Chapter 187 - Lauriel's Secret (1)

The next day, Caspar occupied himself in the office for the whole day. Finland knew that whatever he was working on was very serious because Stanis flew all the way from Barcelona to help him.

She then decided to take Aleksis for a walk to the nearest village, accompanied by Kara and Jadeith. They bought cakes and the glow wine that she loved.

Along their journey, the small group attracted the attention of many people because of their very beautiful appearances. Aleksis, who was like a little angel, received so many gifts from merchants in the farmer's market. They gave her fruits, flowers and cakes without allowing Finland to pay.

"People here are very friendly..." she muttered.

"People in the village are like that..." Kara commented with a smile. "That's why we are very happy to live here."

Finland also liked to live in that area. Although they lived in a castle that was protected for privacy, their place was close to some very beautiful villages. She thought that living here several months a year would be very pleasant, especially in autumn, like now, when all the trees have very beautiful red and yellow leaves.

When they returned to the castle, Caspar and Stanis were still busy in the study. Finland could only wonder what they were doing. They finally came out when it was time for dinner, and the conversation at the dinner table was kept as light as possible so as not to worry Finland. However, they could not hide their serious and tense faces.

"Stanis will be staying here tonight. We still have work to do. Tomorrow afternoon he will return to Barcelona," Caspar explained.

"All right. I'll ask Kara to prepare a room for him..." Finland said. She was a little confused because on the one hand she should have acted as the lady of the house and arranged accommodation for their guests, but on the other hand she herself felt like a guest here because she did not know the ins and outs of Caspar's family castle.

"Stanis is used to staying here when there is an important assignment," Caspar said, smiling. "He already has a place in the east wing."

"Oh... alright," Finland replied awkwardly.

Caspar read Finland's mind and understood how she felt. Since they were married, the two have not lived together and built their own home. Caspar and Finland lived together at Rose Mansion for a few months before they got married, but after their honeymoon in Europe, they immediately went separate ways, not having time to make their own love nest. Both the Rose Mansion and this castle belonged to Caspar's and Finland felt like she was just a guest.

"After all this is done, I will build a new house for us to live together. You can determine the design and decoration according to your taste. I leave it all to you," Caspar whispered that night as he took Aleksis to her room and accompanied Finland to read a fairy tale story to their daughter before they both went to their own bedroom to sleep.

"Uhm... you have good taste, I don't mind staying at one of your homes either," Finland said. "I just need to make some adjustments."

"All right. Still, if you want to change something or replace anything, go ahead. You have full rights, and I will support whatever you plan."

"Thank you." Finland smiled sweetly. She thought for a moment and then asked Caspar, "What did you and Stanis do all day?"

"Hmm... a lot. We bought a lot of shares from the Meier family company group and dropped their value. Alexei will be overwhelmed over the next few days dealing with this. We also sent a few dozen teams of lawyers to help the NGOs in all countries where they operate to sue them for violating the law as they were damaging the environment. I also know that they have arms trading operations in the Middle East, so we sent Academi to close their operations. Tomorrow Stanis will represent me in Shanghai to negotiate with all the Meier Family partners in China to stop working with them."

"Jeez... you're doing such big things..." Finland gasped in surprise. She did not expect that there were so many pawns being played from behind Caspar's study since the past few days. She frowned at the thought, "I have to check tomorrow's market conditions to make sure none of our clients will be affected..."

"I can give you a list of the Meier family companies that will be affected and the countries where they operate. You can warn LTX International and its clients tomorrow. Everything will set in motion on the day after tomorrow," Caspar nodded.

"Thank you..." Finland kissed Caspar and then kissed Aleksis who was fast asleep. "Let's sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow."

"Hmm..."

They left Aleksis' room and went into their own room and changed into kimonos to sleep. That night, Finland and Caspar slept cuddling each other, but busy with their own thoughts. Caspar had not slept well for three nights, and now his body was very tired. That night he had a nightmare; Katia came to him in tears and accused him of ruining her life.

