CHAPTER TWELVE

"What did you just say?" James inquired in such a manner that got Vincent confused.

He could easily tell that something was happening there but he seemed to be the only one in the dark.

"He simple language, you lost." Xander interpreted with a smirk that was enough to get anyone angry but instead, Mr. James was still imprisoned in the dark realms of his shock.

As a loud drum sucked deep down into his body system, he could hear the faint banging of his heart growing louder with an increased velocity.

Neither was he ready to accept defeat either way. But it seemed this Xander of a kid just found a way to gag it down his throat.

This increased his anger and hatred towards Xander who he now saw as a force to reckon with and do away with as soon as it was possible.

"I'm sure that he cheated, there is no way that he could have gotten the answers correct, I made sure of that." Mr. James quickly sprouted out.

Not only was he going to be disgraced by losing a bet to such a slimy punk. But also, he was going to lose one of his assets and the herb that he had worked so hard to get.

There was no way that he was going to allow that to happen. Not when he was still alive. And it seemed as though Xander could read his thoughts, as the next words that he spoke confirmed it.

"Mr. James." He threw away all the formalities because a man like him certainly didn't deserve it.

"Do you have a problem with me cheating?" His facial expression was emotionless.

"No punk, I only have a problem with you cheating." He replied with a fierce look.

The expression that was pasted on Xander's face initially suddenly disappeared. After living with such a man for a while, she could see through his act.

"Cheated? You know that only our family knows about this herb?" He thundered.

"What's going on here?" Vincent was already tired of watching his head go rounder among the two parties.

Either way, it didn't seem like none of them was ready to tell him what was going on until Lina finally decided to speak up.

"Uncle here made a bet that Xander would not be able to know about this root but too bad you came right in time to confirm that you knew the answer right," Lina replied in a way of stalking Vincent.

"And not only did Vincent win, but Uncle also lost the herb plus also an asset in the process."

"But how is it possible that he was able to get the answers?" Vincent inquired knowing that the details of the herb were confidential.

At the moment, even Lina wanted to know because she never thought that he would be about to get the answers herself.

There was no way that he could tell them that tons of information relating to the herb just stormed through his head.

He drew a really deep breath, deeper than he had drawn all his life. The only way that he was going to escape being called mad was by lying to them.

"Just some random books that I saw on the streets." He quickly replied.

"Since I work as a servant, I always love reading during the night time as a hobby." He replied.

Immediately he spat these words, and the hopes of Mrs. Jane splashed down. She had thought initially that the young man before her was indeed knowledgeable.

But it turned out that the only thing that he had was the cute face and exactly what he used to deceive Lina and nothing other than that.

Mr. James quickly jumped on this statement so that he was going to use it to chase Xander away but Lina was not buying it even for a moment.

"See, he is not intelligent, he just knew about the herb randomly." He added but Lina was not going to fall for that even for a moment.

"It's one thing to read and it's another thing to give back what you read. Mr. James, it's not alone staying, you will have to give him what you have promised."

Vincent's head kept on spinning as words went around between them, still not having a grasp of what was going on.

Her father quickly burst out into a loud chuckle as he went ahead to say.

"And what were you thinking, that I was going to fall for that?" He inquired staring right into her eyes.

Lina knew that her uncle was an unreasonable man but never thought that he was going to back down from her promise right at the dying minute.

Even Xander was disappointed in him.

Finally, Vincent went ahead to say his eyes bulged with confusion.

"Wait, is this the guy in the photos, the one that you fought for at the hotel and also got you into trouble?"

"Why?" Lina raised an eyebrow.

When Lina first heard about it, he thought that it was just a rumor or a photoshopped photo but there it was, right before his eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak but words seemed to fail him all of a sudden and he was still stiffened with shock.

"How could you Lina?" Vincent is finally able to get a grip of himself and he goes ahead to say.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know that you have already been bethroaded to someone else. Leaving aside the fact that he looks like the takeout trash when compared to everything that's here." He added.

Lina was already flaming up with so much anger. She could have anyone insult her guest but not someone like Xander who was on the same level.

"Another word from you and I am going to silt off that throat of yours."

In the real sense, he wasn't speaking because he was in favor of Lina. He only wanted her to get married to Jace who under the shadows was his friends

He had already made contact with Jace. Lina was the most beloved of their grandfather and soon, he would want to choose who was going to be the next president of the company after him.

There was a possibility that he was going to choose Lina so he had already informed Jace that he had to dissuade her by any means possible.

And also with the herb, his immediate family was going to be top of the Fantastic Four, which was a name given to the most powerful families within the extended family.

Lina alone made a name as a family of her own and made it to this top group even at a young age and as a lady.

One of the reasons that she was hated so much by so many persons in the family. It seemed the only person that was close to her was the Patron of the family.

But getting hooked up with someone else was going to cause major damage to his plan and that was something that he could not afford.

He drew a really deep breath, his hands clenched into a big ball and his stiff hatred for Xander only seemed to increase by the minute.

He turned over to Xander, knowing that Lina could be such a stubborn person and he said afterward with a really deep frown that was enough to pull anyone off their feet.

"You will have to leave this place right away." He had an imposing air around him. And if there was anything that he hated most was to be threatened by anyone.

"Or what are you going to do?" Xander replies.

Lina quickly came forward to them, separating the both of them from tearing themselves apart into two halves...

"Vincent, this has nothing to do with you, you will have to leave this place right away." She fired

"I don't have to be involved. I am not going to watch anyone bewitch a cousin." His words didn't sound as though he cared.

He brought his cell phone from his pockets. Each member of the family had their guilds and he was the strongest apart from that of the family.

With Mr. James also put together, there was no way that Lina's guild would have anything to do about this.

Just then, a loud cry came from the door as it flew open. Everyone turned around towards the door to see who it was.

Lina's face immediately broke into a smile while the rest of them were drenched away from the initial excitement of victory that they had initially expressed.

Hearts raced.

It was Mr. Anderson Hopkins, the Patron of the Hopkins family.

He had a few guards behind him and he was looking perfectly fine with his built look as he walked into the crowd.

"Nobody is going anywhere." He announced.