As if on cue, the housekeeper nervously stepped forward, stiffly receiving the items from Joseph. The atmosphere within the room instantly eased.
It was Nathaniel who had spoken. I’d only heard his voice before and had only taken the briefest of glances at his photo. I was surprised to see that he was casually attired and looked rather youthful. Nathaniel appeared distinctly approachable, unlike the elderly patriarch I’d envisioned in my mind.
Experience told me, however, that there was more below the surface than met the eye.
As he watched the housekeeper set the items down conscientiously, Anthony suddenly turned and leisurely placed his arm around my shoulder. He then led Gregory and me to the sofa next to where Nicolas was sitting.
We’d barely sat down when Tiffany began her whining once more.
“Anthony, you take pains to ignore me whenever we’re in the office. Let’s take this opportunity today to thrash things out. You’ve removed me from my position as the Finance Director and terminated my subordinates. What are you planning to achieve? Don’t forget that the company doesn’t belong to you alone! I’m your own flesh and blood. I should be the one you trust the most!”
As Tiffany spewed her discontent, the maid arrived with cups of hot tea for us. Anthony calmly poured out a cup, then handed it to me. “Have some tea,” he said placidly.
Tiffany bit her tongue in anger. She seethed as she watched Anthony deliberately stir his tea, then drink it slowly. “Are you even listening to me?” Tiffany asked querulously.
Anthony glanced coolly at Tiffany. Menacingly, he growled, “Shut up.”
It felt as if the air in the room had congealed, and the temperature dropped by a few degrees. A shiver danced down my spine.
The smug look on Tiffany’s face remained. She seemed snooty, even emboldened by the fact that she was on her turf and under the Hall family’s protection.
Tiffany thus paid no heed to Anthony’s solemn warning. Instead, she drew herself up and pounced onto me, clawing at my arm. “It’s all because of you! How dare you pretend to be Sienna and seduce my brother? Get out!”
Anthony stood up. Towering over Tiffany, he glared at her with such hatred that even I, despite not being the object of his attention, quaked inwardly.
It was Tiffany’s first time witnessing this side of Anthony. She gaped at him, cowering in terror.
Anthony’s muscular arm suddenly shot out and grabbed Tiffany’s neck in a stranglehold.
His movements were so swift that it frightened even Joseph, who was used by now to Anthony’s capricious ways. “Mr. Featherstone!” he gasped.
Anthony, as if possessed, maintained his merciless grip on Tiffany’s neck. Within less than a minute, Tiffany’s pale face had turned a deep shade of violet.
Locked in Anthony’s hands that clamped upon her neck like iron shackles, Tiffany struggled. She frantically hit his arms, pleading for release.
She barely managed to gasp, almost inaudibly, “Anth… Anthony… let go…”
“You’re right. You’re my own flesh and blood. You should know how brutal I can be, yet you continued testing my limits. You deserve what you’ve got coming to you.” Anthony said with a deadly calm.
Indeed, Anthony looked entirely prepared to let Tiffany die by his own hand.
I was absolutely sure that if no one stopped him, Anthony would have finished Tiffany off there and then.
That moment felt utterly surreal. It was as if a gruesome scene from a movie was playing out right before my very eyes. I instinctively reached out to shield Gregory from the sight, my heart palpitating wildly.
If Anthony murdered Tiffany in cold blood, the rest of Gregory’s life would be hell.
I gulped. Summoning all the courage I had left within me, I reached out and tugged Anthony’s sleeve gingerly. “Anth… Anthony?” I stammered.
A brief shudder ran through Anthony. With a start, he released Tiffany.
Tiffany crumpled to the floor like a rag doll.
The maid ran forward anxiously and helped Tiffany over to the sofa. All other eyes in the room, including that of Nicolas’, were fixed on Anthony simultaneously. Nicolas slammed his newspaper onto the table, jolting the already-frayed nerves of everyone present. “Are you trying to rebel against me?” he roared.
Anthony glanced at me, then down at Gregory, apparently unaffected by Nicolas’ outburst. He then looked over to Tiffany’s inert body with undisguised contempt.
He strolled over to where she lay feebly, then sneered, “Will you say it, or shall I make you?”
“I’ll admit it, I’ll confess to everything! Just have mercy on me. I was wrong, Anthony,” Tiffany babbled. She was almost incoherent with fear. Clenching the pillow she’d picked up from the sofa, Tiffany hid her face behind it as if she could thus avoid Anthony’s wrath.
