Upon hearing what Estelle said, Shawn instantly lost his cool and his face darkened. After giving Tony a look, the latter soon stopped the car by the road. Shawn got out of the car immediately to open the door on Myra’s side. With a gentle tone, he made a request. “Miss Stark, I would like to speak to Estelle for a bit, so can you perhaps sit beside Tony for a while?”
Stifling a laugh, Myra got out of the car while ignoring Estelle’s glare. After that, Estelle remained obedient throughout the rest of their journey home without giving them trouble. The peaceful time was short-lived though, for it ended as soon as they arrived at Hart Residence.
Sebastian sulked when he saw Estelle coming home alongside Myra. In a deliberately snarky tone, he questioned pointedly, “Why are you here? Didn’t you say that you hate this place?”
“I didn’t come here of my own volition! I wouldn’t have come here if it weren’t to make sure that you aren’t bullying Myra!” Estelle retorted.
Sebastian’s face flushed as he was fuming. He was worried that Myra would be hungry because she didn’t get enough to eat during dinner, so he already had the maid prepare some supper for her. As soon as he heard the sounds of the car, he hurried toward the door, only to witness Estelle—the ill-tempered girl in his eyes—getting out of the car.
“Me, bullying Myra? Haha, I will never do that!” Sebastian yelled with all his might.
In resignation, Shawn looked toward Myra for help. They sure blew up as soon as they saw each other. Myra, you’re the only one who can help me.
After getting his signal, Myra let out a chuckle before reaching out to hold Estelle’s hand. “Old Master Hart, Estelle is my best friend. Can she spend the night here in my room, please?”
“No!” Two people made that exclamation simultaneously, with Sebastian being the first and Tony being the second one to oppose the idea.
In fact, Tony had a morose look on his face after hearing what Myra suggested. Pulling his lips into a thin line, he looped an arm around her waist. “Myra, you’re pregnant, so you need to be more careful. What if Miss Langley presses her weight on you at night because of her bad posture?”
“Yeah, with her wild streak, she can’t possibly find our beds comfortable!” Sebastian chimed in.
“Grandpa.” Shawn sighed. “Estelle will be staying with me. She will get used to it, so don’t worry.”
Sebastian choked on his own words upon being cut short by Shawn. After grunting in anger, he growled, “Although I brought you kids up, you don’t even listen to me! Just when I thought I will have an obedient granddaughter-in-law, it turns out that she isn’t going to listen to me either! I don’t care anymore. You can do whatever you like!”
Sebastian whipped around before leaving the scene. Although he was angry, Myra noticed that he had essentially made a compromise. On the other hand, Estelle stared at Sebastian’s retreating figure without a word. “He was the one who picked a fight with me! I didn’t want to bicker with him.”
“I know. You’ve already sacrificed enough for my sake as things are.” Shawn kissed Estelle on the forehead.
Upon hearing his comment, Estelle was feeling embarrassed instead. She fidgeted for a bit before mumbling in a soft voice, “I shouldn’t have lashed out at him like that. Despite his fierce appearance, he is actually a softie on the inside. I should have shown some restraint and let his words roll off my back.”
With a smile, Shawn praised her by saying, “Yeah. My girl has grown up now.”
His praise only made her even more embarrassed. However, she couldn’t bring herself to accept the compliment. Thus, she simply let out a snort too before stepping into the house. “Since I have come, don’t expect me to leave tonight.”
With a faint smile, Shawn followed her into the house. Meanwhile, Myra shook her head before turning to check on Tony, who was standing beside her. Upon noticing that Myra had turned her attention to him, he quickly explained, “I only said that because I was concerned about our baby.”
Not believing a word he said, Myra glared at him as soon as she heard that. He would have stopped harassing me at night if he was worried about the baby! Besides, my baby isn’t so fragile!
After a while, Tony arched his brow before planting a kiss on Myra’s lips. “If you’re going to stare, I don’t mind continuing to kiss you here.”
“Tony Hart, you rascal!” Myra was blushing due to embarrassment. After giving him a shove, she entered the house too.
Because the four of them only had some cake during the banquet, they were soon gathered around the dining table to have dinner. Despite Sebastian’s general dislike toward Estelle, he insisted on staying in the living room to throw her snide comments from time to time.
This time though, something seemed to have gotten into Estelle, as she remained silent no matter what Sebastian said. After some time, Sebastian got bored himself, so he returned to his wife upstairs.
“Estelle, what have you actually done? Old Master Hart seems to be holding some sort of grudge against you.” Myra couldn’t help but ask the woman opposite her that question.
Nonchalantly, Estelle replied, “God knows what I have done. Perhaps anything I do will just be in conflict with his traditional values.” She was already used to his treatment of her anyway. Then, she reached out to take the poached egg on Shawn’s plate before putting it into her own plate. “You have nothing to worry about. Old Master Hart just likes to nag. If it turns out that I won’t marry Shawn, he might be the first to start panicking. Isn’t that right?”
Her final question was directed at Shawn, to which he responded by nodding his head in resignation. “Yeah, yeah, Miss Langley.”
“Of course I am right! You told me I will be your one and only woman, so breaking that promise means that you won’t be getting an heir. Putting that into consideration, of course he would panic.” Estelle sounded nonchalant as she said so, which rendered both Shawn and Myra speechless.
They spent some time talking about the incident with Kris. As the night gradually passed, both Myra and Estelle came to know about everything that led up to the incident just now, as well as what happened to Kris afterward.
Kris’ plans to secure the Walton Family’s assistance to help the Starks overcome their problems had virtually failed. Myra had a feeling that it wasn’t the only thing that Tony and the rest had in mind. However, the group of men were all quite secretive about their objectives, so she didn’t bother asking; she would get to know the full story later on anyway.
After dinner, they spent some time strolling in the garden before each couple returned to their respective rooms. That night, Tony was especially rough when they had sex.
Word about what happened during the banquet spread like wildfire. After Cameron and Rachel heard about it, they nearly fainted on the spot. Not too long ago, they were waiting at home for Kris to deliver them news of her success, but none of them expected Kris to bring about such a scandal for the Waltons instead.
With everything that had transpired, Cameron didn’t think the Waltons would want to help the Starks anymore. When they finally arrived at the hospital, they found out that except for Hayden’s lone figure by the bed, Kris’ ward was basically empty. Meanwhile, Kris seemed to be in a rather poor condition.
“Kris! My dear daughter!” When Rachel saw Kris lying in bed as still as a corpse, she ran toward the bed before collapsing on it as she wailed out loud. She knew Kris no longer had a chance to earn Cameron’s goodwill.
After all, Kris ruined the only chance for the Starks to ascend their ranks in society. Cameron was surely feeling extremely disappointed in her, so Rachel figured the only way to placate his anger was to emphasize on Kris’ miserable condition. By now, Kris was already awake, or rather, she already regained consciousness during the banquet.
