Marriage with my daughter's father: Darling please be gentle - Chapter 245

Chapter 245: Chapter 245: She’s started to dig

Eric pressed the green button and switched the call to speaker mode.

“Eric, darling… what took you so long to answer my call?”

Agnes’s voice flowed through the speaker—warm, calm, and utterly detached from the storm erupting in the office.

Dorothy froze. So did David.

Their eyes locked on the phone, the familiar sound of their daughter’s voice slamming into them like a shockwave.

It was her. No doubt about it.

Eric turned toward them slowly, a flicker of something unreadable flashing in his eyes. Too brief to name—but Dorothy’s gut churned with unease.

Before he could speak, she lunged forward and snatched the phone from his hand.

“Agnes? Sweetheart, where are you?” Dorothy’s voice cracked, thick with disbelief and fear. Her hands trembled violently, the phone nearly slipping through her fingers. “Are you okay? Please, just tell me you’re okay.”

There was a beat of static—then her voice again.

“Mom?” Agnes sounded confused. “What are you doing there… with Eric?”

The question yanked Dorothy from her panic. Her brows furrowed, and she turned to David, who stood stiffly silent, his jaw clenched, gaze locked on the phone like it held the answer to everything.

But Dorothy wasn’t letting go.

“Agnes, where are you right now?” she demanded, ignoring the question. Her voice was sharper now, pressing. Her eyes flicked to Eric, thick with suspicion. Her mother’s instinct screamed that something was wrong.

“Didn’t Eric tell you?” Agnes sighed. “I traveled overseas for a work commitment.”

Dorothy’s heart slammed against her ribs. “But you didn’t board any flight!” she burst out. “I checked! There’s no record of you leaving the country!”

Silence followed—tense, stretching.

Then Agnes replied, calm and almost… dismissive.

“That’s because I didn’t take a commercial flight, Mom.”

Dorothy blinked. “What?”

“I took a private jet. Last-minute arrangement. Eric handled it.”

Dorothy’s mouth went dry.

David’s eyes narrowed sharply. His grip on the edge of the desk tightened.

“A private jet?” Dorothy repeated, her voice nearly a whisper. “Since when do you need him to arrange your travel? Why didn’t you call me? Tell me yourself?”

“I didn’t want the fuss,” Agnes said. “I knew you’d overreact.”

Overreact? Dorothy’s thoughts spiraled. She had torn through their lives looking for her daughter. And now she was being told she’d overreacted?

She lowered the phone slightly, eyes locked on Eric—expressionless, smug, too composed.

“I didn’t say anything earlier,” Eric chimed in, voice smooth as oil, “because she asked me not to. She wanted space.”

David stepped forward. “And you just decided to lie to us? To cover for her?”

“She’s an adult,” Eric replied with a casual shrug. “She makes her own choices.”

Dorothy clutched the phone tighter. “Agnes, why him? Why keep this from me?”

There was a pause. Longer this time.

Then Agnes spoke again, her tone colder. Resolved.

“I just needed a break. From everything.”

Dorothy’s heart sank. David’s expression turned to stone.

“What are you saying?” Dorothy whispered, struggling to breathe. “Agnes… you don’t mean that.”

“Yes, Mom,” Agnes replied flatly. “I do.”

Dorothy stood frozen, every word like a needle under her skin.

“I can’t live under your control anymore. And Dad… he’s never trusted me. No matter what I’ve done, I’ve always been doubted, second-guessed. I’m done. I need to get away from both of you.”

The silence that followed was heavier than before.

Dorothy’s lips parted, but no words came out.

Then came the final blow—Agnes’s voice, indifferent and distant.

“So please, don’t make a big deal out of this. Just hand the phone back to Eric.”

David scoffed, the sound bitter, and turned back to his seat in disbelief.

Dorothy, hand shaking, slowly passed the phone back to Eric, her eyes narrowed with piercing intensity.

Eric took it without flinching and turned off speaker mode.

“Okay, I’ll call you once I’m in my office,” he said casually, then ended the call and turned back to face the couple.

“Well,” he said with a dry smirk, sliding the phone into his pocket. “Are we done accusing me of kidnapping now?”

Dorothy didn’t answer. Her lips were pressed into a thin, white line. Her eyes stayed fixed on him, burning with fury—and something far worse.

Distrust.

But Eric, unfazed, shifted gears like nothing had happened.

“Anyway,” he said, walking over to David’s desk and placing a folder in front of him, “I came to deliver this.”

David looked down warily.

“Kalix Andreas has agreed to our conditions for the merger,” Eric continued, tone all business now. “Signed and sealed.”

David furrowed his brow and flipped through the pages, scanning quickly—until he saw it.

Kalix’s signature. Bold and unmistakable.

“He agreed?” David said slowly, barely believing his own words.

Eric gave him a smug little smile. “Told you it would be easy.”

David’s eyes flickered for a moment—barely noticeable—but then dropped back to the signed documents in front of him. The ink, bold and permanent, confirmed everything Eric had said.

He didn’t like it.

But he couldn’t deny it.

Dorothy, on the other hand, wasn’t finished. Her instincts still screamed at her, every fiber of her being alert and unsettled. But now wasn’t the time. She would wait. Watch. Strike later.

Because something was deeply wrong.

***

The moment Eric stepped into his private office and shut the door, his composed facade faltered—just for a second. He loosened his collar, pulled out his phone, and made a call.

It rang once.

“You saved me,” he muttered, exhaling in relief as the line connected.

“Of course I did,” Alexander’s voice came through, calm and steady, laced with just enough smugness to remind Eric who had the upper hand.

The sound of his father’s voice brought the memory flooding back—sharp and urgent.

“Dorothy isn’t stupid,” Alexander had warned him the night before, pacing in his study. “She’s starting to dig. That little gut instinct of hers? It’s pointing at you. If you slip—even once—she’ll have you cornered. I’ve already caught wind she’s hired someone to track Agnes’s flight records.”

At the time, Eric had brushed it off—believing Dorothy’s emotions made her unpredictable, not dangerous.

But Alexander had been right.