Miles threw his head back and laughed. He almost choked on his smoke, “Choose your words correctly, Lana. I didn’t force him to do anything. This society did. Why? Your little conciseness impeded you from exercising our plan?”
“I… I just don’t want to get any innocent people involved!”
“Innocent people?” Miles blew a mouthful of smoke at Lana’s face. Lana coughed violently as she tried to wave the cloud of smoke away.
“Ask your grandmother, Lana girl,” Miles hissed darkly, “Ask her how many innocent people the White family killed to get where it is right now.”
Lana’s mouth pursed into a thin line.
“Don’t play saint with me. You know this kind of thing is inevitable if you want to get rid of the Bradley family,” Miles put the cigarette between his teeth as he loosened his tie a bit, “The police wouldn’t stir if no one died.”
Lana’s heart clenched horribly, “Who else are you trying to kill?”
Miles ignored her as he stood up and grabbed his coat.
Lana didn’t give up. She caught up with him as he tried to get out of the door, “Who are you gonna hurt? You need to tell me.”
Miles didn’t stop to answer her question, “Stay in your golden tower, and don’t run around if you can’t face reality, princess. I don’t need a coward to work with me.”
With that, he just slammed the door in Lana’s face.
Would Miles harm her family? Lana was suddenly scared.
She knew right now that this man was a maniac, and he would do anything to achieve his goals. He would sacrifice other people’s lives and welfare as long as he could get what he wanted.
Undoubtedly, he would push the White family under the fire pit without any hesitation if they tried to stand in his way.
****
“It’s not that stable yet. I mean… those people are still attacking your company on the internet. They even started to criticize our house as well. You just gave all your employees three days’ break. Just think about the money you’re gonna lose. Can you really stomach that?” Drew was chewing his apple in Linford’s study room. The sound made Linford frown.
“What should I do then? Go straight to Miles’s company and blow his head off with a gun?” Linford was busy with the files on his desk.
Drew stopped mid-chew, “I’ve never said that. I’m just so pissed off that that bastard managed to fool us around, and your stocks are declining dramatically.”
“Money is never a problem,” Linford said, “As long as we can still solve this with money, this shouldn’t be considered a problem.”
“Humph!” Drew shook his head, “Typical rich-guy narratives.”
Alfred knocked on the door before Linford could say anything. The door was open. Linford thus nodded, and Alfred just walked in.
“Sir, bad news,” Alfred swallowed, “A journalist has been on our tail for days.”
“How many days?” Linford asked darkly.
Alfred didn’t dare to meet his eyes, “Three… or five?” Alfred looked nervous, “He’s too professional. We didn’t find out about his movement earlier.”
Drew tried to make it less serious for Alfred, “Well, these kinds of things are inevitable. Everyone wants a piece of Daicom now. You can’t avoid probers like that.”
Linford replied without missing a beat, “How is the journalist’s nature? Is he working for someone? Or he’s doing this purely out of duty as a reporter?”
Alfred hurried to say, “I’ve sent our men to investigate. That journalist is a rightful person. He only reports news because he thinks the public has the right to know the truth. He doesn’t work for anyone.”
“What’s his name?”
“Antony! Antony Lim,” Alfred answered, “32-year-old. He’s got millions of fans on Twitter, and he’s a freelance writer for several big presses.”
“I see.” Linford frowned, “In that case, just leave him alone. Most presses reporting this issue have been paid by our enemies to smear us. We can use a couple of impartial journalists.”
“Of course!” Alfred nodded.
Drew thought for a while, “Alfred, you need to protect this man. If anything happens to him, things will only get more complicated.”
“Sure thing,” Alfred answered before he walked out of the office.
Enzo went to pick up the babies that noon. Candace and Cody ran over as they saw his car.
The first thing Cody did after getting in the car was to interrogate his little sister.
“Candace, I saw you play with Betty White this morning. What did she tell you?”
Candace blinked. She didn’t expect her brother to notice that. “Well… No one teamed up with her this morning when Joe taught us to make paper flowers. So I went to team up with her. We ended up becoming friends. I gave her a flower, and she gave me a doll in exchange.”
“You’re friends with Betty now?” Cody’s brows furrowed, “I’m not trying to tell you what to do. But you really should stay away from her for your own safety.”
Candace pouted, but she still nodded okay.
Enzo frowned in the rear-view mirror, “Cody, that’s not nice. You can’t stop Candace if she wants to make friends with other kids.”
Yep. He would never stop Candace if she wanted to make friends with other kids.
But Betty White was no other kid.
“Sorry,” Cody said blankly as he put his safety belt and Candace’s safety belt on.
Enzo didn’t know Betty’s family well. It also felt complicated to explain it to his uncle. Cody thus took out a book from his bag and started to read.
“Oh no!” Candace suddenly exclaimed.
“What?” Cody turned to his sister nervously, “What’s wrong?”
“I think I mistakenly swapped my bag with Betty’s.” Candace only found this out when she went out for her afternoon snacks.
“Silly,” Cody mussed Candace’s hair, “Guess you can only have yours back tomorrow morning.”
Candace nodded, feeling a bit upset.
****
When Alfred walked into his office again, Linford was still busy with his files.
Alfred didn’t bring any good news this time, “Sir, just like what you expected. Miles just contacted the Walters. He asked them to be his allies so they could crush your company hand in hand.”
Walters was pretty big in Europe. Linford didn’t even know how Miles managed to contact them.
As the most influential company on the continent, Walters’ cooperation with Miles would never be great news to Linford.