“Do I have something on my face?” Ashton asked, growing uncomfortable under my drilling stare. He put down the document in his hands and folded his legs before leaning on the couch. “Do you also want to put some foundation on my face? You’re putting on makeup on your own face, but you’re staring at me. You’d better move on to the next step on your routine though, one side of your face is so pale.”
I retracted my gaze and looked at the mirror, only to realize I had forgotten to put on foundation on one side of my face. I spread it out evenly as I talked to him. “Are you not worried at all about Armond? What if it’s a trap?”
I swore Armond as my nemesis a long time ago. I could never sit still at the mere mention of his name.
Ashton took up the documents again and replied lackadaisically, “I’m not a bit worried about Armond. On the contrary, It’s the person behind him who has to worry. Before he has a clear idea about the Moore and the Stovall family, he will not dare to snatch the children away, and neither will he do anything to us. Because if he does anything hasty, there will be a bounty on his head.” Ashton paused for breath shortly before he continued, “I forgot to tell you that I’ve got some returns from an investment. I’ve already used the small amount of money to open a bank account in Sumanthova. The money will go to whichever bounty hunter in the world who’s able to chase the perpetrator down.”
It turned out that he had had everything planned out. I must have forgotten that I had married a shrewd man.
“A small amount of money? How small is small?” I asked jokingly.
“Not a lot. Around a billion,” he replied, not bringing his eyes to meet mine.
I was dumbfounded by his answer and turned my head to hide my surprise. Though shocked, deep in my heart, I felt a sense of relief.
A billion might not be a lot to our family, but this was a phenomenal sum of money in the eyes of bounty hunters who had to risk their lives every day. The interest of such a sum of money was enough for them to retire and live a carefree life. It went without saying that no one would be able to resist such a tempting offer.
This is why Nicolas would never destroy us and risk going against all the bounty hunters around the world if he knew what he was getting into.
……
Armond was nowhere in sight when we arrived at the golf course.
Ashton asked the bodyguards from the Hall family to check the whole compound for suspicious individuals, but they only found the caretakers and workers on the site.
I spread my gaze across the limitless sea. A barb of disquietude lodged in my heart as I fell back in Ashton’s embrace. “Is he trying to pull our leg? I bet he won’t show up today.”
I was secretly hoping he would not make an appearance. After all, his presence meant nothing good.
But I was disappointed by the confidence in Ashton’s eyes. “No. He will be here.”
After many years of strife between the two, Ashton knew the man like an open book.
His surety was probably a result of knowing that each of them was stubborn.
The grudges passed on from the past generation had lingered to their generation. One of them pursued relentlessly, and the other fled tirelessly. Both of them were fiendishly clever, but they became sworn enemies just because of a slip on Armond’s side.
Armond was set on restoring his dignity by vanquishing Ashton, and this would never change.
The man would seize every opportunity he had to seek revenge, so he would definitely come.
As for Ashton, I knew him far too well. He was deliberately giving Armond a chance. He might even put an end to their standing conflict this time, or he probably just wanted to create havoc to disrupt the security on the island so we could grab hold of the antidote.
Regardless of what his motivation was, I needed to act accordingly.
After we sat down around a table, we waited anxiously for Armond to turn up.
It was not until the sun set and the moon rose to the dark sky that Armond finally showed up.
The golf course was close to the pier, allowing Armond to come on a yacht with many men following behind him.
He sat down opposite Ashton across the table after he made his way over.
His subordinates spread out in a neat line behind him, outnumbering us by onefold.
“I’m sorry I’m late. Something came up,” he said casually. He seemed a lot more temperate compared to the last time we saw him.
