The one thing Charlie was most grateful about Claire was that ever since she had gotten married to him, she had never despised his background.After all, a person who had lost both parents since he was eight years old, grew up in the orphanage with a high school level of education, and a loser who had nothing, would surely not be an ideal candidate for a marriage partner.However, Claire, who was the prettiest woman in Aurorus Hill, had decided to marry him without any complaints. To date, it had been four years.Throughout these four years, many people had instigated and tried to force Claire to divorce him. Nonetheless, she had not been influenced, not even once.Just from this point alone, Charlie was very grateful to her.Most recently, Charlie also thought of finding opportunities to tell Claire about his background. Nevertheless, he hesitated for quite some time whenever he thought of his unfulfilled revenge for his parents and the undiscovered reasons for his parents’ death
For the past hundreds of years, there were hearsays of the Rothschild family in Europe and North America.Some said that they ruled half of Europe, while others said that they ruled not only half of Europe, but even half of America.Their presence in Europe and America was almost everywhere—the most profitable bank was theirs, the most profitable oil refinery enterprise was theirs, the largest shipping consortium was theirs, even the largest military group was theirs.During the Industrial Revolution, this family was the one who had pushed for and controlled the railway transport in Europe and America. As for gold, diamond, and other important mineral resources, those were their traditional areas of strength.Based on rough estimates, the entire family’s asset value was worth at least trillions and above.This meant that based on the asset scale, one Rothschild was ten times of the Wade family. Even more terrifying was that as an established Jew, Rothschild had strong politic
This time, Charlie wanted to give them the medicinal pills, so for sure, they would be very happy. Once Travis, who was from Lancaster, heard of the news that Charlie was inviting guests, he immediately asked Harvey, Charlie’s friend from the orphanage, to drive him to Aurous Hill. Travis had quite a lot of properties in Aurous Hill. Thus, he planned to stay a night in Aurous Hill just in case any unforeseen circumstances might delay his journey. The reason for prioritizing this was mainly because, in his eyes, this opportunity was too rare. Emgrand Group’s Doris was the only one who had not received Graham’s notification.It was not that Graham had forgotten about her. The main reason was that Graham did not have Doris’s contact information. Before Charlie had taken over Emgrand Group, Doris had been the Vice President of Emgrand Group all this while. She was not a young lady from some big family nor was she a rich kid with power. Instead, it w
At this moment, at Aurous Hill’s People Hospital in the in-patient department.As the best-integrated hospital in Aurous Hill and even in the entire district, it was full of people at any time.There were no empty beds no matter which department it was.Not only was it full of patients, but many other patients were still lining up at home, waiting for beds, and seeking treatment.In the intensive care unit for nephrology, an unconscious man lay on the bed with tubes poking out from his whole body. He looked to be around fifty years old.Beside the bed, there was a middle-aged woman. This woman’s features were very similar to Doris.Outside the intensive care unit, there was a small living room and resting area for family members. After all, this was the intensive care unit with the best criteria. Hence, the interior structure was similar to a hotel suite.At this moment, in the living room stood two young people—a man and a woman.The woman was the Vice-President of Emgrand Gro
“Doris, as long as you are willing to leave Emgrand Group and join my company as the Vice-Chairman and also be my lover, I will immediately ask someone to use my private jet to bring the kidney to you. If you say yes to me today, Uncle will have a new kidney tomorrow. What do you think?” “Shameless!” Grinding her teeth, Doris said angrily, “Edmund, how dare you take advantage of me! Moreover, you are already married with kids! How could you disappoint your wife and kids with those kinds of actions?!” Curling his lips, Edmund answered with a carefree attitude, “For me, marriage is just part of fulfilling my family’s mission. Whoever my family wishes me to marry, I will marry her. As long as I’ve married the woman they have chosen, they will not interfere with my private life.” Then, Edmund continued with an oblivious sneer, “As for the kids, I don’t really care about them. They are still young. Wait till they are older, I will make them realize that money is more
Looking at Edmund’s back as he left, Doris was so mad that she was shivering as her tears flowed down her face. Two years ago, Doris’s father had had a severe kidney infection. It had been hard to find a suitable kidney because his blood type was RH negative. At that time, Doris had done a match test, but she was not suitable. Soon after, due to a stroke of good luck, one of her relatives had found a suitable match in Southeast Asia, and the other party had also been willing to donate. Subsequently, Doris had spent a million Oskian dollars to help her dad solve his kidney problem. Initially, she had thought that after finding the kidney, her dad would live for another twenty or thirty years with proper care. However, she never would have thought that just after two years, her dad’s replacement kidney would have a serious rejection response, and the kidney functions started to drop tremendously.Before the Oskian New Year, he had been fine. However, afte
