"Claus, I think there is something wrong with my husband." Aunt Dayana said with a complicated expression.
I wrinkled my brows instantly. "Did something happen?"
"... I'm not sure, it's just that he had been behaving strangely as of late. I suspect that he is plotting something against our auction house."
I fell deep into thoughts and closed my eyes. Aunt Dayana put on a nervous expression, but she did not interrupt me.
"... It's not the first time something like this happens, you know." I opened my eyes and stared at my aunt.
"Mm." She nodded guiltily.
Aunt Dayana's husband is called Lock Kan. He is the second son of a lesser noble and is the director of another auction house.
When he and aunt Dayana married, he was already the director of the auction house. He was always proud of his job and bragged constantly of it, feeling that he was above others due to working in a famous auction house. To be honest, my mother's family didn't like him very much, but because my aunt insisted on marrying him, my grandparents did not oppose it.
But when aunt Dayana began to work in my auction house, everything changed.
At first, he thought that our auction house was nothing more than we playing around, so he did not care much about it. He simply encouraged my aunt superficially and focused on his work.
But before long, my auction house, under the lead of my aunt, began to grow.
In just one year, it surpassed Lock's auction house, and in the next year, it became one of the most respectable auction houses of the capital.
When aunt's husband realized that his wife's work surpassed his by far, he began to feel jealous.
From then, he constantly argued with her about her job. He started to say that aunt took advantage of his connections to steal his clients and that it was because of him that my auction house reached where it's today.
He even asked for compensation and claimed he owned some of our ideas. To be honest, he is the kind of person I would have killed long ago.
But in the end, he was my aunt's husband. I want to avoid killing him if it's possible.
But from my aunt's expression, I can see that things are very bad this time.
"Explain what happened." I ordered with a cold look. My aunt did not dare to refuse. She knows that when I'm in this mood, I stop being her nephew and become her boss.
"I learned yesterday that his auction house became a subsidiary of the Riea auction house. Moreover, do you remember the VIP treatment you proposed and we were going to implement next month? Well, the Riea auction hall announced something like that today. To be honest, I suspect that my husband accidentally heard us speaking about it and stole the idea to sell it to the Riea family."
*Bang!* I slammed my hand on the table. Aunt Dayana shrunk briefly when she saw my reaction. She tried to say something but sighed in the end. "I'm sorry, it's my mistake. Even though I know how my husband is, I was not wary enough and allowed him to steal your idea."
My expression was unsightly. I could not tolerate my aunt's husband's actions.
I even told him that he could form an alliance with our auction house before and he rejected, only to become a dog of the Riea family.
Was he so jealous of my aunt? Was it possible that he was unable to endure that his wife was doing better than him?
How petty.
I took a deep breath to calm my emotions. I then looked at Aunt Dayana and heaved a sigh.
"Aunt, I don't understand why you continue living together that man."
"... I'm sorry, Claus. But he is, in the end, my son's father. I don't want my son grows without his father. Also, Lock is not a bad person, he just is a bit jealous."
"But he spends more of his time away! When was the last time he came home?!"
Aunt was unable to answer my question.
I sighed again and put an apologetic expression. I then walked towards my aunt and hugged her. "I'm sorry for shouting you, aunt. It's just that I'm very angry. Moreover, I don't understand how you can continue defending him even after knowing he sold himself to the enemy of our family. I'll be honest with you, aunt. He already crossed my bottom line."
Aunt paled immediately. She looked at me and grabbed my arm with an expression of fear. "Claus, what are you planning?!"
"You know my current situation aunt. Now that the emperor already announced my exile, even the dogs of the empress think they can take a bite of me. If I don't teach them a lesson, then they will corner our family little by little."
Aunt Dayana's expression turned complicated. Her eyes flashed with different expressions while she struggled to make a decision. I simply waited silently for her answer.
Finally, she opened her mouth.