บท 144: Chapter 144
"You should part ways with him." Venessa calmly looked at her friend and suggested.
Her words tensed Celine's body, and tears brimmed up in her eyes once again.
Her beautiful daughter, who was silently sitting by her side on the couch, with her head lowered after she had heard her mother narrate to all of them what exactly happened yesterday, had signs of rage marring her expressions.
Qingyue had already learned about these things yesterday, and she had confronted the despicable man, who was unfortunately her father. But the man she met yesterday seemed very strange to her. She still remembered the slap she had received at his hand. It did not hurt her. What hurt her was that he had slapped her mother too.
Had she been like him, she would have given in to her temptation to slap him back. After all, she was more than capable of doing much more to him now than merely slapping him back. But she was her mother's daughter.
She did not want to become a child who raised her hand at her own parent.
"I talked to Grandpa earlier." She suddenly said, catching everyone's attention. "I have told him that I am taking Lin Houtian to the court to claim my 15% Share in the Lin Family's assets."
"Yue..."
"No, Mother. I won't remain patient. And I must not remain patient." She adamantly shook her head. "Grandpa does not want me to do it, but he said he would not hold it against me if I decided to take this step."
"Yue... he's your father."
"He is not my father!" The grey-eyed girl shouted, and immediately realized whom she had raised her voice at. "I am sorry, Mama." She apologized to her with teary eyes. "But that man is not my father. He tried to sell me, and raised his hand on you." She clenched her fists and then took a few seconds to suppress her boiling rage. "He's a xenophobic, obnoxious man who does not deserve a family. And I will never see him as my father again."
Celine had no words to refute what her daughter had just said, and tears started pooling from her eyes.
The room stayed silent for the next few minutes, and both Venessa nor Amelia did not speak about the matter. They gave the two of them time to collect their thoughts, and in Venessa's case, she wanted to hear Celine ask her for help.
"What should I do, Ness..." The grey-eyed woman looked at her friend for help.
"I have already said it." The lady of the Demiliore Family looked her in the eyes. "You must part ways with him. It will not just save you from pain, but will also help Qingyue. Do you really want your daughter to suffer the fate that your bastard of a husband has designed for her?"
Her words made Celine lower her head again. And her sobs ached the heart of her dear daughter.
It was at this moment that the door of the lounge they were in opened, and a tall young man, accompanied by a golden blonde girl, who seemed a lot different than they last saw her, entered the room.
"Keith!" Venessa smiled at her son and walked over to him, hugging him tightly.
She took her time holding him in her arms and then planted a kiss on his chest before letting him go and hugging the girl by his side.
"Welcome back!" She brightly said.
"Sorry for being late, Aunt Venessa." Rebecca apologized to her but Venessa shook her head, cutting her off.
"It's nothing to apologise for. I just hope you guys enjoyed your time together." She playfully smiled, and the Golden blonde's cheeks warmed up in a beautiful blush.
Keith smiled at their interaction before he walked towards the other ladies in the room.
He greeted Amelia with a kiss on her forehead, which earned him her bright smile, and then he walked up to Celine, who got up and entered his arms, letting her tears soak his shirt.
"Everything will be fine..." He comfortingly whispered to her and stroked her back, but his words ended up making her shed some more tears and hold onto him more tightly. "Tell me what happened." He separated from her arms after she stopped crying, and then asked her, as he helped her sit back down on the couch.
Amelia, suddenly stood up and walked towards Rebecca, and then, the two girls excused themselves from the room.
Qingyue was relieved when the blonde girl was gone, but she also felt a little guilty as the reason why she had left with Amelia was that she did not want to make her feel uncomfortable right now.
Celine hesitated as she looked at him, and then tearfully looked at her daughter before lowering her head.
She did not have the courage in her tell him what happened, and it was Qingyue, who decided to tell him everything.
"Yesterday morning, mother went to see Grandpa, and she happened to eavesdrop on the conversation Lin Houtian was having with him." She stopped and took in a deep breath, and kept her head lowered as if she was scared to face him after what she was about to say. "Lin Houtian went to China, 13 years ago. It was for some business deal, which was not exactly legal, but some of his enemies had laid an ambush for him. He nearly lost his life that night, but an old man and his young apprentice happened to save him..." She stopped again and her body trembled a little.
