Derek felt his heart lurch as it was racing faster the closer Miles got to him. He quickly glanced around the room while trying to scoot back on the table in desperation. He found those three bodyguards, who had ganged up against poor Ava earlier, now passed out on the floor. A thread of hopelessness was starting to grow thicker within his chest when he noticed that he still had one more bodyguard who had not been knocked out.“You!” Derek pointed at the bodyguard who had his trousers down to his ankle while he was holding an ice pack on his groin, where Ava had kicked him earlier. “Are you fucking seeking death?! Can’t you see I’m under attack right now?! If that bastard gets close to me, I’ll make you feel a lifetime worth of agonizing pain far much worse than that swollen ball you have that ice pack over.”The miserable bodyguard swallowed hard in fear of the threat that his boss just made at him. He quickly pulled out his gun from the holster he had attached to his belt, which was
Miles halted his assault and he turned back to find the four bodyguards, who he had knocked out outside this building, were now awake and all pointing guns at him.Miles chuckled. “Or what? What will you do if I don’t get off of him?” He turned back and he resumed punching Derek who was desperately trying to keep his life from being snuffed by this crazy man.The bodyguards frowned in annoyance and all four of them pulled the triggers on their gun only to find nothing being shot out of them. They were left confused initially, and they pulled the trigger multiple times only to be left with the same results.“Your gun is empty of all bullets. I made sure of it.” Miles didn’t even turn back to these four bodyguards as he just continued punching Derek in the face. He had lightened his assault though, as he didn’t want Derek to pass out.The four bodyguards were left stunned and they threw away their empty guns with anger as they checked their guns and confirmed that they were indeed empty
The day of the antique event was finally here. Miles saw his wife off to her busy work at the company and his daughter off to her school for the day before he left the house as well. Miles was currently driving towards the destination when he got a call from his father-in-law. “Mr. Blaine, I was just about to call you. I’m currently on my way to the event.”“Good, I was starting to get worried that you wouldn’t show up.” Jonathan’s calm voice came through the call. “Once you get here, just give me a call.”“Will do,” Miles replied and the call came to an end.By the time Miles got there, he found the event venue was filled with a decent amount of people around the place. He got out of the car and made the call to his father-in-law. When Jonathan came out of the event hall to greet Miles, the heir to the Creek family did not expect to see Lesley here at all. His sister-in-law smiled a bit awkwardly at him but she didn’t really disrespect him, which was quite weird to Miles. After all,
Miles was being showered with compliments from Frederick, much to Jonathan’s satisfaction and Lesley’s astonishment. She still had trouble digesting what had just happened.At that moment, Miles caught sight of two men in suits walking into the venue, not too far away from him and his group. He soon recognizes these two men as his former classmates back in college. One was August Leonard, the man he had health with about a week ago during their class reunion. As for the other one, he recalled that his name was Joseph Rutherford. He didn’t have much relationship with this guy either. In Joseph’s hand, he found a sizeable but flat object wrapped in Brown paper. Miles could immediately tell that this item was a picture of some sort.Miles watched both Joseph Rutherford and August Leonard walk towards a man with a poised demeanor and a lean build. They shook hands with him before Joseph brought the flat object in his hand forward. All three men conversed with one another, and it was at th
“I’m afraid you guys understand my intention.” Miles remained unshaded before the mockery and passive insults directed at him. “I have the intention of buying this painting from you, but I would have to appraise it myself before that.” He smirked ominously at Joseph. “Is that okay with you?”Just like this, the mocking chuckles directed at Miles dissipated. The way he had just handled this situation with calmness made the onlookers doubt their earlier perspective about Miles. It turned out that he was genuinely interested in buying the painting and wasn’t trying to humiliate anyone. Joseph saw where the situation was headed and he reluctantly handed the painting to Miles. “Fine, go crazy with it.” He knew that he had to do this, or else, it would make him look like the unreasonable one instead.Miles began to look over the painting with a sudden seriousness in his expression. After a while, he suddenly brought the painting to his ear and he tapped on it lightly, over and over again.
Once August saw this he sneered. Due to his past few encounters with Miles, at the restaurant, and also at the class reunion, he was quite convinced that Miles was a hidden Tigger pretending to be a weak sheep the whole time. Now though, he felt like his earlier perspective of Mikes, as a lowlife scum who didn’t deserve Lola as a wife, is the reality.“What the hell is your problem, Miles?! You still want my father to pay for you?” Lesley couldn’t hold in her resentment towards her brother-in-law any more. “Look, just because you can shamelessly poach on my sister’s money doesn’t mean that….”“Enough, Lesley!” Jonathan suddenly stopped his daughter from uttering another word of insult at Miles. He then grabbed Miles away from the crowd to talk to him privately. “Look, I hope you’re aware that I trust your capabilities. You’ve done nothing but show me that you’re a survivor despite the heavy challenges you’ve been dealing with. But I don’t understand why you want to buy that painting s
The crowd couldn’t believe it at all as they heard the sound of paper being ripped apart. The shock intensified when it became clear to all of them that Miles had suddenly started tearing apart the painting he bought for $215,000 not even five minutes after he bought it.“Have you lost your goddamn minds, Miles?!” Joseph was horrified at the scene.“He must have lost it,” August whispered to his friend while his eyes remained on Miles who kept tearing at the painting.“What is he doing?!” Frederick Lore placed his hand on Jonathan’s arm as he kept a very worried gaze on Miles. “That painting has now lost all worth! This is a unique antique, and now, it’s been reduced to trash!”“I…um.” Jonathan was struggling to come up with a good explanation for his son-in-law. He was still discussing the possibility of a stable job for Miles within Frederick’s establishment. Initially, Miles had made a huge impression on the antique appraiser Big-Shot, but with this sudden destruction of an item, J
Miles smiled ominously as he handed the painting over to Caleb. “Sure thing, Mr. Autumn.”Caleb frowned slightly before gathering himself. He had expected some snarky words from Miles, but he was thrown off by the man’s tactical obedience. Miles, on the other hand, didn’t feel any animosity from Caleb right now, and thus, he simply didn’t feel the need to make a snarky remark against the man. Plus, Caleb was one of the organizers, and Miles was more concerned with getting to the bottom of this painting revelation rather than getting in trouble with a major member of the organizing committee, which may then ruin his plan.Once the painting was in Caleb’s hands, he began inspecting this antique item along with the other organizers. They could only later confirm that this painting was indeed much more authentic and older in comparison to the painting that Miles had ripped away. The organizers had to call in the appraisal experts as well, including Frederick and Alexander, to inspect and