Titus didn’t answer that. Instead, he asked darkly, “Where’s Tina?”
“She’s in her room,” Julia answered.
Titus squinted for a moment, then he went upstairs.
His inexplicable anger was making Julia’s heart pound with fear. Did Tina do something to get on his nerves? Worried about her daughter, Julia quickly followed him upstairs.
Titus started banging on the door once he was outside Tina’s room.
The door was opened a moment later, revealing Tina behind it. She was in her pajamas, looking sleepy. “What is it, Dad?”
The fact that she was looking sleepy only served to fuel his anger. I was humiliated at an important meeting, while you’re just sleeping? The more he thought about it, the angrier he was. In the end, he couldn’t hold it back anymore, and he slapped Tina as hard as he could.
Slap! Tina fell to the ground from the impact of the slap, entirely dumbstruck. But more importantly, she didn’t know why her father was slapping her.
Julia came over just in time to see that. She screamed in horror and went up to hold Tina. “Tina!”
Tina was holding her face with one hand, staring at her furious father in confusion.
Julia was flabbergasted as well, but she was also infuriated. “Are you mad, Titus? Why’d you slap your daughter?”
“Why did I slap her, you ask? Do you have any idea what this girl did?” Titus was pointing at Tina with a trembling finger.
Tina finally got up with her mother’s help. “What? What did I do, Dad?” She stared at her father tearfully.
“Yeah, what did she do?” Julia touched Tina’s face, and she started to cry. “Does it hurt, Tina?” Her face was already red, obviously because Titus didn’t hold back.
“Yes, it does.” Tina bit her lip, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Good!” Titus snorted. “When you told me I’m getting the deal, I thought you slept your way into the company. Turns out I got the deal because you switched my proposal with someone else’s.”
All at once, Tina averted her gaze guiltily.
Julia was surprised too, but she shrugged Tina’s actions off quickly. “So what? That’s no big deal. Did you have to slap her?”
“It wouldn’t have been a big deal, except she didn’t do a clean job. Sure, Tom was distracted, but there was a surveillance camera in the room. You got caught red handed, Tina.” Titus looked at her coldly.
Tina froze up. “I-I didn’t know there was a surveillance camera in there.”
“Too late for excuses. Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was when Sonia pointed out that the proposal isn’t mine? There were more than twenty presidents in the room. Do you know how bad this is going to be for my rep?” Titus growled.
Tina stared down in fearful silence.
Julia patted Titus’ back. “It can’t be that bad, can it, honey?”
“Why can’t it be? Now everyone knows I have a daughter who tried to cheat her way through the competition. My reputation’s scarred. The whole town’s gonna laugh at me.”
Then, he pointed at Julia. “You’re gonna get dragged into this as well. The next time you go on an outing with your friends, they’re gonna treat you like a joke.”
That finally made Julia nervous. “T-They won’t, right?”
“You’ll get your answer eventually.” Titus sneered.
Julia believed her husband. And seconds later, she shot a complicated look at Tina.
Tina knew Julia was starting to blame her for this disaster as well, so she started acting the victim again. “But I did it all for you, Dad. I wanted you to get the partnership.”
Tina’s victim act worked again, for Julia stopped blaming her. “Yeah, honey.” She nodded. “Tina’s out of line, but she’s right.”
But Titus mocked, “And that’s why she turned out this way, because you keep defending her. She’s a cruel, dumb woman. That’s one sloppy job she did. At this rate, she’ll drag the whole family down with her.”
Tina looked at him in disbelief. “Dad?” She couldn’t believe that Titus only thought of her as a cruel, dumb girl. That comment fueled the deep, dark hatred within her, and her eyes turned crimson. But she couldn’t let Titus see that, so she quickly stared down, pretending to be scared.
Since his anger was getting the better of him, Titus felt his migraine kicking in. “You’re grounded for two days. Think over what you did during this period of time.” He massaged his temples and went downstairs to get some aspirin.
After Titus was gone, Julia went to calm Tina down. “Your father was just saying that out of anger. Don’t take it to heart.”
Tina nodded. “I want to be alone for a bit, Mom. You should leave.” Her voice started to break.
“Alright then.” Julia sighed.
She was about to chastise Titus, but when she saw him taking his aspirin, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she sat down beside Titus. “Tina knows she shouldn’t have done that. Just let it slide this one time, huh?”
Titus sighed. “I’m just worried this might not be the only time. I knew it. We shouldn’t have adopted—”
“Titus!” Shocked, Julia raised her voice to stop him. “Do not speak of that.”
Titus snorted. “Alright, alright. Honestly though, Tina’s a smart girl, but she’s careless and opportunistic. This will be problematic in the long run. I can’t leave the company to her, but luckily, we still have Rina.”
The mention of Rina made Julia shed some tears, but she wiped it away. “It’s been two days, but she still refuses to see us. I think she’s avoiding us on purpose because she thinks we abandoned her. Why don’t we search for her? So she knows we didn’t abandon her.”
Titus nodded. “Sure. I’ll get my assistant to post the news online. Snap a photo of your necklace and send it to me.”
“Sure!” Julia broke into a smile and agreed to it.
At the same time, Tina overheard everyone from the staircase, and she gripped the guardrail tightly. I knew that b*tch is up to no good. She’s still not back yet, but she’s already taking away their love from me. At this rate, she’s gonna take the company as well. I’m not letting that happen. She turned back into her room to make a call. “Hey, it’s me. About that person I asked you about, did you find out anything?”
A man’s voice sounded from the other end. “Not yet.”
Useless trash. She stomped her foot. It’s been two days, but there’s still no lead? Useless. “I’ll give you another two days. Fail me, and you’re getting it,” Tina threatened.
After ending the call, she put her phone down and hurriedly changed into a new set of clothes before she went to the Fuller Group. Now that it’s exposed, I’ll have to explain myself to Toby, or it won’t end well.
When she came to the company, Tina went toward the exclusive elevator as usual, but before she could reach it, the receptionist stopped her. “Miss Gray, did you make any appointment with us?”
Tina stared at her in disbelief. “Appointment? Me?”
“Yes.” The receptionist nodded with a smile, but she was thinking, Did she break up with the president? Is that why she’s not allowed upstairs?
