Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 826

The brothers were fully aware of Bella's recent entanglement with underground lenders.

They had simply feigned ignorance. A few weeks ago, they had scraped together enough to pay off the interest on their own personal debts, but their situation was different from Bella's.

The loan sharks were vicious, but the Mercer brothers still held tangible assets and equity. They weren't entirely backed into a corner.

Bella, on the other hand, was in deep waters. She had already mortgaged her properties and her car. She had taken out loan after loan, and there was no way her income covered the spiraling interest.

The reason she was so terrified of demanding anything from Sebastian was likely because she was praying to use the wedding to secure a massive financial payout to quietly fill her debt hole, or hoping Sebastian would eventually bail her out once she was legally his.

But Brandon had analyzed Sebastian enough to know the man wasn't stupid.

Sebastian Blake would never become a lovesick fool like Martin Mercer.

If Bella thought she could manipulate Sebastian the way Sabrina manipulated their father, she was severely mistaken. She hadn't found a man willing to burn down his empire for a single tear.

"So what's our move, Brandon?" Colin asked, staring into his empty glass.

"If we're out of cash, we exploit every single opportunity to rake it in."

"What opportunities? If making money was that easy, the lenders wouldn't be breathing down our necks."

"Our personal debts aren't astronomical yet. We just need a solid pretext to generate some fast capital," Brandon said, his eyes narrowing in calculation.

"She's getting married, right? No matter how much we hate her, she is officially Dad's stepdaughter. Legally and socially, she is being married out of the Mercer family.

The two brothers clinked their glasses, the sinister pact sealed.

***

Meanwhile, Bella had returned to her luxury hotel suite, her stomach empty and her blood boiling.

The more she thought about the confrontation, the angrier she got. How dare Brandon throw the past in her face? He was just as guilty as anyone else in the family. If he was so full of regrets, he should have turned himself in.

He was practically biting the hand that fed him.

If she hadn't established a foothold within the Blake Group and paved the way, would the Mercers have secured any of those massive contracts in the first place?