Chapter 114 Too Cruel
Michael gazed at Angie darkly and asked, “Will you listen to me?”
Angie met his gaze as panic seized her, wondering what the man might say. Will he stand up for me and call the shots? Will he make Nicholas marry me?
If these were old times, she was confident that he would be on her side, but now, she wasn’t sure. However, as things were, she had no choice but to listen to him.
She nodded and said earnestly, “Of course I will, Dad!”
“Very well,” Michael began. “In that case, get changed. I’ll take you away from here and drop you off at the pied-à-terre so you can stay there for a few days. Once you feel better, I’ll have Jonathan bring you to Dusktown where you will stay with your biological father from then on.”
He spoke so quietly, but his voice was clear and carrying in the deathly silence of the living room, and each word sent chills down Angie’s spine.
He’s too cruel! Indeed, this father of hers, who had been nothing but good to her all these years, was being cruel and heartless right now.
He hadn’t asked Nicholas to marry her, and instead wanted her to pack up so he could send her back to the Colts!
Granted, she wasn’t Michael’s biological daughter, but that didn’t mean the last two decades of their relationship had been paper-thin and so easily discarded. How can he be so heartless to me?
At first, the panic and bewilderment in her eyes were all but an act, but now, they were replaced by real despair and anguish; it was as if Michael had turned into a stranger. The longer she stared at him in disbelief, the faster her tears raced down her cheeks. “How could you do this to me, Dad? I know I’m not your actual daughter, but I’ve filled that role for over twenty years, haven’t I? Don’t you have even the slightest affection or sympathy for me? You’re just going to throw me out like trash? What did I do to deserve this?”
Michael met her gaze and said soothingly, “Angie, maybe you haven’t done anything wrong before, but you have today. You played Nicholas like a fool and lured him into bed. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in you.”
He had always believed that Angie was innocent this whole time, and while he had agreed to send her away from the main house, he never stopped feeling apologetic toward her. He even thought about putting her up at the Colts’ until he could placate his wife and Madeline. Once the storm blew over and things quieted down, he would think of a way to bring Angie back.
Where there was a will, there was a way. Crystal and Madeline were inevitably livid after recent events, and they could get impulsive. As such, Michael didn’t think it was suitable to try and mend the relationship between them and Angie.
However, he firmly believed that time could heal all wounds.
Crystal and Madeline would calm down eventually, and as long as he tried, he could come up with a way to make them accept Angie back into the family. By then, he could have both his biological and adopted daughter under one roof, and his happy family would be pieced back together.
He had such hopes, but the reality was often far more ruthless.
Angie had given him the impression that, albeit stubborn, she was kind-hearted and endearing. He had been sure that she was nothing like Cameron even though she was her biological daughter. After all, he was the one who had raised Angie; she must be sweet and considerate, the complete opposite of the vicious and despicable Cameron.
However, he was starting to have second thoughts right now.
Perhaps the apple didn’t fall far from the tree no matter how much he wanted to believe that wasn’t true.
He thought about how Cameron’s mother had plotted against and hurt Crystal’s father. Then, he thought about how Cameron had plotted against Crystal and himself. Now, Angie was plotting against Nicholas.
The last twenty years he had spent guiding Angie did not make her a dignified, kind-hearted, and self-sufficient young woman. She was endearing and lovable when things went her way, but in the face of hardship, the wickedness in her shone through, and she became just as malicious as her mother and grandmother.
“No, Dad! I didn’t!” Angie sobbed as she shook her head frantically.
She couldn’t understand why her seemingly foolproof plan had failed. She did not drug Nicholas at all, and one way or another, they had ended up sleeping together after they got drunk. She did not force herself on him, and everything happened consensually. On that premise alone, no one here should be able to pinpoint her crime and accuse her of plotting against Nicholas.
Things were turning out differently from what she had expected, and even Nicholas’ behavior was something she had not imagined.
She never thought that he would be smart enough to get to the bottom of this and insisted that she was the one who had set him up.
When they got drunk last night, she tried to hug and kiss him. He did not object to her advances, and instead naturally pulled her into his arms and pinned her down on the bed.
Yet, he was sure in his belief that he had been set up by her, insisting that she had planned all this from the beginning. Not only was he refusing to take responsibility for what he had done, but the affection and compassion that once colored his gaze whenever he looked at her were also gone, and they were replaced with unadulterated hatred.
This isn’t how I imagined it at all! Not even in the slightest! This isn’t how it should be!
In her mind, Nicholas would be filled with anguish, regret, and pain that he would be compelled to marry her. Her life with the Wendels had given her the companionship of her eight brothers, but among them, Cedric and Nicholas loved her the most.
The love and care that Nicholas had shown her could not be compared, for Jonathan, Joseph, and Connor did not even come close.
She knew that he was in love with Alina, but she was confident that he loved her as well. She was just as pretty as the woman, and now that they had slept together by some twist of fate, she was sure that he loved her enough to marry her after spending the night with her. She was sure that he would break up with Alina.
However, things were turning out to be vastly different from what she had anticipated.
Nicholas had outright refused to marry her, and now he harbored unmistakable enmity against her. She couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that he had had a change of heart so quickly.
Her parents, brothers, and Nicholas had now turned their backs on her.
When she called Cedric earlier, her helplessness, panic, and sadness had been an act. However, they were all too real right now. She was crying desperately as she stared at Michael and the four boys whom she had called her brothers for the last twenty years. “Dad, Jonathan—I’m your daughter and your sister! Why is this happening? How can you all be so content to see me ruined like this? Why aren’t you standing up for me? I have nothing now, and I’m not even my own person anymore because I’ve given that to Nicholas! Yet, you won’t even have him take responsibility for that? How can I live this down? This will be the death of me!”
“What’s going on?” Erin was shocked when she came upon the commotion in her house. Behind her was her husband, Morgan.
The both of them had gone out earlier that afternoon to run some errands, and they had just gotten back.
After entering the room, she immediately rushed over to Angie when she saw her crying desperately. She sat down next to the sobbing girl and wrapped an arm around her shaking frame before frowning as she looked at Michael. “Michael, what is the meaning of this? I’ve already brought Angie over to stay with us, so why won’t you leave her alone? Didn’t we agree that I would take her in as my own daughter? She has nothing to do with you anymore, so don’t even think about taking her away from me!” Then, she turned to Madeline and seethed, “You!”
