68 68. She is Irreplaceable
William gulped. He never thought that his father would consider kicking him out of the company for real. He never expected that.
“Why don’t you simplify family matters? You can make a video call or email her, no? Why do you choose to dramatize things?” Alex tried to brainwash his son.
“Dad, she is divorcing me! Do you think I can convince her with a video call saying I love her?” William snarled. His eyes pierced at Alex.
“If you insist on going to chase after her, I will fire you immediately,” Alex threatened his son coldly. Nobody would think that he was joking. “For real!”
Everybody but the Uber driver was stunned at Alex’s statement. He said it firmly, sanely.
“Alex, you are angry! Please don’t say something that you will regret later. He is your only son!” Thomas couldn’t believe that his brother’s temperamental issues would reach this extent.
“So what if he is my only son?” Alex replied to his brother’s question coldly. “The company doesn’t need a leader like him. What a dumb!”
It took a little time for William to think about his decision. His dad was doing a similar thing when he was dating Lea. Now, he did it again, black-mailing him about inheritance.
Because there was no answer from William, Alex said again, “Don’t even think about your inheritance! I will never give you even a penny.”
.....
William exhaled deeply. Nothing would hold him to see Paula. Paula was irreplaceable.
“Then, goodbye, dad!”
William got into the car and left his father right away. He didn’t care about his father’s threat. He wanted to see Paula no matter what.
Meanwhile, Thomas stared at his brother in disbelief. Not because of the heartless thing he did to his son. He never knew that his brother was this stupid.
“Why did you threaten him about inheritance?” Thomas asked him again.
“Mind your own business,” the angry Alex replied curtly. The intensity in his glare was not reduced even when they could no longer see William’s back.
“I mean, you did a useless thing. Paula’s family is indeed new money. But, Robert is much wealthier than us. And Paula is also his only daughter. Robert even divorced his wife. Do you think that your ‘signature threat’ works this time?” Thomas sneered, shaking his head seeing the dumbfounded Alex.
After that, Alex could only keep silent. He forgot about it. William didn’t chase a penniless girl. She was Paula, not Lea.
Thomas held his laugh. He brought his brother home to sort the problems out. “Then, do you plan to give everything to Vanessa? I never knew that you are fond of her.”
Alex shook his head in annoyance. “Paula is pregnant. I will have a grandchild.”
Thomas gaped. He narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “You said, William will never get even a penny.”
Alex inhaled deeply. “I fired him from his current position. But I never said that I will delete his name from the family. His child will inherit our family name, no?”
Thomas couldn’t help but laugh out loud, almost bursting into tears. “You love your son, no?”
Alex gritted his teeth. “I just don’t like the fact that he is never doing it my way.”
Thomas stopped laughing. That’s the reason why he wanted to have a lot of children. He didn’t want to force the kids to do the thing they didn’t love.
Alex always wanted more than one child but he had cancer treatment, making him infertile. That happened just after Lisa gave birth to William. Knowing that she would never bear another child with Alex, Lisa was a little sad. However, Vanessa’s presence lightened up her days.
Realizing that he would only have William as his successor, Alex was a little hard on his son. He hoped that William would endure hard treatment and become stronger and even better each day.
However, William disliked his father’s harsh discipline. What he always did was something opposite to his father’s request. He wanted to show his father that he was different. He was not his father.
Alex realized now that life is not always the way he wants it to be.
***
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Paula was in the middle of checking the background of the suspects. Nobody related to Akane but Ken. Both were dating and broke up two years ago for some reason.
“Why didn’t anyone realize it earlier?” Paula asked Miyuki. She glared at her assistant as if she was making a fatal error.
“I just got the information secretly,” Miyuki replied calmly.
“How?” Paula asked again.
“I ... I made Ken drunk and spent the night with him,” Miyuki gulped. “It’s dirty, but it was better than having a useless one-night stand.”
Miyuki looked away when Paula stared at her in awe. Paula wanted to curse but she still remembered that she had the little bun in the oven.
Lifting her eyebrows meaningfully, Paula wanted to tease the poker-faced lady in front of her. But she restrained herself and thanked her instead of saying useless words. She had to focus on problem-solving. Not to gossip with colleagues.
“Great job, Miyuki! You are the best,” Paula praised her.
Miyuki’s stern face turned bright when Paula said her compliment. Paula wanted to reward Miyuki for her achievement.
“Say something you want so badly! I will give it to you if I can,” Paula said with a sincere smile.
Miyuki smiled lightly. “How about strawberry picking?” Miyuki shoved her smartphone to Paula to show her an interesting picture. “I’m always fond of white strawberries.”
Paula smiled and nodded. Miyuki was a kind girl. That girl knew that Paula loved strawberries and wanted to show her an interesting place to enjoy many varieties of strawberries.
“This weekend?” Paula asked.
“Sure!” Miyuki agreed enthusiastically.
Both were then dismissed. Paula then went back to the office. However, she heard a little ruckus at the frontline.
“I am sure this is the office. This is the Anderson Jewelry Tokyo branch office, isn’t it?” the visitor snarled. “I am sure Paula is here.”
“There’s no one named Paula Montgomery here,” the front desk girl said to the visitor.
“How about Paula Anderson?”
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