“I lied! You were never engaged to Thora. She promised me benefits in return for matchmaking the two of you… Joseph is your most loyal subordinate. Emery has both a good professional and personal relationship with you. I was the one who manufactured Sienna’s obituary. She didn’t betray you. Audrey’s also your daughter… Dad was the one who arranged for the hypnosis. We sealed your memories for your own good! I was wrong, but surely it doesn’t merit a death sentence! Give me another chance, please, Anthony. I’m begging you, please have mercy on me…”
Tiffany was almost groveling at this point. She had crawled onto the floor and knelt at Anthony’s feet, clutching at him wildly. Tears poured down her face in torrents.
My hands still covered Gregory’s eyes, but Tiffany’s sheer despair permeated any refuge I could offer him from this nightmarish sequence of events. He began to whimper.
I stroked Gregory’s back, partly to comfort and partly to quieten him down.
Tiffany’s every desire had been accommodated to since she was young. Everything she ate or wore had to be of luxurious quality. Tiffany could get anything she set her heart upon. This fine upbringing had thus culminated in her attitude of absolute complacency.
However, Anthony had viciously brought Tiffany’s whole world crashing down about her. She could not even begin to comprehend the bitter environment that Anthony had grown up in, in which he’d carefully cultivated his thirst for vengeance.
As Anthony had declared, Tiffany got what she deserved.
Tiffany’s near-incoherent ramble had ignited, rather than extinguished, the fury within Anthony. Narrowing his eyes, Anthony looked at Nicolas.
“Do you want to explain?” Anthony snarled. The grimace he wore looked almost demonic in its rage.
Nicolas remained unfazed. He had watched his daughter’s disgrace without flinching. I thought I’d even seen a glimmer of loathing flash across his eyes as if despising Tiffany for the shame she’d incurred.
After a moment, Nicolas replied smoothly, “I’d initially thought that you showed the most promise and was the one most set to inherit my position among the three of you. From the looks of it now, however, I think I overestimated you.”
Nicolas then gave a slight nod to the bodyguard who had been standing unobtrusively in the side of the room. He immediately fished out a stack of documents and spread them out on the table.
The photo stood out immediately amongst the rest of the documents. It clearly featured, in high definition, a snapshot of the time I’d spent with Marcus.
“You almost lost your life six years ago because of Sienna. I saved you! After so many years, you’re still adamant about committing the same mistake. Now, you’re betraying your family for another Sienna once more. Take a good look. Is this person the woman you love? She’s just a substitute! When are you going to wake up and realize that?” Nicolas shouted.
Anthony’s eyes swept over the array of documents, then pursed his lips critically. “It’s true that you saved me. Don’t pretend to be so noble, though. You knew that I had to be alive for the Hall family to continue living in peace.”
Anthony paused. He picked up the photo and examined it closely, then snorted, flicking it away as if it was useless garbage. “There’s no need for you to interfere with my business. Perhaps you should worry about your own route of escape first.”
“Have you remembered everything?” The neutral expression on Nicolas’ face suddenly shifted.
Anthony, however, remained silent.
Maddened by Anthony’s absolute disregard for him, Nicolas violently stood up, bellowing, “Anthony, I’m talking to you!”
The corners of Anthony’s mouth twitched. Snidely, he remarked, “Does it matter whether I’ve remembered anything or not? I didn’t even know that you were alive for half my lifetime. Don’t you have your own ways of dealing with things regardless?”
Nicolas’ face had turned crimson with anger, and the veins on his neck were nearly popping out of his taut skin. “That was a matter of expedience!” he retorted.
“The fake accident was a matter of expedience. My kidnapping was a matter of expedience. So was hurting the woman I loved and separating my two children…” Anthony repeated mockingly. “You’ve spent your whole live plotting. What’s the point of even living, then?”
Nicolas’ chest was heaving with rage. Shaking his finger threateningly at Anthony, Nicolas fumed, “Anthony, do you think you can be the CEO of Featherstone Corporation without my support?”
The look of tranquility that Anthony maintained throughout Nicolas’ rebuke was almost ridiculous in contrast to Nicolas’ extreme ire.
Anthony’s eyes met Nicolas’ levelly. He then said breezily, “Do you want mutual destruction? Perhaps you could have achieved that six years ago. Let’s see how you try it now. You might manage to do it if I don’t succeed in ruining the entire Hall family first!”
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.
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