"Well, hello there," his voice echoed in the dining room.
Mr. Donovan didn't look surprised by her presence, her bag, or her outfit.
His expression was as blank as always. He may be old and withering away, but there was something about his presence that always choked people who were in his premises. His presence demanded attention.
But that didn't work on Adeline at all. She was the only one who wasn't affected by his cold facade. She would openly talk back to him without holding back, without caring if there were any consequences of her actions.
"Papa pops," Ian ran towards his great-grandfather and Adeline was too late to pull him back.
The old man picked the boy up, threw him up in the air and caught him effortlessly while he giggled, an evidence he enjoyed being thrown up.
"My little boy Ian is all grown up now," the man laughed.
After playing with his great-grandson for a while, he sent him away with his butler, his entire attention on Adeline who was still standing stiff like a statue by the entrance.
"Aren't you going to join me for dinner? You look like a sad chicken right now," he said as he gestured to the seat opposite him. "Take a seat, Adeline."
Adeline took a deep breath, as she pushed her legs to move towards the seat.
"Eat," he ordered.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You knew."
He didn't say anything.
"You knew Theodore cheated on me," she said, her voice holding more weight now. She told herself she wasn't going to cry now, but her chest was ripping apart like daggers of glass were stabbed into her.
"I'm slightly disappointed it took you this long to find out," he said, his voice holding no form of empathy.
This was her grandfather she knew, not the one playing with Ian a minute ago.
"You need to understand I didn't say anything because you were stupidly in love with that man," he said defensively.
"You got me married to him when I was only eighteen!" She yelled.
The butler who was standing in a corner feared for his life. No one dared yell at his master, unless they were seeking death.
Adeline calmed down when she realized she'd gone overboard. She wanted to understand that he needed her help with the family business but she was too young to help, and he was too old to teach her anything.
But she didn't deserve this betrayal.
"I want to divorce him," she said. "I also want custody of my child Ian."
"You're asking for too much, Adeline," he laughed as if she'd just cracked a joke. "You can't divorce Theodore, unless…" He drawled, intentionally, but Adeline wasn't in the mood to play his games. "If you can bag a contract with the Hawthorne family, then you can divorce Theodore and have custody of your son, Ian."
Adeline couldn't believe her grandfather. She has not seen him for a while which made her almost forget the kind of man he was.
He always took every opportunity if it made him grow in power, no matter who he threw under the bus.
"I just found out my husband has been cheating on me the entire time, and now you want me to be together with some man rumored to be a playboy—"
"I never asked you to do such a thing, Adeline," Mr. Donovan cut her short. "I never asked you to walk up to him, go on one knee, and propose to him," he said while cocking up an eyebrow at her as if he was indirectly asking if she was insane. "Divorcing Theodore is going to cause a rift between the families' agreements. The business will be shaken if they redraw their help. So you need to bag a contract from the Hawthorne family. I don't know how you're going to do it. But I know you can."
Adeline narrowed her eyes at her grandfather, unable to believe he was serious at that moment.
Even at a moment when she was shattering, he was still thinking about how her decision was going to affect his business. She had to give it to him.
"You look cold. Go take a shower, you know your way around here," he said dismissively. In other words, he told her to think about it.
Adeline could only do as he said, her mind running two hundred miles per hour.
**
At a family dinner in a high-class mansion, nothing surrounded the family members better than the silence and the utensils clashing with their plates once in a while.
"So, how are things going with the company?" Mr. Hawthorne asked Darien who only wanted to eat his dinner and leave.
He wouldn't have bothered coming over if his uncle hadn't insisted.
According to him, a family should share meals once in a while, even if no one is on good terms.
"Everything is going great, uncle," Darien replied with a blank expression as he leaned into his chair.
His uncle nodded in understanding. "In that case, I have something to inform you about. Mr. Donovan's assistant just called and said his granddaughter would be coming to see you to pitch a business plan."
Darien's eyes darkened at that name.
Adeline.
His cheeks burned slightly at that name. When was the last time he'd seen her? When she was fifteen? When their families were still in touch with each other.
"No matter what she pitches to you, reject it," His uncle's words snapped him out of his thoughts.
Everyone on the table was glancing at him, waiting for his response, but he loved how he made them wait.
"And why's that?" He asked calmly.
"It's because I said so," Mr. Hawthorne said.
That reply wasn't enough for Darien.
"If I remember correctly, I'm the CEO, and not you," he said. The dining became dead silent at this point, and no one dared to make a sound, let alone breathe.