“Mm. They came to thank me. My granddad brought my uncles and cousins over too. The two families quarreled. Chelsea and Mrs. Brown chased my granddad and the others out with the broom. The tires of John’s car were punctured too. Chelsea did it.”Zachary laughed upon hearing that. “The Brown family has finally done a satisfying thing.”Serenity giggled. “My granddad and the others probably came to tell me that my dad wasn’t their biological son. They want us to give up on inheriting the property. If we don’t, they’ll likely negotiate with us. Getting my parents’ property back without fighting a lawsuit is the best-case scenario.”If Old Mr. Hunt really wanted to negotiate, Serenity would be willing to do it too. However, there was no way she would give up on her inheritance. “Me and Granddad’s DNA test results will be out within these two days. I’ll see how they can continue making this up after I get the results.”“It’ll be ready by tomorrow. I’ll go and get the results with
“Mm, he said there’s a lunch appointment in the afternoon.”Tania said nonchalantly, “Tell him you won’t be going then. We haven’t eaten outside or gone shopping together before. Zack won’t fight me on this.”People have been spreading rumors that she had had a bad relationship with Serenity. They said Serenity had always attended banquets with Mrs. Stone but was rarely seen returning to the manor to accompany her mother-in-law; neither had they eaten together in public or gone shopping. Tania wanted to ignore the rumors. She was aware of the status of her relationship with Serenity. However, she was asked about it by her friends whenever she went to play cards with them. She felt annoyed. Tania gave up on playing cards and looked for her daughter-in-law immediately. She wanted to take her daughter-in-law and splurge at luxury brand boutiques. She would dispel the rumors with concrete actions. That was the reason for Tania’s sudden visit. “Okay.”Serenity was about to call
Serenity hung up the phone after saying a few words to Zachary.Not two minutes later, she received a notification that money was transferred to her bank account.Zachary changed the phone number bound to the household bank card to hers. He was worried she would feel uncomfortable if he received a notification every time she spent money.He told her to let her use the money at will, but...Zachary was very considerate with regard to that.After the phone number linked to the account was changed to Serenity’s, she became much more comfortable when spending money.Zachary transferred a sum of money to the account and told Serenity to spend as much as she wanted while shopping with her mother-in-law.Liberty arrived a few minutes later.Only when her nephew was handed over to her sister did Serenity accompany her mother-in-law to lunch.Then, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law spent time together until the evening.Tania was the wife of the current head of the York family. Th
Meanwhile, when Serenity saw the entertainment news article, she was silent for a long time before saying to her friend, “Now that my status is different, every little thing can make it to the entertainment section of the news.”It was her first time making the news after becoming the missus of the York family.Jasmine was used to seeing gossip like that and laughed. “Your husband is the biggest name in Wiltspoon’s business world. You barely interact with your mother-in-law, and you’ve recently attended various parties with your aunt, so it’s natural they started to misunderstand.“A lady called your mother-in-law before to say that you were meddlesome, and she told your mother-in-law to discipline you. You heard about that, right? Those people just wanted to see your mother-in-law treating you badly because they were jealous you were able to marry into a top-class family like the Yorks.“I heard from Josh that Grandma May and your mother-in-law have the most say in the York family
Serenity’s phone rang. It was a call from Zachary.She looked at the screen and laughed. “Speak of the devil.”Jasmine said, “Be happy about it. Mr. York is so busy, but he still calls you every once in a while. It’s clear that he really dotes on you. Of course, my Josh isn’t bad to me either. Oh, he’s not mine yet. He hasn’t proposed to me yet.”Serenity answered the call.“Honey, I’m on my way. I’ll reach in ten minutes.”“You’re coming here?”Serenity was a little surprised because she did not know why Zachary was suddenly coming over. However, she soon figured it out. He said that he would accompany her to get the results of the DNA test.She looked at the clock. It was half past two. He should be at work at this time.He pushed away a lot of his work to accompany her. In his heart, anything that was related to her was his number one priority.The taste of being pampered so much was sweeter than sugar.“I’ll just get the results by myself. You’re busy at work.”Zachary s
Ten minutes later, Serenity heard the sound of a car honking and spoke to her friend before taking her phone that was left on the table. She went around the counter and left.After a few steps, she turned back and picked up her bag. “I forgot to take the bag that Zachary gave me. He’ll pull a long face if I don’t go out with it.”Jasmine laughed. “What a blissful worry.”Serenity held the branded bag Zachary gave her and walked out of the bookstore. The two bodyguards saw that it was Zachary who came to pick her up and very sensibly did not follow her again.Zachary got out of the car, holding a bouquet in one hand and opening the car door for her with the other. He passed the bouquet to Serenity when she approached.“This is for you, honey.”“Thanks, babe.”Serenity took the bouquet, smiled and kissed Zachary’s face, and got into the car.Zachary touched the place she kissed with a smile in his eyes, then followed her into the car.“Honey, I brought you some pastries for afte
