Chapter 116 Dumbest of Them All
No words could describe the way Michael was feeling. Help her? How am I supposed to do that? Tie Nicholas down at the altar and force him into marrying her? That wasn’t feasible; Nicholas would never listen to him, much less be duped into being tied down at the altar. As things were, he had no choice but to wash his hands off the matter.
Angie thought she could outsmart everyone by finding a way to remain in high society, but she probably didn’t think that she had dealt her worst hand in this game of cards. If she honestly believed that Nicholas would marry her just because she set him up to sleep with her and thereby keep her place in the Wendel Family, she must be either stupid or naive.
After all, it wasn’t as if the world revolved around her and her whims. Now, she had lost herself to someone who would not take responsibility for it. Not only that, she even lost Erin and Morgan’s support, trust, and love. She had lost everything.
Michael sighed quietly in resignation before he pushed her away and said, “I can’t help you.”
“No, Dad, that’s not true,” Angie cried. “Nicholas ruined me, so shouldn’t you at least talk to Uncle Morgan and Aunt Erin about getting him to marry me so that I won’t have to live with the shame?”
“Don’t even think about it, Angie!” Nicholas roared. “I will never marry you. I won’t marry anyone else other than Alina, so just give up on your foolish dreams!”
“Dad, Dad!” Angie clutched Michael’s arm and begged tearfully, “Dad, please say something. I lost myself to Nicholas, and I have nowhere to go right now. My future is ruined! You have to hold him accountable for this!”
“Stop with that nonsense, Angie!” Erin took Alina by the hand and said, “I will have no one other than Lina be my daughter-in-law. A tramp like you isn’t even good enough to polish my shoes, much less marry my son! Go look in a mirror and look at your filthy state. My son is out of your league, you bottom-feeder. Know your place!”
Indeed, Alina was born into the elite Harmon Family, and she was a young lady whose status was on par with Nicholas’. Next to her, Angie was just the scum of the earth.
That said, the Colts were considerably affluent as well, though not as influential as the Harmons. Besides, Xander was a pushover who only ever listened to his step-wife, and she had nothing to do with Angie whatsoever. If Angie were to return to the Colt Residence, she would be nothing more than an additional mouth to feed and a waste of space. She would have no dowry to offer her suitors and no inheritance from the Colts.
Erin’s sons were not as brilliant as Michael’s, but Nicholas’ greatest accomplishment to date had to be snagging a fiancée like Alina.
After all, the Harmons were a distinguished blue-blood family in Wendel City, and Alina ought to be with someone like Jonathan; for her to choose Nicholas was still something that made Erin’s heart swell with pride, though she never said it.
Yet, Angie was trying to tear Nicholas and Alina apart right now. Erin would rather die than allow that to happen.
Alina was the only daughter-in-law she wanted, and she would not allow the likes of Angie to ruin that plan.
However, at that moment, Alina shrugged off Erin’s hand and said curtly, “Madam Erin, I think I’ve made myself very clear that I want to call off the engagement. I refuse to marry Nicholas!” Her icy gaze swept past Morgan, Erin, and Nicholas, all of whom looked shocked. “Mr. and Mrs. Wendel, Nicholas—I hereby absolve myself of all relations to your family. You can take any girl you want as a daughter-in-law now that I’ve called it quits. Nicholas and I are through, so don’t use me as a shield against all your problems. I’ll be going home now, so the rest of you should carry on. Nicholas…” She shot him a withering look. “We’re over now, so don’t come looking for me. I hate you, and I don’t want you to show up in front of me ever again!”
“No, Lina, please don’t do this!” Nicholas begged desperately as tears glistened in his eyes. “Lina, I didn’t mean to betray you like this; I was set up by Angie! Lina, I don’t understand how you can walk away when it isn’t even my fault to begin with. Is what we have truly so fragile that it allows no room for accidents like this? How can you just leave me and break up with me without batting an eye? Do you think so little of me that you could just cast me aside like this? We’ve been together for years, Lina. Why would I ever want to break up?”
At this, he took a deep breath that seemed to pain him as he went on to say, “Why are you breaking up with me? Lina, you have to know that I’ve only ever loved you, and that remains true even though I accidentally and unknowingly slept with Angie! Can’t we just say that I got hit in the head or I got bamboozled and move on with this? I know that I’m wrong, and I made you upset. You can beat me, lash out at me, or even punish me if you’d like, but just don’t break up with me or leave me.”
“I’m doing this because I’m disappointed in you,” Alina explained coolly, her gaze clear and unwavering. “Nicholas, you’re not Angie’s only cousin; she has four, and you are not the most capable among them. Do you know why she chose you anyway?”
He was stumped. “T-That’s because Angie and I have always been close before this incident. I promise you that’s not the case anymore, though! I hate her! I swear that I’ll pretend as if I never knew her, and I won’t have anything to do with her from now on!”
“You really think it’s because you guys were close?” Alina snorted. “No, Nicholas, you’re wrong! She chose to set you up not because you were close with her, but because you’re the most stupid one out of the lot!”
“Lina, what… what are you saying?” Nicholas flushed bright red.
“I’m saying that the only reason why Angie chose to set you up is because you are the dumbest among your brothers!” Alina eyed him scornfully. “Angie is a daughter of the Colt Family, and Madeline is Mr. Michael’s real daughter. Angie only stayed with the Wendels and enjoyed a life of privilege because her mother, Cameron, cruelly took Madeline away and put Angie in her place! Now that the truth is out, it’s only right for Angie to give Madeline back her birthright and move out of the Wendel Residence! That’s how justice works! However, you just had to put your foot in and insist on taking Angie back to your place. You have no common sense of right and wrong, and you lack foresight. You’re dumb, and you’re incapable of looking at the big picture. How am I supposed to just leave my future in your hands?”
She stared at him for a while before answering her own question with a look of disappointment. “I can’t do that to myself. Nicholas, you have let me down. You are not the man I want to spend the rest of my life with! The man I choose will be capable and intelligent, not to mention sensible—someone unlike you. You’re foolish and lack good sense, so I can’t possibly love or even admire you. I… I must have been blind to even think you and I could work out. I have overestimated you.”
Nicholas had pursued her relentlessly for years before she was finally moved by his dedication and sincerity and went on to become his girlfriend. She even said yes to him when he popped the question, and they had been engaged for over a year.
She was moved by how loyal he seemed and how devoted he was to his romantic pursuit of her. After all, it was rare for someone to be in love with another for years without once wavering. Since then, she saw him through rose-colored glasses. She convinced herself that she would be happy with Nicholas after she married him because he was a good and honest man.
Something in her finally clicked right now, and the rose-colored glasses shattered.
It didn’t matter how much he loved her, for he was foolish and without fortitude. The both of them could never meet in the middle, and if they were to marry, fighting over differing opinions would take up much of their life together. She could already imagine how exhausting that would be.
For example, if she had known about the incident surrounding Angie and Madeline’s birth stories, she would have never allowed Nicholas to bring the former home.
However, if that were the case, Nicholas would think of her as unsympathetic and heartless. He would undoubtedly play devil’s advocate and claim that it was only right to help Angie out now that her life had fallen apart; to suggest he did otherwise would be borderline cruelty.
Even if by some miracle or other she had convinced him to see her point, he would still grow to resent her for dissuading him to leave Angie be.
Alina couldn’t risk having moments like that taint her marriage, and she couldn’t possibly bring herself to marry a man as foolish as Nicholas.
