The debriefing went on most of the day. Only when it started to get dark outside the window did Carmen leave his office.
Well... All the pieces are in place, the plan of action is prepared. All that remained was to wait for the right people to arrive and watch their reactions.
In the meantime, he could spare some time for himself.
A maid flashed through the door, announcing that dinner with the Schnee family was about to begin.
Ten minutes later, Jacques was sitting at the head of a long table decorated with a snow-white tablecloth embroidered with Schnee snowflakes, eating peacefully.
Today they were served steak with blood straight from the cattle farms of Mistral. The high mountain region was an excellent supplier of high grade meat. For such a thing, a whole network of small pastures in Grimm-protected valleys below the capital had been organized.
It was rare that anyone could ever settle for such an exotic delicacy. But not the SCD...
Cutting his portion with a silver knife, Jacques stoically ignored the slanted glances from his wife.
And he even suspected the reason for it. It must have been Cinder, who also sat at their table and tried not to embarrass herself with the smallest of things.
Whether it was choosing the right fork or her eating manners. Apparently, she wasn't very good at it.
So, the amber-eyed woman tried to finish off a piece of meat with a dessert fork while holding the knife in her left hand with a reverse grip.
" Cinder, don't hold your knife like a killing sword. It's rude. To the knife," Jacques said, causing Winter to involuntarily choke on the orange juice she was drinking.
Catching Mr. Schnee's interested gaze, the amber-eyed girl blushed embarrassedly and gripped the device with the right hand.
Weiss and Wheatley looked at each other in surprise as her spouse shifted her gaze from her husband to their new guest.
Already her presence at the table with Schnee's family was surprising. Now Jacques's attitude toward her raised more and more questions.
Who had she been brought in as?
An adopted daughter, another figure, or something else?
So many mysteries. And a husband that for the third twenty-four hours didn't look like himself.
He's changed. And he's changed in every way. Neither his arrogance, nor his high-mindedness and love of pathos, as well as spectacular.
But something... Made all his features, which seemed to be vices before, more worthy or what?
Gone was the suspiciousness, caution and constant control over everything and everyone around him, replaced by an impenetrable calm.
It was as if he already knew what would happen and how to react.
That detail was tense, unsettling, and made Willow fear for her family even more.
Had Jacques decided to get rid of them or no longer counted for family?
Why could he no longer be read like he used to be. Willow Schnee had never been able to fully understand her spouse during the many years of their marriage. To her, he had always remained an enigma, a rebus that would not yield, no matter how much effort she made.
But the woman believed that she achieved at least some results in such a study. For example, she had managed to deflect Jacques' anger at Winter on her sixteenth birthday, when she'd had another scandal with her father in public.
Willow had been the one to appeal to her husband's rationality to put Weiss in Miss Falz's singing lessons.
And it was she who had saved the servants from being fired when the SCD patriarch was in a bad mood and could get to the bottom of anything.
However, after the terrorist attack, Mrs. Schnee was no longer sure that her old Jacques was still sitting next to her.
He had become an impenetrable block, an iceberg, in the depths of which nothing could be traced and said clearly.
Only she would draw one conclusion as her spouse acted differently, throwing her off the train of thought and everyone around her. And so it was now.
What was the point of bringing an orphan girl? Yes, her fate was sad, but what was to stop him from giving her to another orphanage and sponsoring it, since the man had decided to take care of the girl.
Why drag a stranger into their estate?
Since when had her spouse become more tolerant of Winter's behavior and less strict with Weiss.
What was going on?!
While the elder Schnee was deep in thought, Winter was focused on Cinder. She could see the dexterity with which the black-haired girl was wielding her instruments.
Her eyes squinted in suspicion, but she said nothing, preferring to study their guest later.
As long as Jacques couldn't see...
The head of the SDC himself watched his eldest daughter's reaction and wiped the edges of his lips with a towel, suppressing the anticipatory smile that came out.
Winter had no idea that her subsequent introduction to Miss Fall was also part of the man's calculations.
She wanted to become a huntress and serve at the pleasure of Atlas? Good. In that case, he'd make the most of his daughter's decision.
And first... let her practice with Cinder. After all, to make good on Winter, you have to make sure she doesn't die in the immediate future.
After all, the fun hasn't even started for her yet....
***
Jacques was a disgusting spouse. Only for the first few years of his marriage to Willow Schnee had they slept in the same bedroom. But the more Mr. Schnee immersed himself in the affairs of the company, the faster it took on new frontiers, the less often he visited the common quarters with his wife.
It seemed that at some point Jacques had completely forgotten who he was married to - Willow or his job.