“What does it say?”Zachary had not seen the results yet. He watched her actions but could not see a smile on her face, so he assumed his father-in-law really was not the biological son of Old Mr. and Mrs. Hunt.“The results say that my granddad and I are related by blood. My dad is their biological child.”“They’re actually related by blood? With how badly they treat you, I always thought you weren’t biologically related.”Serenity looked at her husband and seemed amused. “You sound like you were hoping my dad wasn’t their biological child.”Zachary said sheepishly, “They’re so ruthless that I thought your dad wasn’t their own. How can they do this when he’s their actual son? It’s heartbreaking.”“My sister and I had our hearts broken by them long ago. We’ll never reconcile in our lifetime.”Serenity put the results away. She had not received a reply from her sister yet, so she guessed that Liberty should be sleeping.The business at All You Can Eat was booming, and Liberty wa
Serenity said, “Because I was the one who told him to pluck your hair.”“You told him to do it? Are you mad? Why do you want to pluck my hair? How could that runt obey your orders? Serenity, did you give Noah a lot of benefits?”She gave his youngest grandson benefits but not to her own grandfather. Sure enough, there was no point in raising a girl. She did not know how to take care of her grandfather after getting rich.“I heard you spread rumors saying my dad wasn’t your biological child. My dad died more than ten years ago, so he can’t refute the accusations. As his daughter, I have to refute it for him.“According to inheritance law, Grandmom and you can inherit a part of Dad’s assets. The results will be the same whether we go to court or negotiate. You wouldn’t have gotten into this situation if you weren’t this greedy.”Serenity took out the DNA test result. “I told Noah to pluck your hair to do a DNA test. Dad can’t get a DNA test done with you, but it’ll be the same if I
Austin said, “He’s definitely here to discuss a potential partnership with your company.“He's just the acting head of the Longbottoms. He doesn’t truly control the family. If the real head returns, everything he’s worked for will go to someone else.“The downfall of Belinda Fisher probably gave him a wake-up call and he doesn’t want to end up like that.“He’s definitely seeking to cooperate with you regarding his personal business. He’s just using the Longbottoms’ name, since their influence in Windermere is enormous.”In terms of wealth, the O'Connors and the Longbottoms were on equal footing, but the O'Connors had fewer members and did not have the same level of influence in Windermere as the Longbottoms.Isabella said, “He’s very ambitious. A partnership would only just be the beginning. Once it’s established, he’ll start thinking about how to cheat us and steal our business.“Plus, he’s very lecherous. Nobody can put a number to how many women he’s toyed with. Some even lost
Tony was aware that whenever his wife had to play the villain, it was always to protect him. He said, “You're right, I misspoke. Your mother isn’t that kind of person.”“Manny, I’ll be leaving soon. You stay here, and I’ll leave half of my men with you. If anything comes up that you can't handle, contact me. I’ll be waiting to hear good news from you.” Tony decided to fly to Wiltspoon in the afternoon. He would only stay for two or three days before returning to Havenmill to handle business.However, as he thought about how he was working like a horse for Longbottom Corporation when many of the benefits did not even belong to him personally, Tony felt a bit disgruntled.“Got it.” Manny did not reject his father’s arrangement.As the Longbottom father and son were discussing how to deal with the O’Connors, Austin entered Isabella’s office.Isabella was busy, so Austin did not disturb her. He quietly sat at the tea table and made some tea.“It seems you’ve learned the art of tea-
Manny had never been to Wiltspoon, but he knew from his father that several prominent families in Wiltspoon had close ties with the Johnsons from Annenburg. It was possible that the child adopted by the Johnsons’ young missus was Laurence. Unfortunately, he could not meet that child, so he could not be a hundred percent certain. The child was currently out of sight and well-protected, hidden so effectively that even the Longbottoms’ information network could not find anything. The other prominent families in Wiltspoon were also helping to keep the child hidden, so Manny deeply disliked the people from these families. Even though they were thousands of miles away, they were still an obstacle to him and his father in their pursuit of becoming the true head of the family.“That's right. If we can conquer the O’Connors, we’ll have a backup plan,” his father said. “You must put your all into it, son. If you need help, just let me know, though this is also an opportunity for you to ge
