Chapter 49 Taking a Paternity Test
Silence filled the air when Joseph finished his sentence. He stared fixedly at Nicole, wanting to see how she would respond.
Nicole fell silent for a moment before a smile suddenly appeared on her face. At first, she was smiling faintly; after that, though, she laughed right away while wiping the tears off the corner of her eye, as though she had heard an outrageous joke.
After laughing for a while, she finally put on a stern expression. Taking out her phone, she glanced at its screen with amusement all over her face before looking at the man before her, saying, “Mr. Mann, today is not April Fool’s Day, but the mid-winter holiday. Don’t tell me you’ve only come up with such a way to draw my attention after so many days.” As she spoke, the smile on her face slowly disappeared, and her voice took on a grim tone. “We never met until we talked about our possible collaboration last time. What’s your motive in making such an outrageous claim right now?” She stared at him with a layer of frost in her beautiful eyes. “How could you resort to such a dirty trick to get to work with F&M Apparel?”
Nicole’s voice sounded increasingly grim as it turned colder and colder, sending a chill down Joseph’s spine. Looking at Nicole, who was already seething with anger before him, he inwardly regretted what he had just said. Judging from how Nicole looks, what Queenie said is most probably a lie. I must’ve been out of my mind to keep believing that woman’s words! But now that I’ve offended her to such an extent, if I chicken out right now, I’ll be embarrassing myself. Gritting his teeth, he put on a tough front, saying, “Whatever the truth is, Miss Nicole, please let your son do a paternity test with me. If what the person said was a lie, I’ll personally bring the rumormonger to apologize to you. However, if what the person said is true, please let me claim my right as the kid’s father.”
Rumormonger? A number of people crossed Nicole’s mind before she quickly figured out it was Queenie. After all, only Queenie and she knew what had happened between her and Joseph five years ago. Furthermore, it made sense when Nicole recalled what had happened at F&M Apparel’s annual dinner. I never expected her to be so despicable, she thought. Blinking her eyes with a frosty expression, she uttered coldly through her lips, “You wish!”
Seeing that Nicole was unwilling to have Hayden do a paternity test with him, Joseph quickly continued, “Miss Anderson, no matter what the person said is true or not, we’ll find out once we do the test. Also, doing the test would dispel our doubts. Wouldn’t that be killing two birds with one stone? And besides, if what the person said is false, you can be on guard against the rumormonger earlier, right?”
Upon listening to how the man before her kept urging her to have the paternity test done as though he would never stop until he reached his goal, Nicole frowned with a hint of impatience on her face, and she spoke with a note of reproach. “If everyone approaches me with such an excuse like you do, do I have to let my son do the test with all of them? Mr. Mann, let’s end our conversation here. If you keep on using such an excuse to pester me next time, don’t blame me for being unpleasant with you.”
At the moment, she could only put on a tough front with a hint of frigidity in her eyes. Just as she took Hayden’s hand and stood up to leave, she seemed to recall something; after pausing in her tracks, she turned around and said to Joseph, “My mother preferred not to be disturbed while she was still alive, so don’t disturb her peace anymore.” With that, she opened the door and left quickly.
Gazing at Nicole’s receding figure from behind, Joseph unclenched his fist, revealing several strands of fine, short hair in his hand. He had plucked them just now when Hayden walked past him. Right now, he could only take a gamble. If the test results showed that Hayden was indeed his son, there was no doubt that the Mann Family would definitely rise in status in the future with the backing of Nicole and F&M Apparel.