"We were supposed to get married and I should have given birth to your children. Why did you leave me just like that? After everything I sacrificed for you...?"

Caspar was speechless. His actions in the past had hurt so many women and now the two women he loved had to suffer the consequences. He felt deep regret.

***

Caspar was still busy for the next few days. He received news from Endo and Petra that the Meier family's castle in Yorkshire was impenetrable because they changed the security system every two days. Their next hope was Marion and Neo, who were in London, at the residence of Karl Furstenberg. They have disguised themselves as Karl and one of his sugar babies to provoke Katia to come.

Peach and Esso managed to track down all the Meier scientists, but apparently they would rather die than be forced to tell the type of poison used for Aleksis. This mission also failed. Caspar heard that Lauriel had left the Amazon and would stop by in China before coming back to Germany. The plan was for everyone to gather two days before Ned and Portia's wedding and their clock was ticking.

"Katia will attend the fashion show in London next week," Marion reported. "If Lauriel has created the poison, I can poison Katia there."

"Lauriel will arrive in a few days," Caspar said. "I'll send him straight to London."

"OK."

"Marion... do you know how to make a Medusa antidote?" Caspar asked before hanging up, "I have a feeling that Lauriel is keeping something from us..."

For a long time there was no response from Marion; it seemed like she was hesitant to answer Caspar's question.

"I can't say. Lauriel won't forgive me..." she replied.

Caspar was stunned. He was now confirmed that there was something bad behind Lauriel's reluctance to make Medusa's antidote.

"Is it very dangerous?" Caspar asked quickly, "I need to know if Lauriel's life would be in danger if he makes the antidote?"

"Hmm..." Marion sighed, "You'd better ask Lauriel yourself, okay?"

Although Marion refused to answer, Caspar had at least gotten the idea that making an antidote for Medusa would have fatal consequences for Lauriel, even though he did not know why.

In his heart, he was determined to make sure that their mission succeeded so that Lauriel did not need to use this method. If necessary, he would go alone to take down Alexei at his home, or if he must, he would go to Katia and beg for her mercy for Aleksis.

He did not want to owe even greater debt to Lauriel.

***

Finland warned the LTX clients who would be affected by the business war between the Schneider family group and the Meier family, and they immediately took precautions to save themselves.

Tony was very confused because Finland suddenly knew of so many business insiders' secrets that were all proven true a few days later. He tried to extract information from Finland, but the girl did not want to mention her source.

She faithfully followed the news and saw that in every country, the Meier family company group was badly hit and suffered huge losses. Caspar spent so much money and resources to bring down Alexei's family businesses, but he did not care.

For him, the most important thing was to make Alexei loose his grip and come to Ned and Portia's party with only half his power.

The days went by so fast and they became even more worried because there was so little time left.

Two days before Ned and Portia's wedding, Lauriel arrived. His hair was more messy than before and his face looked tired.

"I want to visit Aleksis before going to London to meet Marion and Neo," he said. "Where is Aleksis?"

"She is in the kitchen watching the chef bake a cake," Caspar said. "I'll bring her here."

"Thank you..."

Five minutes later, Aleksis came running toward Lauriel, who was waiting for her while drinking tea.

"Uncle Rory!! I missed you...!!"

"Hey... little angel, I missed you too much..." Lauriel immediately raised Aleksis into the air and kissed her cheek. He placed Aleksis on a chair and talked about a lot of trivial things that only the two of them understood. Caspar could only watch with grief.

"Lauriel... I want to ask you something..." he said finally, when Aleksis was taken by Finland for her afternoon bath.

"Hmm..." Lauriel looked at Caspar with raised eyebrows.

"Will making Medusa's antidote endanger your life?" Caspar asked straightforwardly. In his head he was determined that he did not want to pile up more debt to Lauriel.

Lauriel seemed unwilling to answer, but Caspar's very serious look made him change his mind. Finally, he slowly nodded.