Book 1: She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement Annulment

Chapter 56

Chapter 166: Public Opinion!

An agitated Henry looked extremely furious. He said, “I only realized that the child wasn’t mine after we were married! You’re just like your mother! Like what they say, a crooked stick will have a crooked shadow! You’re both cheap women who got themselves pregnant before marriage!”

Nora’s eyes abruptly widened.

She clenched her fists, losing control of her emotions for the first time during this incident.

She hadn’t expected Henry to actually refute her using this.

Henry, however, seemed ready to risk everything as if he had nothing to lose anymore. The grown man’s eyes had even reddened, and he looked as if he was finally revealing to the public a secret that he’d kept hidden deep down in his heart. He spoke as if he had been forced into it.

“Do you think I wanted to marry your mother? She was good-looking, beautiful, and gentle. When she was courting me back then, how was she even anything like a dignified daughter of a wealthy family? Although she owned a pharmaceutical company, I, too, had a great future ahead of me at that time. I graduated from a prestigious university and also had my own career at that time!”

“She liked me, while I also felt budding feelings for her. After that, we fell in love. I thought I was welcoming the most blissful married life in the world, but I didn’t expect all of this to change after we got married!”

“On the first day of our marriage, she told me that she was pregnant, but the child wasn’t mine! I was very sad and angry at that time and wanted a divorce, but she begged me not to and simply refused to agree to it.”

Henry heaved a heavy sigh. He stood with his hands behind his back, forming a sorrowful and dispirited sight.

In the hospital.

Ian, who was watching the live-stream, was so furious that he flung the cell phone away. “There’s no way Yvette would beg anyone! Lies! Utter lies! He’s lying through his teeth!”

Yvette was such a strong woman.

Back then, when she was leading the Andersons’ pharmaceutical company, she had once met with a problem in her academics. Someone told her that they would help her if she yielded and asked them for help, but she instead sneered at them and put in a month of hard work to overcome the problem instead.

She had worked so hard that she even coughed up blood in the end!

She was exactly someone like that. She’d rather grit her teeth, endure everything by herself, and work hard on her own than ask for help! What’s more, when it came to love, she had always been the one who had the upper hand.

Ian, however, picked the cell phone up again after he flung it away, and continued to watch.

The look in his eyes was very cold.

What kind of death should he give that man, so that it would defuse his anger?

Regardless of the reason for it, Yvette had ultimately provided for that piece of trash for so many years. She wasn’t even around anymore, yet he was still insulting her!

He must be sick of living!

Ian clenched his fists tightly. He hated his body for being so useless in this instant. For the first time, he regretted having formed thoughts of dying.

Had his physical condition permitted, he would definitely have charged over to the Andersons’ to sew that man’s mouth shut!

_

At the Anderson's.

Henry was still airing his grievances. He said, “I really loved her. I couldn’t bear to see her on her knees, so I decided to wait until she gave birth before we divorce. I won’t ask for even a cent from her.”

“But humans are emotional creatures. We spent a year and a half together. She was gentle, caring, and thoughtful toward me. When she gave birth and the time for our divorce came, how could I possibly bear to part with her?”

“She knew that I would be softhearted, so she cried and told me that she was terminally ill and didn’t have long to live. She wanted me to raise her daughter and even said that she had fallen out with her family, so I was her only kin left in the world.

“She was dying and was so thin as she lay on the bed. I ended up relenting again.”

“I really both love and hate her…”

“She also personally chose a second wife, Wendy, for me. She told her to treat me well and wanted the two of us, husband and wife, to take care of her child together.

“Later, she left the world. I missed her so badly that I fell ill. After being seriously ill for a while, I left my job. After that, I ultimately still couldn’t recover from the pain of her departure.”

“I really hate her. I hate her for deceiving me and betraying me by sleeping with another man. We only got married after dating for a year, yet at the time of our wedding, she was instead pregnant with another man’s child.”

“But she’s already dead, so what can I do?”

Henry wiped away the non-existent tears in his eyes before he looked at Nora again. He said, “Nora, I know you hate me for not showing you enough care and concern, but if you were me, would you have been able to calmly embrace the illegitimate child that she had had with someone else?!”

