“Granddad, I respect you so much. I didn’t expect you…” Carter clenched his fists. His voice sounded slightly hurt.”
Abel sighed, “Carter, you are almost thirty. Your granddad is already old. Since your other relatives don’t possess your talents, you will inherit the entire Scott family. So your marriage can only be an arranged marriage. Choose the right wife, and she can take your career to the next level.”
“Granddad, I am capable of growing our business by myself. I don’t need a princess of a lady to be the icing on the cake. If you trust me, you won’t force me like this.”
After a pause, he continued, “Granddad, I didn’t come here today to fight with you and Mom. I want to let you know that if you want me to get married, you shouldn’t get involved in my marriage.”
After finishing speaking, he left firmly without looking back.
“Carter, come back here now.” Mrs. Scott roared savagely.
“Stop calling him. Let him leave.” Abel waved his hand and murmured.
Mrs. Scott complained, “Dad, this boy is getting out of his way. If you continue to indulge him like this, not only me, but I’m afraid he won’t even listen to you.”
Abel chuckled profoundly. “He has the same style as me during the old days. He looks gentle but is stubborn in his bones. Don’t worry about it. I believe he will be able to handle his work and relationship well. Since he doesn’t like the daughter of the Larsons, let it be then. There are many wealthy young ladies out there. It doesn’t have to be that Larson girl.”
Mrs. Scott tried hard to control the rage inside her. “I had made an agreement with the Larsons, and they had come back all the way from overseas just for this marital alliance. You want me to tell them that our boy has someone else in his heart and ask them to go back?”
“You caused this, so you should be the one to solve it.” Abel stood up. “I’m sleepy. Good night. You can solve the Larson’s affairs by yourself.”
He went upstairs right away, leaving Mrs. Scott alone on the sofa, stunned with confusion.
After Carter left the house, he drove like crazy on the road. He sped through several red lights and approached the riverside.
He shouldered down a box of beer he had bought on the road and sat solely by the river. He started to drink one bottle of them desperately. Gazing at the sparkling river surface under the moonlight, he could taste the bitterness of the beer.
Perhaps one was more likely to get drunk when in sorrow. Carter felt a little tipsy after only a few bottles of beer. He wanted to call the woman he loved.
He fished for his mobile phone and looked through his contacts. His finger froze on the contact name My Love. He hesitated for a long time but did not call her. Instead, he dialed Tiffany’s number.
The phone got through, and Tiffany’s sleepy and irritable voice traveled out of the speaker. “You better have something important. Otherwise, I will kill you for waking me from my beauty sleep.”
Hearing that, Carter’s fretful emotion seemed to fade a little.
“Tiffany, was Amelia having a hard time back then?” Carter’s voice was slightly drunk.
Tiffany yelled dryly on the phone and thundered, “Carter, you are a jinx. Are you calling in the middle of the night to ask such a tedious question? If there is nothing else, I will hang up.”
“Don’t hang up. I’m upset. Can you chat with me?”
Tiffany sensed the abnormality in Carter’s tone and asked hesitantly, “Did you drink?”
“A little, not too much.”
Tiffany sighed, “Carter, although I called you a jinx, you are terrific and handsome, to be honest. You can have any woman you like, so why bother about Amelia? She is now married and has a baby. You can’t win her heart by being a drunkard. Is she worth it?”
Driven by his drunkenness, Carter continued to express, “As long as she has a good life, I will not ruin her marriage.”
“She is living very well now. Her husband loves her, and her baby will be born in a few months. Can’t you see she has a happy family?” Tiffany persuaded earnestly. “Four years ago, when you abandoned her and let her bear the debt alone, you should have expected this outcome.”
After a pause, she advised, “Carter, don’t drink anymore. Go back, take a bath, and sleep well. It will be a new start tomorrow. Work hard, move on to find a beautiful and capable girlfriend, and then get married and have children.”
Carter opened another bottle of beer and kept filling his belly. “Tiffany, do you think Amelia still has a place in her heart for me?”
Tiffany’s temperament was reaching its limit. She couldn’t figure out why she sacrificed her night of good beauty sleep to accompany this drunkard on the phone.
“Dude, you are drunk. Go back and take a good bath and sleep. When you wake up, everything will be fine.”
Carter started singing instead.
Tiffany had never seen Carter so despaired. She started to worry.
She asked caringly, “Carter, are you okay?”
“Nuh-uh.” Carter was blatantly honest, likely due to being under the influence of alcohol. “In the past few years, I was not happy at all. I have been thinking about Amelia and how she was doing? How did she pay her debts? I left at that time, but I have been thinking of ways to pay her debts. But after I came back, she was no longer there. Do you know how happy I was when she contacted me again? But I was devastated to find out that she was already married.”
Tiffany was speechless.
