Chapter 337: What A Ploy
The day Michael and Yonina got engaged, they held the engagement party at a five-star hotel.
The union between Collins Group and MC Enterprise was a highly anticipated event across Lake City.
Moreover, due to the relationship between Michael and Wendy Stewart, this couple had seemingly begun as a love triangle between influential figures in the city.
Everyone had been waiting for the engagement party that night.
The media had already crowded around the outside of the engagement party’s venue, and the most famous individuals of Lake City were in attendance.
Of course, Christian was among them as well.
In the green room, Mr. Collins beamed as he gazed lovingly upon Yonina in her wedding dress.
Nodding, he commented, "My daughter looks wonderful in her wedding dress. It’s a good thing she isn’t getting married to Christian Lucas. Lake City is now under the authority of MC Enterprise, while DR Group is barely surviving. MC is definitely much better than DR."
Yonina was used to this side of her father.
He was always calculating his profits.
Even if it was about her lifelong bliss, his first consideration would be about the company she would be associated with.
He had never thought about whether Yonina was marrying Michael out of love.
Yonina bowed her head ever so slightly and let out a dry laugh. Her eyes were fixed on her reflection in the full-length mirror before her.
She was naturally quite pretty, but in this wedding gown, even she thought she looked much better than usual.
Unfortunately, she did not have the chance to dress up this way for someone she liked.
Indeed, this made her most pathetic.
After living for 30 years to date, Yonina still did not know who she liked.
Perhaps, she would never have the luxury of sharing such feelings for another person.
Mrs. Collins noticed how Yonina seemed a little down. Discreetly nudging Mr. Collins, she whispered, "Oh shut it, will you?"
"What did I do?" Mr. Collins asked, totally oblivious to what he was doing wrong. "Isn’t all I’m doing for our daughter’s benefit? To marry Michael Lucas would stabilize the Collins Group. It would bring security into Yonina’s future too. Even though that Wendy Stewart gave birth to a son for the Lucas family, her son’s lineage is now in question. As long as our Yonina darling adds a son to the Lucas family, he would be the official successor in his generation—"
Mr. Collins had not finished his thought when he noticed Yonina eyeing him askance—he had gone overboard with his words.
Just then, Michael walked in.
Upon hearing Mr. Collins’s words, he shot Mr. Collins an icy glare despite controlling his indignation. "Mr. Collins, as a veteran in the business scene, I believe you have better discretion about what you should be voicing out and what you shouldn’t."
"I..." Mr. Collins mumbled nervously.
It would have been fine if Michael did not hear him, but since Michael himself heard them, anyone would feel uncomfortable to have been caught saying such things.
"Pardon us," Mrs. Lucas apologized.
In an attempt to save his own face, Mr. Collins rebutted, "What are you apologizing for? Now that Michael is marrying our daughter, he should be regarding me as his father-in-law, an elder to him. So what if I criticize him?"
"Dad!" Yonina exclaimed in annoyance.
If she had a choice, she would prefer to be born into a normal but warm family.
"Go greet the guests," she urged.
"I..." before Mr. Collins could continue, Mrs. Collins dragged him out.
Seeing her parents leave the green room, Yonina sighed in relief. She was now a little more at ease as she apologized, "I’m sorry, Mr. Lucas. Don’t take my father’s opinion too seriously."
"Looks like the Collins Group’s trouble under your father’s management is not without cause," Michael mocked as he shook his head.
Michael Lucas did not have much to do with the Collins Group before this.
Even if they did have some collaborative businesses, he never followed up with them personally.
Now, because of Yonina, he met with Mr. Collins a few more times. In these exchanges, he did come to despise him somewhat.
Yonina was the sole pillar of the Collins Group’s present operations.
It did sour Yonina’s mood to hear Michael mock her father.
He was speaking ill of her father after all.
Nonetheless, his words were not inaccurate at all.
This made the atmosphere uncomfortable in an instant.
Suddenly, the music outside blared.
It was almost seven o’clock.
Michael checked Yonina out and commented with a respectful smile, "You look pretty good."
"Thank you," Yonina responded casually.
They were the only people in the dressing room.
If there were a third person present, they would be able to tell with one look that these two people did not look like they were about to get engaged.
"Mr. Lucas," Mr. York peeped in with a grave look, stopping seeing that Michael was not alone.