Wendy cooperated with him very well. She said, “After spending so many years in low spirits, your father has long since become out of touch with the times. Before your mother died, she said that the company was her way of compensating him. That’s why we were unemployed.”

The company was her way of compensating him?

Nora lowered her gaze and let out an icy laugh.

Henry glared at Nora again. “And you, too. It’s because your mother was afraid that you would also pick up the wrong thing like her that she didn’t allow you to go to school. That was what she said before she died. Sure enough, you turned out to be as loose a woman like her. Once again, you got yourself pregnant before marriage, and thoroughly embarrassed the Smith's! Your mother had let me down, and so did you! It’s all your mother’s fault that I’m in this state today! You should take responsibility for the consequences that you and your mother caused!”

Nora narrowed her eyes.

Although she didn’t really have much of an impression of that mother of hers who only existed in legends, her gentle but firm voice had kept her company for countless days and nights when she was a child.

She wasn’t going to allow Henry to slander her mother like that.

She believed that just like herself, her mother definitely had her own reasons for getting pregnant before she was married!

She took a step forward and clenched her fists. Her voice was cold and crisp as she demanded angrily, “Take back your accusations against my mother, Henry Smith!”

Henry took a step back and hid behind the cameraman. He said mockingly, “Are you stopping people from bringing it up because you don’t have the guts to do it yourself? Besides, I wasn’t planning to bring this up, either. You were the one who produced the DNA test results and brought humiliation upon yourself! Your mother is a promiscuous woman who slept around with other men while she was in a relationship with me! She didn’t even know who the child’s father was. She was used goods just like you are!”

Nora suddenly took a step forward. No one saw how she managed to go around the cameraman, but she rushed up to Henry extremely quickly, grabbed him by the collar, and said, “I told you to shut up!”

The cameraman pointed the camera at them.

Henry yelled, “Look at her! Do you really dare to hit me when the police are still here?! Sir, help!”

The other policemen were about to go forward when he shouted. However, when they looked at their team leader ‘Captain Ford’ and saw that he wasn’t moving, the others stopped.

When Henry saw that no one was coming to rescue him, and the hatred in Nora’s bloodshot eyes, with both new and old grudges stacking on top of one another, fury overwhelmed his rationale and he shouted,“Nora, even if you collude with the police, and even if you hit me, it’ll never change the fact that your mother was unfaithful and cheated on me!”

Bam!

Nora punched him hard in the face.

In the live-stream, viewers were also attacking both mother and daughter in the comments for their immoral behavior. On top of that, she was even being violent.

Public opinion once again went in Henry’s favor.

However, a man’s voice suddenly reached them at this point.

“That was not what happened back then.”

Chapter 167: The Truth Behind What Happened Back Then!!

The gentle and mellow voice was mixed with some light panting as if the owner of the voice had run all the way here.

Everyone looked at the gates and saw Caleb Gray walking in. Dressed in a gray suit, he gave off a comfortable feeling that felt just like a spring breeze.

His chest rose up and down slightly as he panted. His deep, melancholic eyes shifted to Nora after he spoke. He nodded politely and gently at her and said, “I rushed over immediately when I saw the live-stream. I almost messed things up for you.”

Nora, “?”

Wasn’t he her ex-fiancé Anthony Gray’s uncle?

He had approached her to fulfill the marriage agreement between the Gray's and her the other time. What was he doing here?

While she was wondering about it, Caleb turned to Henry. The attitude he took with him was completely different from the one he adopted toward Nora.

He even sounded a little disgusted as he said, “Do you really think that no one knows the truth about what happened back then, Mr. Smith?”

Henry, who had been punched, was holding his nose. Blood seeped from in between his fingers. When he heard what Caleb said, he frowned. “What truth are you talking about?”

Caleb replied, “The truth about your marriage to Ms. Anderson!”

Henry’s eyes flickered. “What I said just now is the truth itself. What nonsense are you spouting? Are you guys planning to twist the truth? Also, who are you? How dare you come over to help that unfilial girl!”

Caleb sighed. “I’m from the Gray's.”

