Chapter 159: Chapter 157: You Are My Woman, of Course I Have to Dote on You (8)
Marlon also told his mother, "We’re already married. What’s the point of all this now?"
Mrs. Grant scoffed. "I won’t say another word about anything else. Jean, you and him are moving into the villa I bought for you right now. It’s not far from your brother’s place. If you live with a mother-in-law like that, I’m afraid you’ll suffer."
Mrs. Marshall flared up. "Suffer? What’s there to suffer? Do you think I’m some kind of tiger? That I’m going to eat your precious daughter?"
"You dare? You lay a single finger on my daughter, and I’ll make sure you rot in prison. You’d better believe it."
Marlon was not happy. "Mom, my mother’s bark is worse than her bite. Please, don’t stoop to her level."
Mrs. Marshall was a headstrong woman. It hadn’t been easy raising her son all by herself, and she had never been disrespected like this. She immediately shot back, "Believe it or not, for that comment alone, I could ruin your Grant Family’s reputation all over town!"
’Jean Grant never imagined that on the very first day of her marriage, her mother and her mother-in-law would take an instant dislike to each other.’
Mrs. Grant flew into a rage. "It seems we were never meant to be family! Jean, come home with me! Go file for divorce tomorrow!"
Jean Grant stared blankly. "Mom, we just got married today."
"So what if you just got married? I could find someone better for you with my eyes closed. What’s so good about being with him? His father’s dead, he’s dirt-poor, and he has a monster of a mother-in-law. Jean, if you don’t listen to me, there will come a day when you regret this!"
Mrs. Grant’s words cut Marlon to the quick. He had been somewhat intimidated by her before, but her words now struck a deep and painful chord.
"So what if my dad’s dead? Who wants to grow up without a father! How could you say something like that, Mom? No matter how wrong my mother is, she’s still my mother. She’s uneducated and doesn’t know how to talk properly. Can’t you just be a little more tolerant of her?"
Mrs. Grant was absolutely livid. She turned. "Jean, come home with me!"
But Jean pulled away from her. "Mom, I can’t go back with you. You should go home."
She was less angry at Mrs. Marshall and more angry at herself for having such a pig-headed daughter.
Mrs. Grant calmed down a bit. "Fine, Jean. This is all Mom can give you. A villa, a dowry of ten million, various priceless gold and jade jewelry, and a Porsche. This is the path you’ve chosen, so you’ll have to walk it even if you have to crawl. You won’t listen to me, so you can pay the price for your own actions!"
With that, Mrs. Grant turned and stormed out.
The room fell silent. Mrs. Marshall looked at the doorway and sneered, "Giving all this, isn’t it just a drop in the bucket compared to your family’s fortune? If you really had guts, you’d give your entire family’s fortune as a dowry. Now that would be something."
She had barely finished speaking when she clamped her mouth shut, because Quentin Grant and Ethan Ellsworth were standing in the doorway.
"I’ve never met someone so insatiable. You want the entire Grant Family fortune?" Quentin Grant’s face was like ice as he stared at Mrs. Marshall. "You?"
Mrs. Marshall gave a dry laugh. "I was just kidding."
Quentin Grant couldn’t be bothered to say more to her. He looked at Jean Grant. "Come outside with me."
With that, he turned and walked out.
Jean Grant followed him out.
Once they were in the car with the windows rolled up, Quentin Grant got straight to the point. "The deed to that villa is in your name. You are not to transfer ownership to Marlon Marshall under any circumstances. Got it?"
Jean Grant murmured a soft "Mhm."
Quentin Grant pulled a card from his wallet. "This is my wedding gift to you. It has ten million on it. Take it. If you ever need more, just ask me."
Ethan Ellsworth also took out two red envelopes from his suit and handed them to her. "This is from me and Herman."
Jean Grant was taken aback. "Aren’t you...?"
Ethan Ellsworth’s eyes were red. "Jean, I never thought... I’m not even married yet, and here you are. I have nothing to say. I take back what I said before, about never giving you my blessing."
He stared at her. "Jean, you have to be happy. It’s the only way to make my wretched retreat worthwhile."
At this moment, Jean Grant’s heart was in turmoil. Sitting there, she suddenly felt as if one of her feet was already at the edge of a cliff, about to teeter and fall into the abyss.
"Thank you."
Her words were faint and powerless.
’It seemed she could already foresee that her married life would be nothing like the simple, happy one she had imagined.’
"Go on back," Ethan Ellsworth said.
She opened the car door, hopped out, and in the instant she closed it, she clearly saw a teardrop hanging from the tip of Ethan Ellsworth’s nose.
The car drove away. Jean Grant stood there, not moving for a long time.
Tucking the red envelopes and the card into her pocket, she entered the living room. Mrs. Marshall was sitting there and glanced at her. "You must have gotten a lot of red envelopes today. I saw that each one was a thick stack. Bring them over, I’ll count them for you."
Jean Grant said calmly, "Since the five million wasn’t used, Mom, give me the card."
Hearing this, Mrs. Marshall immediately looked at Marlon. "Son, do you see this? I haven’t even asked her to provide for my retirement, and she’s already turned hostile. It was given to me, so it’s mine."
Jean Grant didn’t want to argue. "That card is in my name. I’ll just go to the bank and get a replacement."
Mrs. Marshall shot to her feet. "You just married into our family and you’re already giving me the silent treatment, is that it?"
Jean Grant had a fiery temper and wasn’t the least bit afraid of Mrs. Marshall. "In the first place, you could never spend five million booking a four-star hotel in Alveria. There were only about twenty tables, which would have cost two million at most. But you held the reception at some cheap little diner where each table was two hundred yuan. Our guests were almost all my father’s and my brother’s business partners. Since you didn’t spend the money on what it was for, you might as well give it back."
Mrs. Marshall was speechless, so she just blurted out, "I’m not giving it back. Do what you will."
"What am I going to do to you? There’s nothing I can do. It’s true what they say: giving money is easy, asking for it back is hard."
Marlon got up and walked over to Jean Grant. "Alright, since it was given to my mom, don’t ask for it back."
Jean Grant turned. "I’m going to stay at my brother’s complex."
She went out the door. Marlon didn’t immediately chase after her. Instead, he sat down next to Mrs. Marshall. "Mom, what you did today was really wrong. The Grant Family is famous and prestigious. Jean’s brother is the Sect Leader of the Grant Group. What you did will just make the whole city laugh at them and cause them to lose face."
Mrs. Marshall didn’t think she had done much wrong. "They lose face, but I gain face, don’t I? I told you long ago, there’s a huge wealth gap between their family and ours. Was it easy for me to raise you? They’re rich, so why didn’t they give us the money earlier? They had to wait until the wedding day to give it. What’s that supposed to mean?"
Marlon was speechless. "The wedding is over now, Mom. Just think about it, who benefits the most from me marrying Jean? As soon as I graduate from my senior year of college, I can get a job at the First General Hospital. If not for this, I wouldn’t even be able to find a good job after graduation. And the dowry from the Grant Family is more than we could earn in a lifetime. It was a win-win situation, so why did you have to have a complete falling out with Jean’s mom!"
"The way those rich people talk down to you just pisses me off. What’s so great about having a little filthy money? Whatever. You can go, too."
