“Come over when I tell you so. I’m your dad. Do I need to make a reservation to see my own daughter? It doesn’t matter which big shot you’re married to, I’m always going to be your dad. You will need my blessing for you to get married. Nothing will change that.”
I had to admit that Nathan’s words really did strike me in the chest. If he didn’t attend my wedding and started spreading slander about me on top of that, it would truly be a disaster.
“What a good father you are, threatening me with my very own happiness,” I scoffed sarcastically before hanging up.
I glanced at myself in the mirror. I was slowly becoming more and more radiant under Christopher’s loving care. Even my eyes seemed to have become more foxy, resembling Julia’s slightly. When I stopped smiling, they had a faint intimidating aura to them, but when I smiled they curled up in an endearing way.
I must be going crazy. As if I could actually be Julia’s daughter, I laughed inwardly.
After changing into a full Chanel outfit that Christopher had bought for me, I put on some light makeup and admired myself in the mirror. It was true: a woman could never be ugly as long as she knew how to dress herself up.
I walked toward Fiesta Hotel and immediately got escorted to a private room. Suddenly, a middle-aged man who looked mildly familiar started walking toward me. I assumed he was going to walk by and moved aside to give him space when he suddenly stopped in front of me. As he looked me up and down in a judgmental manner, he asked, “Ms. Tanner?”
“That’s me. May I know who are you?” I asked in confusion. If one attended a party, there might be people who you’ve never even heard of before, who knew exactly who you were. Now that Christopher had so openly announced our relationship, I knew I had gained quite a reputation among this community.
“You’re quite the cunning minx. You definitely shocked all of us with that little stunt you pulled to go from a nobody to a somebody. Still, I suggest you remember who you are and stop trying to climb this ladder. Trying to get too high will only result in a bad fall. You should take a proper look at yourself and know that you should stay in your place. Stop trying to go after something you don’t deserve,” the middle-aged man said with folded arms. After his sudden speech, he walked past me and off into the distance.
Despite my confusion, I still made a motion of gouging his eyes out behind his back as he walked away. It was bad enough that he was insulting me, however, I didn’t even know who he was. I turned to ask the employee who was escorting me if he knew who he was.
“He’s known as Mr. Martin,” the employee replied.
I didn’t know which Mr. Martin I had offended, so I just shook my head and accepted it as my bad luck. I walked toward the private room and opened the door only to see Nathan and Yvette in the room. Nathan knew very well that I did not get along with Yvette, and our rivalry was second only to the one I had with Crystal. I couldn’t believe he had the audacity to bring her along.
I sat down in front of him and asked, “What could be of such importance that you needed to talk to me face-to-face? You were even willing to threaten the happiness of my marriage to see me.”
“Can you be more respectful to Dad? It’s not like he’s doing this for his own good. You were the one who started all of this and now the whole Tanner family is involved in your mess. He came here to talk things out, so you’d better be more polite,” Yvette started whining.
“Enough. Cut to the chase. What did I do that could possibly have caught you all up in a mess?” I asked as I leaned against the chair casually. My expression was clearly impatient, but Nathan should have known better. He never delivered any good news, and with Yvette around everything sounded even worse.
“Take a look. Everything is right here,” Nathan said with an insulted look on his face. He stared at me with an angry glare and continued, “You better give me a proper explanation after this. I spent so much time and effort building up the Tanner family to where it is today, and I won’t allow anyone to break it down.”
