Chapter 142 Take Her Away
The cocktail party progressed and ended smoothly after three hours.
Other than the opening of the ceremony, Madeline spent her entire time accompanying her sons in the room and didn’t show up anymore, causing all the young men at the party to sigh in disappointment.
The next day, Madeline bid Michael and Crystal farewell as Philip had found Quincy and Joel a school back in Dusktown, and she had to return because school was starting soon.
Upon hearing that, Crystal was reluctant to let Madeline leave.
However, Michael placed his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. “It’s just a few hours of traveling if we are to go to Dusktown from Wendel City, and it only takes about an hour if we go by plane. We can always go visit Maddie when we miss her.”
Although he was reluctant to let Madeline leave as well, he knew that allowing Madeline and the kids to return to Dusktown with Sebastian was the best arrangement.
While Michael still couldn’t tell how Sebastian was treating Madeline and the kids as well as whether Sebastian and Madeline had a future together, he figured that letting them spend more time together would allow their feelings toward each other to grow so that they could be a true couple in the future instead of being together just for the kids.
If the kids were allowed to grow up with Sebastian, their relationship would be further strengthened if Sebastian put in more effort to take care of the kids. Hence, if worse came to worst, he would still love Quincy and Joel as his own even if he divorced Madeline and had a new family in the future.
The greatest love of a parent for their children was to consider them in the long run.
As a daughter would have to get married, Michael had to let Madeline leave even if he was reluctant to do so for the sake of her happiness in the future.
“I’m going to send Maddie off.” Then, Crystal held Madeline’s hand and said reluctantly, “After I reach Dusktown with Maddie and the kids, I’ll take them to visit our house at Dusktown. Also, since Nelson is returning soon, let’s stay at Dusktown for a few days and introduce Maddie to him when he gets back. In the future, Maddie can look for him if she needs any help since we won’t be there.”
Nelson Taylor was Michael and Crystal’s adopted son.
As wealthy and influential families often liked to have a big family, it was popular for the wealthy families in Wendel City and Dusktown to adopt children once they had decided on an heir. Usually they’d pick smart, loyal and reliable children to get adopted so that they could be the inheritor’s partner and accompany them when they grow up. After the adopted child grew up, they would be able to work as the inheritor’s right-hand man.
Of course, an adopted child had no chance of being an inheritor.
To prevent that from happening, they usually wouldn’t register the adopted child using their family name.
As Nelson’s account was registered under one of the elders from the Taylors, he moved out after he was an adult and stayed on his own.
Just like all of the other adopted children from other families, Nelson was carefully selected before he was adopted.
Back then, Crystal visited more than ten orphanages and selected five potential children before she started observing the children’s cognitions and behaviors. A few years later, she was left with Jake and Nelson, who were exceptionally smart, loyal, and grateful.
As for the other children, Crystal arranged for them to be adopted by nice families who had no children.
The purpose of wealthy families adopting children was clear—it was to groom capable and loyal right-hand men for their families’ inheritors. Other than that, they also focused a lot on the adopted children’s loyalty toward the inheritor in case the adopted children suddenly had the desire to fight for inheritance.
As adopting children was mainstream within wealthiest families, and it was a rule that an adopted child wouldn’t be able to be an inheritor, any adopted child who tried to fight for inheritance would be heavily criticized. Thus, if an adopted child was discontented and showed signs of desire, they would be sent away, so most of the adopted children that stayed till the end were loyal and reliable, and that was the case for Jake and Nelson.
The two of them were groomed to help the next inheritor of the Wendels; they had been in the same class as Jonathan ever since they were all children, so the three of them were really close to each other, and Jake and Nelson were Jonathan’s most loyal right-hand men.
Jake and Nelson entered Wendel Corporation along with Jonathan to be Jonathan’s personal assistant and help the man out. After Jonathan managed to get a footing in the Wendel Corporation, Nelson was sent to Dusktown by him to manage Wendel Corporation’s branch in Dusktown while Jake was posted abroad to look over Wendel Corporation’s overseas projects.
Thus, it was obvious that both Jake and Nelson were informed about Madeline being the Wendel Family’s biological daughter instead of Angie.
Although the two of them wanted to meet Madeline, Jake couldn’t return as the project overseas was at a critical juncture while Nelson couldn’t return because he was working abroad as well.
However, Nelson was finally able to come back after two days.
When she recalled that Nelson was staying in Dusktown, Crystal felt slightly relieved because Madeline would be able to get Nelson’s help since she would be staying there as well.
Even though Michael went along with everything that Crystal decided before she was sick, he became even more fearful and protective of Crystal after she fell under the weather and became even more attentive to Crystal’s requests.
Therefore, he agreed without any hesitation when she wanted to go to Dusktown to send Madeline off.
Due to Crystal’s health condition, Michael had already handed Wendel Corporation to Jonathan for him to manage the company, and Jonathan only needed to come to him if there was any important decision that needed implementation.
Currently, he was semi-retired and had no problems moving to Dusktown with Crystal, not to mention just staying there for a few days.
Two days after their discussion, Michael and Crystal left Wendel City along with Madeline to travel to Dusktown, and they were joined by the kids, Philip, and Sebastian.
When they arrived at Dusktown, Philip invited Michael and Crystal to the Hart Residence and treated them to a meal.
After the meal, they chatted in the living room for a while before Michael and Crystal decided to leave.
However, when Crystal wanted Madeline and the kids to leave together with them, Philip refused before he chuckled and said, “Maddie is already married, so how can she constantly go back to her family? Maddie and the kids will be staying here from now on, and they can always visit you guys during the day when they miss you guys, but it’s better to not go over so late at night.”
Upon hearing that, Michael and Crystal were both speechless.
Nevertheless, they couldn’t argue against Philip.
Although they were in-laws now, Philip was still about two decades older than them and he was an elder that they needed to respect.
Moreover, he was an extremely influential elder that one needed to fear even if he were to stomp his feet on the ground.
Thus, Michael and Crystal couldn’t possibly argue against Philip when the respectable elder requested them to allow Madeline and the kids to stay in the Hart Residence.
