I thought the man was deaf. “T-Tiffany…” He suddenly called out in a fearful voice.
Hearing his voice, Tiffany turned to look at him. Her eyes immediately became watery, and tears were about to spill out at any moment.
Ashton was not bothered with their act of being star-crossed lovers. He coolly said, “Speak up now, my dear sister. Besides the obituary, what other good things did you have a hand in?”
There were no warnings or threats, but Ashton emphasized heavily on the words “good things”.
Perhaps she knew that this was the calm before the storm, or maybe she thought back to all the times she nearly died at Ashton’s hands – Tiffany was terrified. In a shaky voice, she said, “I-I was the one who suggested hypnosis to Dad. But I was forced to do so! Dad was too frightening. In these thirty years, he controlled everything I did. Which school I went to, the people I saw, how many assets I have under my name… Everything had to be according to his wishes. Only by doing so would I be considered a child of the Hall family and become an emotionless robot like he was!”
“But he didn’t stop there. He wanted to control not only everything we did but also how we think!”
She paused and turned to caress the man’s cheek. Her expression was suddenly full of sadness. “I chose Keith, but Dad ordered for people to break his legs. He threatened me that if I wanted Keith to stay alive, I have to go back and fulfill my duties as his obedient daughter. I could only compromise, but the seed of hatred was deeply planted in my heart. I swore I would escape from this hell hole one day!”
“Finally, you appeared, and Dad had a breakthrough in his genetic experiment. If you had brought back the children, I would have successfully completed my escape plan. As fate would have it, you were too headstrong. You were even tougher than Nathaniel and me. Hence, you would never bow down before Dad. I was about to give up on this plan until our headquarters was completely submerged in the ocean. The flame of hope in my heart was ignited once again. The explosion on the island dealt a great blow to the Hall family and gave me a chance. I proposed to Dad that we could hypnotize you so that the Hall family could have a perfect puppet. I, on the other hand, would be able to amass resources under your cover and wait for the best chance to leave.”
Hearing Tiffany’s confession, I couldn’t help but feel that her whole life had been tragic and pitiful. “Even so, you had six years to leave, but you dragged on until now. To put it simply, your greed has caused your own demise.”
“So what if I was greedy?” Tiffany raised her voice all of a sudden. “It was what I deserved! Do you think my ranking in the Forbes list meant anything? In reality, all those assets were monitored by the Hall family! Besides daily expenses, I didn’t even have the right to take a million for myself. Therefore, I could only turn my attention toward the company. I was about to leave, but all of a sudden you decided to freeze the company’s assets. I was left with no choice but to kidnap Gregory in exchange for sufficient money to elope with Keith. I swear to you Ashton. I had no intention of harming Gregory!”
While prattling on about her predicament, she clasped her hands together and kept begging for Ashton’s forgiveness. “Please let us go, Ashton. I promise you. We will never appear before you ever again…” Tiffany was betting on Ashton’s mercy. She did not appear to be the slightest remorseful at putting her own nephew at risk.
If we had not tagged along and followed Ashton here, Gregory and I would never know that this woman, who kept preaching that we were all family, would betray us all in a heartbeat for her own gain.
“You are truly the good daughter of Nicolas Hall,” I said with gritted teeth. My hands would have balled up into fists if I hadn’t been holding Gregory’s shoulders. “If Ashton had not seen through your plan, Gregory would have been kidnapped by you. Did you ever consider the trauma you could cause to a six-year-old child if that were to happen?”