It was not clear if it was in disgust, fear, or rage, but she continued after taking another deep breath.
"He was injured, and the Old Man took care of him for the next week. They got pretty close to each other during that time. And then... He sold me to the Old Man's apprentice." She gritted her teeth.
"Sold you?" He frowned.
"He promised me to the young boy to repay his 'life-saving grace'." She lightly whispered, and her heart constricted then Keith stayed silent.
"What's the background of the boy, and that old man?" He finally asked.
"The boy is an orphan, and the old man is a retired high-ranking officer in the Netherian Military." It was Celine who informed him about it.
"Oh." Keith smiled. "Well, since they are not of the same social standing or higher than your Family, you must not feel obliged to fulfil your father's promise."
"What do you mean?" Qingyue was shocked at his words and raised her head to look him in the eyes. "You would have let me get married to that boy if he had a background comparable to or better than mine?"
"Did I say that?" He lightly asked, and the grey-eyed girl embarrassedly lowered her head. "If that had been the case, we would have had to take a very different approach. But to deal with this issue, you can simply refuse to marry someone who's not your equal or better than you." He told her. "There could be no blame on you for not standing for your father's honour."
"He has no honour!" She gritted her teeth and sharply said those words. "And he's not my father!"
"Okay." He smiled and nodded to her before looking at Celine. "And what happened after?"
Celine felt uneasy under his eyes and lowered her head again.
"I entered the room and then brought up the arrangement I and your mother agreed to." She lightly said. "Father took my side too, and he approved of Qingyue's marriage to you, but Houtian..." She choked on her words and he hugged her in his arms, letting her calm down. "He said that he would never let his daughter marry someone who is not of the same ethnicity. He said that he was a Chinese man, and his daughter will marry a Chinese man too."
Keith feigned surprise on his face and Celine pitifully looked at him.
For a man who once claimed to love her, a woman of Italian and Danish descent, and even married her and sired a daughter from her, his sudden show of a racist side of him caught her off-guard. It was something she had never expected from him.
After all, he really had no problem with sleeping with women who were not 'Chinese' like him.
For years she tolerated his behaviour, always looked past his bad characteristics, and forgave him for the mistakes he made, but she really could not keep quiet after what she had just heard.
Celine told Keith how she lost her composure after hearing his words, and how her already shaking world came crashing down.
"He said that he only married me because he needed my Family's support, and then he raised his finger at my character..." She buried her face and sobbed her pain out. "He never loved me, Keith..."
"He hit Mama when she declared that she would never let me marry anyone but you. And he called her a whore, who was sleeping around with you behind his back." Qingyue informed him about what happened right before Celine left the Lin Mansion.
It was no wonder that a gentle woman like her could not cope with all that mental trauma and suffered a stroke.
Keith stayed silent after hearing their words.
Minutes passed, and it was Venessa who finally broke the silence.
"I have asked Celine to file for Divorce. And Qingyue plans on taking Lin Houtian to court for her 15% right in the Inheritance."
"I see." He nodded. "Well, a man like him does not deserve to live. And he seems quite impatient to meet his Maker in the afterlife." He dangerously said, and the woman in his arms tensed up.
"Keith, no..." Qingyue's heart thumped hard and she fearfully looked at him.
She was really scared that he would do something to that despicable man. The coldness in his eyes and words was real, and she felt chills run up her spine.
She had no care for Lin Houtian's life, but she did not want Keith to do something wrong. She did not want him to become a man whose hands would be stained in the blood of people.
Celine, who has stopped sobbing, knew very well that with the resources of Demiliore Family, he could really kill Lin Houtian, and she shared the same fears as her daughter.
"You must not do anything wrong, Keith." She raised her head and admonished him. "I am going to file for Divorce, and I will support Qingyue's decision. Promise me that you will not do anything stupid."
He kept looking her in the eyes before he nodded his head and then stood up to walk out of the room.
"Keith..." Celine fearfully called after him, but he did not stop and exited the room.
"He won't do it." Venessa suddenly said.
"He really won't do it, right?" She asked.
"No." The Lady of the Demiliore Family assuringly shook her head.
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