Elisa approached Ivan with an indifferent and chilling expression on her face, sending shivers down his spine. “Ivan, you’re saying that I killed Dad. Do you think you can absolve yourself of any responsibility by blaming it all on me? Did you really believe that Dad’s death had nothing to do with you? If you had a normal brain, you would have taken care of Dad instead of letting him sign that contract. He wouldn’t have died, and the Powell family wouldn’t have collapsed!”
Who wouldn’t try to shift the blame? Language, when expressing hatred, is like a knife that can cut deep, letting blood flow.
As Ivan made eye contact with her, he instinctively stepped back, feeling a mix of fear and restlessness, like a wild beast trapped in the mud, struggling pointlessly.
The woman holding his hand could clearly feel his trembling. Faced with Elisa’s icy questioning, she too felt a hint of fear. Women always rely on the men by their side.
Now that Ivan knew fear as well, a strong sense of contrast emerged. Elisa felt that this man was utterly useless, actually afraid of his own sister.
She pinched Ivan’s arm forcefully. “Ivan, what you’re doing is just shifting the blame and distorting the facts.”
The pain in his arm brought Ivan back to his senses, and the woman’s words instantly provoked him to raise his hand.
Elisa remained calm, coldly staring at his hand raised halfway. If Ivan’s slap were to land on her face today, she would cut off all ties with him from this moment on!
At this moment, the words their father had spoken over the phone before his death kept replaying in her mind.
“Elisa, take good care of your brother for me.”
Ultimately, Ivan’s slap never landed as she had hoped.
He withdrew his hand, his expression cold, and said word by word, “Elisa, do you think you’re so amazing? Anyone who has a connection with you is unfortunate. You’re a calamity. Do you know Micah? Do you know why he left the country? He was forced out by Hamish! Hamish suppressed Baker Group, and no one dared to cooperate with them. It was on the verge of becoming the second Powell family. Micah had no choice but to leave the country, to save Baker Group.”
Ivan’s face contorted. “Why do you think Hamish targeted Micah? You should know better than anyone.”
Elisa froze, her eyes filled with disbelief, her voice trembling as she asked, “What did you say?”
Ivan paused for a moment, then changed his tone, a mocking smile on his face. “Seems like you still don’t know. You have no face to live in this world, Elisa. You think you married a good man and enjoy everything he brings you, but everyone around you is stripped to the bone.”
Elisa’s mind was in a haze as she deeply contemplated. When she heard the first half of his sentence, she couldn’t bear it and covered her mouth, biting her lower lip hard to suppress the trembling in her voice.
So, this was the truth behind Micah’s departure. How could she have believed that he went abroad for research? He had been conducting his research in the country, and he had already made some progress. Everything had to start over when he went abroad.
Ivan sneered. He knew his sister too well. He knew that physical pain alone wouldn’t truly harm her. He had to gradually crush her from within to inflict real damage.
Destroying her heart was his priority. From now on, every time Elisa saw Hamish or thought of Micah, she would be in unbearable pain!
Ivan smirked, wrapped his arm around the woman, and walked away, casting a scornful glance at Elisa. As they passed by her, the woman maliciously bumped her elbow into Elisa’s side.
Elisa stumbled and collided with the wall. “Oops, it was an accident.”
Ivan turned his head and glanced at Elisa. He couldn’t see her face, only her slender figure leaning forward, her hand gripping the wall.
An odd feeling flashed through his mind. He turned back and said, “Serves her right. Let’s go, we don’t need to worry about her.”
Little did Ivan know that Elisa, with her back turned to him, couldn’t hold back and ended up spitting out a mouthful of blood, despite covering her mouth forcefully.
Thick, crimson blood dripped through her fingers and fell to the ground. Waves of stomach pain surged, her vision blurred, and her ears rang like buzzing bees.
She looked at the blood on the ground. It had been so long since she had vomited blood that she had almost forgotten the taste.
Elisa staggered into the bathroom and leaned over the sink, retching. Everything she had just eatenwas vomited out, mixed with blood.
She hadn’t eaten much, and in the end, only sour water remained after she finished vomiting. She raised her head and looked at her reflection in the mirror, almost unable to recognize herself. Her eyes were swollen, blurred with tears, and her makeup had smeared off, especially her eye makeup, which had become a mess. Her pale face resembled a ghost against the white paper.
Elisa supported herself on the sink, forcing a smile, but it was even uglier than crying.
She reached out and used a wet tissue to clean off the smudged makeup from her face. She applied some powder and lipstick, but no matter how much she tried to touch up, her complexion still looked haggard. Just like her stomach, no matter how much medicine she took, it remained in a bad state.
Elisa washed away the blood in the sink. As she walked out, the few drops of blood on the floor had already been cleaned up. She crumpled the tissue in her hand and threw it into the trash can.
Elisa took too long in the bathroom, and just when Hamish thought she was lost and decided to get up to find her, he saw her coming slowly.
“Why did it take you so long? I thought you got lost.” It was only when Elisa walked over and sat down that Hamish noticed her pale complexion.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Elisa felt weak all over, too weak to even question, but what would it change if she did? Could things be different? Could Micah come back?
If she questioned him for Micah’s sake, Hamish would only get angrier.
For the first time, Elisa despised power. When power was in her own hands, she found it insufficient rather than excessive. But when it was in someone else’s hands, it was like holding one’s life in their grasp, as if being at the mercy of a butcher on a chopping board.
“I just ran into Ivan.” Elisa rarely spoke docilely to Hamish about what she had encountered, but at this moment, her voice was weak, barely audible if one didn’t listen carefully.
“Ivan? He’s here too?”
“Yeah.”
“What did he say to you? You don’t look well.”
“He talked about when I first inherited the Powell family. I was seventeen and in my second year of college. After my grandfather passed away, I left school and went to the company. There was a time when the Powell family almost ceased to exist.”
Hamish nodded. He also met Elisa during that period, and the memories were profound. From a certain perspective, Elisa was very similar to him, both being ambitious in their work and having sharp personalities that easily offended others. But those who had the ability were never afraid of offending.
The biggest difference was that until now, he hadn’t encountered an opponent, while Elisa had, and she was the first to be defeated.
“So you managed to keep Powell Group going for six years, which is quite impressive.” Hamish praised her sincerely.
“But it’s still gone, Hamish. I had actually thought about handing over Powell Group to you before. You have better tactics than me, and instead of letting Powell Group be destroyed in my hands, it would be better to pass it on to you. Who knows, maybe you could stand side by side with Burns Group and reach new heights.”
Unfortunately, she overestimated Powell Group. Hamish didn’t want a mutually beneficial relationship with Powell Group; he wanted to swallow it up and make Powell Group disappear from the entire business world.