The Gray's?

An astounded Henry looked at him. “What?”

Nora could clearly sense that there was something going on in here. She thought of the marriage agreement, and how the Smiths were just a small family, whereas the Gray's were a large and famous wealthy family in California. She thought of how the Gray's had never demanded to break off the engagement even when she became pregnant before marriage.

“What exactly happened back then, Mr. Gray?” asked Nora.

Caleb replied with a sigh, “I was only three years old back then, so I didn’t know the truth. It was my father who told me everything, but everything he said is completely different from what Mr. Smith said!”

Completely different…

Henry became terribly anxious. “You—”

He only managed to utter a word when Caleb looked at him, frightening him so badly that he suppressed the rest of what he had wanted to say. He was relatively unfamiliar with the wealthy families in New York, but the Gray's were influential locals of California!

Besides, his daughter was currently engaged to the Gray's!

He stepped forward and said, “We’re in-laws, Mr. Gray. You—”

Caleb lowered his gaze, causing his long eyelashes to cast silhouettes on his cheeks. He looked at Nora and slowly said, “It is true that your mother was pregnant before she was married, but this is something that everyone knew—because her belly was already showing when she got married.”

Her belly was already showing…

Then that meant that the wedding scam didn’t exist at all!

Nora narrowed her eyes. “And then?”

“Your father was just a clerk at that time. For some reason, your mother took an interest in him, so she had a frank and sincere talk with him.”

Henry was still disputing his claim. He said, “That didn’t happen at all!”

However, Caleb took out a very old voice recorder pen and pressed the play button. A conversation between the two started to play clearly from the recorder pen.

The voice that Nora found so familiar, yet also felt foreign at the same time, was speaking calmly without any emotion. She asked, “Do you have a girlfriend, Henry?”

Henry’s voice sounded a little younger than how it currently sounded. His voice shook in trepidation as he answered, “… N-no, I don’t.”

Yvette asked, “Are you willing to marry me, then?”

“What?”

Yvette let out a low chuckle and said, “This is a transaction. I’m pregnant and my child needs a father, whereas your mother is sick and you need money for her medical expenses.”

The sound of Henry swallowing hard was very obvious. He said, “Then… Then your assets…”

Yvette said, “I’m sick and in very serious condition. I can probably only live for a year after I give birth. After I die, the company will be left to my child. I’ve already found a dedicated manager for the company. As for you, you are to act as my child’s guardian. The dividends you’ll receive before she reaches adulthood will definitely be more than enough for you. I won’t hold you back from marrying and having children, either. I want you to take good care of my child. In return, as thanks, I can transfer the villa, where I’m currently living, to you.”

Henry seemed to be in disbelief. He asked, “W-why did you pick me?”

However, Yvette merely chuckled and said nothing.

Henry spoke again. He asked, “A-aren’t you afraid that I’ll mistreat your child?”

Yvette’s answer this time was very casual. She said, “It’s fine as long as you make sure that she stays alive. As for the rest, you can do whatever you want.”

“…”

“Oh, by the way, if she accidentally dies, then the villa will be taken back and the company’s dividends cut off. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“… Y-yes, I understand.”

“Okay. If you’re agreeable to it, then just sign this contract here. I’ll give you three days to conside—”

Henry’s voice was tinged with excitement as he interrupted her and said, “No, it’s fine! I agree!”

_

The whole place was quiet.

No one had ever thought that the plot twist would come so quickly, or that Henry would have to eat his words so quickly.

One by one, the people lambasting Nora in the comments changed their target.

‘What the f*ck! Isn’t this too sensational? This is a story of a man, who was sponging off a woman, coming over to make trouble because he can’t freeload anymore, right?’

‘That’s a villa, y’know! It must be worth at least five million dollars in California, right? Moreover, there are also five million dollars worth of dividends every year. Her only demand is that her child stays alive…’

‘The mother is a little cold toward her child, but she feels so cool for some reason!’

‘Oh my god! Aren’t they too shameless?! Not only are they living off her and literally living in her house, but they even mistreated her child. And now, they are even pestering her child to provide for them! There’s no justice in this world anymore!’

