Chapter 2

“Can’t you go any faster? I’ll be screwed if I’m late,” said Lily impatiently at the sight of Darryl’s slow-moving vehicle.

As the words left her mouth, Lily began to regret them. Darryl through his sheer will pushed his busted up bike through its limits!

The speed of the bike was too much for Lily, and she could not help but hold on tight to Darryl’s waist.

The sudden hug caused Darryl’s body to quiver all over. After three years of marriage, this was the first time they had physical contact with each other. A surge of excitement welled up from within him from Lily’s pressure on his back, prompting him to accelerate his bike even faster.

Eventually, the couple arrived at the office building’s main entrance, and Lily breathed a sigh of relief upon their arrival. As she was about to get off the bike, came the thunderous roar of an engine. An Audi Q5 pulled up and parked itself beside the bike, and a man stepped out of the car.

Ashton Adagio locked his car and adjusted his suit. He walked toward Lily and pointed at Darryl. “Dear Lily, who is this man?”

“He’s Darryl,” replied Lily gently as she got off the bike.

The wedding that took place between Darryl and Lily got the entire Donghai City shaken up. There was not a single soul in Donghai City that was not aware that the gentle and beautiful Lily Lyndon had wed a piece of trash.

“Oh, so he’s that piece of trash,” said Ashton with a cold snort. He took off his jacket and handed it to Lily. “Poor Lily, it must have been cold on the way here, put this on. I’ve even gotten a gift for you.”

Ashton went back to his car and got out a rather fancy-looking box.

The box contained a seemingly magnificent pair of high-heeled shoes made out of crystal. Whoever has it on would surely emanate a sense of elegance and class.

Several years ago, the Darby clan was also into the fashion business and thus Darryl got to know numerous renowned designers. If his memory served him right, this pair of heels was designed by a British designer, Minah, who named them ‘The Worship of Crystal’. Only 99 pairs were made that year and all of them were bought upon release. They were mostly bought by prominent families, even if one were to have the money now, it would be impossible to have access to a pair.

The ones in Ashton’s hands seemed like the real deal, but the production quality had some minor rough edges, it was obviously a replica.

“Lily, I know that you’ve always liked this pair of heels, but woe is me. I’ve looked high and low but could not find the real thing.” Ashton said as he handed over the heels to Lily. “Therefore I spent three hundred thousand to have this replica made. Wear them for now, and give me a month to buy you the real ones.”

“There’s no need,” said Lily lightly while accepting the pair of heels. “There’s no way you can find the real ones for sale. Even if you did, the price would be outrageously high. A pair was sold for 30 million in an auction just last year. So, there’s no need to waste any more of your time. I think this pair of replicas is already pretty nice.”

“Ah…” gulped Ashton. Indeed with his total net worth of roughly 30 million, there was no way he could use it all for a pair of heels. All he could do then was let out an awkward laugh.

It was at this moment that Darryl barged over, snatched the pair of heels, and threw them onto the ground!

“My dear wife, let’s not take other people’s stuff. If that’s what you like, then as your husband, I shall buy it for you,” said Darryl as he held onto Lily’s arm, dragging her toward her office building.

“Darryl, what the heck are you talking about?” hushed Lily.

They were standing at the main entrance of the office building, and as general manager, she had to keep her temper in check. She subconsciously tried to free her arm, but Darryl’s grip was too tight.

“Stand right there!” shouted Ashton in a hurry. The shoes cost him three hundred thousand bucks, he was not going to let it slide!

“What’s the meaning of this?” said Ashton as he strode to the couple, pointing and shouting at Darryl. “If you had broken this pair of heels, not even selling your kidney would make up for it, do you know that!?”

“First off, Lily is my wife, kindly stay away from her.”

“Secondly, if my wife is cold, she can have my shirt.” Upon finishing his sentence, Darryl grabbed Ashton’s jacket and tossed it onto the ground. “And finally, anything my wife likes, I’ll provide. A woman of her standard would not stoop so low as to wear replicas. Tonight I shall present her with the real Worship of Crystal.”

“You’re a real idiot! Even the replica costs three hundred thousand! Judging by your wreck of a bike, how dare you even pretend to be able to afford it!?” Ashton was instantly filled with rage. As the heir of the Adagio clan, no one dared speak to him in such a manner for years until now.

The most infuriating of all, Darryl went so far as to ignore him and dragged Lily into the building.

Ashton kicked Darryl’s bike so hard that it toppled over. However his anger was not quelled, and he proceeded to give it a few more furious kicks.

Meanwhile, in the general manager’s office of Neptunus Corporation...

Lily sat on her office chair and gave Darryl a cold, hard stare. She was trembling with rage. Ashton was a real estate mogul, and backing him was none other than Jiangnan’s number one clan - the Darbys!

Neptunus Corporation needed a five million bucks investment, and Lily had planned to ask Ashton to be the investor. After Darryl’s debacle today, Ashton would surely be seething with rage.

‘I shouldn’t have brought Darryl out! He has nothing to show for and yet has failures in excess, that’s the perfect way of describing him!’ thought Lily.

“Why are you still loitering here? Get lost!” Lily said coldly after glaring at him.

