I smirked at that. "Actually, that's not a terrible idea. But that's not why I'm here."
Her brows furrowed, and she wiped her lips discreetly and placed her napkin in her lap before clasping her hands. "What do you need?"
"What can you tell me about Francis Middleton?"
She pursed her lips then. "Why do you want to know about him?”
"I know that before we merged he made a bid to be communications liaison for you. More than once. I want to understand why you told him no."
She shook her head. "That unpleasantness has long past. He has had a certain obsession with my company ever since I separated him from my daughter. He vowed he'd make me pay. I believe that's the way he thought he was going to do it. Through my company. Little did he know I cared more about my daughter than I did him."
I frowned at that. "What do you mean?" My gut twisted as my brain conjured up all the possibilities.
She pursed her lips. "Why do you want to know? This is a family matter. It's been addressed and was dealt with long ago. And you're the head of the company now. They can't possibly still be after it without Angelica involved.”
I chuckled. "In fact, yeah, he's very much after it. He's still angling to be communications lead for that particular swath of hotels. Why?"
"All right, if you insist.” She's sat back, brought her tea to her lips, took a long sip, and delicately placed the mug back down. "Approximately eight years ago, give or take, he and Angelica became involved. I thought them an ill-fated couple. I never did like the boy. It's an odd feeling about him. I wish I could explain it, but sometimes a mother just knows. But I raised my daughter to be strong. There was no way she could be strong if I made every decision for her, and I knew that she would not be strong unless I let her make a mistake or two on her own. So I allowed her to continue seeing him."
"What happened?"
“He was charming. Worked hard to impress me. Worked hard to treat Angelica right on the surface. But I could see she was more withdrawn, quieter. She saw less and less of her friends. It was as though he isolated her from them deliberately. Never wanting to go out with any of them. The one soft spot was that he had no problems allowing her to see family, so she saw her cousins and me of course, but she had no friends. And Angelica thrives on having people around her. And then came her birthday night, I think. Yes, I remember it was her birthday. It was right before we served cake. He'd excused himself to the restroom, and he'd been gone a few moments. I'd invited some of Angelica's friends, and she was so happy. Friends she hadn't seen in the six months since they’d started dating. And she was having a great time. He was being somewhat moody. He’d thought it would just be the family. A few of her friends were less than pleased that she was dating him, but again it was mostly a pleasant evening.
“When he came back from the restroom, he was still edgy, and he looked frustrated. And his hair was slightly mussed. He looked like he'd gone to pour cold water on his face or something. I thought maybe he'd gotten some bad news or something about work. It wasn't until it was time for the cake to be served that I realized the cake was not coming out. So I went down to the kitchen myself to see what had happened. We had a staff of three maids. It was a small party, maybe twenty people, and we'd had the food catered, so it wasn't like anyone was cooking. All they had to do was serve drinks, clear away, and bring out the cake. Simple.”
I nodded, my gut churning and twisting because I could see how this all played out.
“I went to the kitchens, and two of the maids were standing around the third, Adele. Pretty little average girl. She was young, and she'd come to London for school and worked for us part time on weekends and during special events to make some money. She was shaking. Her face was bloodied, her uniform torn. When the other two saw me, they moved to cover her so I wouldn't see. But of course I saw. When I asked her what had happened, she started to shake and just begged me not to say anything.
“It took me two days to realize what had happened. He'd attacked her in the hallway of my home. Somewhere she was meant to be safe. He cupped a hand over her mouth, dragged her into the library, and assaulted her. And then he was very clear that he knew her name. He knew where she went to school. And if she reported him, he was going to ruin her life and then her parents' lives. He knew everything about her, right down to where she'd been born. He threatened her entire family, and she was too terrified to come forward and press charges, but I insisted. And then the day we were meant to go down to the police station together, she vanished. Gone. Her family came up with some excuse about how her mum was sick and she needed to go home. I visited them once to check on her, but they said she'd gone to study abroad. I knew what he'd done to her, so I told my daughter. And being who I was, I was insulated from his attempts to threaten Angelica. I was very clear with him that he was never to see her again. And that while I no longer had a witness, I could still keep him from marrying into my family. I could keep him from my daughter. He railed and raged and threatened to kill me.”
"Oh, fuck."
She nodded. "Yes, well, I have excellent security that I've had for years. Our head of security is a cousin to my dearly departed husband, so my security team cannot be infiltrated. But he was determined. Kept calling Angelica, coming to the house. She refused to see him, and he eventually got the message and stopped after I threatened that if he came onto my property again, I would have him shot and killed.”
My eyes went wide. "Oh."
"I know you see an old lady, but I didn't get where I am in life without having a brass set on me.”
"I see."
"After their breakup, I sent Angelica away for a while. Somewhere very private, very quiet, a university in the States. He couldn't access her there. She used my maiden name and her middle name to give her anonymity. When she returned home, he seemed to have given up his pursuit of her, but then he kept making requests to be our communications liaison. I denied him of course. Then his father tried to apply pressure, and I denied that. And it's been a little game we’ve played for years. Socially, we have to make nice. But I am not letting him near my daughter ever again. He is a horrid, horrid little man who had been left unchecked. My security team wanted to have him murdered. Which I won't say I didn't find pleasing, but that's not who I am. He's someone who needs to be dealt with, but as long as I could keep my daughter safe, that's all I cared about."
"He's after my wife," I said bluntly.
Her face was so stricken as horror danced across her once extremely beautiful features. "You put your wife on the nearest plane as far away as you can get her, send her to Antarctica for all I care, but get her away from him."
"I'm working on that."
"I warn you, work faster. I still think about that girl too often. I hope she's fine. I send money to her parents. I feel like I can never quite get over the fact that I didn't protect her. And money is useless when your child is hurt, but it was what I could do. I hope you can protect your wife better than I could protect my family."
"Thank you. I plan on it.” And seeing as there would be no simple retribution for Middleton, I was likely going to have to kill him if I wanted him gone.