I recalled John telling me that ever since he’d obtained custody of Gregory, Nicolas had recklessly placed all of his eggs in the one basket that was the Featherstone Corporation. On the one hand, it would be useful for thoroughly manipulating Anthony. On the other, Anthony was admittedly the most gifted at doing business than anyone else in the Hall family.
After the incident at the island, the Hall family had suffered severe repercussions. It had been impossible for Nicolas to personally intervene, resulting in many complications. The Featherstone Corporation had proven to be most useful at the crucial point in time.
Nicolas had allowed himself to be ensnared by his faith in his own hypnosis techniques, never dreaming that Anthony would one day emerge from his stupor.
Nicolas looked at Anthony, utterly aghast. He frantically dismissed Anthony’s claim with a leer, saying, “So what if you succeed in ruining the Hall family? You won’t be able to bring Sienna back to life. You may despise the Hall family but the blood flowing through your veins is the same as ours. Your fate is irreparably bound with ours. If the Hall family is destroyed, do you think you’ll be able to escape unscathed?”
Anthony met Nicolas’ eyes steadily. Smiling faintly, Anthony answered, “Is that so? I don’t think there’s any benefit to being a member of the Hall family, though.”
Not to be outdone, Nicolas sniffed, and said, “Stop lying to yourself. Is there anything you possess that hasn’t been purchased by me? The food you eat, the clothes you wear, your prestigious position, weren’t all of those given readily to you?”
“I’m willing to give up everything. Even if I leave the Hall family and shed everything, I’ll still be Anthony Featherstone. I’ll still be Sienna’s husband and the father of my children. What about all of you? What will be left of the Hall family when I’m gone?” Anthony taunted. Both Anthony and Nicolas had entered into this fight tooth and nail. Neither evidently had any qualms about ripping the other’s dignity to shreds.
“Very well,” Nicolas said ominously. A perverse gleam shone in his eyes as he continued, “Let’s see just what you’re capable of, then.”
The tension in the room was unendurable. No one dared to meet anyone else’s eyes.
Suppressing his rage, Anthony had pressed his lips tightly into a thin white line. Through gritted teeth, he asked, “Where are those researchers?”
The mention of them roused Nicolas with a start. He gave a dry laugh, then sneered, “The researchers? Are you talking about the project the company invested in? You’re the one who’s supposed to be coordinating that. How would I know?”
Anthony’s hands had been hanging by his side. He now cracked his knuckles, exuding an intimidating aura.
Assuming that Anthony would not dare to lay hands on him, Nicolas pressed, “It must be a pretty big project if you’re taking it so seriously. You can’t miss out on having these experts on your team. Once you’ve found them, bring me along to meet them. We may not get along but that shouldn’t affect our business efforts.”
Looking meaningfully at Anthony, Nicolas emphasized, “After all, we’re a family. We should help each other. Nothing is considered too much to ask. If someone wants to abandon ship, though, don’t blame us for doing what we must to survive.”
He stood up and walked past Anthony. As he sauntered towards the stairs, he casually said, “I don’t think we need to carry on with this meal. Dismiss, everyone.”
The next second, a loud sound of glass shattering onto the ground rang in the living room.
As I turned around, Anthony was standing there with his fists clenched tightly, seething with anger.
Roses and broken pieces of porcelain lay in a pool of water, dirtying the clean floor. The vase that was originally placed on the coffee table was now gone.
A maid rushed over and said tentatively, “Sir, we’ll clean this up. You…”
Anthony did not reply, he just stood still. When the maid was about to start cleaning up the mess, he turned abruptly and left, scaring the poor maid.
This wealthy family had too much drama. Since he had left, I had no reason to stay here as an outsider. Taking Gregory with me, I rushed out to catch up with Anthony.
He was still very agitated. As soon as he reached the door, he snatched the car key from the chauffeur and got behind the wheel.
Upon seeing that, Joseph clenched his fists anxiously. “Sh*t! He might get into danger.”
