“Of course! I am not interested in having a relationship with women and planned to live my life as a bachelor. I never pictured myself getting married and having a family of my own. I then met my wife who moved me by her innocence and kindness. You have no idea how foolish and naive she was. Valeria pawned all her jewelry just to save me from difficulties way before she knew my true identity. She doesn’t have a knack for house chores but chose to learn cooking just for me. She was a timid person but decided to sort things out with my father just to be with me. She even intended to take away her own life upon receiving news that I may be dead. My wife would not have made it through if it weren’t for our babies.”
William’s face was filled with love upon mentioning his wife and continued, “I promised to protect her and let her spend the rest of her life in peace. However, I broke it just because of you and your family.”
William had countless ways of getting rid of Angel if it weren’t for the Floyd family. Callum felt much more guilty and said, “I will bring my parents along to beg for Valeria’s mercy!”
“It’s fine as we are not demanding an apology from you guys. We just don’t want such a thing to happen ever again!” William continued, “I’ve already given Angel to learn herself a lesson and I do hope that the adults can keep a closer eye on her. Please do not blame me for being ruthless if such an unpleasant incident happens again. I would not show mercy if she decides to repeat the same mistakes again!”
Callum was displeased upon hearing about it as William was being too blunt. However, he eventually suppressed the anger in his heart as he learned to step into William’s shoes. Callum would do the same thing should something like this happen to his beloved ones. William was being gracious to let Angel off the hook just for the sake of the Floyd family.
William then softened his tone upon seeing his uncle’s reaction and said, “Callum, I am well aware that both you and my grandparents are kind-hearted persons. I also do not believe that Angel is a ruthless person since she was a child. Do you happen to wonder why she turned out to become like this?”
“What do you mean?” Callum vaguely guessed what his nephew was trying to say.
“Did anyone happen to be a bad influence towards Angel ever since she was still a child?”
Callum sighed and said, “There might be such a possibility. Your grandparents and I had initially planned to send her back forcefully. However, we decided to raise her ourselves after rounds of discussions. The reason is exactly what you have in mind. If someone was really trying to influence Angel negatively, then sending her back will definitely be an unwise decision.”
William knew exactly who was Callum talking about and this person was none other than Veronica Laban. William was Callum’s nephew and they did not have contact with each other prior to this. He did not know much about Callum but chose to trust him out of kinship.
William tried to test the waters upon knowing that his uncle was currently suspecting Veronica, “What are you going to do if she is confirmed to be the guilty one?”
“I have yet to give it a good thought.” Callum sighed and continued, “We got together via arranged marriage. Your grandparents are very happy to have her as their daughter-in-law as she had always been gentle and virtuous. She was painted to become a kind-hearted person due to her positive qualities. I would definitely end things with her if it is confirmed that she had done all these vicious acts.”
“I’m afraid that my grandparents would have an outburst of negative reactions,” William reminded him.
“I doubt that they would still have a good impression on her since things have turned out this way. Don’t worry as I will handle it wisely.” Callum did not want to elaborate further as this was related to his personal matter. He then changed the topic and said, “Do tell Valeria that both my parents and I are terribly sorry about what happened last time.”
Raelyn was feeling over the moon as she had successfully swindled money from Gavin. She then went to buy Talitha’s favorite fruits and desserts before heading to the hospital.
She entered the ward and said, “Talitha, I have great news for you!”
“What is it?” Talitha questioned.
“I have managed to obtain some funds from your grandfather.” Raelyn planned to not give the entire sum of money to Talitha as promised.
She needed to save it for probable future expenses. This sixty million worth of funds was a huge amount for them unless Gavin gave all his shares to her.
Raelyn had already intended to give Talitha two million of cash only. She then sat down and drank some water before speaking, “This is the money that I have obtained from your grandfather today. I’ve sacrificed myself greatly and even suffered from bleeding just to convince him how miserable we are. He then gave me two million of funds and this belongs to you now.”
Talitha looked at the money that was being transferred into her bank account. She would have wholeheartedly believed her mother if Raymond did not give her a heads up beforehand. She was now convinced that Raelyn was lying through her teeth.
She sneered at Raelyn and questioned, “Are you sure that grandpa only gave you such a little sum of money? How stingy of him!”
“Of course. He wouldn’t have provided any financial aid for us if it weren’t for my impeccable acting,” Raelyn tried to trick her.
“Mummy, I shall be very blunt to you. I have agreed to be the bigger person and give way to Natasya. Don’t you think that it is utterly ridiculous to give me such a tiny amount of money? Hardy’s net worth is at least tens of billions, right? Don’t you think that two million of funds are absolutely rubbish?”
Raelyn did not expect Talitha to change from being naive to being relatively quick-witted. She said, “I shall come up with other ways to give you more money. Natasya will eventually leave you alone if she gets whatever she wants.”
Talitha knew that Gavin was not such a stingy person. She did not know whether it was true that her grandfather had given away sixty million worth of funds to Raelyn. However, she was confident that Gavin must have provided financial aid which had exceeded the two-million mark.
Raelyn only gave her such a little amount of money as a gesture to make way for Natasya. Why did Raelyn choose to keep the rest of the money away from her?
It was nonetheless being apportioned to Natasya. Talitha was feeling utterly displeased as Raelyn clearly did not take her seriously at all.
Both her parents were biased towards Natasya from the very beginning. Besides, she was being viciously bullied by Natasya countless times. Talitha could no longer keep her cool upon thinking about her miserable life.
She wanted to quarrel with Raelyn and demanded the actual funds that she had received from Gavin. However, would Raelyn agree to such a request?
It was obvious that Raelyn cared more about Natasya than her. Talitha did not have solid evidence to prove that Raelyn had indeed obtained sixty million worth of funds. Hence, it was useless to pick a fight with Raelyn.
Talitha suppressed her negative emotions as she needed to demand more from Raelyn. “Mummy, I would eventually get my share of money as agreed beforehand. However, who knows if Natasya will mistreat me in the future? Promises are worth nothing and the absolute safeguard would be to have prominent sums of money being transferred into my bank account. I need one hundred million of funds as compensation to leave Hardy alone!”
Raelyn did not expect her to demand so much and asked, “Talitha, don’t you think that you’re being unreasonable? Where can we possibly get such a huge amount of money during these trying times?”
“Well, you have to come up with a way then. Didn’t Natasya had successfully gained control of Hardy? She would have no problem in obtaining some money from him since she was able to control him via the blood vermin. Do pass this on to Natasya for me to leave Hardy as promised. Otherwise, I will not let things go according to her way!”
Talitha was firm in demanding a hundred million worth of funds. Raelyn was displeased with her request and eventually left angrily.
Talitha cursed as she watched Raelyn exit the hospital ward. How dare they bully her to such an extent! They shall wait and see! No one would be better off for treating her so poorly!