"Go ahead," Michael urged Mr. York. He knew that Mr. York had something important to tell him.
"Perhaps I should speak after the engagement ceremony," Mr. York explained. "It’s not urgent."
"Is this something regarding Christian’s account or is there a problem with the bidding proposal?" Michael probed.
After all, the engagement was meant to be a show put on for Christian to see.
This engagement party mattered little to both Yonina and Michael.
Therefore, there was no need to hold anything back until the engagement party ended.
"It’s something regarding Christian Lucas’s account," Mr. York began. "I’ve been investigating this matter over the past few days and just received an update. Perhaps you might want to take a look yourself."
Mr. York handed the document folder in his hand to Michael.
Yonina walked closer to take a look as well.
At the sight of the information that was placed on his hands, Michael’s eyes widened.
"How could this be?" he muttered in disbelief.
Yonina pulled the folder into her hands. Not understanding what it meant, she asked Mr. York, "Whose account does this belong to?"
"It’s," Mr. York inhaled deeply before continuing, "a private corporate account that belongs to HG Enterprise."
The reason Michael was familiar with this account was that Wendy Stewart was working for HG Enterprise.
He had gotten Mr. York to investigate HG Enterprise’s matters much earlier on.
That was why HG Enterprise’s private corporate account was not foreign to him.
He was simply taken aback by the sheer fact that HG Enterprise had dealings with Christian Lucas.
"What does this mean?" Yonina asked, perplexed. "Could it be that Christian Lucas is funded by HG Enterprise?"
Yonina muttered to herself, "HG Enterprise is a design company and an internationally renowned one at that.
"Especially in the recent years, after Wendy Stewart’s designs have taken the world by storm, its market value has seen a sharp increase.
"Isn’t the CEO of HG Enterprise Timothy Woods, though?
"I’ve heard that Timothy Woods even took in Wendy Stewart’s twins as his godchildren.
"And that he is Wendy Stewart’s mentor.
"Wendy Stewart’s achievements are all because of Timothy Woods’s guidance.
"What on earth is going on?"
"What on earth is going on?" Michael repeated as he leaned against a table and sat heavily on the chair next to it.
He wanted to know what was happening too.
What could the association between HG Enterprise and Christian Lucas be?
It was inconceivable.
Since Christian had been in Lake City for so many years, Michael was in disbelief that he had not discovered this relationship sooner.
Instead of describing it as a well-hidden secret on Christian Lucas’s part, it was more so due to Michael’s arrogance.
He had always looked down upon Christian, an illegitimate child of the family. Despite DR Group’s growth, Michael despised Christian.
He had assumed that he would always be able to prevail against Christian ultimately.
Because of his hatred and contempt for Christian, he had never looked at this so-called younger brother in the eye.
Therefore, it had never crossed his mind that Christian Lucas would have any other type of authority in addition to DR Group.
Michael had only begun taking proper notice of Christian only when Christian seemed to have more funds to tackle Collins Group after DR Group had gone bankrupt.
Only then did he realize that there was more to Christian Lucas.
However, it was too late.
Had he regarded Christian as a strong rival from the start, DR Group would not have thrived right under his nose.
As he slowly took in a deep breath, Michael began to regret that overconfidence he once had.
Now, he could not turn back the clock.
"For Christian to be able to transfer funds in millions, it tells us that his relationship with HG Enterprise runs deep," Yonina analyzed. "Could Christian be a hidden figure of authority running HG Enterprise?"
"It’s not such a simple relationship," closing his eyes, Michael sighed heavily. "Wendy too—"
"Wendy Stewart?" asked a puzzled Yonina. "What does this have to do with Wendy Stewart? Although she works at HG Enterprise and raked in large profits for HG, she should be kept in the dark about this. Didn’t we just find out about it too? This might be something that Wendy Stewart still does not know about."
On this point, Yonina had faith in Wendy.
She believed that Michael was misreading the situation in thinking that Wendy had joined hands with Christian to work against him.
That was why she was helping to speak up for Wendy.
"Five years ago, when Wendy was kidnapped and pushed into the sea, everyone had taken her for dead," Michael spoke with much difficulty. "I had been investigating the accident, but the kidnappers fled Lake City right under my watch.
"When I found some leads, they pointed to Christian Lucas, but the time since the accident happened was too long, so I could not find more evidence.
