Hamish enjoys careful calculation, much like playing chess. While others take one step at a time, he thinks three steps ahead. In the business world, he always leaves himself an absolute way out, but if it comes to an attack, he definitely won’t give the other side a chance to catch their breath.
The Burns family is indeed skilled at nurturing individuals into business elites, but unfortunately, they fail to develop someone who is truly alive and thriving.
Despite the fact that the Burns Group has always been the richest in Chiwood and has stood for a century, when one carefully considers its heirs, apart from Old Burns, few have truly lived past forty.
Hamish arranges matters and stays at home for treatment, appearing idle but in reality waiting for someone to contact him. He is waiting for Elisa, or for someone from the White family.
The first person Hamish waits for is his own aunt, Mrs. White, who calls him.
“Hamish, have I done anything to wrong you in these years?” Mrs. White asks directly as soon as she speaks.
Hamish calmly replies, “No.”
In truth, his aunt has indeed not done anything to wrong him. However, once she got married and left the Burns family, she never returned, claiming to be a relative but seeming more like a bystander, observing everything with detached eyes.
Even when their own brother and sister-in-law passed away, she didn’t come back to visit. Perhaps she had her own difficulties.
Hamish never blamed her. Everyone was doing fine on their own, and in the business world, mixing personal matters could complicate things.
“Why have you treated the White family this way?” Mrs. White almost squeezes the words out through her teeth.
Hamish falls silent, as if caught in some memory, and speaks to himself, “In the years since Grandfather’s death, you’ve actually been quite good to me, often inviting me to your home for meals, serving me extra meat to make sure I ate more…”
“Why have you…” Mrs. White begins to ask.
“I did it all for a woman,” Hamish interrupts her.
Mrs. White’s fingers clench whitely. “Elisa? Is it really her?”
Hamish admits, “It’s her.”
Mrs. White had never imagined that Elisa would have any connection with Hamish. When comparing the two, they seemed like people from entirely different worlds.
But upon closer reflection, when Elisa was kidnapped, it was Hamish and Louis who went to rescue her. Hamish even took a bullet to save her, sustaining serious injuries.
“Elisa is Louis’s girlfriend,” he says.
Hamish’s voice is slightly hoarse, “But she’s still my ex-wife.”
“Ex-wife?” Mrs. White listens, feeling that something isn’t quite right. Elisa’s background is clear, she’s young, when did she get married? And to Hamish of all people? They couldn’t have been unaware of Hamish getting married. Elisa also has a significant presence online, if she had been married before, it would have been dug up long ago.
However, there were many things that Mrs. White couldn’t understand, like when Elisa asked her about Louis’s background, whether he grew up in an orphanage, or if he had a name called Autumn.
At that time, she felt that there was something between Elisa and Louis that she didn’t know about.
She didn’t ask much because, first, it was Elisa’s private matter, and second, she trusted Elisa, so she never doubted her.
In truth, Elisa is far from as simple as they think. A young girl in her early twenties, without any background, managed to enter a company and make a great success. Her market value has risen, and upon checking her previous information, it’s clear she barely even finished college and came from a small village… the more you think about it, the stranger it seems.
Mrs. White is sure that the answer lies with Hamish.
“Do you want to hear about the story between Elisa and me, Aunt?”
Louis hasn’t had time to make a movie recently. The business opportunities he previously found have all withdrawn their cooperation upon hearing about the trouble with the White family. No one wants to be associated with this mess.
“Tired?”
“Okay,” Louis says, although he’s already so tired that he doesn’t even want to speak, not even to have a drink of water today.
Elisa hands him a glass of water. Louis frees up a hand to take it, gulping it down in a few swallows.
“I’ve been thinking these days…” Louis rarely looks at Elisa with such seriousness.
Elisa’s heart tightens, as if being gripped by an invisible hand.
It’s impossible not to be afraid or worried these days. Hamish did all this just for a “gamble.”
A person who has been abandoned once will question everyone’s lovebecause they fear losing again.
Do you know about the abandoned cat effect? A cat that has been abandoned once, when picked up again, will behave extremely well, fearing being abandoned once more… or, in other words, fearing that they won’t find a home again in the future.
Elisa is afraid of losing in this “gamble” with Hamish.
Suddenly, Louis opens a drawer, takes out a piece of candy, and holds Elisa’s hand, placing the candy in her palm.
Elisa looks at the candy, pauses, and then looks back at Louis.
Louis looks weary, but there’s still a smile on his lips, and a glint of light in his eyes, as if nothing can bring him down.
“I’ve thought it through. The White Group won’t be able to recover from being constantly suppressed. Now the company is bankrupt, and with the savings I’ve accumulated in the entertainment industry over the years, I can barely make ends meet. I’ll mortgage the properties under the company and leave the Quokka house for us to live in. We can manage with no money, and I can continue in the entertainment industry to make a living. My dad can retire early and spend time with my mom, and as for me… I’ll keep going in the entertainment industry, it should be enough to sustain our lives.”