_

No one paid any attention to the comments in the live-stream.

Nora’s eyes were downcast at the moment. As she listened to the conversation that her mother had left behind while she was still alive—and one from more than twenty years ago at that—she actually felt as if she had traveled through time and space.

As it turned out, being a mother was also hereditary.

She had inherited her irresponsibility from her mother.

It was fine as long as she was alive.

Although her words sounded cold, it was actually her mother’s greatest wish for her, right?

Her mother had been sure that as long as she was alive, she would never be ordinary, and would become strong and confident. That was why she had left her a voice recording telling her to stay low-key…

While Nora was in a daze, Melissa had already recovered from her shock. She rebuked, “Henry, you’re worse than an animal! How did you even have the cheek to bring people to our place and make a scene here?!”

Simon looked even more furious. He said, “The Anderson's were originally planning to let you off, Henry Smith. But judging from how things are now, this feud between us is irreconcilable!”

Henry and Wendy were just like hunted rats being persecuted by everyone now.

The two of them supported each other.

Henry, who knew that he was finished, yelled furiously, “What are all of you so triumphant for, Nora? Someone like you who has inherited your mother’s cold-heartedness doesn’t understand what kinship is at all! Even if you become rich and powerful, you’ll still be all alone unlike us! We’re at least still a family of three!”

A family of three?

The corners of Nora’s lips suddenly curled upward. She took a step forward and said, “Henry, after calling you my father for nineteen years, why don’t I give you a parting gift too?”

Chapter 168: A Surprise Gift~

A gift?

Henry narrowed his eyes. “What kind of gift is it?”

Could Nora have been stung by her conscience, so she was planning to give him some money? She had ultimately grown up with them, right? When she was still a child, she even used to look at him eagerly, hoping that he would hug her.

Henry’s eyes were shining as if they were full of greed.

Nora, who didn’t know what he had imagined on his own, handed him the other DNA test report that she had printed with the bank statements.

She said, “I hope the gift is to your liking.”

It was a document…

Could it be a company ownership transfer agreement?

Had that daughter of his finally been stung by her conscience, and decided to transfer ownership of the tiny Idealian Pharmaceuticals in California to him?

With that in mind, Henry flipped open the document.

Wendy, who was standing next to Henry, also breathed a sigh of relief. They didn’t have any savings, so they fully depended on the dividends to survive.

After all these years, they had also become accustomed to spending extravagantly and couldn’t get out of the habit right away. The lack of income during the last couple of months had suffocated them badly.

She said with a smile, “Nora, even though we aren’t related by blood, it’s still true that we’ve kept each other company for more than twenty years. On account of how you’ve called Henry your father all these years, thank you very much for your help this time~”

After speaking, she turned back to Henry and asked, “What’s that, Henry?”

Henry was already frozen in place. He raised his head in disbelief and looked at Wendy.

When an excited Wendy asked him that question, at last, he couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He suddenly reached out and grabbed her throat. He looked savage as he demanded, “Tell me, whose daughter is Angela?!”

Upon being suddenly questioned like that, Wendy was stunned. Then, as though she had just realized something, she hastily grabbed Henry’s arms and said, “Let go of me first, Henry. Let go… Angela is your daughter, of course. Don’t be fooled by that woman!”

Henry loosened his grip a little when he heard what she said.

Wendy pushed Henry away and took several steps back. Then, she looked at Nora menacingly and dropped all of her usual pretenses. “What did you say to Henry, Nora?”

Nora lowered her gaze and replied, “Nothing much. I just had an extra DNA test done, that’s all. Of course, if the two of you doubt its authenticity, feel free to get another lab to redo it.”

Then, her lips curled into a smile and she added, “Oh, I forgot that you guys are broke. I can pay for it at no cost to you.”

She spoke casually and naturally, but also with certainty.

The test was done by Lily herself, so there was no way there would be any mistakes!

Henry looked at Wendy again. “Tell me, is Angela my daughter or not?! Wendy, you’d best not lie to me!”

Wendy swallowed hard. Now that things had come to this point, she knew that Henry would never believe her anymore. Besides, the result would still be the same anyway, even if they had the DNA test redone.

