Mindy immediately said regretfully, “That’s… bad timing. You’re outside my house? But I’m not home.”Lyla froze, but she quickly said with a smile, “I see. In that case, we…”She wanted to say that they could meet up some other day, but Chiara began talking to Mindy.“Hi, I’m Chiara.”Since Lyla had put the call on speaker, it was not too abrupt for Chiara to chime in.“Chiara?” Mindy’s voice was soft and casual.“It’s just bad timing. I happen to be out. What’s the purpose of your visit today? Why don’t you come back some other day?”Chiara paled a little. She had wanted to say that she and her mother would wait for Mindy to come home.Since Mindy was obviously asking them to go home, Chiara did not know what else to say.She looked over at Lyla in a panic and hoped that she would help her out.Lyla inhaled and said, “I see. Then we’ll come back another day. Have fun, Mindy.”“Alright, let’s meet up again someday.”Her voice was soft and gentle, but one could sense her urg
Seeing Samuel, Mindy immediately sighed in relief. Her son might not listen to her, but he would certainly obey his grandfather.However, Mindy was sorely mistaken.Michael firmly said, “We won’t get engaged.”He looked very calm and composed.Samuel nearly exploded with anger. “Y-you promised. Are you really going to call it off?”“Yes.” Michael looked at Samuel coldly and said, “I won’t get engaged with a liar.”“You brat… What liar?” Samuel clenched his teeth. “Do you know that if you call this off, our partnership with the Lanes will…”As he spoke, Michael cut him off with a solemn voice. “We don’t necessarily need to work with the Lanes in the future.”Samuel regarded Michael with a shrew look in his eyes. “What do you mean by this?”In truth, Samuel had been eager about the marriage of convenience between Michael and Chiara mainly because of Lane’s Group…But now that Michael had said that, Samuel could sense that he was up to something.Even Mindy turned to Michael.
Surprised, Sandy turned to Ivanka. She whispered, “Isn’t that Chiara? Why is she here? Did she call you beforehand?”Ivanka frowned and shook her head.Sandy’s expression turned sour. She then said in a low voice, “What should we do? Should we let her in?”Ivanka pursed her lips. Without hesitation, she said sarcastically, “Let her in. Since she decided to come here, it means that she doesn’t mind having witnesses see that she’s here, which also means she probably wouldn’t dare to do anything to me. Honestly, I want to see what tricks she’s up to.”Sandy looked worried and conflicted. However, seeing Ivanka’s determined look, she opened the door.When Chiara entered, she was stunned to see Sandy. “Why are you here?”Sandy looked at her with a puzzled expression and asked, “Is there a problem with me being here? What’s it to you anyway?”She was already being quite polite to Chiara, given how lowly she thought of her at the moment. Chiara’s expression changed instantly. She d
Sandy sneered. “I am Iv, and Iv is me! I’m not a stranger. I’m not some outsider. I’m way closer to Ivanka than you. You’ve only been a manipulative cousin to her. Back then, your whole family enjoyed exploiting her generosity, but now you’re trying to control her assets and pretend to give her challenges under the guise of fairness. Why not just let her quit and leave? Then you all can reap the rewards without lifting a finger! You know you’re shameless, don’t you?” “You—!”Chiara had always been accustomed to her high and mighty attitude outside. For years, no one dared to confront her like this. She never expected Sandy to say such things!Despite any personal dislike they had for each other in private, they had never openly clashed, unlike today!“Sandy.”Ivanka grabbed Sandy’s hand and pulled her back. She did not want Sandy to get involved. Chiara’s family was ruthless. She did not want Sandy to be dragged into this and end up getting hurt for no reason.But Sandy did not
Ivanka smiled at Chiara, She said, “I never intended to get along with Michael. So, you can rest assured about that.”Sandy sneered, “Exactly! You should focus more on Michael, Chiara. Have you been slipping up lately? It seems like you can’t maintain your lofty image anymore. Otherwise, why does Mr. Barkworth always ignore you and persistently pursue Ivanka?”Ivanka was speechless for a moment.She propped up her head with one hand. Sandy deliberately said those words to vent her frustration.“Sandy, that’s enough.” Ivanka emphasized.Sandy pouted unhappily and said, “I just couldn’t help it, okay!”Of course, she would happily confront her when an opportunity like this arose. Chiara was such a wicked person! She even started trouble in Ivanka’s place! She must be the kind of parent who would spoil her children!As Chiara clenched her fists, her eyes turned red. She could feel her whole being was on the verge of losing control and bursting with endless rage. But, she took a dee
“You—!” Chiara’s chest heaved with anger.Ivanka smiled calmly. “When Michael said that he wanted me to be in charge, you guys were stuck between a rock and a hard place. No matter who you chose, not only would I still have to intervene, but you would also offend either side. In such a tough spot, you came up with another plan, am I right?”Chiara clenched her fists tightly. She had a strong urge to scream and to beg Ivanka to stop talking!Sandy gritted her teeth.So cruel! Iv would not be in such a miserable state if they had not been so overbearing. Seeing her endure such pain during a time like this broke her heart!She held Ivanka’s hand. Even though she did not say anything, her gaze was filled with pain.Ivanka just smiled at her, then calmly looked at Chiara. “Later on, despite your best efforts, I only ended up with a broken rib. But Michael got freaked out over this and worried that I might die. He really liked my proposal. So, if I’m dead, he would lose a very importan
She could pass this unedited recording to Michael later on.With the engagement coming up and zero activity from Barkworth’s Group, she should probably throw in some evidenceThe next moment, Ivanka smiled. “Chiara, are you sure you want to stay and make a fool of yourself? I don’t mind waiting for you to try to attack me again.”“Ivanka, don’t be smug! Sooner or later, you’ll end up in the mud and become the world’s laughingstock!”“The world?” Ivanka narrowed her eyes. “Are you suggesting that you want to survive this time?”Chiara took a deep breath to calm herself down. She did not want to be provoked by Ivanka again. She gritted her teeth and said, “Don’t get ahead of yourself!”After saying that, she turned and left.Chiara actually came over today to try to reason with Ivanka. If Ivanka was willing to give up, it would have been a good solution. However, Ivanka clearly refused to reconcile and instead chose to confront her aggressively. This made it pointless for Chiara t
Sandy grinned widely as she stretched lazily and said casually, “I really look forward to seeing Michael’s reaction when he sees the recording. It’s a pity I won’t get to see it.”Ivanka simply smiled. Though she seemed relaxed, her fingers were gliding across her laptop’s touchpad.Sandy looked puzzled and asked, “Iv, what else are you doing?”“That’s a great recording. I can’t just show it to one person.”“Huh? Didn’t you just say you were only sending it to Michael?”Ivanka shook her head with a smile.“That was my initial plan. But I decided to put together a few more recordings and send them to someone else. It could change the current situation.”“What do you mean?” Sandy was confused by Ivanka’s words.“I’m sending Chiara the recent recordings I shared with Michael. The old ones might be helpful to us as well. If she doesn’t want those recordings to go public, she knows better than to lay a finger on us. If anything happens to us, those recordings will be made public. Ch