“So if your lousy husband brings a gift for grandma, show me what the gift is, Serena? You don’t need to say much, just show me, because I don’t want to waste time arguing with useless humans like you two.”
Serena ignored Miles’ words, she was about to ask Daren to leave but Miles didn’t seem satisfied enough to taunt Serena along with Daren this time. Humiliating both of them was what Miles really wanted.
“Wait, don’t you guys want to see the gift I have prepared for grandma? Shouldn’t you be very curious about the gift I have prepared for grandma?”
“I don’t care.” Daren said quite firmly.
Miles smiled sarcastically, then he walked in front of Daren with a perfect mocking expression on his face.
“A poor man like you will never understand how valuable a gift worth five hundred million dollars is.”
Daren smiled meaningfully at Miles, he never expected to meet an arrogant man like Miles at the Hoodie family residence.
However, Daren didn’t immediately reply to Miles’ words. He only paid attention to Miles who acted like a king who had a lot of wealth.
“Oh really? I didn’t realize you had that much savings, Miles. I’m sure it’s your father’s money.” Serena scoffed.
“It doesn’t matter whose money it is, look at how these expensive antique ceramics. They are ceramics from the ancient British Empire, and I am a lucky person to be able to get them.”
Miles immediately opened the lid of the glass box, then he showed off the antique ceramic to Serena and Daren.
Daren, who saw this, was silent, looking deeply at the ceramics. Meanwhile Miles smiled with satisfaction.
“Don’t touch it, Daren. Those are expensive ceramics! Even if you sold your soul, you still can’t afford this ceramic!”
“I just looked at it, shouldn’t I do it?”
“You don’t even have the right to look.”
“But, I feel something strange about your ceramics, Miles.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!” Miles snapped. He pushed Daren’s body backwards, but Daren rushed to resist the push.
“Uncle and Aunt, look at your son-in-law’s behavior. I bought this antique ceramic for one hundred million dollars, but he said that my antique ceramic is very strange. I don’t know at all, does the poor guy really have such primitive thinking? Look, even grandma wouldn’t be willing to see how cheap your gift is.”
Everyone there looked at each other. Of course they looked at Daren with disgust and contempt. Serena, who didn’t accept that her husband was being belittled by Miles, immediately grabbed Daren’s hand to approach her grandmother.
“Wait…” said Daren who still wanted to be there. “I want to say something to Miles.”
“What else do you want to say, Daren? Aren’t you satisfied with being humiliated by Miles in front of everyone?”
“I don’t feel humiliated. I have a reason of why I looked at that strange ceramic object.”
“Daren—”
“Miles, don’t ever lie. The antique ceramic you brought for grandma isn’t a real antique ceramic, it’s just a piece of junk worth around fifty dollars sold on the market over there, then you deliberately painted it and carved it to make it look like the antique ceramic. How much do you charge for this cheap thing? Even the paint has a foul smell that will damage the lungs of anyone who inhales it. Do you want to kill grandma slowly?”
“You ….”
Miles was very surprised, he had no idea that Daren would know all this. How could Daren even research so carefully?
“Don’t be crazy, Daren. What slander have you done to me? I spent a lot of money on these antique ceramics!”
Miles started to feel worried, he was afraid that his father would find out about this. How could it not be, he asked his father for that much money on purpose, apart from buying antique ceramics which weren’t worth much, Miles would use the money to buy a new car, and the rest was for him to have fun with his girlfriend.
“It’s up to you if you still want to lie, I’m not at all forcing you to believe that it’s you who is being deceived by someone. It’s just that I’m telling you about this, and I hope you can understand, so that your stupidity won’t harm grandma.”
Miles became silent again, how could he possibly endanger his grandmother? Miles thought that his grandmother would receive so many gifts that it would be impossible to keep them in the room. And it certainly wouldn’t affect his grandmother. Who would have thought that Daren would think that way.
“Miles, tell me if what that ignorant man said was a lie?”
