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
Did not record, huh? What was he listening to now, then?He was not surprised at all. He had known she was this kind of person from the start.“When Jonah wasn’t on board with your plan and said that it was either let me be in charge or not cooperate at all, you got flustered, didn’t you? There’s no way you would let go of such a juicy opportunity, could you? You then went to Michael and showed him the proposal. In the end, Michael was won over by the proposal, but he also wanted me to be in charge, didn’t he?“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?”Another plan...?Michael was fuming by now. When he heard the two words, he became even more furious.Chiara was definitely something else!This time, he strongly suspected that the matter was relat
Ivanka frowned deeply. Michael was in a horrible state. He had been poisoned and suffered gunshots. He had a strong tolerance to medicine and pain. But it was his mental condition that caused him to fall into this state. Not being fully recovered also added to the burden. Ivanka gave him a white pill which she had formulated by herself. After that, she had the security guard carry Michael into her car. Then, she sent him to the hospital. They arrived at the emergency department. Xavier had finished attending to his patients. When he walked out of his office, he saw Michael being carried into the hospital. He then saw Ivanka beside Michael. Xavier frowned. His expression became tense, and he asked solemnly, “What’s happened to him?” “He’s weak and had previously been poisoned. Since you’re around, you can look after him.” Ivanka summarized Michael’s condition. After hearing Ivanka’s brief explanation, Xavier gave Michael a checklist and put him on a drip. After that,
Since Jonah had come to this and Ivanka was not an ungrateful person, she nodded and gave her word. “Jonah, I’ll give this my all. Don’t worry. As long as it’s within my ability, I’ll help you.” Jonah had to be bound to the wheelchair at the moment. Since Ivanka had shared a similar experience when she took over Lane’s Group back then, she naturally figured out how wolfish and greedy his adversaries would be. Jonah was injured because of her. She swore to give her all to save him from whatever crisis he was facing. Jonah took advantage of this and asked, “What time are you coming tomorrow? I’ll have my assistant get ready.” Ivanka thought for a moment. “Tomorrow afternoon.” She needed to manage her company affairs during the first half of the day. Jonah was content upon hearing her answer. “Good. I’ll wait for you tomorrow.” “Okay.” Ivanka nodded before hanging up. When she returned to her office, she did not expect to see Michael sitting on the couch. She nearly jum
There was only one possibility. Ivanka was calling somebody else. Michael wondered who could strike up such a long conversation with her. Sandy and Ivan had returned to the country. Ivanka’s besties were around her. Even if Ivanka deliberately approached Chiara, she could not possibly have so much to chat with Chiara. If Ivanka’s phone call was business related, there was no need to chat this long. Michael eliminated the possible reasons one by one. In the end, he thought of Jonah. Michael’s expression instantly turned as dark as thunderclouds. His gaze was dull and cold. Evan noticed it. He also saw the call record on Michael’s phone. Evan quickly persuaded Michael, “Mr. Barkworth, Ms. Lane could be tied up with her work, so she couldn’t answer your call. We could go to her workplace now.” Michael said nothing. He gave a cold glance at Evan. Evan got a shock. The next second, Michael turned around and left his office. Looking at Michael’s fading silhouette, Evan wi
It was why Ivanka still came for Jonah in spite of her unpleasant experience with Margaret in the hospital last time. Jonah had been injured because of Ivanka. She came for him only. The other people did not matter to her. Jonah’s heart sank upon hearing her words. His expression tensed up. He could imagine the indifferent look on Ivanka’s face right at that moment. She had that expression on her face simply because he was never really important to her. Jonah was upset precisely because of her indifference to him. He wanted to say something to her but did not know how to begin. He was also not in the position to say that. It did not take long before Ivanka’s gentle but rather indifferent voice rang in his ears, “Jonah, don’t worry. I’ll treat your legs until they recover. Don’t run into any conflicts with your mom because of me.” Her words pulled Jonah’s wandering mind back into the present moment. He felt a heavy weight on his heart. “Iv, I trust you. You don’t need to
