MAKE HIM A WEAPON

The smile on Chloe’s face stiffened, then disappeared completely.

She fisted the heavy dress into a ball and hurled it at Zoe watching the dress fall short of even touching the bed.

“Fine! Eat it! You have so many clothes that you can’t even give me one! I hope Emery knows he’s marrying a selfish queen!” She yelled slamming the door on her way out.

Zoe sat on the bed for a long moment, breathing, pressing her hand against her sternum like she was still checking for the constant pain there.

She reached for her phone on the nightstand and looked at the date.

She read it twice her mouth gaping open that was unlike the wealthy socialite her parent raised.

Then she sat very still for a long time and ugly cried.

Fourteen days before her wedding.

And there was the name Chloe had mentioned.

Emery

Emery Landon - her fiancee turned husband whose entire family plotted to kill hers.

The cold that had come with her from where Brooke had sent her to had been settled somewhere behind her eyes, like the memory of a fresh scar.

She got up and went to her dresser to stare at her smooth face in her actual full-length mirror. 

Fire ignited in her eyes as a smooth face stared right back at her in the mirror.

One that remained untouched by the riveting experiences Emery was about to put her through.

There was still a fighting chance. 

Zoe did not call Emery immediately, instead she sat on the edge of her bed and made a list in her head instead, the way she used to do before a difficult brand deal, laying out each piece in order. 

Her mind went on a full reckless drive separating what she knew, what she had and what she needed.

She knew everything, she just had to take actions that reflected it.

Every hidden account holding money for tax-evasion. The people he bribed and those he threatened. Every arrangement Emery had kept quiet behind the face of a faithful husband. She knew the names of all of his mistresses even before they got married. 

She knew which board member he had bribed to secure the government contract. She knew about the shell company registered in his cousin's name that moved money out of the country in small enough amounts to avoid scrutiny.

But all these were not enough because she gave him the power to do these things and a lot of them had not been achieved now, yet she knew that he’d already started climbing the ranks just by the virtue of just being attached to her.

And now, she’d already started clearing out his rivals, mentioning Emery’s name in circles that he could never be invited in, yet he currently had a side chick by the side.

Zoe scoffed at her foolishness and her blindness. 

How did she not see this?

How much blinded by love was she not to see Victoria always hanging around Emery in the guise of a good friend? 

How Emery would always take Victoria’s side over hers and say it’s because she was sensible and smarter than Victoria, so she would understand and destroying her reputation on the other hand?

A lone tear dropped down into her palms.

Zoe wiped the tear furiously, memories of her son’s lifeless cold body rushing through her mind.

She shook her head fast wishing the images away. 

Her family was alive in this timeline and she was determined to keep it that way.

‘First things first’ Zoe mentally noted.

There was one man who had been trying to dismantle Emery's empire for years. 

He worked methodically and quietly, with the crazy patience of a boa constrictor in Australian waters waiting to strike. 

And she had gone out of her way to fight this man expending all her connections and even her father’s just to give Emery a good night sleep.

Hot tears trickled down her cheeks as the memory filled her thoughts. 

That was a major mistake because Emery turned all her father’s allies into his and she’d argued with her Dad to be nicer only to see these same allies look away when he needed their help choosing Emery instead.

Zoe’s mind traveled back to the man who stood firm despite her relentless effort to remove him from the seat of power and this man consistently gave Emery headaches.

Nathaniel Quest.

She had met him once, at a charity dinner two years into her marriage. He had shaken her hand and looked at her, not through her the way most of Emery's associates did, and said she was wasting away.

She remembered getting angry at his words but noting him quietly as an enemy. 

She picked up her phone and looked up the address of Quest Holdings.

She was about to make him a weapon.

For a  man who came from nothing, building an empire without a rich family’s background and still withstanding all the negative press around him for not knowing how to relate well in old-money circles, Zoe had to agree that Nathaniel Quest had built a strong empire for himself.

The receptionist at Quest Holdings had the kind of face that was trained to be pleasant and meant none of it.

A perfunctory smile appeared on her heavily made-up face, "Hello ma’am. Welcome to Quest Holdings, do you have an appointment?"

Zoe stood stiffly holding her Burberry handbag, hoping she wouldn’t get turned away. Her teeth bit gently into her lower lip without making any teeth marks, "No," Zoe said gently.

"Then I'm afraid Mr. Quest isn't …"

"Tell him Zoe Beckett is here." She set her bag down on the reception desk, not aggressively, just with the innate confidence of someone who knows how to control people drilled into her bones from birth.

"Mr. Quest will  either see me or not. Either way, I'll wait." she played with her bag handle, hoping the brand label will convey her standing if her face wasn’t doing that at the moment.

The receptionist opened her mouth, closed it, then reached for the telephone on the desk.

Zoe walked to the seating area and sat down. She crossed her legs, set her bag on her lap, and looked at the far wall where the company logo sat in brushed silver against charcoal grey. 

It looked clean and expensive. Zoe smiled, one thing she knew strongly about Nathaniel Quest was his need to belong.

She’ll use that against him.

The receptionist voice sounded from her large towering desk, "Mr. Quest will give you ten minutes."