Shawn Lowe did not open the door.
He was drunk–very drunk–and was currently sleeping like a log. He completely could not hear the sound of his father yelling and kicking at the door.
He did not want to wake up either, because in his dreams, he could approach Serena without restraint.
“Darling, let’s talk about this tomorrow. It’s already very late and if we make too big of a fuss, we might wake our daughter up.”
Mrs. Lowe advised her husband and stopped him from kicking at the door again.
“Shawn’s in a bad mood so he might have had something to drink in his room. If he gets really drunk, he won’t be able to hear any banging on the door.”
As of late, Shawn had been getting drunk in his room often. He had a minibar in his room and had moved all his father’s treasured fine wines into his room.
It was precisely this constant drowning of his sorrows in alcohol, which led to his having no mood to work during the day that resulted in all the mistakes in his work recently.
Mr. Lowe was livid but could not do anything about it and was persuaded to return to their bedroom by his wife.
Upon entering their room, Mrs. Lowe asked her husband, “Darling, about Mr. York telling us that Serena is his wife… Do we have to help him keep it a secret? It doesn’t look like he’s gone completely public about his relationship with Serena.“.
Her niece was Serena’s best friend and even she did not know Zack’s true identity.
Mr. Lowe sat down on the sofa in the room, and said after a moment of silence, “Mr.
York already said he and Serena got married in secret. Since he hasn’t gone entirely public about it and even if we know about it now, let’s not mention it to others, lest he makes things difficult for us again.
“I knew there was no way York Corporation would just halt all cooperation with us out of the blue like that. Us being able to work together with them was the result of my long, hard work. And even after establishing the cooperation, I was very careful. I was so scared our products wouldn’t be up to par, I didn’t dare make a single mistake.
“Even with the chance to meet Mr. York at gatherings once in a while, I wouldn’t deliberately seek to flatter and ingratiate myself with him, but I didn’t dare offend him either. Although he’s naturally cold and aloof, he’s a reasonable man. He wouldn’t make things difficult for us just because.
“Now I know Shawn was the problem. He must have fallen for Serena long ago, right? He didn’t confess to Serena before she had her shotgun marriage, but confessed to her after that and kept clinging to her. What was the use in that?”
Mrs. Lowe sighed heavily.
“That’s right. What’s the use? I didn’t approve of him and Serena being a couple anyway. Serena and Jasmine have a very good relationship and I watched her grow up. I don’t hate her, but being a niece is different from being a daughter–in–law.
“The choice of daughter–in–law I have in mind is a young lady of an illustrious family. Other than looking good, Serena doesn’t have any particular outstanding traits at the moment. Although she’s fairly good at making some money, she’s not in Shawn’s league. We the Lowes are a wealthy family, so naturally, our daughter–in–law must come from a family of equal standing.
“Only by marrying a young lady of a rich family will it be of any help to Shawn. Serena can’t help him in any way. Even if we were willing to nurture Serena into making a deep impression on the industry, she’ll be only but a daughter–in–law. Who can guarantee that if she gets together with Shawn now, she’ll spend the rest of her life with him? What if we end up nurturing an ungrateful beast?
“No matter how I tried to advise him, he wouldn’t listen. Serena is probably his first love. It’s always hard to forget the first love.”
Mr. Lowe said, “No matter what Serena thinks, we can’t let Shawn go on like this. We must make him leave Wiltspoon and stay far away from Serena. He’ll be able to get over it eventually.
“Otherwise, if this goes on, sooner or later, something big is going to blow up. Mr. York is not a good–tempered person. He hasn’t dealt us a mortal blow right now probably because of Serena. Serena has a good relationship with Jasmine and you normally treat her like a niece, so he’s probably scared that if he completely destroys Lowe Enterprise and Serena finds out the truth, she’ll blame him.
“But if Shawn continues to stay the same by bothering Serena from time to time, and Mr. York finds out, he won’t show us any more mercy.”
“Where should we send Shawn?” Mrs. Lowe asked him.
She was internally thanking God she had always treated Serena well.
No matter what you did, you must leave a way out for yourself.
“After New Year’s, we’ll send him to work in our Havenmill branch for a few years to gain some experience. Once he’s completely gotten over Serena and matured, we’ll transfer him back here and train him for another two years. If he’s up to the task, I’ll let him take over Lowe Enterprise.
“If he can’t get over it and is unable to rise to take the helm, we can only change the successor then for the future of the Lowe family.”
Mr. Lowe very much hoped his son could be the successor to Lowe Enterprise, but that came with the precondition that his son was up to the task. If his son viewed love as more important than his future, he could only pick a successor anew from amongst his numerous nieces and nephews.
Mrs. Lowe’s expression flickered, and she pursed her lips. She said, “We’ll send him off on the fourth of January. Also, we’ll cut off all his allowance. He’s started working. He can spend as much money as he earns, lest he gets too comfortable.
“We’ll only tell him about Serena being Zack’s wife on the third of January. Then, he’ll finally give up and go to Havenmill.”
Mr. Lowe thought his wife’s plan was feasible and said in agreement, “We’ll let him start from the bottom ranks of the Havenmill branch. I’ll get the managing director of the branch to watch over him closely, so nothing happens to him, but I won’t let him get too comfortable either. I’ll freeze all his credit cards too. Once he gets to Havenmill, he can arrange a new bank card connected to his wages.”
For the sake of making Shawn give up on his love for Serena and molding him into a successor who could take on the heavy burden that was Lowe Enterprise, the husband and wife steeled their hearts.
Shawn did not know that his parents had decided to send him thousands of miles away to Havenmill, and neither did Serena. For the latter half of the night, she slept very soundly. It felt as if there was a hot water bottle beside her and it was incredibly warm. She slept remarkably well as she hugged the hot water bottle.
Maybe because in her dreams, she was eating good food, so she would occasionally smack her lips.
The next day, when she woke up and saw Zack lying beside her, she propped her head up on one hand and looked at Zack’s sleeping face.
However, what she recalled was the good food in her dreams.
She dreamt someone had invited her out for a meal and the table was full of assorted delicacies. She ate to her heart’s content and her mouth was all oily. In the end, there were two big chicken thighs left that she simply could not stomach and wanted to pack up to bring home to Zack for him to eat.
Yet, no matter what she did, she could not grab ahold of those two chicken thighs- that went on and on until she woke up.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.