Annie wasn’t as excited as Stacy though, because Joshua still didn’t know about what happened yesterday. And now that the pictures are published, she couldn’t keep it from him anymore. All she could do now is to try and give it a proper reason.
She had already thought of an excuse, now all she needed was the change to tell him about it.
Her brows knitted, her eyes were squeezed, and her lips moved into a small smile.
“Stacy, I got something to take care of, I am off now.”
There was a small pavilion where their backyard is. The pavilion was built on a pond, and a small path made of stones was connecting it to the sides. From the pavilion, you could see the lotus flowers, and enjoy the view into the backyard. It was a pretty place with a nice view.
In the pavilion, there were two people.
Joshua, who was having his cold expression again, was watching the middle aged man, who he was having certain similarities with, and sighed multiple times through his nose.
Albert was not happy about the sighs he was hearing, and frowned about it. “Joshua, is this how you treat your father? That’s really disrespectful.”
“Respect? My father is calling his own mother a crazy woman, I am not sure how respectful that is.” He replied quickly.
Albert was stunned, he didn’t know what to reply to that.
“Okay, let’s not talk about that. I want you to get married to Annie as soon as possible.” He changed the topic, and waved towards the picture in the newspaper. “This is your own doing, you cannot blame me to force you.”
Joshua didn’t even look at the paper, and the main character of a wild picture, himself.
“This kind of stuff happens a lot, why is it even an issue. Should I marry every woman that I have a picture with?”
“You…” Albert held his chest, with anger.
“And, this is my business, I don’t want you to bother.” He turned around, and didn’t want to discuss anymore with Albert.
“Stop!” Albert was showing his face as a parent again. Joshua turned towards him again, but his eyes full of mocking. “Excuse me, father, is there something else you need? I am very busy.”
“Are you declining because of that other woman?” Albert pointed towards Abigail, who was taking a walk with Mrs. Caunter outside, but they didn’t notice the two men in the pavilion.
Joshua’s dark face suddenly lit up when he saw Abigail, his lips even formed into a smile, there was not the despite he usually had on his face, but real happiness.
“That’s my business, I don’t need you to bother about it.” He didn’t want to answer his questions. Both his hands were in his pockets, looking handsome and elegant.
His casually look was in direction of her shadow, and deepening.
“You can do whatever you want with other women, as you are a man, that is understandable. But, you can only marry Annie, and your engagement has already been announced, so these days, you should better keep an eye on yourself.” Albert was telling his son.
Abigail, he knew that she was a woman who could get the attention of a man easily, even himself, has had a lot of women, and yet, he was drawn by her beauty.
She was pretty, like an angel, innocent and clean, with an innocent face expression, there was no man who could escape from her attractiveness.
This kind of woman, every man loved, but she was also every man’s enemy. He couldn’t let her ruin his plans.
Joshua shook his head disinterested, he didn’t listen to his father’s words.
“Joshua, it doesn’t matter how much you hate me, but the big picture is more important! Women are traps, you should take more time to be with Annie, that is more important!”
“Women are traps, and Annie is not a woman?” Joshua asked his father back, making him so mad that he almost spit blood.
“You need to remember, if we can get the resource of the Arabic oils, then this would be a huge step for our business, by then, whatever we say counts, and if you want to have another woman, that’s your decision. Annie would not be able to do anything about it.”
Albert didn’t want to give up on his plan, and tried to convince his son.
“So, when you married my mother back then and then left her, that’s the reason?”
Joshua’s question made Albert speechless, he awkwardly rubbed his chest. “That’s… not what happened…”
“Tz!” Joshua turned his head, and looked right at Albert, his eyes were full of hate. “Where is the difference! You married her because her family was wealthy, and was able to help you open your factory, isn’t it! And when you were successful, you forgot about all the good she did for you. You left her, and even when she was pregnant with Silvia, you were beating her up. You kicked her out of the family because she didn’t bear you another son for this family. Are you actually going to deny all of this? Tell me this never happened?”
“You! I…” Albert had nothing to say after the speech Joshua just held, he didn’t know how to explain himself.
Abigail accidentally ran into them, and when she noticed that they were in the pavilion, it was already too late.
Mrs. Caunter took her hand, and walked towards Joshua. “Joshua, I have already thought about it. Abigail cannot marry Bill, she is your wife. Your wife.”
“Granny, you…” Abigail wanted to shake off her hand awkwardly, but the next moment, she had already laid her hand in Joshua’s.
Joshua was happy to hold her hand, to feel her soft and smooth skin, and held it with force, not giving her the chance to take it back.