I cast him a glance and pondered for a second before handing Gregory to him. “Send Gregory home first.”
With that, I jogged towards the car and slid inside right before Anthony started the car.
He whipped around and glared at me with his fury eyes. Locking eyes with him, I could not help but gulp nervously.
“Get out,” he enunciated his sentence word by word.
“You wish!” Feigning calmness, I looked away, fastened my seat belt, and stared ahead. “Go on. I have some things to talk to you about.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and stared me down for a couple more seconds before releasing the brake pedal and raced out of the house.
Luckily, there were not many cars on the road and he continued to speed down the highway and drove around the riverside for about twenty minutes before finally stopping the car.
I was glad that I had experienced Millie’s driving skills before. If not, I would not have stay composed throughout this deadly journey.
Anthony lit a cigarette, took a long drag on it, and slumped into his seat. As he rested his arm by the window, he closed his eyes and continued to puff on his cigarette.
The light from the streetlamp shone into the car and silhouetted his perfect side profile, adding a hint of mysteriousness onto him.
I went straight to the point. “I see you’ve regained your memories.”
However, he did not reply. The air was so still that I could hear him breathing.
Turning to him, I raised my voice and said solemnly, “You’ve always known about the things Tiffany had done, but instead of seeking justice for your deceased lover, you’ve opted to act as if you don’t know anything to shield your family’s mistakes. Am I right?”
He opened his eyes and stared at me with his bloodshot eyes. “What are you trying to say?”
I gave him a faint smile and said half-jokingly, “Well, I need to know the person who I’m working with, don’t I? Anthony, do you still remember the first time you meet me? You looked disdainfully at me. It was as if you had believed that your lover, ‘Sienna Stovell’, was long dead. That was why you regarded me as an insignificant outsider. In fact, you’re just the same as your family—no longer hoping for her to come back.”
Too many things had happened in the past six years, and I needed to find the answers one by one.
For example, why the first person I saw after waking up was Marcus, who had been missing for a long time? And why did I become his fiancée?
Besides, why did the Stanhope family and the Moore family leave while the Featherstone family became the one who dominated the business in the city?
And how did the obituary that could only be published by close family members be made without Anthony’s knowledge?
Clutching at the hem of my dress, I willed myself to stay calm and looked at the man beside me with a steady gaze.
After six years of being surrounded by the “familial warmth” of the Hall family, I was no longer sure if Anthony, the man who was once the light of my life, was still the man who loved me with all his heart and soul.
Seeing that I had seen through his act, Anthony looked away in embarrassment and snapped, “That’s none of your business.”
He then placed his other hand on the steering wheel and took another drag of his cigarette. “Bear in mind that you’re just Sienna’s substitute.”
Under a veil of the cigarette smoke, he drew a rather lonesome figure as if he had worn himself to a frazzle, trying to bear all the lies and deceptions in his life.
As he refused to say anything else, I had no choice but to stop pressing him for more information.
As the saying goes, you can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. Moreover, with his personality, no one on earth could make him say something he refused to say.
An hour later, after he finished half a pack of his cigarettes, he finally started the car again and returned home.
Halfway through the journey, Gregory called and said he wanted a cake from the bakery we went to previously, so I asked Anthony to stop the car when we were passing by the mall.
When I was unfastening my seat belt, he said with a hint of contempt in his voice, “Why bother to get the cake by yourself? You can always get someone else to deliver it straight to the house.”
I paused in my movement and rolled my eyes at him. “It’s more thoughtful to get it myself. Nah, I can’t blame you for not knowing this. How could Anthony, the genius in the business realm, understand the importance of sincerity? Don’t worry, you don’t need to come with me. I’ll go by myself while you wait for me here.”
With that, I got out of the car and headed to the mall. Two minutes later, a well-built figure appeared and walked alongside me to the mall.
Curious, I glanced up and saw Anthony’s chin. “Didn’t you think that this is a waste of time?”
He did not even glance at me. “My son is worth the time.”
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.
Leave a Reply