He was pretty childish when he was angry. Linford thought it was cute.
So he decided to make him even angrier, “See? Candace? Now your brother is pretending to be sick to fight for my attention. Do you mind me putting down a bit so I can hold your brother for a while?”
Candace nodded. If Cody wanted their Dad’s attention, he should get it.
“Don’t touch me!” Cody screamed as he ran off. The boy accidentally knocked off the bucket of fish as he ran away. The legs of Linford’s trousers were soaked.
Cody laughed as he ran into the house.
Candace also giggled. Linford shook his head. Being a dad was such a challenging task.
When Linford took Candace back into the house, Darwin and Tanya also arrived.
Cody, determined to make Linford feel uncomfortable, excessively adored his grandpa when he showed up.
“Grandpa!” The boy hugged Darwin’s leg, smiling at him sweetly.
Darwin didn’t know there was a secret war going on. He was only happy that his grandson suddenly became so sweet to him. So he put down the gifts he had brought and picked the boy up, “Good lad. I brought you a lot of snacks you like this time.”
“Thank you, Grandpa,” Cody beamed.
Linford made a disgusted face at Cody when Darwin carried the boy away.
Cody stuck his tongue out.
Candace demanded to be put down. Linford left a kiss on her cheek and put her on the sofa. The little girl extended her arms toward the box of exquisite desserts. The dinner was gonna begin soon, so Linford only let her eat a small amount. Candace didn’t complain, reclining on the couch and starting to watch a cartoon.
Cody and Darwin also came out. Cody acted disgustingly close to Darwin. Linford decided to leave for a short while, or he might just throw up.
He stood up from the couch and walked upstairs.
Rafting on his son sounded quite lame. But he decided to seek some mental support from Cristelle.
Cristelle was in her room, trying to figure out a new design for the new collaboration.
She didn’t even know Linford had walked into her room until a pair of long arms wrapped her and pulled her back into a hard chest, “Wifey. Someone just bullied me.”
Cristelle gasped and pushed him away. “What the heck, Linford?! Wifey? Are you serious?”
Linford only laughed as he took a couple of steps back. Cristelle was quite pissed off as she turned around. But she fell silent as soon as she saw Linford’s soaked legs.
“What happened?” She was stunned, staring at his wet legs.
Linford took off his shoes and socks, “Your son did it.”
“Cody? Did you say anything to piss him off again?” Cristelle shook her head as she collected the drafts on her desk, “The boy didn’t get much fatherly love growing up. He’s sensitive toward things like that. Don’t mind it when he gets too nervous when you’re around, okay?”
Linford fell silent.
He suddenly remembered what Alfred told him when he sent the assistant to investigate Cristelle’s life with the babies back in their old town.
They had suffered a lot in their old place. People had always looked at them in a certain way because Cristelle couldn’t explain who the babies’ father was. The babies had also been bullied and called “bastards” because of that.
It was not easy to be a single mom, but Cristelle was tough enough to live through all the pain and protect their children.
“Why are you suddenly so quiet?” Cristelle asked as she finally cleaned her desk, “What’s wrong? Is there any problem in your company? You just made Diego Barnett bankrupt, didn’t you? I thought it was the time to celebrate.”
“Does it make you happy?” Linford asked carefully, “You know… Me making Diego pay for what he did.”
“It made me tremendously happy,” Cristelle didn’t have any reason to hide the happiness in her tone.
The Barnett…
And Diego’s Mom…
She hated those people to the guts.
Nothing pleased her more than seeing them fall.
A smile appeared on Linford’s face, “I’m glad it made you happy.”
Cristelle blushed as she dropped her gaze, pretending to clean her already tidy table, “It’s probably time for lunch. Let’s go downstairs.”
Linford nodded and went forward, taking Cristelle’s hand.
Cristelle cringed a bit, but she didn’t pull away this time.
****
Meanwhile, in the Barnett’s House.
The company went bankrupt overnight. Their debts right now are more than billions.
The Barnett family had fallen to the bottom completely.
All those old friends of the family disappeared. None of them would stand by their side to help them; even those relatives who Sam considered as the family was hiding from them.
Rumors about Diego Barnett were everywhere. People said he was just a good-for-nothing spoiled rich boy who threw away his family’s wealth overnight because of his ridiculous competitiveness.
He had become the butt of a joke.
Everything was going down. Sam felt so pressured that he couldn’t even breathe properly. “We’ve still got some property in our hometown. Just sell everything we have and go to Europe. We still have some money. At least we won’t starve to death this way.” Mrs. Barnett was the only one in the family who could think straight at this point.
Sam felt a rapid pain in his chest as he thought about his company.
He aged overnight.
“Where’s Diego?” He rasped.
It was all because of that stubborn son. Things would have been different if he wasn’t so arrogant and stupidly competing against Linford.
Mrs. Barnett faltered. All the maids in the house had left. She needed to do everything by herself right now, including packing.
She sighed, “Don’t blame our son. He never meant to do that.”
“Where is he?!” Sam sounded extremely stern as he snapped.
Mrs. Barnett looked like she was about to cry, “He’s in the bedroom right now. He hasn’t eaten anything for two days.”
Sam went directly to Diego’s bedroom. Mrs. Barnett didn’t want them to fight, following up instantly.
Sam kicked the door open but didn’t see anyone in Diego’s room.
“Where the heck is he?!”