in a complete stranger.
Doing what she learned to do best, Daniella hid her true sadness behind an empathetic mask of stone and swallowed back the tears as best she could. "Where's the bathroom?" It was hardly a mystery that she needed space from her mother, so he pointed to the room next to the bedroom. After spending three hours comforting the heiress when her wails were at their absolute worst, the long-time bachelor was astonished that the teen had the capacity to not sob uncontrollably at the slightest upset.
Perhaps he really did owe her an apology...
Worthy of a highly sought-after award, the bespectacled woman did a marvelous job of mimicking human emotion. Head rotating in the same direction of the retreating teen, it was clear from her actions that she longed to do something about the shards embedded in her daughter's flesh, yet she knew she was powerless. The one time she could liken her daughter to herself, Bai was all too aware of how poorly any effort at that time would be received. Maybe if it were the one from Panama to approach her, the girl would would be amenable to listening to reason, but something told the businesswoman that she was being viewed as the bad guy by both parties. She would have to make a note to shed a tear later.
Stomping like an rampaging elephant to where she had been directed - bloody little smears left along the way - Logan stood up and followed after her. Though she was keeping the door thrown open as wide as it could go, someone had to keep an eye on the girl. Maybe she wasn't the sort, however the blood on the sleeve made it a challenge to overlook the possibility that something more regrettable than getting caught hooking up with an older man with a dubious-at-best past could end up happening. All things considered, the dead dude's daughter probably would much rather it be Sam who checked up on her, but he obviously needed to talk to the bae with the glasses. Nah, the way the surfer saw it, there was no other alternative. Plus he felt responsible for making her break the bowl in the first place, so this was a start in repaying that.
Doubtful that the pretty blonde thing would be of much use in comforting the heiress, the woman squinted at his back disparagingly. Strong, tan, and smelling of coconuts and the salty brine, the one from Panama's vanity affair looked as if he were only good for relieving tension to be perfectly frank. "Your little cabana boy better know what he's doing."
Daniella was too gentle a soul for the world she had been born into, and as her mother it was her job to be the pillar of soothing strength and talk to her daughter. What could some fling say to the child that I couldn't? Nothing, had time been on her side. Wasting hours cleaning up the mess that had had been made, as well as finding some impossible pocket to launch her own counterattack, the woman still had too much left to attend to to simply talk to her daughter herself.
Half-tempted to throw out that Logan might have been his son just to shut her up with that, now was not the time to give solidity to wild theories. Instead the graying brunette shrugged it off and resumed his search for supplies that might be useful on this mystery venture. After everything, this had better be worth it. "Well on the bright side, if she has to get her feet amputated it will be a lot harder for her to run away from you the next time you just drop a bomb like that."
No more enamored by his sense of humor than she had been all those long years ago in Scotland, Bai paused cleaning off her nails long enough to scoff. "Funny. And to think that I almost forgot what the real mistake I made all those years ago was."
God if they were alone at that moment...
Speaking up so that she would be heard across the entryway, Bai resumed her narrative. "Daniella's father and I had a very tumultuous relationship to say the least, but I believe that we sincerely wanted what was best for our little girl. Unfortunately, we both came to the conclusion that the other was not fit to raise her, so the gloves came off. I won't lie, he had every advantage over me, so I had no other choice but to play dirty." Shocking, for such a paragon.
Unwilling to let her little girl hear the full extent of it all, the woman kept it as simple as she could. "I ended up indebted to a lot of bad people, but not before earning more enemies than a woman alone could handle. From the day that Rafe had put his trust into me, it was assumed that I got the position in all the wrong ways." To anyone but her child, she would openly admit that there had been mistakes made along the way, but everything she had was earned. "Getting pregnant with Daniella did nothing to help my image. In fact, at that point I was so popular that the theory began to float around that she wasn't even really his daughter, just a pawn in my game."
Mood too foul to waste any more diamonds, the teen grunted through her teeth as Logan gingerly held her pedicured nails to the honey-colored lights for a better understanding of the extent of the damage. First glimpse not too damning, the blonde flashed a comforting smile as he ran a wad of toilet paper under the warm tap. Intent to clean away the blood and remove some of the larger ecru pieces, he was half expecting the girl to screech across the unit at the bae in the glasses. Chancing a glance into her baleful baby blues as he paused between careful strokes, he got the impression that the teen wanted to hurt her mother by spitefully adding that she didn't blame anyone for doubting that she was the daughter of the dead rich dude. Something held the girl back, but for the life of him he couldn't guess what.