Is it worthy for a man to be trapped in past love and refused to face reality?
Carter was still chattering endlessly. “Amelia, I have never stop loving you. I have loved you for so many years. Why did you marry someone else?”
Tiffany was sure that he was drunk. Otherwise, Carter, who used to be introverted and calm, would not be so emotional.
“Where are you?”
Carter spitted out an unclear address.
“Wait for me there. I am on my way.”
Tiffany hung up the phone and got changed immediately. She took the elevator downstairs to the parking lot, got in her car, and drove out.
Maybe because it was midnight, the road was not busy at all. It took only about forty-five minutes for her to get to the riverside mentioned by Carter.
She got out of the car, locked the car, and leaped to the riverside. She spotted Carter sitting alone on the shore. Empty beer bottles were strewn haphazardly all around him.
Tiffany wrinkled her nose and picked up her pace. “Hey, how much wine have you drunk? Why are there beer bottles everywhere?”
Carter raised his head, looking confused. “Oh, why are you here?”
“If I don’t come, are you going to drink till death by the river?”
He grabbed her wrist forcefully, and she fell, sitting next to him.
“Hey, jinx. What the hell are you doing?” Tiffany retorted.
Carter chuckled lightly. “I just wanted you to sit down and chat with me.”
He opened a bottle of wine, handed it to Tiffany. “Tiffany, thank you, although you keep saying I’m a jinx, but you still care about me. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have shown up here in the middle of the night.”
Tiffany denied stiffly, “I’m just worried that you’ll die out here in the wilderness from alcohol poisoning. It will only cause trouble for the police.”
Carter still smiled. “Tiffany, Amelia is lucky to have a friend like you.”
Tiffany lay next to him, drank a sip of beer. “Of course, but Amelia is a woman who deserves to be loved.”
Perhaps it was because of the pleasant atmosphere by the riverside. Tiffany forgot about her previous prejudices towards Carter and started drinking with him.
By then, Carter was almost wasted, and he began speaking more carelessly. “Amelia had a hard time during those years, right?”
Tiffany glanced at him once. “Your family almost forced her off the cliff. If Amelia hadn’t meet Oscar, I’m afraid she will be in prison now. So what do you say of her suffering?”
Carter’s eyes were a bit red. He tipped over the beer bottle in his hands and drained every last drop of the toxic liquid.
Tiffany raised her hand and patted him on the shoulder. “Honestly, Amelia has never blamed you, so don’t blame yourself.”
Carter smiled bitterly and asked, “You said Amelia once liked me. Is that true?”
Tiffany nodded. “Amelia did like you, but it was a long time ago. Now she has her own family. Come on, man, try to find a woman that suits your heart and your family’s heart as soon as possible. Your effort of finding your Cinderella would be in vain if your family threw a monkey wrench into your plan.”
Carter’s heart was full of bitterness.
Tiffany patted him on the shoulder again like a brother. “Don’t think too much. You should let go like a man.”
Carter kept on drinking silently.
“It’s getting late. Let me take you back. If the news about you drunken be published, not only the shares of the Scott Group, I am afraid that it will even destroy the company you created.”
Carter still held a beer bottle in his hand, gazing at the river. “Please chat with me a little longer.”
Tiffany clasped her head in both hands. “Man, stop messing around. We are not fifteen anymore. If you miss a relationship, just start a new one. Even the supporting actor in love drama won’t be such a p*ssy.”
“Supporting actor?” Carter glanced at her. “So, in your eyes, I am just a supporting character in Amelia’s story.”
“Isn’t that true?” Tiffany shrugged casually. “The girl in the drama always loves the arrogant boss. And the nice handsome guy is always just a friend.”
Carter was left with a wry smile.
“Come on, jinx. Let’s go. It will be dawn in a few hours, and you still have to go to work tomorrow.”
Carter stood up, threw the bottle in his hand, and said, “Let’s go.”
They got in Tiffany’s car. Tiffany fastened her seat belt and asked, “Is it okay to leave your car here?”
“Tomorrow, I will ask someone to drive it back.”
“The tycoon’s life is indeed different. You can afford a new car anytime, so there is no big problem even if it is stolen.”
On the way, she started speaking. “Honestly, when I first met you, I had a good impression of you. With your appearance and your background, you are simply the Prince Charming for most girls. If it weren’t for your family or what happened later, I would agree for Amelia to be with you. Imagine you were the one that has a family of three with her.”
Carter leaned on the back seat and closed his eyes, hiding the agony in his eyes.
Tiffany did not speak anymore and drove the car intently. It took almost forty minutes to get to the area where Carter lived.
“We are here. You can get off.”
Carter opened the door and reminded Tiffany. “Tiffany, don’t tell Amelia about my getting drunk tonight.”
