Chapter 35 Laugh
He held his phone, feeling guilty and confused.
Madeline felt curious that her uncle would stop after he called her name out. “Do you need anything, uncle?”
“Oh yes, um, yeah, I have something to say.” He snapped out of it and said hoarsely, “Madeline, I’ve heard about all of it from Dan. And I’m…”
He wanted to apologize, but then he thought, The test isn’t done yet. What if Dan got it wrong? If she’s not Crystal’s daughter, that means Cameron is still her mother. He changed his mind and said instead, “And I know Phoebe has gone too far this time, but she has received her punishment. Please, for my sake, can you forgive her this once?”
Madeline thought it was a weird thing to hear. She had known Nigel for many years, and it was the first time he talked so softly with her. And he’s negotiating? If it’s in the past, he’d be roaring at me and ordering me around. ‘Madeline, I order you to let Phoebe out!’ ‘Madeline, do this or you’re an ungrateful cur!’ ‘Madeline, the family raised you. It’s time to repay your debt. You cannot do this to us!’ ‘Madeline, we spent a lot of money raising you. No matter what we do to you, you deserve it. You should be thanking us instead of complaining about anything. You’d better not do anything bad, or else.’
She had heard all this so often that she could already memorize them all, but to her surprise, her uncle changed his attitude today. She knew why that happened. All hatred and love happened for a reason. Someone’s story could be drastically changed if they had a different background.
She held her phone, but she had no idea what to say. Before this, all she could do was say yes, for they had told her many times that she would have died without Dan’s help. They said the Taylors gave her everything she had, and she had to give her life even if they wanted her to. All she could do was say yes, but now she wanted to say no.
And it wasn’t just because of her change in background. Phoebe was arrested because Sebastian called the cops on her. She had no right to drop the charges and let her out for obvious reasons, but she couldn’t tell Nigel that, for that would mean antagonizing the whole Taylor Family and making an enemy out of them for the Harts. No matter what would happen to her and Sebastian, he had helped her out this time. He had called the cops on Phoebe to help Madeline out, and Madeline would not repay that kindness with malice.
A long silence later, Nigel said tentatively, “Madeline? Are you there?”
“Yes,” she said. “Uncle, I”m sorry. I—”
Just when she was about to say no, Sebastian suddenly extended his hand. “Give me the phone.”
Madeline was surprised. “What?”
He smiled. “Trying to bust Phoebe out, isn’t he? Hand it over. I’ll deal with him.” He took the phone from her and turned the speaker on. “Hello, Mr. Taylor. I’m Sebastian.”
Nigel was surprised. “Mr. Hart? Y-You’re with Madeline right now?”
“Obviously, yes.” He leaned against his seat, an elegant smile curling his lips. “Mr. Taylor, you should have enough power to find out that I was the one who asked my men to call the cops on Phoebe. But still, you called Madeline instead of me. Do you think she’s a pushover? Are you trying to bully her?”
Nigel frowned. “That’s a bit heavy, don’t you think? I called her because she’s the cause of the whole thing. You might have misunderstood something.”
“Is that so?” Sebastian smiled. “Yes, she might have been the cause, but I was the one who sued. As long as I don’t drop the charges, Madeline can do nothing about it. So…” He smiled again. “What will you do? Ask Madeline to beg me to let her go? If I don’t do that, you’ll be blaming her for failing her task, then you’ll hate her for this, won’t you? If that’s what you had in mind, then I’m sorry to say that you’re a big bully, Mr. Taylor. And it’s quite shameless of you too.”
Nigel’s face was red with embarrassment. “What do you mean, Mr. Hart? I won’t do something like that.”
“That’s for the best.” He crossed his legs, his elegant smile still curling his lips. “And now let me tell you something seriously. I am suing Phoebe no matter what you say, and nobody can help her. You don’t have to waste your time begging Madeline for help. She’s not as powerful as you think. Not even you can pull this off, and yet you asked a girl in her early twenties to do it for you? My, that’s not too gentlemanly, don’t you think? Not too brave as well.”
“Y-You…” Nigel stammered in anger, and his face was white with fury.
It had been a long time since someone talked to him like that. He was the Taylors’ leader, and Taylor Corporation was on the list of top one hundred companies in the world. The Taylors were also the top family in Worrick, and they were worshipped by many. Nobody has ever mocked me in front of my face. How dare he? But he couldn’t snap back at Sebastian.
Taylor Corporation was the top company in Worrick, but it was still no match for the bigger and stronger Hart Corporation. On top of that, Sebastian’s father was a senior statesman who had contributed largely to the nation. Although he was retired, he was still influential. He was a national treasure, and nobody would be stupid enough to go against him or his family. Furthermore, Philip had a lot of students, and all of them were probably more powerful than the Taylors. He would never go against the Harts unless he wanted to destroy his own family.
More importantly, the Harts had the moral high ground in this case, but he didn’t. Philip might be a respected statesman, but he had to be reasonable too. If Sebastian was in the wrong, not even Philip could defend him. No matter how powerful Philip was, he too had his own enemies. If the court of public opinion swayed in the Taylors’ favor, they could work with the Harts’ enemies and fight with them.
Not in this case, however. After Sebastian called the cops, he went through the legal procedure and sent out his company’s legal team to deal with the matter. There was nothing he could use against the Harts. He had no other way but to shamelessly ask Madeline for help, though that only gained him a mocking session from Sebastian.
