The bar kicked to life once Willy left.
“Shit, that brother actually sent Willy Sorano packing! Don’t underestimate Frank Lawrence now!”
“Any relation to the Lawrences, one of the Four Families of Morhen?”
“He just might have!”
“Damn, and I was laughing so loudly… He’s not going to hold a grudge, is he?!”
As everyone spoke to each other all at once, Eder approached Frank respectfully, flashing an awkward fawning smile. “Sir, we’ve received your payment… I’ll inform the bank to return the remaining 900 million to your account.”
“Good.” Frank nodded and said nothing else.
Beside them, Soren was left speechless as Eder basically prostrated before Frank, sweating all over his brow as his heart thumped.
He suddenly remembered something he had read online…
‘That’s all the money you have, but it’s no more than pocket change to me.’
In the end, Soren was the clown—all the wealth his father ever had would not even match Frank’s pocket change!
After all, that was a billion dollars they were talking about!
People would go a lifetime without ever making that much money—the zeros in that number alone would leave one fainting!
Soren turned toward Frank again and rejoiced in realization that Frank never even looked his way.
Thank goodness he did not push his luck too far… He could not afford to mess with Frank, or the man would leave him pulverized!
And remembering his jealousy toward the man left him in wry amusement.
Jealousy?! He was not even fit to lick Frank’s toes!
At the same time, The Spades had started to sing Bitch, and he realized that it was referring to him as well.
Thoroughly humiliated and exasperated, he hung his head as he fled, unable to stay another second longer, and leaving the blacked-out Mandy still laying in her seat.
–
The Spades sang several other songs after Bitch.
When it was over, everyone huddled around Frank, completely ignoring Mandy as they toasted each other.
“I didn’t think you were that rich, Master Lawrence!” Kat exclaimed, her cheeks flushed after just a glass of beer. “Where did that money come from?”
“Hmm… Some patient consultation fees, I guess.” Frank shrugged.
He did not mention the royalties he received from Lane Holdings or Grande Pharma—not that he would understand the numbers anyway.
“What?! You’d get paid so much from visiting patients?” Kat was shocked, already planning to give up martial arts to take up healing.
Lily was staring at Frank as well and said tentatively, “Thank you so much for helping us out today, Mr. Lawrence. We will return your money soon.”
“What? Why?” Kat refused right away, even snapping in righteous indignation, “We worked hard for that money!”
“Kat.” Rosa sighed helplessly. “Can’t you see that Mr. Lawrence just wanted to bail us out? We don’t deserve a cent.”
“Yeah.”
The other members of The Spades nodded unhappily too—they were not greedy despite their reluctance to give up the money. If anything, escaping Willy’s clutches was already amazing, and it was unreasonable to take Frank’s money too.
“No, I won’t give it back,” Kat suddenly said stubbornly. “It’s Master Lawrence’s tip, and this is a fair trade. It’s consensual, so why should we refund it?”