Tony Longbottom was the only person who would put on such a parade. The big shots in Satbury usually had entourages of their own, but none would put on a spectacle as big as Tony would.As they departed in their car, Tony’s gracious demeanor utterly shattered.His face twisted into an ugly, cruel expression as he said, “I’ve never been treated like this before, even when the legitimate branch of the family still lived, and those two ignorant little girls actually refused to see me multiple times.”Manny was very angry too and he said, “Pops, since they refuse to go about this the easy way, we’ll have to show them the hard way. We can approach it from other angles, and once they’re completely out of business and they have nowhere else to turn to, they’ll be at our mercy.“Won’t they have to do as we please then? I want to marry them, they’ll have to marry me, and if I don’t, I’ll just make them my mistresses. Don’t the O’Connors have plenty of daughters? I’ll fuck every one of them
“Isabella O’Connor is so outstanding, so why are you asking me to go for Tati O’Connor instead?” Manny said under his breath in puzzlement.He had seen photos of the two ladies and Isabella’s appearance was more striking. She had a cold and aloof aura that easily triggered his desire to conquer her, and after just a few glances, he was captivated.If it were up to him, Manny would choose Isabella.Tony looked at his son, smiled, and said, “You can’t control her. Of course, if you manage to make her fall for you, we can talk about switching. But for now, focus on Tati O’Connor.”Tati was also beautiful. However, she did not have Isabella’s cold demeanor. She seemed much gentler, like she smiled often.“Marrying Tati O’Connor would be a big advantage for both you and our family.”Manny thought for a moment and then nodded in understanding. “Got it, Dad.”Manny’s good looks, wealth, honeyed tongue, and generosity toward girls made him good at winning them over. Pursuing a rich youn
After testing the O’Connor sisters and realizing they were not like other women, Mr. Longbottom thought of having his son marry Tati.He knew that his son would not be able to handle or control Isabella, so he set his sights on Tati. Tati probably did not realize she was considered an easy target. Most people underestimated her because she had always kept a low profile.At that moment, a young man got out from the other side of the Rolls-Royce. He resembled Mr. Longbottom. Indeed, he was Mr. Longbotton’s eldest son, Manny.“Dad.”Manny went to his father’s side and glanced at the building before him. He asked, “Aren’t we driving inside?”In Havenmill, Manny could do whatever he wished because his father was the interim head of the Longbottom family. While he had no respect for ordinary people at all, he was clever enough not to offend people he should not.He never parked his car outside the places he wanted to go and simply drove his car through the gates. However, Manny
Meanwhile in Satbury, a few luxury cars stopped at the entrance of Costa Corporation. The door of the first car, a Rolls-Royce, opened. A bodyguard came out of the car.He waited for his boss, who was sitting in the backseat to exit.Mr. Longbottom got out of the car. Although he was over fifty years old, he looked like he was in his forties as he maintained his appearance well.He wore a white tailored suit with a tie, which made him look more youthful.The bodyguards in the other cars alighted as well.They quickly stood behind Mr. Longbottom to protect him. It was also his display of power.A few bodyguards grabbed many gift boxes from the trunks. Mr. Longbottom stood in front of the company and raised his head to look at the sixty-eight-storey office building. It was a symbol of the O’Connor family’s abilities.Costa Corporation was not the family’s only business. They were involved in many industries and were successful in all of them.The O’Connors were wealthy and powe
Jasmine added, “In some cases, the divorced women can get married to a better man, while the divorced men can’t even find a new wife. There are many single men now.“Isn’t there a saying nowadays that men who have wives are extremely lucky?”When Jasmine was at the bookstore, she would also visit the neighboring stores to listen to juicy gossip. Many of the store owners were not locals and they had many stories to tell. Someone said there was an evil mother-in-law in a rural area who looked down on her daughter-in-law. She would egg her son on to abuse his wife and get a divorce. She would also tell her son that she could find a better and younger wife for him. However, once the divorce went through, news of the mother-in-law’s evil deeds and the son’s domestic abuse spread far and wide. Who would dare marry off their daughters to a man like that?Besides, holding another wedding would require a lot of money. The cost of a wedding had increased a lot compared to the past.Whe
“Sonny’s fine. He has recovered. You want to get Sonny from school?”After thinking about it, Serenity agreed and said, “Okay. I’ll message Sonny’s teacher later to tell her you’ll be taking him.”“Okay, Serenity. Thank you.”Hank was thankful that Serenity did not make things difficult for him. Serenity and Liberty had great character. Liberty had a new relationship and already let go of her resentment for Hank. She could coexist with him peacefully. On the other hand, Serenity still held grudges against Hank. However, since he and Liberty had divorced, he could no longer hurt her. He was also Sonny’s father. Serenity was willing to tolerate him for Sonny’s sake. Therefore, she always said yes whenever Hank requested to meet his son. “You’ll be taking Sonny out to eat after picking him up, right? Remember not to let him eat too much fried food, especially fried chicken and fries. He’ll get a sore throat.“He got a fever that day due to a throat inflammation.”“Got it. I’ll