Grace Martinez laughed, but her eyes involuntarily welled up with tears.
Unwilling to let go, she asked again, “Am I your only woman other than your wife?”
James Marshall answered without hesitation, “Grace, of course you are my only woman, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Grace felt a sting at her nose and tears quietly gathered in her eyes.
She felt inexpressibly distressed. As her eyelashes trembled lightly, more and more tears quietly escaped from her eyes, slowly trailing down her cheeks.
After a moment of silence, not hearing any reply from Grace, James, worried about her state of mind, fretting she might cause trouble, gently asked again: “Grace, are you alright? What has Daniel told you? Has he been making things difficult for you?”
Blinking away her tears, she tried to calm her emotions before coldly responding, “He asked me to handle the public relations crisis of the Marshall Corporation, that’s a tough job. Daniel even probed me for information, asking if I believed the car accident involving the former chairman was deliberate or accidental.”
All at once, James, desperate to know the details, shot back, “How did you reply to him? This bastard is intentionally putting you in a difficult position.”
“How would I know? I told him the truth! Such affairs, how can I just guess.”
“You just ignore him and put it out of your mind. If you find it difficult, delegate the work to your subordinates.”
“I know, I won’t chat with you anymore, I have a lot of work to do.”
“When you have your mid-year break, fly over here. I miss you so much, I can’t wait to see you.”
“Uh-huh, I got it, I miss you too.”
With that, Grace hung up the phone.
Forced to muffle her sobs, Grace bit her finger, refusing to make any sound.
Her face blotched with tear stains had ruined her carefully applied make-up, yet Grace couldn’t control her emotions.
James had been continuously lying to her – how shameless!
James is really a bastard!
Tears welled up in Grace’s eyes, hatred boiling over, yet in her heart there was also some lingering affection and even some lingering hope.
She’d rather hope that none of this was real, she’d rather hope it was Daniel who had lied to her.
Grace’s feelings kept vacillating, caught in a persisting conflict. Regardless of the outcome of the choice Daniel had offered her, she would have to leave the Marshall Corporation, the object of ridicule, infamous and discredited.
Both of those men are bastards!
They are both utterly despicable!
She hated them both.
…
That night, Michael Marshall paid a visit.
He called Daniel and Olivia Jenkins into the small reception room.
In a serious tone, Michael cut straight to the chase: “Neither Daniel nor I can afford to leave our duties. Olivia, can you stay at the hospital to take care of the old man? Not for a day or two, but perhaps half a month, a month, or even longer. Can you give him your undivided attention for so long? What about the Jenkins Group? Don’t you need to manage it?”
Olivia didn’t rush to respond, she glanced at Daniel with lowered eyes.
Suddenly, Daniel, sternly asked: “Father, just speak frankly, no need to beat around the bush. We all understand your intentions. What is it that you want to do?”
Daniel’s severe gaze fell upon Olivia, “Caring for elders is the responsibility of a daughter-in-law. Therefore, logically, it should be Olivia who’s running around taking care of the old man, and doing it well. So your choice is the Jenkins Group or to take care of the old man wholeheartedly?”
“So you want to invite Bella Thompson back to take care of grandfather? You’ve already come up with the excuse; how can you be so aggressive?” Daniel challenged, his eyes full of sarcasm, coldly staring at his father.
A spark of anger also ignited in Daniel’s heart.
Michael’s face fell, the corner of his mouth curling into a cruel sneer, “What I said is the truth. We are all busy with our careers. Who can balance that with taking care of the old man? Are we to just abandon him to the care of the servants?”