Chapter 390 Do You Think You’re in as Much Trouble as I Am?
Oliver had been staying with Fiona at the Duncan Residence since leaving the hospital. However, Fiona took pity on Jordan, who kept squalling for his mother every single day. Seeing that Scott was unable to calm the boy down, she put him up in her yard so that Scott could get some rest. As a result, though, Oliver felt slighted.
One day, Jordan once again refused to eat dinner. After he sobbed himself to sleep, Fiona made a cup of steaming hot banana oatmeal porridge by blending milk, oatmeal, and bananas together. Then, she popped the baby bottle containing the porridge in Jordan’s mouth while he was asleep. It wasn’t until she had watched him finish half of the porridge that she closed the door with her mind at ease and let him sleep.
Oliver was jealous when he saw Fiona centering her life around Jordan all day long. “Mom, are you gonna forget about your son now that you have a grandson? I’ll be going overseas in a few months, you know?”
Fiona glared at him crossly. “Oh, come on, why don’t you think about how much trouble you’ve caused instead? You knew who Jordan’s mother was from the beginning. Why didn’t you speak out about it?”
Oliver hung his head at the mention of this. “I couldn’t say anything at the time. Well, I did get to speak afterward, but it wouldn’t be right of me to sell Courtney out, right? She’s my sis, after all.”
“Well, in any case, you should’ve at least told me to let us prepare ourselves.” Fiona sat down on the sofa and looked at her son across from her. This time, she was really angry. “Just look at what you’ve done. You secretly helped that starlet dig into Courtney’s background. If it weren’t for you, nothing would’ve happened to Louis. Alex would’ve found out something, and the situation wouldn’t have dragged on until now…”
At the end of the day, Oliver was indeed responsible for everything that had happened back then. If it weren’t for him, the matter wouldn’t have become so complicated in the first place. Perhaps Alexander would’ve managed to pump the truth out of Louis, and everything would’ve been different.
Oliver felt aggrieved as well, though. “Hey, I admitted my mistakes already, okay? And besides, I’ve been avoiding Alex since the eve of the mid-winter holiday whenever he comes to visit Jordan. Judging by how things look, I’m afraid I’m not gonna be meeting him before I go overseas a few months later. Well, it’s fine that I’m not gonna meet him, though. Otherwise, I’m gonna be in trouble if he sees me and is reminded of what has happened.”
Suddenly, a chilly male voice at the door responded to Oliver’s self-pitying remarks. “Do you think you’re in as much trouble as I am?”
“Alex?”
“Alex!”
The mother and son almost called out to the man at the same time, but Oliver hung his head and hemmed with a look of embarrassment after doing so. On the other hand, Fiona went up to Alexander delightedly, asking, “What brings you back at this hour? Did you meet your grandpa? Have you had dinner?”
“Not yet.”
“I’ll go prepare it, then.” Fiona was overjoyed. Many things had happened these days, so she rarely got to see Alexander even after she had come back to stay at the Duncan Residence. Furthermore, he came here even less often after the wedding was canceled prior to the mid-winter holiday. Even when Fiona occasionally got to meet him, he appeared cold and distant. Also, he lost a lot of weight, which made the outline of his jaw even sharper.
After Fiona left, Alexander went straight up to Oliver, who was snuggling on the sofa. “You’re in a hurry to complain before I even say anything, huh?”
Oliver was feeling guilty in the first place, and his face blanched at once when he heard Alexander say so. “Uh, I didn’t mean to hide it from you, Alex. I just thought the timing was bad; it’d be strange for me to tell you about these all of a sudden.”
“Oh, really?” Alexander gave Oliver a wry look before seating himself across from him. “Bad timing, huh?”
Oliver braced himself and nodded, but Alexander didn’t say anything else after asking the rhetorical question. Terror-stricken, Oliver couldn’t endure it anymore, so he pleaded, “I was wrong this time, Alex. If anything comes up next time, I’ll definitely tell you right away regardless of the timing.”
“Let’s not wait until next time. I’ve got something for you to do this time.”
“Shoot,” Oliver replied without hesitation, thinking that Alexander just wanted him to do some probing again.
Alexander shot a glance at him. “I’m going to France, so I’ll be leaving Sunhill Enterprise in your hands during this period of time.”
“Huh?” A dumbfounded look slowly stretched across Oliver’s face. “You want me to run Sunhill Enterprise? Are you joking?”
“Do I seem like I’m joking with you?”
“No, that won’t do,” Oliver replied categorically in refusal. “There’s no way I can run the company. I’m not interested in doing business, and besides, I’ll be going abroad in probably less than two months.”
“Well, you’re gonna have to take care of the company.” Alexander stared into Oliver’s eyes. “Sunhill Enterprise is not only a family business for us Duncans; it’s also the face of our family. By rights, you should’ve inherited all of this and carried it forward. It’s just that no one had told you about this since you didn’t grow up with the Duncan Family as a child.”
“But I’m not interested in this at all!” Oliver panicked in an instant. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, can you?”
“That’s why I’m only asking you to run the company temporarily.” Alexander looked at him with a serious expression on his face. “Just a month or two will be enough.”
Seeing how serious Alexander looked, Oliver recalled what he had heard from Harry and Scott about Sunhill Enterprise’s share prices when he kept Scott company these days, and the look of resistance faded from his face. “Has the company been in a real fix lately?”
“Just rest assured. It’s not because the company’s in a fix that I’m handing it over to you.”
“That’s not what I meant either.” Oliver frowned. He wanted to explain himself, but he didn’t know where to begin. At last, he let out a heavy breath and asked, “Is the company gonna be fine if I agree to run it?”
Oliver had sort of figured it out by this moment. Sunhill Enterprise had a wealth of business management talents, so it would be much more sensible to let any of them manage the company temporarily than to let him—who had never been in the trade before—do so. And yet, Alexander asked him to take over the company. On the one hand, this was because Alexander could trust him as a member of the Duncan Family; on the other hand, the other reason might have been Elijah, whose fierce attack on Sunhill Enterprise was entirely aimed at Alexander. If the person in charge of Sunhill Enterprise changed to someone else at this moment, Elijah would naturally be less hostile to the company. Of course, it’d be even harder for him to strike if the person in charge of the company became someone on close terms with Courtney.
Oliver’s probing gaze fell on Alexander as if to verify his conjectures.
Rather than giving a straight answer, Alexander merely replied, “It would at least buy us some time.”
This is proof enough, thought Oliver. He took a deep breath, lowered his head, and thought about it for a while. “Okay, I promise you.” After all, he could no longer get himself out of this mess, so he’d better stay in it and do a good deed by finding a way to maintain equilibrium between both sides.
After having dinner, Alexander picked up his coat and went out.
A worried Fiona followed him out. “Aren’t you gonna be staying here? It’s this late at night already. Where else are you going?”
Alexander turned to look at Fiona. When he thought of how much effort Courtney had put into getting his mother and younger brother to come back, his feelings turned complicated at once. “I’ve got some work to deal with at my office. You should go back in. It’s windy here.”
Fiona replied, “You’re going back to your office at this time of night? You should take care of your health. You’re in your thirties already, after all.” She insisted on seeing Alexander to the gate and didn’t go back into the house until she had watched him drive away.
After the black sedan left the area where the Duncan Residence was located, Alexander said to the chauffeur, “Head for the hospital.”
