“Do you want more chicken, Aria? Here, take mine.”
"This tastes nice. Here, eat this. It tastes nice to you too, doesn't it?" "Do you like it, Aria?" “Mhm, it's tasty like you said. I like it.” Clank! In the modest dining room of the Miller family, the direct two lines of the family sat around the table having dinner. At the head of the table was an elderly woman in her late 60s, and by her left and right side were her sons and their families. Upon hearing the man’s voice for the nth time that evening, Stella Owen, who became the matriarch of the Miller family after the passing of her husband five years ago, angrily threw her spoon on her plate, making everyone halt. Seeing the furious look on her face, the petite girl who was decked in luxury goods from head to toe sitting on her right hand side immediately pointed her spoon at the girl sitting across from her, saying self-righteously, “Hey, Aria Miller, shut the mouth of that darn dog of yours!” “Why would you even bring him to dinner in the first place knowing how upset grandmother usually is whenever he's in her presence?” The boy beside her chipped in with a snort. “Isn’t it enough that grandmother has to hear of how her first granddaughter is married to a total idiot? She also has to see him two days a week during dinner?” Seeing that her brother was behind her, Mia Miller grew even bolder and continued yelling. “Because of you, her blood pressure keeps rising every day. Do you even have her best interest at heart at all?” Mia's brother, Ryan Miller, butted in again with a haughty scoff. The dining room was immediately plunged into a suffocating silence. Aria Miller slowly dropped her cutlery and turned to the grown man beside her who was now cowering and hiding his face on her body in fear. She turned her eyes away from him, lowered her eyes to the table and apologized in a mild voice, “Forgive me, grandmother, but I had no choice than to bring him. Besides the cleaner who leaves by 4pm every day, there’s no one at home to leave Leon with.” “If I leave him behind to eat dinner by himself, he would be too anxious to do so and would rather pace around the house waiting for me.” “That is why you should hurry up and divorce him. Remaining married to him only drags down our family name and agitates grandmother. Do as we say and divorce him as soon as possible!” Half-yelled the pompous-looking man who was sitting on the same side as her. Aria blinked her eyes twice before she pressed her lips together tightly, trying to stifle her frown. “Leon has the IQ of a 5-year-old. If I divorce him, there’s no telling what his life will be like. Which is why I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll divorce him the moment he regains his memory and he returns to normal.” Stella Owen's eyes immediately grew dim, and she looked displeased. Dean Miller panicked and hurriedly raised his voice at his sister, yelling agitatedly, “Are you crazy? The doctor said it could take ten years before that happens.” “Will you remain married to someone like him until he regains his memory in ten years? Don’t be foolish and just divorce him as soon as possible!” “We’ve been married for five years already. The doctor said he’d surely go back to normal in ten years or before then. It's only a matter of time left.” Aria responded calmly, remaining adamant. Dean Miller anxiously fidgeted with his fingers beneath the table as he battled with what to retort with. Compared with his sister, he was a dimwit. Still, he was trying his best to be on his grandmother's side, which was why he didn't hesitate to show that he was also in disapproval of his sister's marriage. However, her retort rendered him speechless and with nothing to respond with. Ryan Miller chuckled opposite them and glanced up at his cousin sister, “Wouldn’t that be too late? Grandfather had you marry him even before you finished university.” “You were 20 then. And you’re 25 already. You would be 30 when he returns to normal. Isn’t that a little too old to get remarried?” Aria met his eyes and smiled faintly, “It could be lesser. And who said 30 is old? People say it’s the perfect age to get married. Getting remarried at that age is even considered a bonus.” “Will you keep exchanging words with everyone who tries to tell you the right thing to do? You’re just as stubborn as your grandfather! If you had said no to his arrangement in the first place, our family won’t be in this mess!” Stella Owen suddenly snorted, glaring at Aria with hostility.The dining room fell silent and Aria clenched her jaw tightly as she apologized with her eyes lowered to the table, "My apologies, grandmother."Stella ignored her and glanced at the butler who was standing a few meters away from them.Upon being glanced at, the butler strutted towards Aria and placed an enclosed piece of document in front of her.“I came up with a plan to move our family forward and you will do it whether you like it or not.” Stella said without looking at Aria even though she was talking to her. “Mother-in-law, Aria will be delighted to follow whatever plans you have made for her!” Emma Mitchell, Aria's mother, leaned towards the table and smiled forcefully as she tried to butter up to her mother-in-law.However, Stella didn’t bother to glance at her direction and just kept her eyes straight.Emma’s face and that of Dean twitched in embarrassment, while Ryan and Mia laughed secretly.Stella cleared her throat noisily and continued sternly, “I paid heavily to get so
“Hey! If you’re still alive, get off the floor and go do the dishes!” Instead of helping him up from the floor, Emma Mitchell walked around him and kept stubbing him with her foot.“Hurry up and get up, will you? You spilled milk everywhere and broke the glass. It almost cut me just now. Get up and clean it up!” Dean frowned as he tiptoed closer to his mother.Aria walked out of her room to see what fell and quickened her pace when she saw Leon sprawled on the floor.“What are you doing on the floor? Why is he lying on the floor? Did he fall? Did you push him, Dean?”Dean dropped the still full glass of milk on the table and harrumphed angrily, “Hmph, why would I push him? Do you only think the worst of me?”Emma immediately shot her a stern look, “How could you accuse your brother of doing something so vile? Even if he did push him, I’m sure it wasn’t his intention to do so. Can you be a little more on your brother’s side and see the good in him too?”“He may be an idiot, but I’ve ne
