Chapter 5

"How is he not good enough for you?" Arnold fumed. "Your grandfather was a farmer, too! He built the family business from the ground up, and that is how our family's wealth came to be!

"He doted on you the most before he passed away. I don't want to see you disobeying his dying wish! This marriage is going to happen. I won't let you back out of it!"

"Mr. Seymour."

Gideon had arrived.

Arnold hurried through the door and greeted with a smile, "Gideon! You're finally here. We've been waiting for you. Do come in!"

Gideon didn't expect Arnold to be this welcoming.

As Arnold ushered Gideon into the house, he called out, "Ella, hurry up and head to the city hall with Gideon to get the marriage registered. I'll pick a good date for you guys to have the ceremony."

"I don't want to, Dad!"

"If you don't listen to me, I'll freeze your bank account and cut off your allowance! I'm not letting you have your way with this. You're going to do as I say. Anyone who protests will suffer my wrath!"

The threat of having her fund cut off was akin to putting Elara in a chokehold. She dared not protest any further.

"Hurry up!" Arnold repeated, his tone leaving no room for further argument. That was the end of the conversation, and Elara had to do as he said.

…

Walking out of the city hall, Gideon eyed the marriage license with a dumbfounded expression. Just like that, he'd become a married man. He had a wife now.

"Gideon, I advise you not to have any ideas about me! We belong to two different worlds! I only registered the marriage to appease my dad. Given time, my dad will realize all of your incompetence and inadequacy. Then, he will definitely ask me to divorce you, too.

"In the meantime, you live your life, and I live mine. We won't have anything to do with each other, and we're certainly not sleeping together. If you dare to cross the line or harbor any designs on me, then don't blame me for not going easy on you!" Elara declared.

Gideon was speechless. Why was he dealing with yet another overly self-confident and deluded woman like Lavinia?

Interpreting Gideon's silence as awkwardness, Elara sighed. "What a cruel twist of fate this is. You were once the heir of the Snow family and one of the Four Elites of Goldspire, but look at what has become of you now!

"Things are not the same anymore. I did admire you once, but now, you're nowhere near good enough for me. You can forget about the wedding ceremony, too. I will never agree to it. It's too humiliating!"

Once Elara finished speaking, she drove off.

Gideon didn't care, either. He'd only gone through with the marriage to fulfill Titus' instructions. It wasn't like he had any feelings for Elara.

As he looked up at the sky, thoughts filled his head. He mumbled, "It's been five years. I'm finally back here. Cormac, five years ago, you seized power over the family and kicked me out. You even sent hitmen to kill me. I guess you think I'm long dead by now, huh?"

His eyes glinted with hostility. Now that he had returned to Goldspire, he was determined to enact vengeance for the past.

…

Compared to what it had been five years ago, the Snow residence now looked a lot shabbier. Even the lion statues by the entrance had missing pieces.

The Snows had gathered inside the main hall, and they were all eyeing a lavishly dressed young man with expressions of fury.

"Time's up!"

The young man, Eric Gross, snapped his fingers and adjusted his glasses before continuing, "Have you made up your mind yet, Cormac? Are you signing the contract or not?"

Cormac Snow, once merely an elder but now the head of the Snow family, was sitting in the center of the hall, and he was brimming with rage.

Eric was the son of the Grosses of Goldspire. He had come over today to buy out Snow Corporation with a meager offer of one million dollars. That was no sincere buyout, of course. It was clearly an attempt to humiliate them!

Back when the Snows held a prestigious position in society, the Grosses had been nothing more than sycophantic lackeys who did their best to latch onto the Snows. But now, the Grosses had surpassed the Snows.

All of the Snows present felt deeply frustrated and aggrieved.

Sneering, Eric declared, "I've shown you enough courtesy and given you enough time. Do you really think I came over to discuss this with you? Hah! Do you even think you're qualified for that?

"Whether you like it or not, you're signing this contract today! My family has already gotten in touch with several others. We're all poised to strike Snow Corporation with every sanction and roadblock possible.

"Your company is already having a hard time. How much longer can it survive if all of us join forces to launch corporate warfare against you? When the time comes, you'll be forced to go bankrupt. Not only will you not get a single penny, but you'll even be in debt!"

Cormac was bursting with rage. "You Grosses are going too far, Eric!"