She ran a couple of steps toward the police and hid behind them. Then, she poked her head out and said, “That’s right, Angela isn’t your daughter! But this is all because you forced me into it!”

A sobbing Wendy said, “You abandoned me for money and prestige back then! After you married that little b***h, you said you would marry me once she died! But what happened after she died? What did you do? You started to fool around with a young and pretty woman! And never once brought up the topic of marrying me!”

A fierce look came over Wendy’s eyes as she said,“You said that woman, Yvette Anderson, refused to let you touch her, so you were with me during the marriage, but what happened in the end? After using me to vent your s****l desires, you decided to deny responsibility? What makes you think you can do that, Henry? Did those few years of my youth all go to waste?”

Wendy started to cry as she spoke.

She said, “I had no other choice. Since you refused to marry me, I couldn’t just waste my youth like that. Besides, I just couldn’t seem to ever get pregnant when I was with you, so I simply decided to go to another man instead… It was only after I became pregnant and drove you into a corner with the baby that you finally gave in!”

Henry flew into a rage and rushed forward to hit her. He shouted, “You b***h! How dare you lie to me and trick me into bringing up someone else’s daughter for more than twenty years!”

Wendy clutched one of the policemen’s arm and cried out, “Sir, someone’s trying to kill me! You have to help me!”

Ford didn’t move. However, the rest of the policemen held Henry back and said, “Talk it out if you have a problem with each other. Assaulting someone is against the law!”

Henry’s chest heaved up and down in fury. “You! It’s because of Angela that I didn’t ask for any more children! I didn’t think that you’d actually kept me from having any daughter of my own for the rest of my life!”

Wendy sneered, “I’m the cause of it? Given that body of yours, how can you possibly have any children? We’ve been together for so many years, but I’ve never been pregnant with your child. In contrast, I merely spent the night with another man once and I immediately became pregnant. Why don’t you say it’s because you’re impotent instead?”

Impotent…

Henry, who had been accused of being impotent in front of a nationwide broadcast, had thoroughly embarrassed himself inside out!

He roared furiously, “Shut the hell up!”

Wendy, however, wasn’t afraid. In fact, she even said arrogantly, “You’re too old to ever have any children in the future, so I’d advise you to calm down. This way, I can still get Angela to continue providing for you as her father. If you continue to verbally abuse me, both my daughter and I won’t acknowledge you as father and husband anymore!”

They would stop acknowledging him as father and husband…

Henry felt a sharp pain in his heart.

There weren’t any fathers who didn’t love their children in this world.

He had honestly really given all of his love to Angela, but in the end, moment he thought of how she wasn’t his daughter, he couldn’t help but feel conflicted and agonized…

Wendy stepped forward and grabbed his arm. She said, “You’d better stop making a scene, Henry. Otherwise, everyone is going to see you as a joke! Just take it that this has never happened. Our family of three can still live like how we did in the past!”

Wendy’s eyes flickered when she said that.

The villa in California was still under Henry’s name!

Henry looked at her. A moment later, he closed his mouth.

The elderly were the most afraid of having no one to rely on in old age. He had given all his love to Angela. In that sense, Angela wouldn’t treat him that badly in the future, either.

Even if she wasn’t his biological daughter, he could only live with it now!

Henry felt tightness in his chest as if something was stuck there.

Suddenly, he tasted something sweet in his throat, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood and fainted.

Wendy hurriedly called an ambulance and sent him to the hospital.

The fiasco finally ended.

Roxanne and the cameraman tried to slip away during the chaos but were caught by Ford. He said, “For trespassing into private property without the owner’s consent, damaging someone else’s reputation through means of a live-stream, and infringing someone else’s portrait rights, you are hereby arrested for multiple offenses. Please come with us to the police station!”

While the police were arresting them, Nora was thanking Caleb. She took the recorder pen and said, “It seems like my mother trusted your family very much.”

Caleb smiled gently when he heard what she said. His melancholic eyes were deep and bottomless as he said, “I thought you would ask me who your biological father is.”

Nora looked up at him and asked, “You know who he is?”