Chapter 189



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In the mailbox, there was an email from his assistant, Magnus.

There was a scanned copy of the marriage certificate, with two signatures and the notarized time on it. There was also a copy of the current marriage status for foreign citizens and followed by some family photos. It also came with an attachment about Edison’s resume.

He graduated from St. York University, went into business for himself. He became one of the top designers and, in just three years, started from a small clothing company that eventually became a publicly traded company. He now owns a company listed in the global Top 500. So his resume was pretty good.

Even Joseph had to admit that he was an excellent guy.

And what made Joseph unable to accept was that Edison had nothing when Hayden got together with him. On Valentine’s Day four years ago, they registered their marriage overseas. He could find no other reason to explain why he married this man who had nothing at the time, the only reason would be for love.

Besides, they were not divorced.

The room was awfully quiet. So quiet that you could hear the water dripping in the bathroom, where the faucet was not turned off properly.

After a long while, a loud sound was heard.

Bang!

The large office computer crashed to the floor and created a loud sound, followed by an assortment of dark-colored folders and heavy books. The red wine glass crashed against the wall, leaving a bloody red mark. The glass shattered into pieces at the corner of the wall and reflected cold beams of light.

Almost in an instant, the entire study room became a ruin.

“Sir…”

The housekeeper, who came because of the noises, stood in the doorway and saw the scene. Her face turned white with fright: “This is…”.

“Get out…”.

“Sir, your hand…”.

“Get out!”.

His furious voice rushed into the housekeeper’s eardrums. Suddenly, a clap of thunder sounded loudly on the other side of the window and rain began to fall heavily on the glass. The glare of the lightning illuminated Joseph’s face like an abyssal ghost, he looked extremely grim.

The housekeeper was so frightened that her face paled. She stumbled and slammed the door hastily, then hurried out.

In the center of the mess, Joseph kept a grim face. Bits of crushed glass were still in his flesh. His slender fingers dripped blood and fell to the floor, drop by drop. Soon, the blood clotted and became a black bloodstain.

“Hayden’s father is awake, isn’t he?”.

Kevin held up an umbrella and sent Alayna downstairs, “How about that camping trip we mentioned earlier? Let’s arrange a time for it, we’re dragging it out too long.”

“I’ll ask Hayden tomorrow. There shouldn’t be any problem. After all, the doctor said his father’s condition is pretty stable now. If he recovers properly, it won’t be a problem for him to live a few more years.”

“Live for a few more years?” Kevin looked at her in astonishment, “Are those words used to comfort people? Hayden has been hearing these words from you all this time?”.

“What’s wrong with that?” Alayna gave him a scornful look, “Haven’t you heard before that the good or the bad will get what they deserve in the end? Her father didn’t take care of his family when he was young. He ran around getting into trouble and caused Hayden to lose his mother when he was born. And if her grandfather hadn’t died, he wouldn’t have taken her to live with him.”

“Her father was good to her, wasn’t he? You can’t make a claim based on the past, it’s all to do with the previous generation.”

“Stop it, I’m disgusted to hear this.” Alayna said with an indignant face, “The previous generation’s problems can only be considered the end if they didn’t affect the next generation. Based on the fact that Bentley clearly knew that his mistress was the one who killed Hayden’s mother, but still married her, he is not worthy of sympathy.”

Kevin was not surprised.

He had heard about the Downey Family stuff. At first, he didn’t know anything about it. But since Hayden was friends with Alayna, he did some research, so he had some preparations in his heart. Also, the Downey Family case had been in the news years ago. In the era of paper media, what was sent out were physical newspapers and magazines. There was no way to erase it.

The case was about a pregnant mistress came to the Downey Family’s door. She caused the wife to give birth prematurely, and before the wife was sent to the hospital, she died. Eventually, the baby was delivered by cesarean section and lived on. This incident had become a hot topic of public opinion.

This matter had transcended to this point, it was impossible to say that Bentley did not know or suspect anything at all. Nevertheless, he still married his mistress and left his daughter, who fortunately remained alive, at the home of his late wife’s family. He only got her back after many years.

“Everything he did was out of guilt, he wanted to compensate and he freed himself from guilt. Although he made up for much of it, the damage he did to Hayden’s childhood was irreversible. He played with Hayden’s childhood and adolescence like a pawn in a game.” Alayna, with a cold face, let out a chuckle, “They’re all bad.”

Hayden’s oldest aunt, who was the wife of his mother’s older brother, was his mother’s best friend, Florence. Florence was a mild and weak-tempered woman, but his aunt’s temper was harsh. After Florence’s death, everyone thought she would treat Hayden like her own daughter. However, who would have thought that she had coldly left Hayden in her grandfather’s hands for years. After her grandfather’s death, she kicked Hayden out of the house.

Hayden after many years, understood the significance of her aunt’s actions. His aunt was unwilling to let Bentley live his own free life and forget about his tragically deceased wife, who had gone through ups and downs with him at the time. So she deliberately sent him to Hayden to remind him of his wrongdoings.

His aunt clung to that for many years. But now, she had learned to let it go. She no longer forced Hayden to live with Bentley. Now she began to give Hayden the long-awaited sense of belonging.

Alayna wasn’t involved, she didn’t even witness all the pain and struggles Hayden had gone through, but she knew and understood more than anyone else in the world. She sympathized with Hayden as if she had been through it all.

Her stubbornness and steadfast expression fell into Kevin’s eyes, which made his heart flutter.

What a good girl she was. He didn’t think he’d ever get the chance to meet another girl like her. His heart was glued to her and he couldn’t wait to give it to her.

“Alayna, let’s get married.”

The night was pouring with rain. Under the umbrella, Kevin’s calm, steady voice rang out.

The ring had been in his suit pocket for half a month. He was waiting for the right moment, the moment that would set her heart pounding so he could show her all his passion without reservation.

Alayna froze for a moment. She unconsciously took a step back, and the rain began to pelt her back.

Kevin immediately extended the umbrella to block the rain behind her, and with his other hand he reached into his suit pocket.

“Don’t take it out.” Alayna spoke suddenly, her voice halting his movement, “Kevin, if you take it out now, we’ll never see each other again.”

Kevin looked stunned, as if he didn’t believe what he had heard. “Alayna, you…”

“It’s too late now, we’ve talked too much today, and you think too much too. I’m going home, you should go too.” Alayna spoke quickly, as if she was in a hurry to finish something.

She was about to leave after she finished talking, but her wrist was grabbed by Kevin. “Let go of me.”

“ALAYNA COLE!”. Kevin used a stern attitude towards her and refused to let go of her wrist, “What are you hiding from? You know clearly that I love you. I gave up smoking, drinking, girls and fighting for you. No matter what you want, as long as you tell me, whether I can do it or not, I will go and do it for you without saying a word. But I have only one request, please marry me.”

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