"Going too far, you say? Hah! I'm just stating the facts. Back then, didn't you Snows act all high and mighty? Didn't you people look down on my family? I bet you never considered the possibility that the tides could change this much," Eric taunted.

"Under your leadership, Cormac, the Snows went from being an elite family to an impoverished one in just five years. My, my! You're nothing but a dumb fool!"

"You!" Cormac bellowed, his face turning scarlet. Eric's words struck a raw nerve, and he was humiliated that his inadequacies were being pointed out in public.

"Hurry up," Eric said impatiently. "I'm losing my patience."

The rest of the Snows were overwhelmed with anger and sorrow over the situation, while Cormac looked like he'd aged a decade in just a blink of an eye. He slumped against the back of his chair with a dead look in his eyes. The family was done for!

"Walter," Cormac called out. He pointed at the contract and said, "Sign it."

"Dad!" Walter Snow protested. He couldn't accept this outcome.

Smiling wryly, Cormac said, "Mr. Gross has made himself clear. If we don't sign it, the other families will do whatever they can to sabotage the company, and the company won't survive such attacks. Instead of going bankrupt with a massive debt to pay off, we might as well walk away with one million dollars."

Chuckling, Eric said, "That's right. Now, hurry up. Stop wasting my time."

Walter had no choice but to sign the contract.

After Eric picked up the signed contract, his eyes flashed cunningly. In a mocking tone, he said, "Oh, by the way, the contract doesn't stipulate when you'll receive the payment of one million dollars. You'll just have to wait for a while."

"What did you say?" Cormac exclaimed, his expression darkening. Everyone else was infuriated as well.

"You tricked me, Eric!"

"It doesn't matter what you say now. After all, the contract is signed, and Snow Corporation belongs to me now. Goodbye!"

Although the Snows were fuming, no one dared to stop Eric from leaving.

But just then, a tall figure appeared at the entrance and stood in Eric's path.

"Who the hell are you?" Eric snapped with a glare.

Narrowing his eyes, Gideon remarked sarcastically, "It's been a few years since we last met, Eric. Looks like you've gotten pretty arrogant."

"Huh?"

The voice sounded extremely familiar to Eric, and after taking a closer look, he jumped back in alarm, crying out, "G-Gideon!"

All of the Snows tensed up at the name. Gideon? It was a once-familiar name that now sounded foreign to them.

"It's a ghost!" Walter screamed as all the color drained out of his face.

The Snows started panicking, too. Gideon was supposed to have been dead for five years now! How could he be back? Was it a human or a ghost?

"You must be shocked, huh? Well, I'm not dead, and I'm back now," Gideon said mockingly without explaining any further.

Looking at Eric, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Eric swiftly composed himself. Times were different now. Gideon was no longer the wealthy scion that he had to be subservient to.

"I didn't expect you to still be alive, Gideon, but you came back just in time to witness the change in ownership of Snow Corporation. Here's the buyout contract. Walter has signed it. Snow Corporation belongs to me now."

Eric waved the contract in front of Gideon with a smug expression. The grim-faced Gideon turned to Cormac and questioned icily, "How much did it take for you to sell off the family business?"

"Not much. Just a million dollars," Eric answered before anyone else could.

"A million dollars?" Gideon repeated in shock before anger consumed him.

"A million is already a decent sum," Eric remarked in faux consolation. "Snow Corporation is on the verge of bankruptcy. If not out of consideration for the old friendship between the Snows and the Grosses, I wouldn't have bothered to buy the company, either."

"Give me the contract!"

"Sure. You can take a look at it yourself," Eric replied as he passed it over to Gideon without much thought. Alas, at the very next second, his expression froze as Gideon tore the contract into pieces right before his eyes.

He was gobsmacked.

Did Gideon just tear up the contract? What gave him the nerve to do such a thing? Did Gideon still think he was the proud scion he once was?

"Gideon, you—"

"Get lost!"

A sharp clapping sound rang out. With a single slap, Gideon sent Eric flying backward. Half of his face was all banged up, and he even lost two of his teeth.

Peering down at Eric, Gideon said derisively, "A lackey will always be a lackey. Don't even think about climbing over us! Five years ago, the Grosses were merely the Snows' lackeys, and now, that's still all you're ever going to be!"