Just then, someone pushed the room door open gently.A middle-aged woman came out and asked, “Doris, has Edmund left?”This woman was Doris’s mother, Faith Saunders.Doris quickly wiped away her tears and turned toward the woman as she nodded. “Yes, Mum. He has left.”Then, she hurriedly asked, “Mum, how’s Dad?”Faith sighed. “Still the same—unconscious.”Noticing that Doris had just cried not too long ago, she swiftly stepped forward and asked in concern, “Doris, why are you crying? What did Edmund say to you? Didn’t he give you his word that the kidney has been found? What did he say after that?”Doris sighed and whispered, “Yes, the kidney has been found, but he wanted me to work for him and be his lover…”“What?!” With her eyes wide open, Faith blurted out, “This… isn’t this person your former classmate? How could he be so shameless?!”Doris answered in extreme frustration, “I also didn’t know that he would become like this after a few years of graduation.”Faith hurried
Doris reached into her pocket, retrieved a pack of ladies’ cigarettes, took one out, and put it in her mouth. Then, she reached for the lighter again, but she had a hard time lighting the cigarette as her hands were trembling. After several attempts, she managed to light the lighter, and the cigarette was finally lit.Her face was extremely pale under the reflection of the fire.When the cigarette was ignited, Doris gently bit the cigarette with her pinkish lips and took in a deep breath. Right then, it was so quiet that she could hear the unique sound of the burnt tobacco.Doris rarely smoked, and she did not like to smoke either, but due to her diligence at work, she was often overly tired as well as upset. Therefore, she would occasionally smoke a cigarette to bring her some relief.As the smoke puffed out from her delicate nose, feeling the stimulation produced by the nicotine in her brain, Doris couldn’t help shedding two lines of hot tears down her cheeks.Her mother’s words
While Charlie was waiting for Claire at the airport, Jacob and Elaine were taken to the traffic police station.But even in the patrol car, Elaine did not stop lashing out at Jacob.As such, the traffic police had no choice but to call up another patrol car to bring them over separately.Charlie was hence left wondering what those two were up to this time as they were nowhere to be seen when Claire's flight was about to land and weren't answering his texts.Fortunately, Charlie never considered them reliable, so he was fine whether they showed up or not.If they did, they could all head home in the same car.If they didn't, he just had to take a cab home with Claire.It was past three when Claire's private jet landed, and Claire herself cleared the checkpoint in just half an hour, wheeling a trolley with her luggage.Seeing Charlie from afar, she couldn't help quickening her pace as she beamed.Charlie hurried toward her as well, and Claire shoved her trolley aside when they w
However, to Jacob's shock, Elaine wasn't misled at all as she growled icily, "Why would I ask anyone else?! If there's someone I must question, it's Matilda! She's getting married, isn't she? Good! I will be there and ask her why she hooked up with my husband!"Jacob turned pale right then.Matilda's son and even some of their old classmates would be attending her wedding.If Elaine went, he would be exposed, and he wouldn't be able to stay in Aurous Hill out of shame!His nerves gnawing at him, Jacob could only plead, "Please, just trust me this once! Anything else aside, she's getting married, anyway—there's no way that I'd have anything to do with her! That alone should prove my innocence!"Elaine snorted. "If Matilda returned when I was arrested, it means she has been back for a while! And you're saying nothing happened since? Hell, even if she's married, it doesn't prove that she wasn't up to some hanky-panky with you! Maybe while I was arrested and refused a divorce when you
The driver was left dumbstruck—this wasn't how it was supposed to go.Still, he blurted, "C-Crashing into a Cullinan? I might end up dead instead…""Fine! Then let's change cars, and you crash into ours—how about that?!" Elaine promptly retorted before continuing, "Or we could just stand right in front of your car while you run into us! I just happen to have a death wish, but if you don't kill me now, I'll kill you! Don't think about getting away either—I know your car plate! I'll sell this car and use the money to put a bounty on your head! I don't care what happens to me now! I'll claw my nails into the devil's face even if he shows up!"The driver was actually quite experienced, but even he had yet to meet someone as ridiculous as Elaine.Barely able to keep his hands steady, he threw them up as he apologized, "I'm so sorry, ma'am—I just lost my cool. I'm merely a humble driver of a Honda Civic while you own a Rolls. Hell, I spent fifty bucks buying that red emblem from Amazon,
