Chapter 432 How Long Do You Plan to Keep This From Me?
It was slightly drizzling the next morning and the light rain made the scorching weather in Melrose City much cooler.
Courtney had sent Angie to the prison and was now waiting for Angie in the car.
In fact, Angie had visited the prison once in the past five years; it was during the mid-winter holiday two years ago that she had returned with Courtney to pay the Somerfield Family a visit. After all, she was Courtney’s adopted daughter and followed Tina to address Great-Aunt Alice in the same way.
Courtney had already intended to reveal the truth to Angie by that point, but after further consideration, she discovered that Angie wasn’t mature enough and might not be able to handle the shock of it. After a two-year wait and Lilian’s multiple disruptions, Courtney was much more inclined to consider Elijah’s position and carefully consider her next move before making a decision. As such, it was moments before she left to volunteer at the frontier station that she told Angie everything.
There was a thick layer of soundproof glass that separated the inmates and visitors inside the prison’s visiting room. The only method of communication was via a phone.
At this moment, Angie was rather restless as she sat on the chair and waited. The slightly smudged piece of glass had reflected her current appearance as Angie had previously requested Courtney to bring her to a salon to have the braids that she had maintained all these years removed. She was now dressed in a simple white T-shirt that she paired with a denim skirt and her silky, clean long hair complimented the attire.
After waiting for a short while, the prison guards finally escorted Regan into the room. He had lost a lot of weight as compared to before and she almost couldn’t recognize him.
Regan paused at the doorway for nearly two seconds and it was only when the shock on his face gradually dissipated that he made his way over with laden footsteps, after which he took a seat.
Angie kept her eyes on the middle-aged man in his prime years with mixed feelings and she tried her best to suppress the tears while signaling him to lift the phone receiver.
The voice on the other end sounded hoarse. “Why are you here? Why did you come all the way here? It’s a horrible place to be at. Did she mistreat you or something?”
Even though many years had passed, he still never bothered with any sappiness. The first thing that he did was demand an answer from Angie as to whether Courtney had taken good care of her.
“Courtney treats me very well.”
“Since she has adopted you, it’s only fair that you call her Mom.” A stoic Regan spoke up, but for some reason, he sounded very insistent. “You do look well. It looks like she hasn’t mistreated you. Why do you address her by her name, though?”
“How I choose to address her is my own decision. As for you, don’t you have something to tell me? It’s already been five years.” Angie looked at him intently with a solemn expression.
However, Regan frowned in response. “What is there to tell?”
“The truth on whether you are actually my dad or my uncle.” Then, Angie’s cheeks trembled as she tried hard to keep her emotions in check. “How long do you plan to keep this from me? Do you intend to take this to your grave?”
At that point, he suddenly raised his head and was lost in his thoughts as he noticed her face that bore so much resemblance to her mom. It was like he was staring at his younger sister from back then.
“Courtney has told me everything. You’re not my dad! You just wanted to protect my mom from being bullied by the villagers, so you relocated with us to the island. You didn’t even plan to stay there for long, which is why you claimed that you two were a couple. Unexpectedly, Dragon had too much to drink that night and you were coincidentally not on the island too. That was why things turned pear-shaped.”
Angie’s voice was accompanied by the distant crackle of the background noise on the phone but each word she spoke was exceptionally clear.
Each incident from the past was now exposed. Yet, the person personally recounting it was in fact none other than his own niece. It resulted in Regan’s emotions suddenly becoming quite turbulent that he couldn’t seem to find the right words to respond.
Angie had entered the room for quite some time while Courtney patiently waited for her outside. As Courtney glanced at the time, she estimated that Angie should be out anytime soon and turned to drive the car toward the opposite direction.
There was a notification prompt on her phone at that moment whereupon she glanced at it before her brows furrowed.
Linda’s name suddenly popped up on the screen and the message that she had sent was rather concise. There were merely two words in the message—don’t forget.
Judging from Linda’s dogged persistence, Courtney was extremely certain that Linda would skin her alive with a pair of scalpels in each hand if she didn’t turn up to the blind date later this afternoon.
