A Ruling Passion – Chapter 1673

Brian scowled at James — who was still lying on the floor, pathetic as ever — before getting into the car. “Mr. Tremont, shouldn’t we get our money back from him? We owed this schmuck nothing. There’s no reason he should hold onto our money, especially when seventy-five grand isn’t just any sum,” he spoke.

“Oh. He’ll return the money to us of his own volition, mark my words,” Mark replied calmly. “He’s a milquetoast. Even the most dull-witted milquetoast knows that salvaging a chance to live another day is leagues better than dying.”

Just as he predicted, the money Mark had given to James was returned to him in full later that day. At the very least, the man still had enough sensibilities, choosing any other action would have invited more than a savage beatdown.

James had previously told the press that the plagiarism accusation was a “misunderstanding”, but soon, the man had come to the press with something more to add into the narrative. In another statement released, this time prodded by Mark, James McGinnis admitted that the design was never his original creation, and that he got it from an unknown but illicit source. Details of how it fell into his hand, however, were purposefully glazed over.

The first thing Arianne did, after catching wind of the latest development, was to go straight to Mark. “McGinnis said he didn’t create that design... which means I’m innocent. But he also claimed that the source that gave him my work was unidentified...? I don’t understand. How can it be unidentified? Who passed him my draft, Mark?” she interrogated. “This whole scandal is over now, isn’t it? You can go ahead and tell me who’s behind this already, right? Don’t tell me you have no idea, I won’t buy it, not when you’re the leader behind the investigation.”