“Of course, father. What Daren said was a lie, do you trust a poor man who has never even seen an expensive antique more than your own son?” Miles was still trying to dodge it and of course all the Hoodie family believed Miles one hundred percent.
Meanwhile, Daren was still confident with all his thoughts. Because he was never wrong about what he saw.
“Daren, what are you thinking? Why did you say that in front of so many people? Do you think you’ve ever seen an expensive antique? Don’t be stupid, Daren. Just be quiet and don’t need to cause trouble especially with Miles!” Serena snapped at him.
“I can take responsibility for what I say, Serena. And I will never be wrong in saying anything. What I saw from Miles’ ceramics was the truth, so why should I be silent? Do you want grandma to be in trouble just because of that deadly fake things?” Daren was still stubborn.
Serena felt that this time Daren really meant it. Even though Serena felt that it was strange, Serena had to prove it herself.
“Okay, let’s go in and give our gifts to grandma then go home.” Serena decided.
Daren agreed with Serena’s words.While looking sharply at Miles, he smiled meaningfully and this made Miles’ blood boil.
“Grandma, happy birthday!”
“Serena, you’re here?” Mrs. Hoodie was happy that she could finally meet Serena again. Then the expression on her face changed when she saw Daren. Yes, Mrs. Hoodie didn’t like Daren very much. “Why did you bring that useless guy?”“Come on, Grandma. He is my husband, how could I not invite Daren to be with me on your birthday? Especially since we have prepared a gift for you, and Daren chose the gift himself.”Mrs. Hoodie was silent, she looked at a sweet crystal ball in the box. Then Mrs. Hoodie smiled faintly.“Is it true that Daren bought this?”“That’s right, Grandma. I chose it, Serena gave me responsibility for it. Serena said Grandma suffers from insomnia, and this item is very helpful in getting a good night’s sleep. I hope that with this object next to grandma, then grandma can sleep soundly.”“Thank you, maybe you can’t afford an expensive gift, but you have given me the most useful gift of all. Thank you very much again, Daren.”Daren was beyond happy to hear this. He smil
“The shape, material, and motif are different. The original ceramic had nine black dots on each flower petal, while Miles’ ceramic only had six black dots. At first glance, they look the same, but believe me, the ceramics are fake, Grandma."Mrs. Hoodie became silent again. Apparently she was again surprised by what Daren found out. Now he was curious, who was Daren’s real figure? How could Daren know about a problem like this? If Daren knew how many black dots there were, didn’t that mean Daren had seen real ceramics?“Have you ever gone to see the ceramics in person?”“No, I just often look on the internet.” Daren argued quite cleverly. If it was like that, surely Mrs. Hoodie would never be suspicious of him, right? “Can’t you study anywhere, Grandma? I have quite a lot of insight from the internet and from books in the library. A free knowledge which has enormous benefits.”“Then, what if I give you a challenge? Maybe this challenge will make you feel happy.”“Challenge?”“Yes.”D
This morning, Daren was at a restaurant. He is wanted to go in to meet Jackob as promised last night. But, when Daren was about to enter, the security guards immediately blocked him, and of course this shocked Daren beyond belief.“Who are you? What are you here for? Do you have money to pay for food here?” The question was directly addressed to Daren. Of course Daren was shocked beyond words. Until finally he realized that if they weren’t wrong, it was his clothes that were wrong. Daren was wearing shabby clothes, clothes whose colors were even faded and looked very shabby. The security guard must have thought that Daren was a beggar.“I had an appointment with Mr. Materna, and he booked table number eighteen.” Daren answered calmly.The two security guards whispered to each other, then both smiled again and looked at Daren still with mocking looks.“Do you mean Mr. Martena who is the right-hand man of the Wiles family?” asked the security officer.Daren was quite happy to hear that,
