A few days later, at Mariette’s manor—“What? A divorce? You want to get a divorce from me?!”Mariette looked at the document her husband handed her, her face distorted with rage. “You’re the one who cheated on me, and the whole city knows it. How dare you ask me for a divorce after that!”Claude had the look of a man who had nothing to lose. “Everyone already knows, anyway. If we force ourselves to stay together anyway, wouldn’t people laugh at us even more?”Mariette threw the papers into Claude’s face. “If that’s really the reason, why didn’t you ask for a divorce after that day itself? You swore up and down that you would never divorce me, that you truly loved me, that you only felt lust for that homewrecker!“And now you’re saying you want a divorce to save us face? Do you take me for a fool? You want out because I’m in trouble now, and you can’t mooch off me anymore!”She called him out perfectly, so Claude grew angry. “What are you talking about? I didn’t mooch off you! Ev
Will said angrily from the other side of the phone, “I’m already helping you! I’ve been trying to defend you every day, but the old farts on the board are being surprisingly stubborn. I don’t know what’s up with them!”“The Brooks Corporation belongs to our family, doesn’t it? What right do they have to intervene? Even if I used the company’s funds, that’s still our family business. Why are they interfering?!” Mariette said in a huff.“I told you to learn on the job, but you wouldn’t listen! There’s no use complaining now. Your grandfather may have singlehandedly funded the corporation, but we’re not the only shareholders. Every one of your grandfather’s old comrades had a portion of the shares. Before Maxwell died, we still had his shares, so our family had the majority.“After he died, his shares were donated to charity, and then your Uncle Welson sold off some of his. Now, the other old coots have more total shares than I do. I might be the chairman, but I’m not the only decision
Maxwell narrowed his eyes.What was up with Mariette’s look of shock and disbelief? Didn’t she already know that he was alive?“Mariette, I’m right here now. There’s no need for you to keep pretending,” he said sarcastically.Mariette was perplexed. “What do you mean? More importantly, didn’t you die? Were you faking your death? Also, you actually sound normal now! What’s up with that?”Maxwell looked at her without a word.He understood Mariette’s character to some extent. She was not a schemer, wearing her cocky heart on her sleeve. If she really did know that he was alive, she would not be keeping up the act even now.However, all of his investigations had pointed to her. If she was not the mastermind, then who was?Maxwell thought it over, then he turned around and sat down on her couch. “Thanks to you, I didn’t die. In fact, I even got an unexpected boon!”“Oh… That means that man was talking about you!” Mariette’s eyes widened in realization.Maxwell watched her every re
Mariette was stunned for a second, then she glared at Maxwell. “Aren’t you getting a bit too big for your breeches, Maxwell? How could you talk back to me?”Back when Maxwell had the mind of a child, he would cower whenever she raised her voice. The way he was right now was not cute at all.Maxwell’s smile instantly disappeared, and his expression turned dark. He looked at Mariette with a sharp gaze.Mariette shuddered inexplicably. What was going on? Why did Maxwell feel a little scary? She had been planning to tell him off, but her voice died in her throat.Maxwell stared at her with a glint of danger in his eyes. “You had better come clean with me, Mariette Brooks. Do you still have that Armani scarf, or don’t you?!”“I-I’ll check. I haven’t worn it in a while,” Mariette said, instinctively giving in.She searched through her closet carefully and then looked at Maxwell, her expression troubled. “I can’t seem to find it. I think I lost it.”“Where did you lose it?” Maxwell sai
It had to be Will Brooks!Maxwell’s second uncle looked friendly, but he was a deeply cunning man.Maxwell’s father had been the oldest son, and he helped Maxwell’s grandfather with work since he was a child. If it were not for that car accident, Will would never have been able to take over the company in his lifetime. That meant he had a good motive to kill Maxwell’s father.Mariette had told Will about her encounter with Scout, and she dropped her scarf at Will’s manor. Cobalt Wolfe and Lynette Shaw were also employees at the Brooks Corporation.All this seemed to suggest that other than Mariette, Will was the most likely suspect. Mrs. Wilson’s accident was highly suspicious, too. If Will had found out from Scout that Maxwell was neither dead nor demented, then why would he still go after Mrs. Wilson?What did he want from Mrs. Wilson? Did he just want to confirm the news of his survival? Or—Was he trying to figure out if Maxwell had regained his senses after the explosion
“I’ll find an appropriate time to talk to her.”Maxwell was annoyed at the thought that Sonnet might be mad at him for cheating on her.…Sonnet received a call from Lindy at two o’clock in the afternoon, and Lindy’s voice on the other side of the phone sounded very excited. “Sonnet, I have some amazing news for you!”A smile appeared on the corner of Sonnet’s lips. “What is it? You sound so excited.”“Maxwell isn’t dead, he’s back! He’s back!” Lindy’s voice raised several octaves. “He didn’t die from that big explosion! He’s back!”Sonnet was silent for a while. Then, she asked, “How do you know?”Lindy was so excited that she did not pay attention to Sonnet’s indifference. “Marcus called me and asked me to go to his office to report something, so I went. And when I got there, I saw Maxwell!“There are also some social news reporters here. Marcus asked me to come over to let me report that the second young master of the Brooks family, Maxwell, is not dead and is back!“I deci
‘What? Did you only find out about this? Mom, I knew that you’d been dating Dad in secret for so long!’Jaybie criticized silently in his heart but pretended to be surprised. “What is going on?”Sonnet wanted to tell him about Maxwell’s narrow escape, but then she figured if she told Jaybie, wouldn’t it prove that she already knew? Jaybie was smart, so she must not let him find any loopholes.“I don’t exactly know what’s going on. Just now, Aunt Lindy called to say that Uncle Maxwell is back and that’s when I found out. We have to wait until Uncle Maxwell comes back at night to know what’s going on. We will ask him,” she said.Jaybie nodded, He already knew about his father’s narrow escape, but he did not mind putting on an act for his mother again, but why didn’t his father tell him about his identity announcement today?“Well, Jaybie...” Sonnet went straight to the point, feeling a little conflicted. “Uncle Maxwell is my husband after all, so if he comes back, I will definitely
Sonnet laughed. “How is that possible? Even if I agree, Uncle Johnson won’t agree.”‘Who wants to force their way into someone else’s family?’“What if Uncle Johnson agrees? I can convince him that I don’t want to be separated from him,” Lune insisted.“Then you can give it a try and see what Uncle Johnson has to say,” Sonnet said helplessly.Instead of dissuading Lune, Sonnet would let her try. She thought about it and decided that Johnson couldn’t possibly agree to live with them in the old house. If Lune failed with Johnson, she would probably not be so stubborn.Lune’s mood improved slightly.Not long after they got home, Lindy brought Maxwell home, along with Marcus.Both Myles and Sophia were very surprised. The whole family sat at the dinner table and asked Maxwell what happened.Maxwell started from the fact that he found an underground water pipe at the scene of the fire. Then, he briefly said that he was seriously injured, and he just recovered after more than a year