“Oh,” mumbled Darryl, and proceeded to leave the office.

Lily could not help but to get angrier at Darryl’s indifferent attitude, her hatred for him ground her gears. Over the past few years, her friends had married into affluent families. Their husbands were the cream of the crop, even the worst among them had at least two houses and the best with a net worth of billions.

Lily felt more and more wronged at the thought of Darryl. Her extended family would surely ridicule her again because of him during tonight’s clan gathering.

“Who smashed my bike!?” howled Darryl below the building.

The bike had been with him for three years! Darryl rode it to get groceries every single day and now it pained him to see it in such a smashed and broken state. Without a second thought, it was clear that it was that bastard Ashton’s doing.

At that moment, a few ladies dressed in business attire walked by in their high-heeled shoes. They were employees of Lily’s company, and they were now pointing and gossiping at Darryl.

“Look ladies, isn’t that Ms. Lyndon’s husband, Darryl?”

“It is him! I was there at her wedding.”

“Look at him, mourning his broken bike...”

Those ladies could not hold back any longer and laugh at him.

Darryl did not even notice their presence, and gently patted his bike. “Sigh... My bike bro, don’t you worry. I’ll avenge you for this, don’t worry...”

While he was comforting his bike, he took out his cellphone and dialed his clan’s number.

“Hey, it’s Darryl. I’m willing to help the clan but on two conditions. First, get me The Worship of Crystal. Next, there’s a man named Ashton Adagio who operates under our clan, right? I want to see him with nothing left to his name.”

Right after the call ended, he received a text message from Lily. It contained only a few words. ‘Tonight is the Lyndon clan’s annual gathering, get a new set of clothes, don’t embarrass me.’

***

At a seaside villa by the eastern sea coast, where one can take in the entire sea view. It was here that the patriarch of the Darby clan invited Darryl for a meeting.

Darryl sat on a rocking chair without a care in the world, while Darby clan’s patriarch sat across him. This man was Drake Darby, Darryl’s paternal uncle.

Upon seeing Darryl’s sitting posture, Drake let out a chuckle. “Oh Darryl, even after all these years, you’re still the same carefree boy.”

“Uncle, let’s cut to the chase, I have other matters to attend to tonight. You mentioned that the family fortune is in debt, so tell me, how much?” Darryl picked up a huge cherry, placed it in his mouth, and started chewing on it.

“Well... it’s not exactly a huge amount...” drifted Drake while scratching his head. As the patriarch, surely he has been through a lot of important meetings, but given the circumstance that he was the one requiring assistance, he had to exercise a certain amount of caution.

“We’re just three billion dollars in debt...”

‘What!? Three billion dollars!?’ thought Darryl.

“Um... uncle, I have other matters to attend to, I should be heading out,” said Darryl gloomily as he stood up, preparing to leave.

“Oh dear Darryl!” said Drake in a hurry. “Darryl, our clan needs the funding! Without it, everything we’ve built would be ruined! The two conditions you’ve mentioned will be met! Ashton Adagio will be left with nothing by tonight, and The Worship of Crystal is already on its way.”

“Uncle, I want to help you, but where in the world would I have such an amount of money?” said Darryl, letting out a long sigh.

“Darryl, do you want to see our clan crumble in front of your very eyes? You have 3.2 billion in your bank account!” Drake was truly desperate. “We can’t forget our roots!”

Darryl was all smiles but after hearing those words, it slowly faded away. “Uncle, back when I bought the shares for Southeast Petroleum, your wife said that I was up to no good and that I planned to have the family fortune transferred to myself! Hundreds of my family members berated me, and got me banished from the clan! Was there anyone that tried to defend me!?”

“You guys know damn well that every single penny of the eight million I had used to buy the shares was earned by myself, they were never part of the family fortune!”

“All these years I’ve been treated like I’m less than a mutt for being a live-in son-in-law, did any of our family come to help!?”

“If it wasn’t for the lack of funds, you guys would have forgotten about me!” Darryl clenched his fists, expressing himself word by word.

“Darryl, we were wrong to banish you, we sincerely apologize... But right now our clan is in dire need for your funding...” said Drake as he stepped forward, holding onto Darryl’s arm. He took a deep breath and continued, “Darryl, as long as you’re willing to support our clan, as patriarch I will grant you the position of President of Platinum Corporation. Give me your identity card, and head over to Platinum Corporation’s office building tomorrow. A secretary will be there to fill you in on the details.”

Platinum Corporation was an entertainment company with the highest potential under the Darby clan’s control. Many top celebrities were under their contract.

All these while Platinum Corporation was under the management of Drake’s wife. It came as a surprise that he was willing to hand over the entire company to Darryl.

“Sure, if that’s all, I’ll be going off,” said Darryl after giving it some consideration. Even though purchasing Platinum Corporation for three billion dollars seemed inappropriate, he relented seeing that the patriarch was about to burst into tears.

Darryl left after finishing his words. Tonight was the Lyndon clan’s annual gathering, but there was another important matter to Darryl before that, which was his high school reunion. The reunion was about to begin and he was determined not to be late. He longed to meet his classmates after such a long time without contact. His entire class would be at today’s gathering, even the beautiful class teacher apparently would be attending too.