Chapter 117 No Pushover
Nicholas froze as he stared at Alina in shock and disbelief.
Her words were like death by a thousand cuts, and he couldn’t bear the hurt any more than he could bear her disgust for him when she found out he had slept with Angie.
In fact, Alina had brutally put him in his place and called him a fool. She had told him that she was breaking up with him, not because of his unexpected one-night stand with Angie, but because he was a simpleton with no common sense of right and wrong.
A simpleton with no common sense of right and wrong? No. That’s not me. Nicholas shook his head as he said hurtfully, “Lina, how could you say that about me? I just…” I just felt so sorry for Angie, and I wanted to help her get through these tough times.
He couldn’t bring himself to say that. He couldn’t tell Alina that he felt bad for Angie; while he was being a good samaritan, Angie had been scheming against him. She had turned around and bitten him like a viper as soon as he left himself wide open. That in itself was a foolish mistake on his part.
Nicholas thought Alina was being unfair, but at the same time, he couldn’t quite find the words to argue and prove her wrong. The flush on his cheeks was gone, and he was looking more ashen-faced by the second.
“Lina, how could you say such things about Nicholas?” Erin’s heart twisted when she saw how broken Nicholas looked. “Nicholas is just too kind for his own good! He took pity on Angie and tried to help her. None of us could have expected her to take advantage of him like this! She’s an ingrate and a traitor!”
“Pity?” Alina repeated with a raise of her brow. “While you were all taking pity on Angie, did you ever stop to feel sorry for Madam Crystal? She nearly lost her life giving birth to Madeline, only for her long-time enemy to take the baby away and replace her with another. Imagine her anguish!”
Erin stiffened. “We didn’t think Angie would turn out to be so evil. We really thought she was innocent, and we—”
Alina cut her off with a bark of cold laughter. “You didn’t think Angie would be evil, but have you ever thought that you and Nicholas’ kindness would only add insult to Crystal’s injury? Angie is Cameron’s daughter, and if Crystal sees Angie, she would inevitably think of Cameron; it would only be a stab to her heart. Angie has to be sent away so that Crystal will never have to see her again and get stressed out about it!” Having said all this, she eyed Erin mockingly and drawled, “You know, Madam Erin, if I didn’t know that you were actually a kind person by nature, I would have thought that you were only keeping Angie to spite Madam Crystal because of some personal grudge you have against her!”
She might sound like she was vouching for Erin’s apparent kindness, but in actuality, her implication was clear. She suspected Erin was using Angie to spite Crystal all along.
On the other hand, Erin flushed when she heard her plans being pinpointed. “Lina, where do you get such outlandish ideas? I couldn’t possibly have thought that far. I watched Angie grow up, and all I want to do is care for her after all that has happened. I have nothing against my sister-in-law, so why would I spite her? Now is not the time for nonsense, Lina!”
Those who had been swept up in this mess had clearly never contemplated this before.
When Erin suddenly showed such enthusiastic concern over Angie and insisted on taking her in as a daughter, Michael and his sons did not question it, though they had found it strange at the time.
They brushed it off because they were close to Erin and Morgan’s side. Michael and his two brothers were tight-knit, and naturally, their children mingled well enough too. As for the in-laws, while Crystal and Erin were not close by any means, there was no obvious animosity between them. They hardly ever fought, and everyone thought they got along alright.
No one could have thought that Erin’s motive in bringing Angie back to her place was to further her plans of hurting Crystal, but now that Alina had brought this up, Michael and his sons began to feel as if something had been amiss all this while.
Morgan’s family indeed loved Angie as though she was one of their own, but Erin had never doted on her or cared this much about her until recently.
After the main family was caught up in a melodrama premised on Angie’s birth story, they decided it was for the best to send her away, but Erin suddenly insisted on taking her in as a daughter without even considering the main family’s disagreement. In retrospect, one had to question her motives in doing so; had she truly felt sorry for Angie and wanted to keep her, or did she want to make her stay in the Wendel Family just so she could rub salt on Michael’s family’s wounds?
Michael and his sons would have believed the former to be true had Alina not brought this up, but now that she had, it was as if the jigsaw pieces were starting to fall into place, and they were beginning to contemplate if the latter had more truth in it.
As such, the looks they gave Erin started to turn wary and skeptical.
Erin felt a chill down her spine when she met their inquisitive gaze. She dared not risk offending the main family in any way; pretending to love Angie as if she was her own to spite Crystal was the best plan she could come up with.
After all, the Wendels were only the top elite family in Wendel City after Michael stepped up as head of the family.
The Wendels came from really old money, but when it came for Robert to succeed his father, the family was already on the verge of a downfall. The nobility of their name was an empty shell, and while they did their best to polish up said shell, the Wendels’ business was crumbling. It could have been wound up at any given time.
When Michael took over Wendel Corporation, he worked hard to salvage it by consolidating its assets and eventually getting the business back on track. It was under his leadership that the Wendels rose from the dead and claimed the throne as the wealthiest family in Wendel City.
He was the head of the family right now, and he held over eighty percent of the shares in the Wendel Corporation.
Jonathan was the successor to Wendel Corporation. Meanwhile, Joseph, Connor, and Cedric were all brilliant in their own fields, and they had carved bright futures for themselves.
It could only be in Erin and her children’s interests to be in the main family’s good books. Thus, she had never thought about making them her enemy. Jealous as she was of Crystal, she would rather put on a show and make as if she got along with her. No one could possibly tell that she had hated Crystal for years, after all.
However, all her little secrets came spilling out after Alina blew her bluff in front of Michael and his sons.
Technically speaking, Alina had reaffirmed Erin’s ‘kind nature’. She claimed to believe that Erin only brought Angie back to her place not to hurt Crystal on purpose but out of her own goodwill. However, Michael and his sons were smart enough to catch on, and as soon as Alina said those words, they began to wonder if the opposite was true.
Had Erin known that this was how things would go, she never would have suggested that they bring Angie back. Perhaps she wouldn’t have climbed into my son’s bed and ruined his engagement with Alina, who would still be on friendly terms with us instead of cutting us off like this.
For Alina to resort to seeding enmity between Erin’s family and Michael’s was proof of her resolve to break up with Nicholas. This was a hook, line, and sinker maneuver; she would never come back or reconsider the engagement.
Erin had bragged about Nicholas’ engagement to the young lady of the Harmon Family to her friends on countless occasions. She was always proud of it, but now that Nicholas was so close to tying the knot, Alina decided to call off the engagement. Not only that, she even stirred up strife between Erin and the main family in the process.
Erin had truly shot herself in the foot. I can’t believe how luck has turned on me, she thought ruefully.
Meanwhile, Alina smiled wryly as she said, “Madam Erin, I think I just made myself quite clear that I know how kind-hearted you are, and I believe that you didn’t just take Angie in to further aggravate Madam Crystal. Even so, I will not stand for the way you and Nicholas are handling this. Both of you are showing Angie more empathy and kindness than she deserves, which is beyond my comprehension. As such, I can’t possibly spend the rest of my life with a family like yours, and seeing as we’re going our separate ways, I can only hope that we do so amicably. From now on, I have nothing to do with any of you!”