Daren nodded then smiled faintly at Jackob. “You are Dad’s only employee I can trust and rely on, Jack. And I hope that whatever Dad’s attitude towards me, you will always protect him. He is old and frail even though he acts great at times.”“Very well, Young Master Wiles. I will always obey all your orders.”“Good!”After talking with Jackob, Daren even went straight home. He also brought several luxurious menus from the restaurant.When he got home, Daren put all the food menus on the dining table. Serena, who had just opened the bedroom door, glanced at what Daren had brought.“What are you carrying? Where were you from?”“I just came from the Wiles family company to do a demo.”“Demo?” Serena said with a mocking smile. “I’m sure, even all the files you brought were thrown away by them without them looking at those files first.”Daren smiled sweetly, then he invited Serena to enjoy the food he had brought earlier.“Where do you get expensive food like this?”“You don’t need to wond
“Okay, if it’s like that. That’s very good, Grandma. I’m really reluctant to show my name to everyone, with Grandma’s name I actually feel helped.”“Grandma, are you crazy? How could you—”“Tonight, gather all members of the Hoodie family and announce all this to them. Agree or not, they must obey my decision and everyone must obey what I have decided.”“This is crazy!” Miles immediately slammed one of the ceramics beside him and then he just left the Hoodie family residence.“Thank you, Grandma. I will prove to you that I am capable, and I promise to make you proud to have a leader like me.”Daren insisted on becoming the leader of the Hoodie family company because he wanted to fight directly with Erdward. Daren was very curious about how Erdward would see him become a leader in another company, and prove to his family that he was capable. Even though he was in the position of a family company which it still needed an injection of funds from his family company in any case.*****“Of
“Sorry, don’t you think you have said something wrong, Miss?” Daren asked to clarify everything.The woman smiled quite sweetly, then shook her head perfectly.“I’m Cassandra. Actually I’m not a secretary at this company, sir. I was ordered by Mr Materna to accompany you, on the grounds that as one of the conditions of the Wiles family company there must be a representative working here. Because Mr. Materna couldn’t help you here, so he asked me to replace him.”Daren immediately looked away, then he took a deep breath after making sure that everything was fine.“I didn’t expect Jack to be this cute, thank you very much for coming and once again, call me Mr. Hoodie. You know about that, don’t you?”“Yes sir. Sorry if I accidentally called you Mr. Wiles, because I heard you introduce yourself as Daren Wiles to the security guard outside.”“Because I’m sure that if they don’t know me. It’s different if you call me like that, my identity will easily be revealed, do you understand?”“Yes
“Just look, Grandma. I hope you are not surprised by the results I showed you. And this is a fact which in reality is like that.”Mrs. Hoodie read the contents of the file, then she glanced at Miles who was still pretending to act stupid.“Is all this true, Miles?” Mrs. Hoodie asked then.Miles, who suddenly heard the question, was of course confused. He didn’t know how to answer the question.“What do you mean, Grandma? What is it about? I don’t understand at all, Grandma.”“From this data, it shows that several percent of profits from the company, even though it is really very small, go into a personal account. And when it was investigated, that account belongs to you in another country. If you collect all the money you transferred to your personal account, in fact it is far more than the cost of producing a product in our company.”Miles was shocked beyond words, he didn’t understand at all how all this could happen? Then he glanced at Daren. He didn’t know what was happening but
“Now can we talk, Daren?”Daren stopped in his tracks just as he saw his wife sitting on the living room sofa with her arms crossed. His wife looked at Daren fiercely as if Daren had made a fatal mistake."What is the problem?" Daren finally asked. Sitting in front of his wife then he untied several ties around his neck.“Now explain to me what happened, after a while this job of yours is the most terrible thing there is. You come and examine a vase that is not important, its origin. Then you were entrusted with researching a problem in the company, and another thing was that you were suddenly entrusted with being the leader of the company owned by my family. Hey, what are you doing? What charade are you trying to put on that makes everything so insignificant like this? You know that a company has a lot of employees, if your intention is just to play around then stop, because a company and being in control of a company is not a toy at all, you know!" shouted Serena, who was really ang