The next morning, Aria opened her eyes to an empty bed. Leon had kept her morning coffee on her bedside table as usual before leaving.She drank it and got ready for work. When she got down to the living room, she sucked in a deep breath when she saw a certain person mopping the floors while her mother and brother were lying on the cushion with their legs on the glass table as they watched their early morning soap opera.“Mother, why is Leon cleaning when the housekeeper will be here any minute?”Emma scoffed without glancing towards her direction.“Do you not see how dirty the house is? Dean ate a lot of snacks last night and littered the place as he watched his favorite show, and we might get a visitor any moment.”“Who knows when the cleaning lady would get here to clear out this mess. And why wait for her and do nothing when there’s someone around to start cleaning while she makes it here?”Aria’s gaze flickered between her mother and Leon, who had stopped mopping and was now star
In the hotel lounge, Grant Wyatt was speaking with the owner of the hotel when he noticed some keys on the floor.He picked them up and stared at them for a moment before recalling he had seen them dangling from Leon's waist earlier.“Do you remember who has the highest amount of shares in your hotel? The person who supported you when no one else believed in turning your tiny pub into a big hotel?”“That person was you, Mr. Wyatt,” the manager nodded and took the keys he was stretching towards her.“Me?” Grant Wyatt laughed and slipped his hands into his pockets, “Up until six years ago, I was nothing but a disgraced manager who couldn’t provide properly for his family.”“All I did was take over the company that was handed to me by the owner as he wanted to stay out of the limelight. And all I did was invest in the businesses he asked me to. I’m nothing but a mere company guardian.”Venice Carter stared at him in confusion before a bold thought popped into her head and her hands tremb
Mia was stunned at his words at first, but when she gave it a second thought, she nodded in agreement. Aria always tried to protect her idiotic husband by every means possible as she believed an embarrassment to him was also an embarrassment to her.If Leon really licked off the dirt on Simon's shoe with his tongue, Mia would really feel superior and use it against her in the future. In fact, everyone in the city would know her husband licked off dirt from someone's shoes."What are you doing still standing there? Hurry up and go down on your knees and lick off the dirt. Or do you plan on calling Aria?""Hmph, she'd run helter-skelter trying to raise money to compensate him and still won't come up with enough money to do so. That's how expensive his shoes are."Leon said nothing to them and instead stared down at Simon's shoes for several seconds."I didn't damage the shoes, neither is there any dirt on them. But even if there was, why do I have to lick it off with my tongue?"Mia qu
“What? Relieve me of my membership and blacklist the rest of the Mayfair family? Did I hear wrong?” Simon half-shouted while she was still talking. Venice got off her phone and stared at him blankly.“No, you didn’t. Since being in a hotel with ordinary people makes your skin crawl, I thought it best to sever your relationship with the hotel. I also severed every connection I have with the Mayfair family.”Simon couldn't believe his ears and burst out in rage, “Hmph! Have you gotten arrogant because of the few successful hotels you run?""Have you forgotten who helped you build those hotels up to where they are today? Who helped build you up from a church rat to who you are today?”Venice didn’t respond to him in an arrogant tone as well. Instead, she smiled faintly. “I haven’t forgotten.”“Then what do you think you’re doing?”She dropped her hand to the side and scoffed slightly, “It’s because of everything your father did for me that I’m doing this and not letting you ruin your fu
Simon Mayfair shamefully called his father in the presence of everyone then scurried away once Venice confirmed the payment. Now that they couldn’t upload the videos or publish any articles about what happened, the people around naturally turned their attention to the person he had been on a date with. Mia Miller lowered her face to the floor and covered her face with her palms as she rushed out of their presence, but the crowd went in pursuit of her. Now, the only people left behind were Venice and Leon. Because it was only natural for the owner of a hotel to defend its name, Leon didn’t think too much about why she helped him, but he did plan to thank her for doing so before leaving. However, she suddenly ran to his front and went down on her knees in front of him. “Mr. Bartlett, it’s an honor to meet you!” He halted and glanced around to make sure there was no one around. Thankfully, there was a car behind him which shielded them from the sight of anyone coming behind them.
“What? Did you say something?” Aria was a little startled by him suddenly raising his head that she didn't pay attention to what he said. The man froze for a moment, realizing he almost blew his cover. After being silent for some seconds, he smiled innocently and asked cluelessly, “Have one of what?”Aria ruffled his hair again and laughed faintly knowing his simple mind would never understand no matter how she explained it. But after a brief thinking, she came up with a way to break it down to his understanding and parted her lips to reply when a familiar shrill voice came up from behind her.“What do you think you’re doing? Your date is just an hour away, and you’re still here wasting time with this foolish husband of yours?”“I still have a whole hour, mother..” Aria pressed her lips together and retorted, the smile leaving her eyes.“Your grandmother said to dress and doll yourself up when you go to your dates. If you pet his hair even for a minute more, when do you intend to d