"Good, you need to look perfect in front of him, I will give you the money to help yourself for now," Vernon said. He took a big and thick envelope from his dashboard and handed it to Priscilla. "This envelope has fifty thousand dollars. This should be enough to give you a proper treatment so you'd look amazing, and should be enough for you to last a month. I want you to quit your job in Walmart, make yourself glamorous, and I'll pick you up again in mid January and you should be ready by then."
"Sure thing, Mr. Phoenix Gray," Priscilla nodded. She snatched that envelope from Vernon's hand and checked the inside, ensuring that Vernon didn't lie when he said fifty thousand dollars were inside.
Priscilla's eyes brightened when she saw the money. It had been a while since she had so much. She couldn't wait to waste it all to buy some good Christian Louboutin or at least a new Prada and Gucci bag. She also wanted to use it to get proper facial and body treatments.
"Oh my god, thank you so much, Mr. Phoenix Gray! I will make sure to look fantastic by mid January!" Priscilla exclaimed as she couldn't wait to rub her face with all of these dollar bills!
Seeing Priscilla's eyes glimmering with excitement, Vernon couldn't help to sneer, 'What a gold digger. She's the true definition of a gold digger, and her obsession with Vincent plus his money is a great way to exploit her.'
"You can leave now, don't forget not to get swayed by fifty thousand dollars. By the time the mission ends, I can give you millions of dollars," Vernon warned.
"Sure thing, Sir! I will try my best!"
Priscilla finally left the car. She stuffed the envelope full of money inside her winter coat and went home immediately.
Vernon let out a relieved sigh and stared at the snowstorm again. He felt at ease knowing he was about to destroy his Big Brother and make Chloe officially his.
"I will marry her by the time she gets her official divorce paper, I will make sure that Vincent won't be able to destroy my happy ending," Vernon murmured.
He couldn't help to show a malicious grin as he thought of how that wretched family will burn down to ashes.
"Whatever, Gray family and all of the branch families should be burned in hell. Everyone in that family is degenerate, and I refused to be one of those bastards."
**
Vincent grunted as he slowly opened his eyes the next day. He woke up feeling groggy, and his mind was still in chaos, even after trying his best to ignore the anxiety in his heart.
He had a sleepless night because he kept calling Maria from the evening until late at night. He didn't remember how many missed calls he had made last night as he began to get desperate, wanting to ask Maria if there was any progress regarding Chloe or Vernon. He couldn't wait to crush them both for their betrayal.
"Where is that old witch anyway?" Vincent asked as he sat on his bed.
As usual, he was greeted by the wedding photo of Chloe and himself. Chloe was still smiling in that photo. She looked so gorgeous, which infuriated Vincent even more.
"Why are you smiling like that? Are you happy that I'm suffering because of you right now?" Vincent asked Chloe in the picture. "You should be ashamed that you've made me like this. Why are you running away when we're already a husband and wife? Do you not realize that you are my property the moment we exchanged our vows? You fucking bitch, you only run away because you think I'm not good enough, right?"
…
Of course, there was no answer, but Vincent was at least a little satisfied having to curse at his whore wife every morning. Cursing, beating, and humiliating Chloe was his favorite thing to do back then. He didn't know what happened to him that made him weak to the point that he couldn't even catch one stupid woman who could only cry and beg for her life.
"I need to focus," Vincent said. "I can't wait any longer. I have to contact Maria and find Chloe as soon as possible, alongside teaching my little brother to be obedient. Everything has gotten out of control."
Vernon checked his phone to see if he got any text back from Maria. That old woman was usually very responsive, so it was weird not to get any news from her for 24 hours.
"Damn, still no news from her," Vincent cursed. He called Maria, and again, there was no answer. It seemed that her phone was inactive for some reason.
"Where is she right now? In my last conversation with her, she told me that she would handle Chloe, so she should've returned with that bitch tied up or at least with a clue about the identity of Chloe's benefactor.
But nope.
Zero.
There was nothing in his phone except many pesky shareholders demanding an explanation of the stock going downhill and crisis everywhere within the company and its remaining partners.
He didn't care about those, at least not now. Because he knew that everything would be solved, and he'd return to his normal self the moment he got his Chloe back.
"Maybe I should find her in her apartment," Vincent wondered. "But I doubt she'll be in the same apartment. She always switches around to avoid detection from her enemy in and outside of Gray company."
"Argh, this is frustrating. I'll just have my breakfast first before thinking about this," Vincent grumbled. He used his home telephone to call one maid to bring him his breakfast.
The maid entered his bedroom with a tray full of breakfast and served it on the bed.
Vincent nodded and told the maid to leave, but the maid stood still for a moment, hesitating as if she was holding back not telling something.
"Say it," Vincent ordered as he sipped his morning coffee.
"Um, Master Gray, the head maid told me that you should check the TV, any channel with morning news in it."
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m