Since then it had become normal for the man to fall asleep in his workplace, having set up a small bedroom next door to the chairman's office.
Occasionally, Jacques would go to the guest bedroom when he returned, so as not to waste time wandering around the estate.
After all, the guest room was much closer to the exit than the last one.
Incredible pragmatism.
As it happened, Jacques had been spending most of his time in the outer wing of the estate for the past few years, or hardly ever coming home at all, busy dealing with another crisis for the SDC.
Willow was...used to that sort of thing. The woman had accepted her husband's choice, albeit with great difficulty.
She was saddened by the fact that he had no room in his heart for anyone else, perhaps not even his own children, but Mrs. Schnee also saw how Jacques cared about their company.
It was probably his only positive trait.
Tonight, however, Willow opened her mouth once again, amazed at the unbelievability of what was happening.
After all, her husband had... Headed for the center wing. Right where their shared bedroom had once been.
The woman looked around to make sure she wasn't imagining things.
Cinder was being shown to her new room by one of the maids who spoke with a slight smile about the routines of their family nest.
Wynter followed independently, occasionally monitoring Miss Fall's reactions and momentarily supplementing the maid's speech.
Weiss and Wheatley were almost running around Klein, who was telling another scary tale from Atlas's collection of fairy tales with a broad smile in his thick mustache.
And Jacques...
He moved all alone in the center of the corridor.
He looked only ahead, paying no attention to the servants passing by, nor to the few Shni guards who stood at the boundary between the buildings.
The SDC Chairman merely strode up the stairs and disappeared behind the double doors.
Which led to their shared bedroom...
Normally, Willow would have taken a right, to where her private room was located.
But now she froze... in indecision?
Was this an invitation? Or a pure coincidence?
Atlassian eyes darted from side to side, searching for answers, but never finding them. Only Jacques himself could dispel her doubts.
After standing still for a few more minutes, the woman exhaled deeply and stepped inside with determination on her face.
***
Jacques breathed a sigh of relief as he took a refreshing shower. It was good to be rich!
Especially when you can customize the water so that the jets don't cause agonizing pain throughout your body.
Looking into the huge mirror above the marble sink, the man managed to trace what was left to him from the generous terrorists.
A burn on half his back and a dozen cuts of varying degrees of depth. It was like he'd been in a Grimm fight, really.
The lacerations had already crusted over and, as Mr. Schnee hoped, nothing would remain but white lines as a small reminder.
But the burn could remain for the rest of his life.....
The main thing was that all these newfound arts could be easily hidden by a business suit. So Jacques wasn't worried.
But it wouldn't hurt to go to a cosmetologist for a consultation...
The Chairman of the SDC should still look fresh.
Leaving the bathroom in his bathrobe, the man was able to watch his wife sitting at the dressing table, carefully removing her jewelry.
Willow, hearing footsteps behind her, looked up at him and he responded with a slight squint.
Why was she here?
Jacques had assumed Willow would be sleeping in her private bedroom. She always did.
He'd expected peace and quiet on the huge bed, the mattress he'd personally selected and knew to be of the highest quality.
And with his injured back, a bed in a shared bedroom was the only viable option to avoid feeling a thousand daggers in the burned area in the morning.
Was she really trying to hint at something?
The man didn't even think about how his demonstrative trip to the shared bedroom looked from the outside. Or what thoughts his wife had in her mind.
Jacques nodded silently to Willow and sat down on a stool against the opposite wall before removing his robe, leaving him in just his underwear.
After all, there... was a private dressing table waiting for him. No matter what anyone said, Mr. Schnee cared about his appearance. That doesn't mean he spent hours in front of the mirror, but he did use all sorts of creams, ointments and oils.
Why? Because the face of a SDC representative must look flawless.
So, it was time for healing ointments for his wounds. And if the cuts on his arms and legs didn't cause any problems, then the burn on his back....
Before he could even think about calling for a servant, Willow was silently behind him.
"I'll help," she said quietly.
Jacques, with some delay, shook his head and handed her the jar of ointment.
Then he closed his eyes, struggling with the kaleidoscope of sensations, whether it was the tickle of his wife's delicate fingers or the unbearable burning sensation of the treatment.
"Why did you bring Cinder?" - The woman inquired casually.
"It's a nice gesture to the public so that I can assure the shareholders, and not only the shareholders, of my intentions for the boarding school," Jacques answered without a second's hesitation.
Willow grimaced, clearly expecting the wrong answer.
But what could she expect from her husband? Maybe he didn't have a heart at all, and she was worried for nothing.
Always calculating, rational and unscrupulous.
That was Jacques, before they were married and after. It was only she who had entertained illusions that after marriage the man would change, just as he had changed when they had children.
