Chapter 220



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“Wait a minute.” She replied listlessly and tiredly went to the bathroom to wash up.

There was a lot of business waiting for her to settle in at Downey Group, she never knew that her dad had to deal with so many things every day before he took over the company. It had only been a few days since she had succeeded her father as president of the group, but she was already feeling burned out.

Thinking about the board vote to be held that day, she felt even more anxious.

The position of president had been reserved for her father, but with her mother’s involvement, she felt as if he had stolen her position and now she was on tenterhooks.

…

It finally stopped raining. Early in the morning, Hayden met Mr. Lionel, his father’s lawyer, for coffee.

Lionel had been a friend of his father’s for many years and was well established in the legal world of N-Town. Although he had been involved in defending commercial litigation over the years, Hayden thought he was someone he could trust, so he thought he would ask his father’s advice on the Noah matter.

To her surprise, Mr. Lionel handed her an insurance policy before she opened her mouth.

“This is the insurance policy Mr. Downey bought before he passed away. It had been paid up for five years and the beneficiary is you, Miss Downey.”

Hayden was dumbfounded, staring dumbfounded at the line [Death by Serious Illness Insurance] written on the insurance policy.

“My father, how did he…?

How did he suddenly go and buy this kind of insurance?

Who would have foreseen that he was going to die of a serious illness?

Mr. Lionel said with a somber face, “The insurance was purchased a long time ago, about the year before you went overseas. At that time, Mr. Downey was still very healthy and had a clean bill of health. In fact, at that time I wasn’t sure why he even thought of buying this insurance. But now it seems that Mr. Downey was a man of foresight.”

“What do you mean?”

“When Mr. Downey was hospitalized some time ago, I had been helping him review his will and resolve the question of ownership of the estate. I had researched the Downey Group’s financial situation and was very clear on it. Haven’t you wondered why your father didn’t leave you any fortune?”

Hayden vaguely realized something, “What happened to the Downey Group?”

“A lot of people are fighting for power, as Mr. Downey had been gradually ceding his power to others over the years. Subsidiary workers also tried to compete with each other and intrigue against each other. It seemed that the Downey Family had a lot of real estate, but it had all been mortgaged to the banks. Almost every year some of the properties were mortgaged, like robbing Peter to pay Paul, and this caused the company to struggle a lot.”

“How can that be?” Hayden looked stunned, “My father never told me about it.”

G a lno ve ls . com is where the magic begins “Mr. Downey knew you had no intention of inheriting the group and that you didn’t want to get caught up in this mess. He had already made all the arrangements for the succession of the group before he passed away.”

“Arrangements?” She wondered, “What arrangements?”

As they were talking, the program playing on the wall-mounted television in the cafeteria was suddenly interrupted by social news.

Twenty minutes ago, at exactly ten o’clock in the morning in P-town, the headquarters of a family-owned business group in the city was suddenly sealed by the judicial authorities. During the evidence-gathering work carried out by the police, a dispute broke out among the group’s board of directors. The group’s recently appointed chairwoman, Miss Downey, unfortunately jumped from the building and was confirmed dead on the spot. In the confusion, the vice president, Ms. Mason, has disappeared.”

Hayden’s hand was shaking and he was not holding his coffee cup firmly, spilling coffee everywhere.

The waiter hurried to clean it up, while Hayden’s eyes remained motionless staring at the television screen. She looked surprised, puzzled and also frightened.

After a good while, she heard the waiter apologize and slowly regained consciousness.

“It’s okay, I’ll take care of it.” Returning to her seat, she embarrassedly asked Mr. Lionel, “Mr. Lionel, what about the group?”.

Mr. Lionel had not been watching the news. His expression was a little cold, “If I’m not mistaken, someone reported the Downey Group for tax evasion, and now the group is facing a huge fine. Someone has to come out and take responsibility and he can be punished with life imprisonment as the amount of money at stake is too big.”

“Did someone report him?” Hayden was a little confused, “Who will?”

Mr. Lionel gave him a meaningful look and said plainly, “Your dad.”

It was all settled now, and it was the best settlement.

Bentley had been in the business world for many years and was very wise. He knew how the people around him treated him, and even pretended not to know anything to deal them a fatal blow.

Hayden never expected Bentley to be so ruthless as to plan to treat Chelsea and Sofia this way before he died.

It seemed ridiculous to him.

This was the kind of marriage where Bentley and Sofia were so calculating, and Bentley even left a trap inside his will that would cause Sofia and Chelsea to be in trouble after inheriting his fortune. She still naively thought once that her father was kind.

Now she only knew that all businessmen in this world were not fully committed to loving others. They were all hypocrites.

At noon, after leaving the café, Mr. Lionel walked down the street for a few hundred yards before quickly climbing into a black Ferrari on the side of the road.

The smooth eyebrows of the man sitting in the back were reflected in the rearview mirror. His well-tailored suit gave him an aristocratic look.

“Have you finished talking to her?”.

Mr. Lionel nodded.

“I have done so according to what she told me. I only told her about the Downey Group problem and the Bentley will trap. I never mentioned that Mr. Downey already knew that Sophia and Chelsea were going to poison him.”

“Okay.” The man breathed a sigh of relief, “My assistant will pay you the money I promised.”

Lord Lionel smiled.

“No need. Mr. Downey already paid me the money he was to receive, and I didn’t want Miss Downey to know too much. I just wanted her to live her life in peace after collecting the insurance settlement. It’s a way to make up for what I owed her, and that’s the end of my duty.”

The man nodded and the car slowly came to a stop, leaving Mr. Lionel before continuing on its way.

“Edison, I don’t understand why Hayden can’t know the truth. He has a right to know the true cause of his father’s death, doesn’t he?”

“Hayden is not a person who likes to investigate the causes of an event after it has occurred, so telling her would only succeed in worrying her. Since Bentley intended to keep the truth from her, not wanting her to be saddened shouldn’t be the only reason.”

Edison said unhurriedly, telling the story in a way that one would find it easy to understand his words.

“So what else will happen?” Lorraine wondered.

“He did it for the good of the Downey Group.” Edison looked at Lorraine, “Bentley used this avenue to tell Hayden that he knew everything and didn’t need her to do anything else, and even for Hayden to misunderstand that he had deliberately left the group to get back at Sophia and Chelsea. He didn’t want her to get involved in the group’s affairs if she thought it was her family’s business.”

The real situation was that the Downey Group had already been in big trouble for some time and the tax evasion issue was just the trigger.

“It’s better to hide the truth from him. She’s had a lot of problems lately. I’ll help her solve these little problems.”

Edison looked out the window. His normally warm eyes darkened a little.

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