"And Wendy was saved by Timothy Woods..."
Although Yonina had heard of bits and pieces about what happened to Wendy Stewart, she did not know much.
After all, she did not pay much attention to Michael and Wendy’s relationship then.
Therefore, Yonina was terrified at Michael’s explanation.
"So Christian Lucas has been setting this up for years?" Yonina shook her head in horror. "He made plans for Wendy Stewart to earn money for him and uses that to deal with you? What a fearsome man."
To have broken Wendy and Michael’s family up, before arranging for an ignorant Wendy to be saved, groomed, and bring in profits for him out of her gratitude for him—what a ploy!
Learning of this truth would be enough to throw Wendy and Michael into an outrage.
Michael, at present, was livid.
"Mr. Lucas," Mr. York probed, noticing how unusual Michael’s behavior had become. He stepped forward to support him, but was stopped by Michael.
Inhaling deeply to calm himself, Michael remained seated.
A voice at the door reminded Michael and Yonina that it was time to take the stage.
"What do we do now?" Yonina asked. "Should we go on with this engagement party or should we call it off for now?"
It would make the most difference to Michael.
Before Michael could respond, Christian’s voice could be heard outside. "Michael, it’s past seven o’clock. Why aren’t you two out yet?"
...
Yonina and Mr. York subconsciously held Michael back as they watched Christian showed himself into the room.
They both feared that Michael might not be able to hold himself back.
Despite having found out about Christian and HG Enterprise, they did not want to tip Christian off about it.
It would be better to catch Christian off guard.
Looking upon Christian’s despicable face, Michael wanted from the bottom of his heart to lash out at him.
But, he would not let himself do it.
Christian was no longer the same weak man whom he kicked out of the Lucas household.
After Christian was chased out of the family, he had left for Rheinsville City.
HG Enterprise was also based in Rheinsville City.
Now thinking about it, there were some clues about Christian’s relations with HG.
As for how Christian as a penniless and illegitimate child could build HG Enterprise in Rheinsville City out of nothing and grow the company to its current magnitude, Michael remained unclear about it.
However, it was no longer important.
The process had never mattered—only the ending was important.
Michael’s arrogance of the past had resulted in the growth of Christian’s strength.
Michael reined in his emotions and flashed a sarcastic smile across his face. "Your fiancée is now mine, so I didn’t think you would be this pleased."
It was an evening only about a month prior when Christian and Yonina had held a wedding party.
Now, Yonina was Michael’s fiancée.
Michael was provoking Christian on purpose.
"Well, what can I do about it?" Christian sighed. "You’re my only elder brother. To see my elder brother find true love and start a beautiful family, as your little brother, I can only feel happiness for you."
At this, Christian pulled out a thick envelope as his gift to the couple and handed it to Michael. "I wish the two of you all the happiness in the world on your engagement and hope to attend your wedding soon. I will give you an even larger gift then."
Michael stretched out his hand to receive the envelope, but Christian pulled his hand back.
With a laugh, he handed the gift to Yonina. "I had better hand my gift to my sister-in-law. After all, women wear the pants in the relationship these days."
Yonina looked over at Michael. She could not decide whether or not it was good for her to take the envelope.
"I appreciate your kind thought. We gladly receive your gift," Michael replied.
Yonina took the envelope and politely thanked Christian.
"It’s about time that we stepped out. Please, go on ahead," Michael said as he held his arm out for Yonina.
Yonina hurried over and took Michael’s arm, wearing a smile. She held her head up, allowing the embellishments in her hair to glitter in the light as she walked in step with Michael as they began to walk out of the dressing room.
"My sister-in-law," Christian called out after them.
Yonina was in her tracks.
With a laugh, he continued, "You look stunning today."
She turned and murmured a word of thanks before the couple fully left the dressing room behind them.
Heaving a sigh, Yonina whispered in Michael’s ear, "That kept me antsy!"
"Now that the matter is no longer on a mere personal level, I won’t allow myself to act recklessly anymore," Michael responded dead serious.
With Michael and Yonina making hushed exchanges in each other’s ears, they looked like a loving couple.
Cameras flashed endlessly, and several channels were broadcasting the event live.
Michael and Yonina smiled as they waved at the cameras.
The couple stood center stage as an emcee’s voice resounded across the hall. "We would like to invite a couple to the stage."
