The years flew by and Heather grew up to be a rose with thorns, prouder and more headstrong than she had been as a child, and with a will that was forged in steel.“Please just tell me the story, Grandpa. I’m really, really curious about it,” she pleaded, her eyes bright with the same eager spirit she had as a child whenever she came upon something new.“I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, so just be patient until then,” he cajoled affectionately, patting her hand to soothe her. “Now, shall we head downstairs for dinner? It’s getting late and they won’t start dinner without me.”Upon hearing this, Heather let out a sigh of resignation. It looked like he had made up his mind to leave this conversation for the next day, so she was left with no choice but to wait. Now that she thought about it, it wasn’t as if she was desperate to learn the truth before the day ended. I’ll just have to be patient, even if it means learning the truth much later than planned, she convinced herself.With t
Nevertheless, Heather would never wash her hands off the Langston Group, and she knew where her duties lay without Robert having to emphasize on them. That being said, Blake had nothing to do with her resolve. She was dedicated to the company, and protecting it was something she would do without question.“Grandpa, you know how important the Langston Group is to me. I will never let the company fall into a crisis,” she said as she gave him a small smile. Taking care of the company was but one of the ways she could show her gratitude to Robert, who had showered her with unconditional love all these years.Even as he heard this, a grim look still passed over his face. He had been sullen ever since Caleb came into the scene. Just then, a sudden thought seized Heather. If the Hart Family was also embroiled in the feud between her family and the Moriartys, then she ought to relay to Tony all the information she could glean.Robert had said that an allegiance with the Hart Family would be a
After being in a stalemate for a while, Myra glanced at Tony guiltily as she thought of her promise to him the other day. After searching through her memories, she could see why Tony would come up with such a question.She averted her gaze and dared not meet his eyes as she figured out ways to get away with it. Geez, how could I say that with him being next to me? I was being too courageous.“Don’t you smile like that. Answer my question,” Tony spoke firmly, not taking the bait. To him, this was not an issue that could be passed off with just a smile.“Something’s happened again in Bradfort City, so it isn’t a bad idea to return earlier,” Myra announced determinedly. Well, since everything had been said, she might as well just lay everything on the line.Eyes narrowed into slits, Tony replied with a rather unsatisfied tone, “This is not what you promised a few days ago.” Although Myra was originally indecisive, this response of his had strengthened her decision on going back to Bradfo
Tony had never thought that he would be doing these things—these ordinary things which seemed not worth mentioning. Though he was being teased by Myra who was saying that he had fallen in love with making handicrafts, he was actually ecstatic deep down. To him, she had made his whole world wonderful.The earnest look of his had caused Myra to fix her gaze on him repeatedly. Noticing this, Tony couldn’t contain himself anymore and he asked, “Haven’t got enough of staring at me yet?”As she smiled mischievously, Myra praised, “You did so well! If you’re not a director in the future, you can make handicrafts for a living.” Her eyes glittered brightly when she spoke, as she thought that Tony’s almighty self was admiring yet lovable.“Ha! A craftsman to-be!” Tony chuckled and he played along with Myra. It seemed a little funny to him that she could think of this. Even if he wasn’t going to inherit the Hart Group, he was still a double PhD holder in economics and management from Harvard Uni
By the time Myra opened her eyes, it was already past 9 in the morning. The moment she tilted her head aside, she could see Tony lying on the bed in his clothes, but because his upper body was leaning against the headboard, she could only look up at him while he looked at her from above.“You look so scary staring at me like that.” These were the first words she uttered as soon as she woke up. Immediately, Tony smiled as he knew that his face looked very stern when it was emotionless.“Since you are awake, it’s time to get up. I’m taking you out for breakfast.” In fact, he had been staring at her like a fool for a while now.“Did I miss the plane?” She spoke as she rubbed her eyes, sounding a little distressed.“The plane will depart in two hours. We still have time,” he replied to her directly. Before we went to sleep yesterday, I did ask her to get up early to catch the plane, but she probably didn’t know that the departure time isn’t actually that early.“I thought the plane would
Even though it was a casual suggestion, Myra was somehow moved by it. Since we are returning to Bradfort City and our usual life, we should take this opportunity to run wild one last time. As for where they were going, she closed her eyes while her finger moved across the map.Meanwhile, Tony stood aside with his arms crossed, waiting for her to open her eyes. The moment she did, she realized that she was pointing at Birmingham, England.On the surface, it looked like a great destination since she had never been to England before, but it would take a long time for them to reach there. We are going to spend a lot of time on the plane tomorrow, which means that we’ll be flying straight to Bradfort City the moment we arrive there.“It’s a bit too far,” she murmured. However, Tony didn’t seem too bothered about it.“Then that’s where we’ll be going. We can return to Bradfort City from there.” He insisted on his own idea, thinking that since he’d made her a promise, he must do his best to
