Chapter 8

Clara found it hard to continue the conversation after finding out that Beryl was even worse than she had imagined. 

“Maria, I’m feeling tired now,” she said. “Talking about Beryl tires me out.” 

“You go and have a rest, dear,” Maria said kindly. “I will make your favourite for dinner to welcome you back. We can talk about this when you’re much better.” 

Clara walked back to her bedroom with Caiden in tow. As soon as the door was closed, she turned to him. 

“What happened on that day? Clarissa’s memories weren’t very clear. Why does Beryl want Clarissa dead?” 

She sat on her bed and Caiden sat down next to her. Clara didn’t bother to complain about how close he was. She would probably appreciate his close presence when she heard the truth. 

“Beryl dragged Clarissa into that bathroom after demeaning her verbally, gave her the knife and told her that she probably couldn’t even manage to take her own life properly,” Caiden explained. “As for her motive. It’s very simple; she wants money. James St. Clair is filthy rich and will die as an even richer man. Clarissa was his only family and in his will, she would have inherited the bulk of his money with a small sum going to Beryl and the rest to various charities.” 

Clara gasped when she heard what had been missing from Clarissa’s memories that day. Beryl really didn’t deserve to live without any consequences for her actions. She was even more sure that taking revenge was the right thing to do. 

“She really is a nasty bitch. Is it really just for money?”  

“People have killed for significantly less money,” Caiden told her sagely. “She should be in the dictionary as an example of a gold digger. She approached James with the intention of getting his money.” 

Clara sighed. It really wasn’t easy being a rich person. 

“How did she manage to snag him? He’s supposed to be very sharp.” 

Caiden gave her a long look. 

“He’s a sharp businessman. He’s not so sharp on other fronts. She is an attractive female and an excellent manipulator. It did take her a while to get into this house though.” 

Clara guessed that Caiden was trying to tell her that Beryl and her grandfather were sleeping together. She tried not to think about that one. According to Clarissa’s memories Beryl was 41 and James was 68. The age gap was large. 

“Do you have any idea of how I can get revenge for Clarissa? If I accuse her of inducing Clarissa to commit suicide, it’s my word against hers and it won’t stand in an investigation. There’s no hope I can convince anyone that I’m telling the truth with her acting skills.” 

A chilling thought struck her suddenly. 

“What if she tries to just kill me to get the money?” she asked. 

Caiden put his arm around her. Clara pushed it back immediately. 

“I can see the future,” Caiden reminded her. “She isn’t going to murder you. She went with breaking Clarissa down mentally because there wouldn’t be a thorough police investigation into her suicide. Beryl was wearing gloves when she handed over the knife, Clarissa’s prints are the ones on there. No one would guess she was responsible.” 

“Is she going to try to make me commit suicide again?” 

“She doesn’t have a plan right now,” Caiden said. “Maria threw a wrench in her plans by coming back earlier than expected that day and Maria had already voiced her suspicions to other people. She’s not going to try the same thing again. I’ll let you know if I see anything.” 

Clara breathed a sigh of relief. She felt a lot better knowing that she had someone at her side who could see the future. She stretched her arms and walked over to the desk on the other side of the room to find a notebook to write in. There was a blank one on the bookshelf above the desk. 

“It’s time to talk about getting revenge for Clarissa,” she announced. “What do you suggest?” 

Caiden came over to join her. 

“Did you want to murder Beryl?” he asked curiously. 

Clara froze in place. She hadn’t been expecting that suggestion, it was a surprise to hear that it was a possibility. 

“Is that possible?” she questioned. “I think it would be too merciful anyway.” 

“If you murder her, you will the biggest suspect,” Caiden pointed out. “I agree that you want more than murder as revenge. I think you would prefer to see her at her weakest rather than seeing her dead.” 

It was pleasant to find out that she and Caiden really were on the same page for everything. She really would prefer to see Beryl on her knees at her lowest rather than dead. 

“I would like that more,” she agreed. 

She opened up the notebook and picked out a pen from the pen pot. She could tell it was expensive by the weight and feel before Clarissa’s memories provided the price and brand. She wrote ‘revenge’ in the heading of the first page and paused.  

It was surprisingly hard to think of a revenge plan now that the time had come. It didn’t bode well as Beryl was more of a side mission. Her main targets were the four bullies from Trinity Academy; Heather, Joey, Victoria, and Beckah.  

“You want your grandfather to dump her,” Caiden prompted her. “You want her out of this house and you want to see her hit rock bottom. I have some ideas.” 

Clara wrote down those objectives. It was fortunate that Caiden was more articulate than her. She was intrigued to hear that he had some ideas for revenge. As he was a demon who preyed on souls, she was expecting his ideas to be good. 

