Dean O'Sullivan was a pale slender young man who always had a kind of nervous look in his green eyes, together with his warm brown hair and thin lips, his appearance was incredibly similar to Daniel Heinrich. There were times he wondered when Velika O'Sullivan looked into Daniel Heinrich's eyes, would she ever have thought of him. He was quite clever, probably too clever for one's liking. When he met his wife, who wasn't named Velika O'Sullivan yet, she was a very insecure young woman who suffered from countless adversities. For some odd reasons that neither of them could remember, they became friends, exceptional close friends. She told him everything about her, but he reserved part of him from her, as deep inside, he was convinced that no one could be trusted.
Not even his wife.
Yet he had to confess that somehow, he depended on her no less than she attached to him. Even he would never admit, he was as insecure as she was. Growing up in a family of doctors, with three other marvelous siblings, he was overloaded with pressure on his bony shoulders. High expectations from his parents were burdens that nearly made him collapse, he had to put his mask on, pretended how he was enjoying his life, being the most popular one in the school. After his ex-fiancée broke off their engagement, he was broken, and that was when he met Velika O'Sullivan. He saw how tough this young woman was and how she never gave in, she fought, she fell, then she stood up again. So, he told himself that he wanted her in his life. Dean O'Sullivan admired her, then he knew he loved her, or at least he thought it was love, he loved her so much so that he started to believe that she should belong to nobody except him. Without any doubt, after she turned eighteen and finally left her toxic home, he asked her to marry him. He believed their marriage could keep her to him, and only to him. He wanted her, all of her, physically and mentally.
Those years they spent together were the most remarkable memories in his life, she was all his. She listened to him, obeyed him, followed the steps he gave her. He implanted the idea in her head that, as someone who had been through what she went through, Dean O'Sullivan was the best man that she could ever find in her life. He once had the naive thoughts that they could have a normal, joyful life after he became a surgeon, but then, that man showed up and offered him a job, the job that finally led him to the dilemma, he had to leave his beloved wife and vanished in her life. He never even dared to imagine the day they of reunion, until the moment he saw her standing in front of him with that German who looked surprisingly alike to him.
Working with Astoria Leontes was never in his plan. He would like to stay away from Natural and the insane Leontes family as far as possible. After all, this was the family destroyed his dream of having a normal life, separated him from his wife, and gave him the name of a ruthless, cruel, careless husband. When he was reached by Astoria Leontes, he wasn't surprised, he knew she would find him, there was no reason for her to save him back then, turned against to her brother-in-law just for a simple favor.
Then she told him that Velika O'Sullivan was in the game as well, that was the point he got panic, he never expected his wife would be dragged into this dark, deep water. Astoria Leontes claimed she left him a choice, but she didn't. She knew he could never just step aside and watched Velika O'Sullivan risking her life because she was revenging for him, plus there was so much potential that he could gain benefits from. Astoria Leontes took him as an ally, partially he did too. Her goal was simple, just to completely clean out Romeo Leontes' legacies. And his goal was to revenge, which she could use his hatred, and he could use her wide intel web.
Though he had access to the file room, he couldn't get all the files he wanted. Though he was aware of Plan Velika, he had no idea about how Astoria Leontes had plotted for Clarabelle Lewis, it was more like a pop-up idea that she had come up with right at the moment she heard XYZ-2421-ERA was developed. Although it was a spontaneous idea, he knew Lewis was only a bait, all the plots could only point to one direction-to completely take Romeo Leontes out. The Leontes family was a maniac, all the members were trying to kill each other without any reasonable excuses. Dean O'Sullivan never asked Astoria Leontes why she wanted her brother-in-law dead, and he wouldn't bother himself to ask, power play, no reason needed.
This morning when Dean O'Sullivan went to get his regular morning coffee, he saw Astoria Leontes took out some files from the file room. They must have a connection with Lewis, and he had to know what they were since after she finished reading those papers, she would destroy them. She would appoint someone else besides him that she could trust to burn the files, as she claimed she was allergic to the ashes, and he was confident enough who that lucky person was.
He took over the mug from Daniel Heinrich for the first time of his life and accepted Daniel Heinrich's offer for coffee. He knew that Daniel Heinrich wanted to know the plan about Velika O'Sullivan desperately, not because of how attached he was to her, only because he no longer wanted to be controlled by others, he wanted to go with his way.
Well, Dean O'Sullivan rose his eyebrow, Daniel Heinrich's influence was already gone several years ago, he was designed to be used by Astoria Leontes, with no alternatives, there was no way out unless they all united and working towards the same goal, which was to take down Romeo Leontes. To let Daniel Heinrich join their side, he had to know the truth, and the truth had to be told by Velika O'Sullivan, who was the only person he trusted most at this moment.
After all, Velika O'Sullivan was his property, thought Dean O'Sullivan, and she would never betray him.
He saw an agent came out from Astoria Leontes' office with a file in his hand, Dean O'Sullivan knew it was time. He took a folder from his table with several blank papers in it, and walked towards the agent, pretending that he was lost in thoughts, and didn't watch his way.
Dean O'Sullivan knocked into the agent and made him drop his folder, he bent down and helped the agent pick up things, kept apologizing, which drove the agent's attention. Meanwhile, he exchanged the contained in both folders and handed the guy the folder with blank sheets. That was a good one, Dean O'Sullivan told himself.
Walking back to his office with a calm and indifference face that he usually had, trying so hard to hide his delightful manner after he perfectly got what he wanted, Dean O'Sullivan knew his plan started and couldn't stop until he achieved his goal. He then turned on the computer, entered into the surveillance system. More specifically, the surveillance camera in his own office and made it repeat what it had recorded before-Dean O'Sullivan was focusing on his paperwork.
The first thing he saw when he opened the file was a company's name, The Sinking Boat, it was a new company that registered several months ago, it was doing the same thing as Natural did, but hardly a competitor. The third-party, interesting, thought him, why did Astoria Leontes want to know about this company which was not even a threat?
Suddenly another name came across his mind, he smiled, now he had almost figure out what she wanted to arrange, a simple but powerful idea, not even need herself showed up in public. Less complicated than he thought, he rose his eyebrow again.
When she told him this morning that it was time for Daniel Heinrich to know about Velika O'Sullivan and asked him to act as he was acting all the time and pretended that he never truly worked for her, he was slightly surprised. Suddenly he realized why Astoria Leontes needed Velika O'Sullivan, she was using her as a shield, a safety barrier. Velika O'Sullivan had Romeo Leontes' trust and Romeo Leontes never doubted that, in case anything went wrong, the last person he would blame was her.
Since Astoria Leontes already declared war against her brother-in-law, she wouldn't care much, but with the existence of Velika O'Sullivan, she always had her last defense. He was curious about what made Romeo Leontes so confident that Velika O'Sullivan wouldn't betray him. Astoria Leontes wanted Daniel Heinrich to trust Dean O'Sullivan, which would never happen, so Dean O'Sullivan decided to make things go in his way, he couldn't just let Astoria Leontes lead him as she told him before, they were not employer and employee, they were allies.