“You see? Even Granny thinks that she is the best for me.” He held up their hands, showing to Albert. “It’s your arranged engagement, why don’t you get married to her? I don’t have any interest in her, or her father, or their company, or even an cooperation between us.”
He took Abigail, and Mrs. Caunter, and left the pavilion without even looking back.
Annie stepped back into the backyard, her body was covered. She was actually here to explain things to Joshua, but she never expected to run into this fight. She heard the conversation very clearly, and saw how Joshua was holding hands with Abigail. It was burning in her eyes, and if she could only, she would chop off her hand and feed it to the dogs.
She covered up her emotions, and when she saw the three of them walking towards her, she hid in the plants.
All this, she will pretend like she never heard, and she will continue with her plans. She waited until the three left the backyard, and then vanished from the other side herself.
Joshua didn’t pay attention to Abigail’s resistance, and just walked forwards. Mrs. Caunter was talking about their marriage all this while, and Joshua was unexpectedly happy, agreeing with his grandmother.
Albert only wanted to get to the Arabic Oil source through the Spencer family, what he forgot was, there was only a lifetime of interest, but not a lifetime of friendship. Kenneth’s position was in danger now, he could be pushed over anytime by someone else.
And he was going to be the substitute for him! The seductive interest he was offering, the government has been leaning towards him already, and the representative of this year will definitely go to him. Not only this year, but the coming 20 years, he will be the lead of this area.
Their first contract has already been signed, and he believed that within the next half a month, there will be news about the representation. His people outside knew what they were doing, and he was watching this project even in his sleep.
All of this, he would keep from his father. The hate he felt, made him be able to want to watch his father be pushed into ruin, the deeper the better.
There were news saying that Kenneth’s finances had a big hole in it. To keep his good relationship with the Arabs, he had to invest a huge amount, and also asked Albert to join in.
If he was right, both of them have already spent millions on this project.
Millions! His excellent workers have already calculated the amount of money between his father and Kenneth, it’s 500 million!
In other words, they have already invested everything, the reason that Kenneth was now onto him, is only to solve his financial problems, and his father knew nothing about it. He was still dreaming about trying to manifest the relationship between the two families, trying to get the representative of the oil exploitation.
Childish!
He sighed, causing Abigail’s most natural reaction, she trembled, and thought that Joshua was going to punish her again.
“Go back with Granny.” He wasn’t in such a good mood, and didn’t want to drag her down.
Abigail nodded, and pulled her hand back, taking Mrs. Caunter back to her room.
Joshua frowned, this time because Abigail wanted to get away from him.
“Joshua.” Annie appeared behind him, and called out his name. Her little body leaned towards him.
Joshua pushed her away.
“Joshua, yesterday was just a misunderstanding.” She explained in a girly voice, pretending to be innocent, and leaned back on him.
“I am sorry, you fell asleep yesterday, and I asked you to sleep on the bed, but you didn’t listen. So I tried to help you, then…”
“Okay.” Joshua interrupted her, and shook his head annoyed, he didn’t want to listen to her anymore. He turned around, and wanted to go upstairs. But Annie was like a dog, following him.
“Joshua, are you not mad? That’s great, my parents really want us to get married soon.” She had already told her friends that Joshua was hers alone, there was no way to back out now. All her friends were looking at her with jealous eyes, and she felt good about it.
Those years that she has spent abroad, saying she was studying, but actually getting plastic surgeries, only because of that she looked like the way she did now. The pain she had to take, was only to be Joshua’s wife.
An uncountable amount of women wanted to be in her place, but, none of them were as lucky as her. She was already engaged to him since her childhood, and with the engagement announcement yesterday she was finally one step closer to her dream.
Becoming his wife was like a jackpot, getting a mountain full of money, but not only that, also the envy of others.
Her position of Mrs. Caunter was waving at her, she thought of her future, her being able to step on the toes of every other woman, and laughed out loud.
Her father was a smart man, he saw the appearance of his daughter and knew she was too ugly to get married to Joshua, and used their business as an excuse to get them engaged. Back then, Albert depended on her father, only then he could stand up right in the world of business. Half of what he achieved was in the name of her father. Joshua was much more of a hard worker than his dad, he only depended on himself, and already was better than Albert. He made himself the president of his company.
She really had good luck, this kind of man was better than perfect, so, she had to get him no matter what.
Joshua acted like he didn’t understand what she was talking about and said to her icy, “I never said I wanted to marry you, if you wanna get married, you should find another man.”