“Whilst you can’t get Beryl arrested for pushing Clarissa to suicide as there is only your witness testimony, there are some other illegal activities she can be arrested for. She is not a law-abiding citizen in the slightest.” 

Clara’s interest was piqued. Caiden didn’t slack off at all. He had done some investigating. Maybe that was what he did when he wasn’t with her. 

“What crimes has she committed?” she enquired. 

“Do you remember that she has a start-up company and has released a fashion app?” Caiden asked. 

Clara scanned through Clarissa’s memories. There were some memories of Clarissa having to listen to Beryl talk about her start-up company and ideas. The fashion app was on Clarissa’s phone as she had been forced to use it and leave a five-star review to boost its statistics. 

“I do remember that. Is it a scam?” 

She didn’t think it could be a scam as James had used the app and she had faith that he would be able to spot a scam. Then again, he was dating Beryl so she was reluctant to view him that highly anymore. 

“The app itself is legal,” Caiden said. “It’s the money she used to start her company and fund the app, the initial money came from James without his knowledge.” 

Clara gasped in surprise. Beryl had a lot of guts if she was willing to start a company with funds stolen from her millionaire boyfriend. 

“It’s true,” Caiden said. “There’s more as well. She used his position in financial and investment circles to ask other business people to invest in her company. If she hadn’t said she was backed by James St. Clair, none of those investors would have put money into her company. James is unaware of this and wouldn’t approve.” 

Clara took some brief notes. Beryl was quite a gold digger. She couldn’t believe that she was getting away with all of that. Surely James would notice there was missing money in his account. 

“How did she take James’ money without his knowledge?” 

“You will be surprised what you can do at high class banks if you look right and act the part,” Caiden explained. “James doesn’t pay close attention all of his bank accounts because he has a number of them and a lot of money. She convinced the bank staff that she had rightful access to one of his personal accounts that he doesn’t bother to monitor.” 

“Is there anything else?” 

“She’s not even faithful to James,” Caiden said with a smirk. “She has another boyfriend who is a scammer.” 

Clara wasn’t surprised by that one. After hearing about everything else, she had no confidence in Beryl to be faithful to the man she was using. Finding out her real boyfriend was a scammer wasn’t a surprise either, people of the same ilk tended to stick together. 

She noted down Beryl’s infidelity and took a look at the list. There was a lot she could use there. James would dump Beryl if he knew she was cheating on him and then get her arrested for stealing his money and destroy her position in society. 

She smiled in satisfaction. Taking revenge for Clarissa wouldn’t be too hard. 

Then her smile died when she remembered that she was going to need to produce evidence to back up all of her accusations. They were serious allegations to make if she didn’t have any evidence to support them. 

“I’m going to need financial records, proof of her manipulating investors and evidence of her affairs,” she groaned. “Caiden, can you help? How did you find out everything?” 

“I’m a demon,” Caiden reminded her with a light smile. “I looked into her records in the demon realm and followed her around when she was at her company.” 

Clara grinned at him. “Can you steal her financial records then?” 

Caiden laid a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. She felt like he wanted to make something clear to her. 

“Clara, unfortunately I can’t help you too much. I don’t have any presence here other than my connection to you. I can’t touch things; I can only see things. If I could, I would help you, but I really can only give you direction and information.” 

Clara was disappointed to her that he wasn’t capable of touching anything. Then she remembered that she was able to feel his touch and she could feel his hand on her shoulder. It was warm. 

“Why can I feel you then?” she questioned. 

“Because we are blood bonded,” the demon said and held up his other arm which still had the slash mark from when they had mixed blood. “We are connected so we can feel each other.” 

“I guess it’s enough that you can see the future,” she relented. “Things would be considerably easier if you could affect things directly here.” 

The demon ruffled her hair. “I wish I could too. I would be able to help you much more effectively.” 

Clara rearranged her hair. 

“You mean, you would like to help so you can get to my soul faster.” 

It was often easy to forget that Caiden had made a contract with her that ultimately ended with him obtaining her soul. He didn’t feel like a soul hungry demon at all so it was never at the forefront of her mind. 

“It’s not just about eating your soul,” Caiden protested. “I will feel a lot of satisfaction when I see you get your revenge.” 

He sounded very sincere, but Clara still narrowed her eyes. Caiden flicked her hair and she glared at him. 

“If someone came in now, they would think my hair had a life of its own,” she commented. 

“If someone walked in on us kissing, you would look like you were kissing an imaginary person,” the demon teased with a smirk. 

“What makes you think I’ll kiss you?” Clara retorted. 

Caiden tickled her chin. “I just thought I would let you know it was a possibility.”