Better not start getting the idea that he was her dad... Sam currently had more than enough of that going on at the moment. "But she is."
Now that was a line of inquiry that she refused to dignify with an answer. "My father was less than thrilled by the choices I had made in my life, but even then he had to acknowledge that he was getting on in years. I was all he had. So he agreed to help me take over the enterprise I had dedicated my adult life to, on one condition."
From the acid in her voice, it was clear that even now she had resented the deal. "I would be a good daughter and do what is expected of every daughter: to bring her family honor and to continue the line of succession. I obeyed my father and married the man of his choosing, however the union failed to produce a true-blooded son or daughter." Throat constricting at the mention of the fruitless union, Sam had the impression that it hadn't ended well for the man, or the mother lioness. "After years of not getting the results he wanted and two weddings, my father demanded that I give him another bride in my place."
Daniella may have been of mixed heritage and unworthy of formal recognition, but Wen Zhihao deemed her dowry more than sufficient enough to admit that the girl carried enough blood of the middle kingdom to wed an acceptable suitor. More than likely, he had already selected either one of his most trusted advisers or else an immediate family member of theirs. For the girl's sake, if all went wrong and Sam Drake failed, Bai prayed that the intended groom be closer in age to her daughter than the men that her father had hand-picked for his own daughter.
Tickled by the motion on the bottom of her instep and horrified at what she thought her mother was getting at, the teen kicked Logan by accident. Nailed on the inner thigh, the surfer dropped to his knees with a sharp cry; thankfully for him, he had been spared from a real tragedy, however the jerky reflex still hurt like hell. Must've been karma striking in spades. Hitting so close to home, Sam couldn't condone selling off family to save one's own ass, so he was prepared to kick the woman back out on the streets if there wasn't a 'but' coming.
Legitimately human this time, there was a shine in Bai's sapphire eyes that couldn't be faked. "That was my reaction too. No one is going to take Daniella from me, no one." Bordering on the possessive, there was an edge to her tone that none of them liked, although they had their own reasons. Orbs roving between the one from Panama and her baby, the woman shook her head and almost whispered, as if to herself. "If anyone could have, it would have been Rafe. But we all know how that turned out for him."
Purging the foolish part of herself that was still unable to get over her daughter's father, the woman didn't need a mirror to know that her heart was written plain across her face. Sam had some inkling of what Rafe had meant to her, he didn't need to know that she still carried a torch for the other man. It wouldn't have mattered anything, she just knew that he wouldn't leave it be. Daniella didn't even have the faintest idea of what her father had done to her, of the lasting impression he had made, and she didn't need to. The girl idolized Rafe, and as irksome as that became at times, it was better to keep it that way.
Once more growing scared of the thought of what was facing her daughter, Bai ceased her futile attempts at bringing the spring gleam back to her nails.
Hard because the world demanded it and distant to protect herself from reliving old wounds, asking for help was not something the woman had made a habit of. When detoxing on the eve of sobriety she had gone to Rafe, and his answer had been to lock her in the second bedroom of his apartment for two months. To keep his personal assistant from starving to death, he had plates of salad and bowls of water waiting for her consumption twice a week. Twice a week. When he finally let her out, he tested her right out of the gates with a line out and waiting. Naturally she had failed, and after waking up the next morning to find herself alone, it was to have to repeat the entire process again.
Sober due to the multi-billionaire's tough love, she thanked him every morning that she lived to see another day. And she made it a personal policy to never again turn to him for anything. Maybe that had been his point the whole time, she didn't want to know - it was bad enough learning that he had used their time apart to court some fighter pilot. They'd agreed that there would be no labels, that what was was, but to come face-to-face with the arrangement so soon after getting clean was yet another harsh lesson in trust.
Always trust that you will be hurt.
"What I have to ask of you is to keep her safe." Prepared to get on the floor and beg if she absolutely had to, the refined businesswoman and mother collided into the same being and twisted around in her seat to look Sam straight in the eye. "I implore you from the bottom of my heart, keep my daughter safe."