Orion’s gaze darkened as he replied, “I see.”
…
Inside the Holt household.
Jessica Holt nearly dropped her jaw in disbelief at Orion’s sudden change in attitude.
“Orion, have you lost your mind?” she exclaimed.
How else could his attitude have made a complete 180-degree turn?
Haley chimed in, “Indeed, he’s changed, changed in a way that I can’t understand.”
“When have you ever understood him?” Jessica Holt grabbed her daughter’s hand. “If you truly understood him, you would have captured his heart long ago.”
Haley fell into deep thought at her mother’s words.
Had she never really understood Orion?
She thought she did.
Ten Holt emerged from inside the house and said to his wife and daughter, “I need to go out for a while.”
“Dad, what did Orion say to you yesterday?” Haley ran over and grabbed his arm.
Ten Holt looked at his daughter and let out a sigh.
“He kept apologizing, saying he shouldn’t have brought up divorce with you. I could see that he truly regrets it. Don’t argue with him over this, if you want to keep a man, you can’t always be fighting. You need to learn to please him…”
“He apologized and repented?” Haley was genuinely surprised.
But as for pleasing him?
She had been doing that all along, just without igniting his passion.
“Dad, I understand.”
“Alright, I have something to take care of.” Ten Holt quickly left after speaking. Ten Holt went straight to meet Stephen Brown who had previously competed with him on a project.
To Stephen Brown, Ten Holt’s appearance was not unexpected, as if it was something he had anticipated. He had his secretary escort Ten Holt to the meeting room. He stood up, adjusted his collar, and leisurely walked over.
Stephen Brown pushed open the door. Ten Holt got straight to the point, “Did you send me this recording?”
Ten Holt tossed his phone onto the table.
Stephen Brown calmly sat across from him, crossing his legs.
“It was me.” Said he.
“What do you want to achieve with this?” Ten Holt’s face turned ugly. “Isn’t this crossing the line of morality?”
“Morality?” Stephen Brown seemed to find something amusing. “You’re talking to me about morality? Do you even know how many immoral things you’ve done? How did you build that office building of yours? I know very well, lives were sacrificed, weren’t they?”
Ten Holt narrowed his eyes. “I compensated for it.”
“Just because you compensate, you think you can easily wipe it away? You forced people into ruin to get their land, and now you casually say you compensated?” Stephen Brown sneered. “What do you want to achieve?”
“What are you trying to do?” Ten Holt showed signs of anger.
Stephen Brown chuckled. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
Then he slowly continued, “To win the competition against me, to win the project, you went to my wife and told her I was having an affair. Because of that, my wife filed for divorce, and I got caught up in family matters, and you took the project…”
“Did I say something wrong?” Ten Holt didn’t feel ashamed of his actions. “You were already having an affair. I just thought it was the right thing to do, to let your wife know the truth.”
“Should I be grateful to you then?” Stephen Brown always believed that business matters should be solved in the business world. Bringing family into it was crossing the line. Thus, he thought Ten Holt had no boundaries. He would do anything to achieve his goals. And Stephen Brown found that utterly despicable.
“I’ve gathered some evidence here, and I’m planning to take it to the police, including that recording. I don’t think you would mind, would you?” Stephen Brown smiled.
Ten Holt’s face turned pale.
“I have no grudge against you, so why would you harm me?”
“I have no grudge against you either, but I’ve been harmed. My wife divorced me because of you, and I’m not even allowed to see my children. Should I just swallow my pride?” Stephen Brown’s face grew colder.
Not only did he get divorced. But because of this divorce, it affected many of his company’s operations. His ex-wife took a lot of his money. It wasn’t about the money for him. It was about not having enough working capital. Many of his projects either failed or were put on hold. He suffered a lot of losses. Although Ten Holt was right in saying that he indeed had an affair, it was a mistake Stephen Brown made in a moment of weakness. The other party had clung onto him. He never intended to get a divorce, and he was about to resolve the situation regarding the affair. But Ten Holt had blown it all open, which led to his family falling apart.
“What do you want?” Ten Holt knew what he had done and wanted to keep things from escalating.
Before Stephen Brown could say anything, Ten Holt spoke first, “I’ll give you that project.”
Stephen Brown chuckled as if he had heard a very amusing joke.
“What’s wrong? Not satisfied?” Ten Holt’s face turned cold.
“Of course, I’m not satisfied. You think you can just brush me off with something so insignificant?” Stephen Brown straightforwardly replied, “If you want me to keep quiet, give me one billion dollars to compensate for my losses.”
“Why don’t you go rob a bank?” Ten Holt exploded in anger.
“If you don’t want to negotiate with me, then I won’t force you, right?” Stephen Brown stood up. “I have other matters to attend to. I won’t see you off, Mr Holt.” And with that, he left without another word.
Ten Holt wasn’t unwilling to spend money. But Stephen Brown was asking for too much.
Finally, Ten decided to find Orion about this matter. After all, it was Orion’s mother who had acted against Luna. The Holt family shouldn’t foot the bill for this. Ten Holt had a plan in mind. Once he made up his mind, he immediately went to find Orion.
…
“How did you come here?” Orion asked politely. He knew that Ten Holt would definitely come. He was just pretending to be surprised.
Ten Holt didn’t beat around the bush either. “That recording exposed the fact that your mother committed murder. If you want to protect your mother and keep her from going to jail, then you must come up with one billion dollars to settle this matter.”
Orion lowered his gaze. “Who is this person? Isn’t this an outrageous demand?”
“I think so too, but there’s no other way. It’s a matter of a life.” Ten Holt still wanted Orion to pay the money to settle this matter.
Orion said, “Dad, I think the money should come from both our families. If you want me to pay it all, I can’t come up with that much money.”
“What do you mean, Orion?”
Orion looked troubled. “It’s not that I don’t want to pay, but I simply can’t afford such a large sum. Besides, the recording was aimed at you, not me. If you want me to pay so much, wouldn’t that be unfair to me?”
Ten Holt stared at him for a long time, unable to say a word.
Because he had no argument.
“Well, how much can you contribute?” Ten Holt asked.
“At most one hundred million.”
“That’s too little.” Ten Holt almost lost his temper upon hearing that.
“I think the person behind the recording is just trying to extort money. It’s just a recording, and it can be settled.” Orion looked at Ten Holt. “With one billion, I can handle it as well.”
Ten Holt dare not speak because the other party had not just the recording as leverage, but also the unsolved murder on his hands for many years. If that were to come to light, he would be finished. But he couldn’t tell Orion about this matter. He still had his guard up against Orion.
“How about this, you tell me who made the recording and I’ll go talk to them?” Orion suggested.
“No need.” Ten Holt waved his hand. “One hundred million will do. I’ll take my leave now.”
Ten Holt had to find a way to resolve this matter as soon as possible.
Orion personally saw Ten Holt off to the car. Watching the car drive away, his eyes gradually darkened. A cold smile lifted at the corner of his lips.
…
Freya was teaching Kai how to paint. Suddenly, the bodyguard brought in a person.
“Ma’am, he was acting suspiciously at the door. I suspect he’s the same person from last time. We caught him.”
Freya called Linda, “Take Kai inside.”
She got up and walked over. As she removed the mask from the man’s face, she froze.