The three of them entered the private room one after another. Then, Myra and Heather eagerly started chatting with each other about the interesting events that happened during Myra’s trip. As it seemed that the two ladies were not going to place their orders any time soon, the task of ordering food fell into Tony’s hands.Myra and Heather sat together, while Tony sat opposite them. The two ladies were so close to each other that it even made Tony a little green with envy.“Heather, I reckon that the gifts will be delivered to you by tomorrow. Remember to check if you receive it.” When Myra was in the United States, she had packed the gifts that she bought for Heather along the way and delivered them to the Langston Residence.“What gifts?” Heather was a little surprised as she never heard Myra mention it.“I picked some pretty and interesting items for you during my trip.” Myra would think of her whenever she saw something she liked, and she wished to share all the good things she had
As they couldn’t think of anywhere to go, both Heather and Myra remained quiet. Upon seeing their reaction, Tony continued to speak, “Since we are in the eastern suburbs, we might as well drop by at the newly opened hot spring resort.”The word ‘hot spring’ sounded especially tempting under such weather, so both Myra and Heather agreed to it. There was a new high-end hot spring resort in the eastern suburbs. It had just begun its operation not long ago, but Tony somehow knew about this place although he had been abroad when the resort started its business.It seemed like he still cared about Bradfort City despite not being physically present in the city; he paid attention to everything that happened in the city, no matter how big or small it was. This showed that he didn’t really let himself loose during the honeymoon trip, which explained why he insisted on sticking to the original plan. Although he was not physically in Bradfort City, he still knew the city like the back of his hand
Back in the country, Locke Group and Hart Group did not give way to each other, causing everyone in the city to live in fear. As the two large companies were in dispute, they implicated many small enterprises and caused them to close down one after another.Even the Langston Group, who had always been watching the fight from afar, had been affected. Nevertheless, Blake didn’t dare to tell Robert about what was going on. If Robert were to find out that Langston Group had gotten into such big trouble under Blake’s management, the old man would never let him off easily.Although Robert had informants in Langston Group, Blake hadn’t notified many people in the company regarding this issue. Thus, the informants Roberts planted in the company didn’t catch a whiff of this news.The Langstons are on the verge of bankruptcy and Blake had been trying to solve it. However, he had forgotten that this hole in his finances would become an abyss once it got too big. That was the case now, and he cou
Early in the morning, Matthias and Heather started traveling. A journey to the west was what she had decided for them. It had been snowing nonstop throughout the night. Hence, she could only see a huge pile of snow when she looked out the window.As it just stopped snowing in the morning, they were set to head out. After hours of snow, the weather was rather cold so she had covered herself in a thick fleece jacket. Initially, she refused to as she wasn’t a fan of fleece jackets. However, he persistently insisted that she should wear it out. Thinking that he might have to take off his jacket for her again, she complied.With the fleece jacket on, she looked young and adorable. As someone who was petite and slim, she looked a little chubbier in the fleece jacket. While Matthias liked her outfit, she—on the other hand—couldn’t understand his taste in fashion.“You look like a bear when you’re wearing a fleece jacket.” Though she gave him a scornful stare, a smile crept up her lips as she
The crisp sound made from Heather’s steps on the permafrost echoed. As she looked into the distance, she couldn’t see much on the other side of the river. Since Matthias didn’t continue on the conversation, they simply just let it slide.Rumors had it that he was good at fighting. She was eager to see his prowess in martial arts but she forgot one thing—she was a girl. There was no chance he would ever fight her; even if he did, he wouldn’t be using his full strength.On the other side, Bradfort City was in chaos. It was so much more peaceful where he and Heather were. The commotion was mainly caused by the constant attacks from Locke Group toward Hart Group that hadn’t ceased, even with Matthias away.Ever since Locke Group started provoking Hart Group, the two companies could not be in the same city anymore. To make things worse, Tony hadn’t gone easy on the Locke Group.To be frank, Matthias was still more or less affected by the ongoing tension back in Bradfort as Nikolai would so