After she replied to the message, she heaved a resigned sigh. Subsequently, she turned her head to look toward the prison entrance.
Suddenly, her cell phone rang. With a frown, she took the call, “I replied to your message, right? I’ll turn up to the blind date. You don’t need to keep reminding me about that, you know?”
“Blind date?” Courtney jumped in fright when she heard the male voice that followed. She instinctively glanced at her phone screen, but the number shown was an unfamiliar local number. So, it was evidently not Linda on the line. At that point, she finally figured out who it was and voiced out, “Why did you call me?”
The person on the other end paused before replying, “It’s the weekend and I found a great restaurant that has just opened. Let’s meet up for lunch.”
Meanwhile, Courtney paused to recollect her emotions before she spoke up, “I’m busy. Besides, it’s not necessary.”
“A blind date, huh?” Alexander’s tone of voice clearly turned unpleasant seconds after that.
At that moment, she found herself stammering and noticed Angie walking toward her from the side of her eye. So, she decisively responded, “This has nothing to do with you.” Subsequently, Courtney hung up the phone on him.
At that moment, a black Range Rover had been parked for quite some time downstairs outside an apartment building. Alexander was at the driver’s seat and he stared at the phone in his hand with an extremely ugly expression after his call had been disconnected. Blind date?! I can’t believe that she’s busy going on blind dates so soon after being back in town!
He drove directly to the office half an hour later.
Eric had just returned from the accounts department and he paused in his tracks when he saw Alexander walking toward him. “President Duncan, I thought you mentioned that you were not coming into work today?”
Alexander glanced briefly at Eric and his cold expression was enough to cause a shiver to run down Eric’s spine. Eric then made up his mind to remain silent.
“What was the original plan for today?”
“Well…” Eric walked alongside Alexander as they headed into Alexander’s office. “There was a meeting that was supposed to be chaired by the secretarial and legal departments today. It was a unanimous decision made during the previous board meeting. Mr. Menzie will be appointed as the chief executive of the legal department and he will lead the legal team. This announcement has to be personally made by you, after which we’ll advise the other departments on their new roles.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“Sure.”
There seemed to be an icy cold air barreling past the scorching hot day in the meeting room where those present felt the hair on the back of their necks standing. Although Alexander looked like he was making a positive announcement about Caleb’s promotion, those sly heads of departments in the middle management could tell that there was a hidden meaning in Alexander’s words.
“I’m sure that those from the legal department must have heard of the board of directors’ decision. Mr. Menzie’s letter of appointment has been approved and following Director Menzie’s strong recommendations, Mr. Menzie will lead the legal department from now on. The rest of the departments should also collaborate with him and assist him in the handover process.”
No one dared to voice their opinions.
After all, those in their current positions within the middle management level were the heads of departments who managed to secure their positions by exploiting their connections with someone from the board of directors. As such, they were quite perceptive to any slight inclination of action from the board of directors.
Caleb was Director Menzie’s stepson and ever since he had joined Sunhill Enterprise, he had been at odds with his own head of department. Nonetheless, he was excellent at his job and had won two large cases within half a year of his employment. Originally, the legal department at Sunhill Enterprise had been barely performing at all; it was merely there for show as it was a shame to get rid of the entire department. The cases that they handled had been dragged on for more than a year without any conclusion. As soon as Caleb joined, it somehow caused the whole department to undergo a total transformation.
The company would definitely have appreciated such a talent and exploited his skills, but since Alexander was in fact at odds with Director Menzie, it caused Caleb to hit a brick wall.
As the tense environment progressed, a young man suddenly stood up from the side. His neatly-pressed suit looked quite expensive and he currently had an undisturbed expression. Although he had a pale demeanor, he was the total opposite and calmly stated, “I don’t want the position of being the head of the legal department. My main purpose in joining the company was to gain some insight on commercial law cases, so I reckon that it would be much better to leave the role of staff management to the professionals. In short, I’m not interested in the position.”
At that point, the originally tense situation stilled as everyone’s gazes shifted to him while they held their breaths.