Elaine may have led a life as if she was above the rules, but beneath that tough exterior lay crippling insecurities and a horrific inferiority complex.She was always afraid of being belittled—but more than that, of being ostracized and betrayed.Over the years, the greatest source of her complexes could all be traced back to Matilda.After all, Matilda had been a star back in their school days. Because Elaine was a close friend of hers, many boys would get chummy with Elaine, but only because they were interested in Matilda.Being from a poor farmer's family, Elaine had been scorned plenty and therefore felt exceedingly inferior around Matilda.It was from that sense of inferiority that Elaine had inadvertently developed a one-sided rivalry against Matilda, and she believed her greatest triumph over Matilda in this life was the moment she had stolen Jacob from her.However, while Elaine presumed that she could hold that victory over Matilda's head, Lady Wilson had soured that v
Moreover, given Elaine's ridiculous temper, Jacob knew she would definitely go overboard and destroy him.He wouldn't even have a place to live at that point, and it would really be game over if she held a grudge and stormed the Calligraphy and Painting Association!Under such circumstances, he couldn't ask for a divorce—hell, he might even refuse a divorce if Elaine asked for one!However, that was when Elaine laughed coldly. "Oh, my… You're really not going to divorce me?""Come on—how long were we married?" Jacob quickly reasoned. "Getting divorced at our age? People would laugh at us."Elaine scoffed. "Now I'm curious… Matilda's quite old too, and she's a divorcee marrying again. Won't people laugh at her?""Technically, she's a widow—"Jacob blurted out, but soon turned pale, tensing up again not a second after he had just calmed down, asking gingerly, "W-Why would you suddenly mention her?'Elaine stopped pretending right then and snapped, "It's actually impressive that y
Horrified, Jacob promptly grasped the steering wheel and brought the Cullinan back under control while not hesitating to snap, "Are you crazy?! We're on the highway—that could have killed the both of us!"However, Elaine ignored him and seized the moment to open the armrest box, pulling out the large white envelope.As she opened it, she muttered, "So, it really was a wedding invitation… You really are a terrible friend, Jacob Wilson, hiding a wedding invitation like this! What's the point? Just look at that nervous face of yours—would I suspect you of having an affair with the bride-to-be?"She flipped open the card and was experienced enough to check the names first while disregarding the usual preamble. She wouldn't care about the venue or the time either, focusing solely on the professor who had somehow made Jacob very nervous.That was how Elaine found the names in less than a second: Yolden Hart and Matilda Hall.Matilda?!The name could well be knives stabbing Elaine in th
Jacob's brain blanked out, leaving only a dull hum as soon as Walker mentioned 'Professor Hall'.Already feeling nervous in the first place, he quickly said, "Okay, okay—I got it. Anyway, I'm hanging up if there's nothing else!"With that, he promptly pressed the button to hang up.Nonetheless, Elaine was soon asking in curiosity, "Who's Professor Hall?"If Jacob had any semblance of composure, he would have said 'a colleague at Senior University' as if it was perfectly natural, and the matter would have been forgotten.But the reality was that he didn't—in fact, he was the champion when it came to dropping the ball as a casual question from Elaine left him sweating all over his brow.Even as he slid nervous glances at her face, he stammered uncontrollably, "N-Nobody…"Elaine promptly noticed his strange reaction and frowned. "I'm talking about Professor Hall. What do you mean, nobody? Who are they? And what's this about an invitation? Inviting you for what?"Seeing that he was
Jacob had really had too much to drink and couldn't remember the later parts of what had happened last night—even how he had gotten home was a blur.Naturally, he also forgot that Walker had brought Matilda's wedding invitation, and therefore didn't hesitate to answer the in-car answer button.Over the phone, Walker was positively fawning as he asked, "Mr. Wilson? It's Walker. Why didn't you come in today? Had too much to drink last night?""Uh-huh," Jacob grunted, lethargic. "I did—my head still hurts now… Anyway, what's up? Trouble at the association?""No, of course not," Walker quickly said. "I was just worried you're still hungover, so I called to ask. If you need a driver or anything, you just need to ask!"Then, before Jacob could answer, he continued, "By the way, my wife is somewhat knowledgable in Oskian medicine, and she has recipes for brews that cure hangovers and nourish the liver. I'm sure you'll need the latter since you're always drinking at social events, so I as
Fortunately, Elaine and Jacob's bickering never escalated.Even though Elaine was winning, Jacob found it tolerable.After Jacob finished his lunch and cleaned up, he never looked up as he said, "Charlie sent a text, saying Claire's flight would touch down earlier at three. We will leave at two."Elaine grumbled. "Why leave so early? She's coming back from abroad, and there'd be checkpoints she has to clear—she'd be lucky if she could leave by half past three. I'm sleeping a few winks now, and we'll leave at half past two."As she left the dining room, she didn't even look back as she said, "Clean up for me too."Jacob had a million complaints but said nothing as he kept his head down, throwing Elaine's lunchbox in the trash can as well.With Elaine gone, he sat on the couch as her hangover slowly cleared while his mood soured with the lack of alcohol.In the end, the pleasure of being fawned over at the Diamond Room was but temporary—the pain of his beloved leaving with someone