Tiffany seemed to have a clue after scrutinizing him for quite a while. The next second, she burst into laughter and yelled gleefully, “Hahaha! It must be retribution! Retribution indeed! See how he ends up paying the price for his heinous deed!”
The smile of schadenfreude on her face seemed to indicate that she had been expecting this moment long ago.
As a member of a prominent family with higher social status, Nicholas had his nose in the air. He was very particular about the excellence of the Halls’ new generation in order to maintain the prestige of the family. Ever since he discovered that Ashton had a genetic defect, he straight away treated him as an inferior who would be a stain for the Halls. Somehow things had turned the other way round. The so-called descendants of the excellent genes had betrayed him by adding insult to injury. I wonder how he feels being betrayed by his outstanding children whom he had nurtured throughout all these years!
This was indeed the typical materialistic phenomenon as observed in most of the well-to-do families. Clinking glasses with each other jovially at the feasts did not really mean anything. It was common that whenever any of their family members encountered financial crisis or other issues, the others who were self-centered would choose to ignore them and even cut their ties with them so they would not be affected.
Ashton looked at her with complex emotions in his eyes. After a while, he instructed Joseph, “Head straight for the Hall family’s villa in the western district.”
Upon hearing his words, there was a change in Tiffany’s expression. Her complacency was utterly erased by her agitation all of a sudden. ”What’s your intention? How did you find out about the place?”
She seemed to have lost her mind and shrieked hysterically. There was even a ferocious look on her face.
On the other hand, Ashton remained nonchalant at all the time. He turned calmly and gave Joseph a meaningful glance, hinting him to take her away immediately.
The next moment, Joseph gestured to his subordinates in order to drag Tiffany who was still rebuking non-stop out at once.
After they had left, the living room was finally back to peacefulness again. Ashton turned and glanced at me before shifting his gaze away hastily. As we locked gazes momentarily a while ago, I could sense that he was troubled by something at the moment. However, he was pretending as if there was nothing amiss and moved back to sit beside me.
Throughout years of striving hard for survival under crucial situations, he was sort of well-trained to act indifferently under any type of circumstances. Hence, he could easily hide his feelings from me most of the time. Yet if I could still sense something awry at the moment, it indicated that he was actually not intending to hide it from me. It was just not the time for him to pour out everything to me yet.
I bet it was something related to Tiffany, and Ashton would surely share it with me when it was time. Thus, I decided not to pressurize him into telling me at the moment.
As for Louis and the others, Tiffany was a nobody for them. They were more curious about the motive behind Nathaniel’s sudden emergence.
“Nathaniel is indeed a chip off the old block. In fact, he seems to be more scheming and ruthless than Nicholas Hall. It still makes sense for him to set his parents up due to his abhorrence toward them. Yet it’s really too much since he has the heart to put his own sister at risk. Even beasts don’t inflict harm on their own flesh and blood. Imagine how cold-blooded he is,” Louis commented. Staring off into the distance, he suddenly felt down.
He really had a point on this. So far Nathaniel did not express his hostility toward us or provoke us in any way. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that he was a pain in the neck. It was as if he was a fishbone stuck in our throats, invisible yet causing great discomfort to us. At the same time, we could not easily let our guards down, fearing that he might strike and put us in deep water at any moment.
As long as Nathaniel did not initiate any provocative act, it was inappropriate for us to make the first move. We could only continue to stay alert so we could retaliate at once when he struck the first blow.
To my surprise, Zachary was really confident and commented casually, “Anyway, K City is still our turf and we know every corner well. No matter how mighty he is, he’s solely on his own. I bet it’s a piece of cake for us to bring him down at any time.”
Cameron chimed in, “I truly agree with your Dad. Talking about Nathaniel, it’s just like holding a hand grenade which will go off at any time. I really feel uneasy whenever I think about that. Why don’t we just make use of this chance to get rid of this fellow once and for all?”
I shook my head as I disagreed with their point of view. “I see it in a different way. I suspect that Nathaniel was the one manipulating the previous explosion case. If he’s really the one, he’s definitely not a simple person whom we can easily deal with. We would only put ourselves at risk if we act recklessly.”
I had talked to Ashton about this earlier. Even though he did not comment on anything, he actually saw eye to eye with me that Nathaniel was no ordinary man whom we could easily get rid of. It was really risky if we acted impulsively without proper planning.
Upon hearing my words, Louis was infuriated and raised his voice, “So do you mean that there’s nothing we can do to him now? I can’t accept that! Even those high-ranking son of b*tches like Ezra Grant and the others were managed to be pulled down. Anyway, Nathaniel hall is just a greenhorn and can’t be as mighty as them, right?”
Unable to hold in his temper, he paused and unleashed his frustration by striking the table. “After all, I still have the connection with the department. I’ll pay them a visit tomorrow and seek their help to investigate Nathaniel Hall. I don’t think Nicholas Hall’s children can turn out to be any better than him!” he scoffed.
There was a momentary silence. After a while, Louis finally realized that he had unintentionally offended Ashton as well when he criticized Nicholas Hall’s children. He stuttered in embarrassment, “I-I’m sorry. I don’t mean that…”