Margaret became frustrated and grabbed Ivanka. She could not understand why Ivanka was fine while Jonah ended up in such a bad situation after the accident.Then, Jonah defended Ivanka. There was also all the talk about Ivanka’s treatment. Margaret was curious to see what kind of miracle medicine Ivanka could develop.In the end, Ivanka’s treatment did not work. Moreover, her relationship with Jonah, which had finally started to improve, was once again ruined because of Ivanka.Jonah scoffed. “Mom, I’m not an eight-year-old anymore. You’re saying all this because you want me to go along with your plans for an arranged date, right?”Margaret had not expected Jonah to guess her thoughts. She was about to insist on her point when Jonah spoke first. With a mocking smile, he said sarcastically, “Do you think anyone would date someone like me?”He had a point. But Laura might be one such person.However, Margaret did not like her. She would do anything to keep Laura from becoming her d
“That’s because you want him to fall in love with you!” Margaret snapped.Ivanka chuckled softly. Her tone was edged with sarcasm. “Love? Does it really matter that much?”Margaret felt humiliated and furious. She pointed a finger at Ivanka’s face with a hostile expression. “If it doesn’t matter, why are you doing all this? Stop pretending, Ivanka!”Ivanka let out a bitter laugh. “Pretending? What am I pretending for? Is being divorced a crime? Margaret, you’re a woman too. How would you feel if someone accused you like this?”She hoped Margaret would take a moment to reflect. After all, she was Jonah’s mother, and Ivanka did not want their conflict to escalate.But Margaret was unmoved. Her glare turned colder, sharper, and filled with hatred.“You think I’ll just let this go?” Margaret said sharply. “If it weren’t for you, Jonah wouldn’t be in this mess! I meant every word I said, and nothing will change that.”To her, Ivanka was nothing more than someone scheming to use Jonah
“Ivanka,” Margaret took a deep breath while trying to compose herself. When she looked at Ivanka again, her expression was calm. She said, “I don’t know how deep Jonah’s feelings for you run. What I fear most is that once he becomes fixated on you, that’s it. When he falls for someone, his heart won’t make room for anyone else. In that way, he’s just like his father.”Ivanka’s gaze wavered. She bit her lip and was unsure of what to say.“I beg you, don’t hurt Jonah anymore!” Margaret’s voice carried a note of desperation.Ivanka’s expression turned extremely complicated.There was a time when Jonah came to her only to use her. Back then, they were both using each other. It made things simple.But later, Jonah unexpectedly started talking about marriage. Perhaps it was to provoke Michael, or perhaps he simply wanted to keep her close because she was useful to him.At some point, though, it seemed Jonah had become serious about her. She could not pinpoint when it happened. Perhaps
Jonah frowned in clear disagreement, but he stayed silent. Ivanka’s confident smile reassured him and made him trust her.Eventually, he let go of her wrist.Ivanka noticed Margaret putting on her shoes. She quickly followed, stepping outside just as Margaret was about to get into her car“Margaret,” she called out.Margaret frowned slightly and stood still.Since Jonah had not come out with Ivanka, she decided she could spare a moment to speak with her.She turned and looked at Ivanka coldly.Ivanka softened her tone. “Let’s take a walk.”Margaret did not respond, but her silence was enough of an agreement.They walked slowly around the edge of the mansion. The surrounding area was all part of the Sadler family estate.Margaret suppressed her anger and glanced at Ivanka before speaking in a composed tone, “Alright. What do you want to say?”Ivanka met her gaze briefly before looking ahead and said, “Do you know what will happen if Jonah’s coughing continues?”Margaret’s he
Margaret glared at Ivanka and scoffed, “If there’s an issue, I’ll get another doctor to handle it. It’ll be anyone but you, Ivanka. Haven’t I made myself clear enough? I’ve told you this before.”She hated how Ivanka ignored her warnings and kept coming back to visit Jonah time and again. What if Jonah got too close to her and ended up ruining his reputation? If Jonah had not been here, Margaret would have been even harsher.Ivanka frowned as she met Margaret’s sharp gaze. “I’ve never tried to get close to Jonah like that. We’re just friends. I know I’m not good enough for him, so I’ve never even thought about it.”“You might not have, but he has!” Margaret snapped, raising her voice.“Mom!” Jonah’s expression darkened.Jonah was usually calm and polite. This was the first time Ivanka saw him looking so upset and was about to lose his temper.Ivanka’s eyes flickered with hesitation. She was unsure of what to say.Explaining Jonah’s coughing would do no good. Margaret would not