Engaged to Morinozuka (an Ouran High School Host Club fanfiction)

Serious Threats- Part 6

"This is quite interesting..."  Kyoya continued to look through the documentation from the safety deposit box Mori had retrieved from Onikan's office.  "I'd say that Hitarus is an obessive pyscopath, but he's worse than that."  He looked at the file on his computer he had uploaded from a flash drive from the safety deposit box.  "Onikan must have realized this, and that's why he started gathering all of this."  Haruhi looked over his shoulder at everything.

"Onikan was smart to collect all of it, too.  He's got security camera footage of all their meetings, written death threats, and all correspondents with Hitarus from the last 5 years..."  Takashi, who was still seemingly in shock, finally stood up and walked over to the table where Kyoya and Haruhi were working.

"Why take Mariska, though?  They obviously don't need her to take over her family's side of the business."  Tamaki paced back and forth, thinking.

"Maybe it isn't just the business they're after."  He stopped.  "Perhaps she was previously promised to Hitarus's son, and, after a while, Onikan changed his mind, and Hitarus didn't like it.  So, rather than just taking the business, he intends to have Mariska marry his son as well after he removes supposedly every other option she has."  Hunny looked up from his plate of cake.

"That seems highly unlikely.  It would be better to just cut her off from the business and keep it to themselves."  Haruhi frowned as she picked up a photo.

"Actually, I'll have to side with Tamaki on this one..."  She looked back at the stack of photos and shuffled through them.  "It seems as though she was betrothed to Hitarus's son from the day she was born..."  She placed a photo of a younger Onikan and Hitarus holding a baby and a younger boy on the table.  Pointing at the date printed at the bottom of the photo.  "Based on what we know about Mariska, she must have been less than a minth old in this photo."  She then pointed at the little boy sitting on Hitarus's lap.  "That must be Hitarus's son, there."  Kyoya nodded and held up another document.

"Tamaki's right."  He turned the paper towards Mori and the others.  "This is a last will and testament signed and dated by Onikan about a month after Mariska was born, saying that, should anything happen to him, Mariska is to be placed under Hitarus's care until she graduate high school, when she was to marry Kitosha Hitarus."  He put it back down on the table.  "Meaning that, unless he drew up a new will and testament, Mariska can't legally marry Morinozuka if Onikan dies..."  Mori blinked blankly at this, and Haruhi shook her head.

"That's stupid.  What if she's of legal age to decide for herself?"  Hunny shook his head.

"Because of her family status, it doesn't matter, Haru-chan.  The Japanese law still recognizes arranged marriages, and this document says that an arranged marriage has been set regarding his daughter.  The only way she could possibly escape this is if there's a newer will that shows up or if she left Japan and became a refugee in another country."  Kyoya pinched his nose in frustration.

"That's why they attacked Onikan.  It was never about the company..."  He looked up at the others.  "It was about protecting his family's honor before Onikan brought dishonor on them all."  Mori shook his head.

"There has to be something we can do."  Kyoya sighed.

"We have to prove both Hitarus and his son are responsible for Onikan's condition, and they'll be arrested.  However..."  He sighed.  "If Onikan passes without a second will, it will be too late."  Haruhi sighed.

"And how do we do that?"  Kyoya shook his head.

"I don't know..."

Mariska stayed where she was well into the night, contemplating what she was going to do.  Because they had the older will, not the new one waiting to be signed by her father that was sitting in the top file drawer in his desk at home, they simply had to claim that they were acting on her behalf and pull the plug if they wanted to.  Or was her father already gone?  Tears threatened to fall once more as this thought passed through her head, making her feel even more helpless.

Please let Father be okay...  Please let him wake up and tell the authorities everything...  With each wish, she grew more and more hopeless.  She knew that, if she escaped, they could call the authorities on her, as she was technically to be under their care until her father's new will was finished...

A crazy thought came to her head.  Before she could talk herself out of it, that thought became an idea, which formulated into a plan.  All she had to do was go along with her situation.  With the right amount of compliance, she could expose to the world the truth about the madness of Hitarus and his son.  By doing so, she could, possibly, save her father from death and herself from a forced marriage.

It was crazy with a high chance of not working, but, if Takashi had succeeded, Kyoya could make it work.  She grabbed her school bag and dug around for her phone.  Surely, they thought that the authorities would never believe the absurd claims of a high school student who was in the company of her father's business partner.  This was the assumption she made that was by some great amount of luck backed by the fact that her phone was still in her bag, along with her charger.  Checking her phone, she realized it was dead, but a few hours on the charger would fix that.  The following day was Sunday, so she would have the whole day to set her plan in motion, especially since her father always insisted they take Sundays off to send time with their family, particularly Mariska.  If Hitarus stayed true to that agreement, he would want to spend the whole day with Mariska and Kitosha.  If not, Kitosha was bound to be around all day.

As soon as her phone was plugged in, she started checking the rest of the room.  To her knowledge, there was no hidden microphones or cameras, which was no surprise, but the room was already prepped for her stay.  At least half her clothes from home, the ones she didn't pack anyways, were already here.  She quickly dressed for bed.  In the bathroom, there was a towel, a washcloth, her toothbrush, some toothpaste, and all the other toiletries she had left behind were present.  Smiling, she washed up and braided her hair.

Climbing into bed, she felt a pang of fear try to throw her off, but she shook it off.  She had to do this...  For her father...  And for Takashi...