Chapter 168 – Second Chance Love of the Missing Groom Novel

Was she hiding something from him?

“What is it, Abigail?” he asked, his throat feeling a little parched just then.

Abigail said, “About the grave-”

“The grave? What about it?” Ricky interrupted before she could finish.

Abigail really wanted to roll her eyes at him just then.

“Could you let me finish?”

“Oh!” Ricky exclaimed right then. “Alright, I’ll stop. Tell me.”

Clearing her throat, Abigail said, “You see, I’m the one who bought the graves next to our father’s.”

She had been wary toward Samantha, though it was not to say that she was helping Sheryl retain her place as Lionel’s legally married wife. After all, Sheryl was over Lionel, and Abigail wanted her mother to live a long, fulfilling life-she did not want a grave for her so soon.

In fact, Abigail had bought it just because she did not want Samantha to be interred beside Lionel.

On the other hand, it took Ricky a long while to actually realize what Abigail meant. “You did that for Sheryl?” “More or less,” Abigail said.

“Huh.” Rick sighed, realizing that he was too late.

It seemed that he was not as smart as Abigail, who showed foresight while he only thought about his mother’s funeral matters now.

“You’re really smart, Sis. Dad was right to leave Bernstein Holdings in your care,” he said.

At that very moment, he was not actually jealous-instead, he was impressed with Abigail’s consideration. She had also been the one who resolved a crisis for the company before, and he must admit that their father had shown foresight in leaving matters to her.

In fact, the reason Lionel had not divorced Sheryl was probably not just because he still had feelings for Sheryl, but also because he acknowledged Abigail as his daughter.

“Yes, but Bernstein Holdings is in your hands now,” Abigail said. “That’s why you should pull yourself together soon to lead everyone again. Your mother had been hoping for you to inherit the family’s estates, but you have to know that money and real property aren’t alive. On the other hand, if you do well at the company, you would earn the money and respect. I’m sure your mother wants you to be successful too, so you should really do well so that she could be at ease.”

Ricky nodded at her encouragement. “Yeah.”

He had always known that Samantha wanted him to inherit the Bernstein estate, and Abigail was also right in that Bernstein Holdings was the family’s lifeblood, and could bring him more value!

Samantha might even be at peace now if she knew that it was in his hands.

Still, he would not have control over Bernstein Holdings if Abigail did not give it to him.

“Thank you, Abigail.”

“There’s no need to be so polite. We’re family,” she replied.

Over at the Light Group headquarters, Quincy was presiding over the board meeting.

Naturally, Henry had to show up since Quincy would have no right otherwise.

However, things were different today, since no one was siding with Diarmuid, while lan was present as well.

Quincy had managed to take him out of police custody because Diarmuid did not interfere, and here he was now, showing up at the board meeting!

As the meeting started, Henry promptly threw a stack of reports on the table. “I think everyone should see this.”

He had already told lan to prepare printed copies and distribute a copy to each board member.

Everyone was furious after they read it, and promptly turned their crosshairs on Diarmuid.

“We trusted you, Diarmuid. How could you burn our money like this?”

“That’s right! I even defended you before!”

“That’s hundreds of millions of dollars lost, and you hid it from us! Who do you think we are?”

‘Explain yourself, Diarmuid!”

At the same time, lan was smiling smugly. “Didn’t expect this, did you, Diarmuid? Did you really think you could fool everyone?”

On the other hand, Henry was very direct. “I propose to remove Diarmuid from his position as CEO. Does anyone have anything to say?”

This time, the board members were quiet-unlike before, none of them were defending Diarmuid because they were doing this for the money. Now that their wallets were hurt, they certainly would not want him as CEO anymore.

Moreover, Quincy had spoken to everyone in private, promising higher bonuses should lan successfully replace Diarmuid as CEO.

The only reason they were recommending Greg Althoff before was because lan had been arrested, but now that lan was here, Quincy was going all out to support her son.

Even if she had been so sweet with Greg before, she was much more at ease having her son take over.

That was the reason why Quincy was so eager to have lan take over as Light Group’s CEO. After she cajoled Henry, it was inevitable that lan was here today!

And now that they had leverage against Diarmuid, Henry could actually be harsh with Diarmuid.

“What about you, Diarmuid? Do you have anything to say?”

Diarmuid was busy pretending to be shocked and upset, as if he never expected this to happen.

He even made a show of scolding Stan in front of everyone. “What do I pay you for? How could you let this document leak out?!”

“Sorry, sir… I don’t know what happened either!” Stan exclaimed.

lan snorted coldly right then. “Just give it a rest already. This isn’t the time for you to scold your boy for being incompetent-everyone would inevitably find out the moment you decided to keep this from us… To think that I always believed that you were above the rest, but I guess this is all you amounted to.” Stan appeared upset and argued, “What are you talking about? Everyone makes mistakes, and don’t you know how valuable Mr. Althoff made this company?! What right do you have to speak like that?”

“Sure he did, but the company also lost hundreds of millions because of him. That’s reality, and a man like that is not fit to be CEO, and no one would buy into his policies anymore.”

One of the board members bribed by Quicny quickly spoke up for lan, “That’s right! I think lan is more capable of leading Light Group to a better future, and he is a Althoff too!”

Diarmuid began, “I’ve been leading the company to new heights over the years-”

“Save it. That’s all in the past now.” Someone promptly cut him short.

No one would have spoken to Diarmuid like that before, but they all grew a spine now that they knew the Althoffs wanted to topple him!

However, this was exactly what Diarmuid wanted, and so he acted as if he could not do anything against the current situation and said with despondence, “In that case, I resign my position as CEO.”

Rising to his feet, he told Stan, “Let’s clear everything out by today.”

“Yes, sir,” Stan replied, and cast a cool glance at the board members, snorting.

They were certainly snakes-after Diarmuid worked so hard to build so much for them, they turned against him at the drop of a hat, showing zero inclination to overlook it for old times’ sake.

After they left, however, Diarmuid did not actually head to his office. He was already at the elevator, ready to leave, while Stan made a show of going to his office to clean up, even though they had already moved out everything important.

It was just cheap theatrics.

“Mr. Althoff…” Debbie the secretary called out as she approached him.

“Talk to Stan,” Diarmuid told her. “He’ll make the arrangements for you.”

“Okay,” Debbie hung her head, even as the elevator jingled and Diarmuid left.

He was already gone when she looked up, but she kept staring at the elevator doors for a long while!

When Diarmuid returned to his hospital ward, Abigail was lounging on the couch when she heard him come in. She quickly stood up, walked up to him, and asked, “Did everything go well?”

“Yeah,” Diarmuid said lightly.

“I have to look at your bandages now,” Abigail said as she helped him unbutton his suit.

He should not be wearing anything tight given his injury, since it would rub against his injury and affect its recovery.

Once it was off, Abigail immediately saw that his cuts and bruises were once again swollen red, and it was just as gruesome as it had been when she first saw it. It pained her heart to see that, and she slowly reached for it, apprehensive about touching it.

She laughed at herself inwardly then-she was a surgeon and often wielded the scalpel. Why was she being afraid? She had seen worse cases than this during surgery.

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