After leaving the border, Javier and Iseult returned to Chinea and arrived at yet another remote village. Iseult was starting to grow suspicious of his choice of destination, so she asked on the way, “Are you just going to take me to rundown, destitute sh*tholes?”“Aren’t rundown, destitute sh*tholes the best kind of place to prove a utopia’s existence?” Javier retorted. She said nothing. She had to admit, once again, that Javier was completely right. They got out of the car and saw an old man pulling a car chassis up the hill. After locking his car, Javier and Iseult helped the old man with his task. With two young people giving him a hand, the task became a lot easier. The old man sat on a roadside boulder after they got it up the hill. He passed a self-made cigar to Javier as a token of gratitude. Javier puffed it while Iseult tried not to gag from the smell. “Where are your kids? Why are you taking on such heavy labor?” she asked.The old man informed her that his childre
At the sound of that, Javier turned to face Iseult. Before he could say anything, she shook her head hard and recanted, “No, that’s impossible. I cannot have been wrong, and my adoptive father even less possibly so. I mean, just look at you and your people! You’ve worked for nothing, and yet you possess as much wealth as the GDP of an actual nation. If your wealth could be shared with the masses, just how many people would live decent or even great lives? Instead, all that wealth is concentrated in your hands alone! “This is inequality of wealth, pure and simple. And it’s the existence of people like you who are the biggest cause of it!” Javier laughed. He turned on his side and looked at her. “Now, even if I spread all of the Kerseys’ wealth around the world and everyone got what they could, do you think it would change their lives substantially? No. They would be happy for a few days, and then life would go on. But if I alone hold all of the Kersey’s wealth in my hands, I can do
Throughout this period of slightly over a month, Javier had never laid a finger on Iseult—except for tonight. Iseult had also developed a strong sense of dependency on Javier within the same duration of time.That was why what happened tonight seemed to only be a matter of course.However, gunshots were fired at that moment—not from a rifle but a pistol. They were already in the suburbs, so the gunshots were deafening.Javier sprang up and flipped under the bed with Iseult, protecting her with his own body. He put on his clothes swiftly and went out of the door after asking Iseult to stay under the bed.The gunshots were ceaseless outside and kept approaching. The open fire of submachine guns could be heard as well.Javier realized that the ambush was targeted at him, so he had to figure out who had sent these people outside. When he got out, Herschel was by his side in the blink of an eye, passing one of his own guns to him.“They’re probably from the Raiders. They’re armed suff
Then, Javier asked Iseult about the Raiders. He was not explicit about it, only vaguely directing the conversation toward the organization.Just the start of this discussion, though, caused Iseult to answer awkwardly, “Sorry, my adoptive father raised me after all, and this is a favor I owe him. Even if he wants to kill me now, I can’t hate him or betray him.“I told Herschel about the Raiders’ local base, so consider this my explanation to you.”Javier was speechless, not at all expecting Iseult to resolve the issue like this. What was a small local base worth? What he wanted was the big fish, the Raiders.Despite that, he could understand Iseult’s way of repaying her adoptive father, even though he did not want to accept it. It was normal. In her shoes, he would not have betrayed his adoptive father either. That was why he was understanding and did not mention the Raiders to Iseult in the time that followed.Herschel came to report the outcome at around 11 p.m, when Javier’s w
The next day at noon, when Javier woke up, Iseult was missing. Not only was she nowhere to be found, but there was a note on the table with her pretty handwriting on it. She told Javier that she was going back to her adoptive father, that she could not do him wrong, but she could not just watch him be wrong either. She wanted to try and stop him. If she really could not lead him back to the right path, she would make the correct choice.Javier did not know what she meant by making the correct choice. It could be coming back to him or following her adoptive father, but Javier thought that Iseult was most likely sacrificing herself by making this attempt but would fail to accomplish anything. Her kindness would probably result in something like this.When Javier sent Herschel to find out about it with all their resources at his disposal, Herschel ultimately came back with some news…Iseult had disappeared.She was a grown woman, and there were surveillance cameras everywhere on the s
Jeremy was brazen. It seemed like he was the king and god of the hospital, and no one could do anything to him.Despite that, Grace would not yield to him. She could turn a blind eye when he harassed the nurses usually, but he could forget about doing that to her today. She was Javier’s woman now!Therefore, as Jeremy approached her and cursed, she swung a hand and slapped him into befuddlement. It had not ever crossed Jeremy’s mind that Grace would hit him. She had actually hit him!“You f*cker! No one in this hospital has ever dared hit me. Who do you think you are?!” Jeremy swung his fist up with the menace of a tiger, but Grace retorted right away, “My boyfriend’s the chairman of Parrson Group, Javier Kersey!”As the heir of a mere hospital, Jeremy, and even his father, would not dare offend Javier. Jeremy apparently hesitated when he heard this but raised his fist again instantly.“Javier Kersey? So what? He’s nothing but a piece of sh*t to me!“I’m going to teach you a
“What? You’re leaving already?”Grace was shocked and a little panicky when she was informed outside of the hospital ward that Javier was leaving. She had no idea why he wanted to leave. She had thought that he would keep staying in the city.This was obviously impossible, as Javier had far more problems to take care of than Grace could imagine. Hence, she could only nod and silently acknowledge that Javier was leaving after his subsequent explanation. However, she was reluctant to see him depart. “When are you coming back then?”“I don’t know. I won’t be back normally—unless there are some people worth missing,” Javier answered.This warmed Grace’s heart, but she was also a little worried. “Then am I…”She wanted to ask if she was worthy of him missing her, but she was too embarrassed to say it out loud. It was a coincidence that her younger brother came, so she left the hospital with Javier.After Grace got in the car, Herschel gave Javier a quick update outside the vehicle.“
Lloyd claimed that he was not able to make it clear on the phone and would elaborate when they met at the airport. Javier believed that it was not a big issue, or the man would not have waited until he arrived at the airport, so he looked out the window and enjoyed the beauty of the high altitude.At the same time, though, there was a knock on the door.Herschel came in with Javier’s permission but seemed hesitant to speak. Javier glanced at him. “Well, keep it down. Since it’s such a tough thing to do, keep it in. Why are you here to see me?”Herschel winced, but Javier’s sarcasm gave him a boost of confidence. What his boss meant was clear: He ought to speak whatever he had on his mind, as there was no need for caution.Herschel then told him that he had bumped into his first love among the air stewardesses on duty.It surprised Javier because these air stewardesses had gone through an elaborate selection process. Their figure and beauty were all above average. He had not expect