Chapter 43\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derrick said, \u201cYou\u2019ve just gotten married, and you\u2019ll be thinking about having children soon. There\u2019ll be plenty of expenses. I\u2019m willing to pay and buy out all the shares from you in one\u00a0<\/p>\n
What do you say?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vivian remained unmoved. \u201cThose shares won\u2019t be of any use in your hands either.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A crack appeared in Derrick\u2019s warm expression, revealing a hint of his true emotions. \u201cAnd would they be more useful in your sister\u2019s hands? If Camille were really capable, the Hartwell family wouldn\u2019t have been declining all these years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vivian frowned, clearly displeased by his words. She stood up, intending to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derrick hurriedly grabbed her wrist. \u201cVivian, you and Camille are both my children. I can\u2019t bear to see her struggling on her own either. I just want your younger brother to enter the company and help her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vivian shook off his hand. \u201cMy younger brother? Who are you talking about? Is it Ronald Zandar?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derrick frowned and sharply corrected her. \u201cHe\u2019s already changed his surname. His name is Ronald Hartwell now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vivian let out a mocking laugh. \u201cDoes changing his surname change his genes? Does it change the fact that he\u2019s Nancy Sullivan\u2019s son, born of another man?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She knew this was a sore spot for Derrick, and she deliberately attacked it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derrick flew into a rage, standing up abruptly from his chair and slapping Vivian across the\u00a0<\/p>\n
face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For a split second, the whole place went silent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, Vivian grabbed the coffee cup on the table and violently splashed its contents straight into Derrick\u2019s face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coffee sprayed everywhere, blurring Derrick\u2019s vision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vivian retreated to a safe distance. \u201cYou\u2019re nothing but a fool. Back when you were young, Nancy didn\u2019t even want to be with you. It was only after her husband died and she couldn\u2019t climb any higher that she came looking for you!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom divorced you years ago, so how come Nancy never gave you a single child? She was just using you as a tool, and you actually took it seriously?\u00a0<\/p>\n
X CLOSE\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 43\u00a0<\/p>\n
212\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you actually have the nerve to come begging in front of me. What? Is that little trust fund Grandma left you almost drained? You think you can buy 15% of the Hartwell Group from me with that pathetic sum? Keep dreaming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derrick wiped the coffee from his face. After enduring Vivian\u2019s attacks, he was absolutely livid. \u201cYou useless daughter!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He grabbed a coffee\u00a0<\/p>\n
cup\u00a0<\/p>\n
from the table and hurled it viciously at Vivian.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vivian dodged but slammed straight into a solid wall of muscle. The pain she expected didn\u2019t come. She froze for a moment, then looked up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cup had hit Kingston instead. Coffee splashed across his black shirt, and the wet stain faintly outlined his muscular chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2026\u201d Vivian felt awkward. It seemed like every time something embarrassing happened, he would always show up at exactly the wrong moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kingston didn\u2019t look at her and merely focused his gaze on Derrick as he spoke calmly. \u201cMr. Hartwell, why the temper?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derrick hadn\u2019t expected to see Kingston here. He hurriedly grabbed a few tissues and handed\u00a0<\/p>\n
them over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His earlier fury was immediately replaced with a fawning tone. \u201cMy apologies, Kingston. I was so angered by this wretched girl that I lost my head. I didn\u2019t see you come in. It was all purely\u00a0<\/p>\n
an accident.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kingston didn\u2019t take the tissues and just replied lightly, \u201cAfter all these years, Mr. Hartwell, you\u2019re just as fiery as ever. You haven\u2019t changed at all. I thought that after you left the Hartwell family to strike out on your own, you would at least have changed a little.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kingston lifted a hand and flicked at the coffee stains on his shirt. \u201cYou\u2019re lucky today that it was me you crossed. If it were someone else, I\u2019m afraid a few words wouldn\u2019t have been enough to smooth things over.\u2018\u00a0<\/p>\n
His voice was low and even, betraying no emotion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though Derrick was the older one, all he could do in front of Kingston was force out a smile.\u201d It\u2019s all because Vivian\u2019s too infuriating. I couldn\u2019t rein in my emotions for a moment.\u2018\u00a0<\/p>\n
As he spoke, he shot Vivian a hard glare. The cultured air around him vanished without a trace. \u201cYou should know just how infuriating she can be, Kingston.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 43\u00a0 Derrick said, \u201cYou\u2019ve just gotten married, and you\u2019ll be thinking about having children soon. There\u2019ll be plenty of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-i-cancel-the-engagement-and-level-way-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}