I stared at him in surprise before shaking my head, feeling a blush creeping up on my cheeks. “No, I…”
Plenty of times, however, that sort of stuff always ended up happening in between all the pushing and pulling…
Archie’s funeral was on Saturday.
I had roughly guessed Ashton’s schedule for our short trip to Moranta. First, he had to come over and visit Archie. Apart from that, he also wanted to break into the Moranta market. There were many things that couldn’t be done back home, but Moranta was considered a self-governed territory. Add that to the agreement he had with the Taylor family, and it was much easier to do things here than back in the country.
Early on Saturday morning, Ashton and I dressed in formal black outfits in order to attend Archie’s funeral. By the time we reached the Taylor residence, the whole front yard was already full of people.
There were plenty of people who had come to pay their respects. The atmosphere was heavy with pitiful sighs.
After saying our prayers, Holden called for the attendees to line up in two lines in front of the casket.
I didn’t recognize most of the other Taylor family members, but Ashton had told me about their situation before. Archie had four wives. His first wife had passed away a decade or so ago due to an illness and was also from a well-off family. After that, Archie took over the Taylor family thanks to this first wife’s help.
That first wife gave birth to two daughters, much to Archie’s chagrin. These daughters both turned out to be rather outstanding. One of them married into a rich family, and the other owned her own business overseas. With the Taylor family name behind her, she had made quite a name for herself.
That meant that Archie’s first two children were no longer part of the Taylor family.
Archie’s second wife was a famous celebrity from the nineties. She had never been taken seriously by the other Taylor family members because of her background but managed to improve her reputation after giving birth to a son and a daughter. The Taylor family was one step closer to having an heir, but this heir got into a car accident a few years ago and became wheelchair-bound.
Such was the fickle fate of rich families.
As for Archie’s third wife, apparently, she had been a reporter when she was younger and got married to Archie when he was already well into his fifties. Not many people were willing to believe that such a young woman married such an old man simply out of love. One wanted money, while the other wanted youth and beauty. Since they were both already adults, no one could really say anything despite the age gap.
That reporter gave birth to two sons and one daughter. The sons were both Holden’s age, but they were both quite the black sheep of the family and didn’t have a very good reputation among their community. That was why Archie sent both of them overseas. He put in quite a lot of effort to try and set them straight, but it seemed as if that didn’t really happen in the end. Hence, Archie ended up making Holden, who was from his fourth marriage, the heir of the Taylor family.
His daughter from the third marriage was Kate, who Ashton and I had seen before. She was almost forty and quite spoiled due to the Taylor family’s upbringing. As a result, she was arrogant and had never fallen for any sons from other rich families. She had always stayed in the Taylor residence, and it was starting to seem like she always would be since she had no plans to get married.
If that wasn’t the case, she wouldn’t have been so shaken up after hearing about Holden becoming the Taylor family heir.
Archie’s fourth wife wasn’t even his wife. After all, she never even married Archie. She was simply a woman whom Archie had had a one-night stand with. Not every woman who he slept with had a chance to actually marry into the Taylor family.
Ashton didn’t tell me too much about Holden’s mother. All he told me was that she was a woman he had spotted accompanying Archie at Gastronomia once. She was probably a prostitute who accidentally got pregnant.
After Ashton and I finished paying our respects, Holden glanced at me. It was a glance full of disdain, but since he had never exactly shown respect to me, I was already used to it.
Holden then looked at Ashton and said, “Mr. Fuller, could we have a word?”
It seemed like they were about to discuss some business.
Ashton glanced at me and said, “Wait for me in the yard, okay? I’ll come and find you in a bit.”
I nodded.
The Taylor residence was quite extravagantly furnished. There was an elegant pavilion as well as a large koi pond and even a fake mountain display. The yard was practically designed to look like all nature had to offer was gathered in one place.
I could, sort of, understand why all of Archie’s wives could bear spending their time together so peacefully. As long as they didn’t actually love him, they could have the time of their lives living in an extravagant mansion with the money to buy whatever they wanted. Ultimately, they had all the freedom they needed.
There were so many shows that centered around a bunch of women fighting over some old guy. Now I kind of knew why. Rather than fight over his love, they were probably fighting for his money and power. To be honest, I simply couldn’t wrap my head around any other possibility.
