Yorick’s eyes flickered as he tried to explain, “I was only putting you under their care for a few days as I’ve planned to redeem you once I won some money. In fact, I’ve decided to redeem you tonight.”
“Save it!” Johanna wiped the tears off her face. “You expect me to believe the story you made up?”
Yorick got up from the recliner and tried to grab her hand. “I haven’t seen you in years. You look much prettier than you’re on screen. You’ve grown to become a lovely woman now. Come, I’ll take you to dinner and buy you clothes. Please forgive me, all right?”
Before Yorick could touch her hand, Johanna took a few steps back. “Do you still see me as your daughter? You’ve lost your daughter the minute you sold me away!”
“It’s my fault, Jojo. You can blame me all you want,” Yorick coaxed.
“But I’m your father. Your mom has abandoned you, and I’m the only family member you can count on now.”
Johanna gritted her teeth and did not give him a response. Yorick continued, “Your stepfather has his own kids. That’s why your mom sent you out of the country. You must have felt lonely. I’ll not do that to you, I promise! We’re a family, and family members don’t hold grudges for long, do they?”
Genevieve knew Yorick was merely playing the sympathy card. But since Johanna was the one who wanted to meet her father, Genevieve was not in any position to intervene.
When Yorick was about to make the next move, Steven returned after getting the other men out of the massage room.
He walked up to Johanna and handed something to her. “Here’s the thing you asked for, Ms. Joule.”
Yorick saw Steven pass a chopper to Johanna.
The knife with sharp edges glinted under the cold incandescent light.
The man felt his scalp tingle. “Jojo, wh-what’s with the chopper?”
Yorick felt something was amiss when he saw the determined look on Johanna’s face when she took over the chopper from Steven.
He wanted to escape, but the sharp-eyed Steven caught him and grabbed him by his arm.
Yorick, who had never exercised because of his gambling obsession, was a skinny man. He shrieked in pain as if Steven was about to break his arm.
Johanna ran her fingers through the sharp edges of the chopper. She then sniffed and said, “Steven, please pin his right hand on the table.”
After kicking Yorick on his knee and making him kneel, Steven grabbed his hand and put it on the table.
“No, Jojo. Don’t do this! I’m your father!” Yorick trembled and howled in fear. “Have you forgotten how I cared about you when you were a kid? On your eighteenth birthday, I even got someone to airmail you a princess gown from Petalgrove! You were and still are my precious!”
“It’s all my fault, Jojo! Please forgive me! I won over twenty million last night, and I promise to use the money to start a business in Jadeborough. I’ll stop gambling, I swear! Please forgive me!”
“Oh, really?” Johanna inched closer. “Give me your phone.”
Yorick fished out his phone from his pocket the minute Steven let go of his hand. He unlocked his phone and handed it over to Johanna. “You see, the money I have in my account. From now on, I’ll not gamble anymore. I promise-”
Johanna looked at the phone and asked him, “What’s the password?”
After asking for Genevieve’s number, Johanna transferred the money to her bank account.
She then tossed the phone back to Yorick. “Genev had spent over thirty million to redeem me from the club, so I’ve transferred twenty million from your account to hers. You can keep the remaining money.”
Yorick nearly exploded and wanted to give Johanna a piece of his mind upon hearing that.
But since he was at Steven’s mercy, he could only soften his approach. “Yes, yes. She deserves the money since she rescued you. Jojo, could you please ask this man to get off me?”
“No!” Johanna responded indifferently. “I still want to teach you a lesson that will remind you not to repeat the same mistake!”