But no. The granite wouldn't budge, even all these years later. And they say that water sharpens stone...
It's all lies.
"And only just?" - Mrs. Schnee ran her hand more insistently down her husband's back.
causing the latter to twitch and flare his jowls a little.
"If my daughters don't appreciate what they have, then let them see the life of the 'plebs' up close. Cinder has a story to tell, and I'm more than sure the children will hear it from her own lips. Let them see what has always eluded them," he said.
Mr. Schnee, aka Jacques Juley before he married Willow, had lived on almost nothing as a child. Their company was in huge debt, and the family was kept together only by his father's toughness and integrity.
So Jacques adopted these traits from his parents, in order to help him pull their house out of poverty.
He had been deprived of a childhood, as well as an adolescence. While others partied in the many clubs, bars, and balls of Atlas, he crammed in textbooks, accompanied his father to meetings, and learned his wisdom.
And when he passed away, he took over Julei's company.
He won the battle and saved the family, which caught Nicholas' attention. Jacques agreed to merge with the SDC, becoming a middle manager.
He then ascended to the throne of SDC chairman himself, receiving praise for his talents, followed by Willow as a consolidation of his own power.
She had been fine with their wedding, and he himself had done nothing to prevent another "promotion" in the public eye.
Jacques just didn't know what it was to love. His world was full of numbers, calculations, and profit.
He had no room in his heart for love, no time, and no desire to spend his daily routine on such trifles.
But for all that, he tried to take care of his family. The way he knew how, the way he had taught himself.
And if it took becoming their number one enemy for his daughters to survive in this harsh world... then he would make that choice.
What's to say. He already did it in a previous life.
And he paid for it in full. He thought Winter or Weiss would mature, realize how Remnant works, and let them go free. But he was wrong again.
They've only absorbed the qualities the SDC chairman despised so much.
This would lead them to another collapse, this would be the end of HIS SDC.
And Jacques had no intention of that happening again.
And to do that, he would do anything...
"Yeah, well, what do I expect from the head of the SDC?" - Willow snorted, and Jacques didn't answer, "Why can't you just forget about all your work for a day and give at least a little of your attention to your family..."
"Because we're not living in a fairy tale, Willow," Mr. Schnee said more harshly than he intended, "And it's high time you woke up, too."
Willow wrinkled her nose as if she'd eaten a lemon, but she didn't want to contradict her husband.
"You should know better," she said, finishing her task.
"That's right. I know better. You have no idea where this is going. I see more clearly than I ever have," Jacques turned to face her and burned her with a shuddering heat.
His irises, like two ice floes, were stupefying, making him freeze in place and lower his head in fear.
But not Willow. She stubbornly responded with a veritable fire in the depths of her soul, stubbornly meeting her husband's displeasure.
The opposing glances continued. But only until Mrs. Schnee lowered her eyes to the floor in defeat.
Jacques barely audibly exhaled, momentarily losing all his poise.
"I'm a terrible husband, Willow," he confessed abruptly. The woman looked at him a second time in shock, "You know that, me, our kids, and all of Atlas and the SDC. I'm so far from being the best father that I'm incapable of giving Winter, Weiss, and Whitley what you demand of me. It's out of my hands. But that doesn't mean I'm spitting on Schnee's family. Believe me, if it were within my power, I'd have given the SDC chairmanship to someone else a long time ago. However... What happens after that? I won't set the stage for our family's future, I won't create a foundation that will support Winter, Weiss, and Whitley when they need that kind of power. I won't be able to make the Schnees so powerful that no one will even think of provoking us and taking us on by the tooth."
"Maybe... then you should still take it and leave the company to the managers? You could still be a good example for the kids. All you have to do is... get over yourself," Willow pleaded, looking at her husband with moisture in the corners of her eyes.
He'd never made such a revelation before.
"That's the difference between us, dear," Jacques shook his head, "You always hope for the best, while I prepare for the worst. If my children hate me, so be it. Even if the whole world burns, even if I drown Remnant in blood and walk on bones, I will make sure that Schnee's legacy lives on."
It was now that Willow realized how deeply mistaken she had been in assuming that her spouse didn't have a heart. It wasn't like that.
It was beating more than ever, echoing throughout the room.
Except... it was made of granite. Nothing and no one could penetrate that crust. Even if the whole world died, Jacques would still be herself.
And all her desperate attempts to penetrate the depths would once again be for naught.
Willow was on the verge of hysteria. Her rose-colored glasses had cracked again. The collapse of which had led her into an endless fog of binge drinking.
Jacques had always been the only reason she'd lost herself.
And on this night, he'd struck again, even if he hadn't planned such a thing....