In the below freezing temperature at night, Heather was sleeping in a separate bed as Matthias in a standard room they had booked. Matthias didn’t dare to act rashly this time around and maintained a distance from her. She had given him a slight warning during the day, so he knew how far to go.Because Iceland had an abundance of geothermal energy, the temperature inside the hotel was ideal, and Heather soon fell asleep. On the other hand, Matthias was still unable to fall asleep. Looking at Heather, who was a short distance away, he let out a satisfied smile.The way she looked while she was asleep looked extremely harmless. She had lost the aggression she normally had, and her sleeping posture was also more carefree.Occasionally, she would knit her brows together. He didn’t know what she was dreaming about, but it didn’t seem like a pleasant dream. At the thought of driving in the car with her during the day, and how they even fought over a map, he realized that he liked this feeli
After doing some shopping in the mall, they were able to feel how much better domestic malls were. The malls in Iceland had too few products, so they could only buy a few things.Walking out of the mall, Matthias received a picture on Messenger from Nikolai. Upon seeing the picture, Matthias became enraged.As it turned out, the stalker had followed them all the way to Iceland and uploaded a bunch of pictures of them being affectionate with each other. Once again, he and Heather were making headlines again. In an instant, Matthias replied to Nikolai, ‘Did you find out who tipped off the media?’ He told Nikolai to be more attentive, but he wasn’t sure if the latter had found anything yet.‘I need one more day. I’m currently searching through the whole city.’ Previously, Nikolai didn’t quite understand why Matthias gave him this task, but after the headlines came out today, he finally understood. It looked like Matthias had already sensed that someone was following and taking pictures o
Matthias’ sudden stern attitude created an awkward tension between the both of them. Heather didn’t think that her words would stir up such a big reaction from him.“You and Locke Group…” She had a bold prediction, but she wasn’t sure if she should say it out loud. It might be presumptuous to ask him so directly.“I don’t want to talk about Locke Group anymore.” His complexion improved slightly. He was a little sensitive about Locke Group these days, which inevitably got Heather thinking.“Okay. Let’s not talk about it, then.” She didn’t want to cross his boundary. That was the basic form of respect between people.They still had half an hour left before the plane would land. Heather and Matthias also tacitly agreed not to talk anymore. The entire first-class cabin was quiet; everyone was in deep sleep, while Heather was looking elsewhere.Previously, she was worried that someone was following them and suspected that the person might be in the first-class cabin. After observing for a
The atmosphere was heavy. At this hour, there weren’t a lot of people waiting to board a flight. The lounge exuded a mild refreshing scent that seemed like it was barely even there. It instilled a sense of familiarity in Heather, as though she had smelled this scent somewhere before.“Do you smell this fragrance?” Her question was so sudden that Matthias wasn’t able to make the switch yet.He tried his best to sniff, but he didn’t pick up any unusual scents. Getting up from his shoulder, Heather looked all around but did not notice anyone suspicious.“A perfume fragrance?” He only smelled perfume. When he tried his hardest, he even smelled a fusion of several different perfumes.Looking around, he figured that it was probably coming from the person next to him; even a man was wearing perfume.“No. Maybe I was mistaken.” She brushed it off. It seemed the mild scent was also gone now. She reckoned she was just imagining things.He looked at her with a worried gaze and suspected that the
Seeing Heather’s deep awareness of herself, Matthias felt like he had misunderstood her all along and had assumed that she was someone who wouldn’t repent.“If you’re able to recognize your problems, then it proves that there’s still a chance to fix them,” he said earnestly. It was better to console her during this time as it was rare that she would want to improve herself.“What problems do I need to fix?” Looking over at him, she needed to hear his answer.On the other hand, Matthias was stumped. Some of her bad habits also looked cute to him now. His mind inevitably went blank when she asked him about the problems she needed to fix.“You have a bad temper and are very purposeful.” He gave a general answer. Aside from that, he couldn’t think of anything else.In regard to her temper, she really didn’t give anyone any leeway, unless she had business relations with them, in which case she would give them some. In normal life, she wouldn’t even bother with anyone who couldn’t benefit h
Regardless of what Heather said now, Myra wouldn’t listen to any of it. Heather couldn’t think of a better countermeasure. She had imagined this sort of situation happening before, but she never thought through how to face it.“I don’t want to see you.” Looking at Heather’s indifferent expression, Myra couldn’t see the slightest bit of sincerity. It didn’t look like she was remorseful at all.Myra regretted having met Heather. No matter what Heather did now, it would all be misinterpreted in her eyes. Their friendship had ultimately been jeopardized.All along, Heather never liked to give explanations, but she already did her best to explain things to Myra. It didn’t look like Myra wanted an explanation from her at this point. Nonetheless, what could she do? She was completely at fault.She maintained eye contact with Myra for quite some time. It was the first time Myra looked this tough in front of her. Her mouth opened slightly; the words had reached her mouth, but she couldn’t spea