Chapter 155 An Appeal for Sympathy
Moving, for example, was one of those things. Crystal wanted the entire family to move over to Dusktown so that she could be with her daughter all the time, but Michael thought that would be unsuitable considering Robert’s old age. He had good reason, and that was why she had given up on the idea of moving and compromised with him instead.
Michael was touched to know that Crystal didn’t need much persuading to see eye-to-eye with him, and he felt certain that there was no other woman as wonderful as her.
Crystal had given him four sons and a daughter throughout their marriage. All four of their sons were kind and responsible young men who took care of their mother and obeyed her more than they listened to Michael. If she had insisted on moving over to Dusktown, the boys would undoubtedly go along with her plan as well.
If that came to pass, then Michael would be left all alone in Wendel City with Robert!
At the thought of that, he wrapped an arm around Crystal’s shoulders and murmured softly in her ear, “You’re the best, darling.”
“Stop fooling around,” Crystal said with a laugh as she shoved him aside. She flushed as she glanced over at Nelson and Madeline before she warned, “The kids are still here.”
Madeline pursed her lips as she smiled warmly at her mother. She liked her parents a lot; they had treated Quincy and Joel with unconditional love and kindness, and they were also happily and enviably in love with each other.
Theirs was a wonderful relationship that could only be associated with positive terms. Growing old together seemed to be Michael and Crystal’s goal, and forever and always was a term created for the likes of them. They were a match made in heaven and nothing could separate them. Indeed, Madeline saw them as a live embodiment of such fairytale concepts.
When her parents were together, Madeline allowed herself to believe in true love and everlasting marriage. If she could have what they did to look forward to in the future, it would be her wildest dreams come true. Can I really have what they have, though?
At the thought of this, she couldn’t help thinking about Sebastian. She and Sebastian could be on this journey for an indefinite period of time, but there was no telling when it would come to an end.
Presently, they walked up to the car while exchanging funny anecdotes with one another. When they were halfway to the car, they saw another vehicle pull a stop near them.
The car door opened, and it was a bodyguard who got out first, thereafter opening the door to the backseat for the passenger.
At that moment, a woman in her forties emerged from the car. She was tall, standing at around five-feet-seven, and while she wasn’t plump in any way, her height gave others the impression that she was a well-built woman.
Crystal recognized her immediately.
The woman who had gotten down from the car was none other than Xander’s current wife, Amelia.
At the sight of Michael and Crystal, Amelia smiled at them warmly as she greeted, “President Wendel, Mrs. Wendel, what a coincidence.”
Crystal stopped in her tracks and flashed the woman the barest hint of a smile that did not reach her eyes. “What a coincidence, indeed.” Her tone belied her skepticism. She feared that running into Amelia while they were still so close by the incarceration facility was not so much a coincidence as it was a result of the woman asking someone to spy on them. She had found out that Crystal was here to see Cameron, and she had decided to come by to badger her.
Amelia was still beaming as she asked, “Mrs. Wendel, I’m sure you and President Wendel must miss Angie terribly after not seeing her for so long. Angie is here with me too!” She waved her hand at Angie, who was sitting in the backseat of the car. “Angie, come out here and say hi to your parents! What are you hiding in the backseat for?”
Angie slid out of the car with red-rimmed eyes and greeted Michael and Crystal timidly, “Mom, Dad.”
Neither Michael nor Crystal made a response.
If they had had any residual sentiments for Angie, whom they had raised for over two decades, before this, those sentiments dissipated after they had seen Cameron.
Angie was not their daughter; she was a weapon in Cameron’s arsenal meant to torture them and aggravate them. To show Angie any form of kindness was to be cruel to themselves, and to accept her was to betray their biological daughter, Madeline.
There was no way they would be so foolish.
Upon seeing no response from Michael and Crystal, Amelia grimaced. Meanwhile, Angie grew flustered.
She took a few tentative steps forward until she came to a stop in front of Michael and Crystal. Then, she gazed at them imploringly as she asked, “Mom, Dad, I’ve missed you both. Will you be staying in Dusktown for long? Can I go back to visit?”
In truth, she had already been by their place in hopes of visiting them. However, she was kept out of doors, and she never got to see Michael or Crystal. She dared not let Amelia learn of the fact that she was despised by Michael and Crystal, so much so that they even refused to see her.
She knew that the Colts only took her in, fed and cared for her because they thought she was still on good terms with Michael and Crystal, both of whom Amelia were trying to appease.
In fact, Amelia was hoping to use Angie as a way to get close to the Wendels and procure some kind of profitable collaboration.
The Wendels’ bodyguards had been the ones to drop Angie off at the Colt Residence.
Amelia had not been sure if the bodyguards were acting on someone else’s orders or their own, because when they had dropped Angie off at the house, they had made it clear to her and Xander that they were to take good care of Angie. There was no telling if the bodyguards had only said it out of common courtesy and nothing else.
While the bodyguards might not have meant anything by that, neither Xander nor Amelia wanted to risk it.
After all, the Colts were not as prominent as the Wendels, whose power and influence were far beyond theirs. If they were to take Cedric, who was the least accomplished in Michael’s family, as a yardstick, even he could easily outdo the Colts.
While the Colts were an elite family in Dusktown, they were nothing compared to the Wendels.
Dusktown was far more prosperous than Wendel City in the sense that it was the nation’s economic and political center.
The Wendels, on the other hand, were merely the wealthiest family in Wendel City, but their riches could not stand to compete with that of their Dusktown counterpart. However, the branch enterprises under Wendel Corporation in Dusktown were doing relatively well, so the Wendels were still considered part of the elite circle here as well.
The Colts, however, were probably third-rate among all the elite families. Xander and Amelia wouldn’t dream of messing with the Wendels, not when their capabilities in any industry could never match up to the latter’s.
As such, when the Wendels’ bodyguards told them to take good care of Angie, they dared not disobey them.
Angie had not had it particularly easy during her stay with the Colts, but it was still better than what Madeline had been put through during her life with the Taylors’.
That said, she could sense Amelia’s hostility toward her, and it seemed like she couldn’t wait to throw her out of the house.
Earlier today, Amelia had somehow found out that Crystal and Michael would be here to see Cameron in prison, and she had insisted on bringing Angie along with her so that she could badger the couple.
Along the way, she had told Angie to hook the Colts up with the Wendels so that they could become business partners.
Angie had known at once that Amelia was trying to test her. She wanted to see how Michael and Crystal would react to Angie; if they even cared about Angie at all, so much so that they would even consider working together with the Colts, it would be in Angie’s best interests. After all, that meant she would not have to suffer any hardships while she was staying at the Colt Residence.
However, if Amelia were to find out that Michael and Crystal had cut Angie off entirely, and that they did not care whether she lived or died at all, she would only suffer in the hands of the Colts from now on.
She was Xander’s daughter, but he had no affections for her whatsoever, and it didn’t help that Amelia was known for being as heartless as she was aggressive. Being a stepdaughter to her could only mean a life full of darkness for Angie.
As things were, Michael and Crystal’s residual love for her, if they had any at all, was her only hope.
That was why she was gazing at them imploringly, hoping that they could show her some sympathy for old times’ sake. For as long as they still showed that they loved her as if she was their daughter, she would not suffer too badly at the Colts’ place.
Life at the Colts’ place was on a different end of the spectrum from life at the Wendels’, but there was no way that Angie could ever be part of the latter again, and beggars couldn’t be choosers.
