Chapter 184 James After Recovery
Chase was lying on the couch playing mobile games when he heard the door open. He instinctively looked up toward the entrance.
"Mason, why are you crying?"
Chase suddenly sat up from the couch, staring at Mason in shock.
At that moment, Mason's eyes were red and brimming with tears.
I just don't want to be separated from James and Emily.
But how can I make Emily like James?
Mason slowly sat down on the couch, silently keeping his head down.
"Mason, did someone bully you?"
Chase sat beside Mason, carefully observing his expression as he asked.
Mason shook his head.
After a moment of silence, Mason looked up at Chase and asked quietly, "Chase, let me ask you, do you want the five of us to live together as a family?"
"What do you mean five? Isn't it four?"
Chase asked, confused.
Mason pressed his lips together, looking at Chase with a face full of grievance.
He said five because he was counting James too.
But Chase said four, which meant Chase was just like Emily - neither of them liked James.
If he wanted Chase to help bring James and Emily together, Chase definitely wouldn't agree.
So what now?
Did he just have to wait helplessly for a month until Emily completely parted ways with James, never to see each other again?
What about him then?
Should he choose to go with Emily or stay by James's side?
Chase didn't understand Mason's struggle and continued on his own: "I heard Mom say before that once Dad gets better, she'll take us all away. We'll bring you to the big estate in Valeria - it's so much fun there..."
I don't want to go to some big estate. I just want Emily and James to be together, so our family of five won't be separated.
Mason pressed his lips tight. He picked up the remote and turned on the TV, continuing to watch the cartoon he hadn't finished earlier.
But with his mood so terrible, Mason didn't absorb a single scene.
...
The Thomas Villa.
James was in his bedroom, holding his phone and scrolling through the photo album.
The album contained several videos that Maya had deliberately sent him before to squeeze out Emily.
At the time, he couldn't see, so Marc had watched the videos and described the content to him.
This was the first time James was actually watching these videos with his own eyes. The angles were captured very well, making Emily's interactions with other men look particularly intimate. If you didn't look carefully, it was easy to misunderstand.
But now James could see clearly and think straight. He could tell at a glance that the shooting angles in these videos were problematic.
Emily clearly had nothing going on with those people, but the person filming deliberately shot ordinary conversation scenes to look especially intimate.
James narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the figure in the video with waist-length hair and a slender, tall figure shown from behind.
Several videos showed Emily either from behind or in profile - not a single front-facing shot. This made James even more curious about Emily's appearance.
Before regaining his sight, James had heard many people mention how beautiful Emily was, so the first thing he wanted to do after recovering his vision was to see just how beautiful Emily could be.
"Mr. Thomas."
After a few light knocks on the door, Marc pushed it open and walked in.
"How did it go?"
"Just as you suspected, Mr. Thomas."
Marc looked around the room cautiously, and after confirming no one was monitoring them, he gently closed the door and handed a investigation report to James.
James lowered his eyes, his sharp gaze scanning the investigation report in his hand.
This was evidence of Rhett's money laundering.
If he turned this evidence over to the police, Rhett could be sentenced to several years in prison.
But it wasn't enough.
Back when his grandfather handed over the Thomas Group to James, he was very reluctant.
Because of Hazel, James's relationship with Kian had hit rock bottom, and he was extremely disgusted with everything about the Thomas family.
But his grandfather said that the Thomas Group had fifty percent of Hazel's shares, and if he didn't take over, those fifty percent would fall into Kian's hands.
James naturally didn't want Hazel's shares to fall into Kian's hands, so he took over the Thomas Group to protect the shares Hazel left behind.
Rhett had been crooked-minded since childhood. Whatever belonged to James, Rhett wanted to take.
Over the years, to keep Qiana from worrying, James had tolerated Rhett's various small moves. As long as Rhett didn't reach too far and touch his bottom line, he could put up with it.
But unexpectedly, while he was sick, Rhett first took advantage of the gap to quickly take control of the Thomas Group, spread negative rumors about him, and win people over. Then he used public opinion to push his negative influence nationwide, affecting the company's operations and stock price. After that, he naturally called a board meeting, used everyone's arguments to propose a new vote for the president position, and smoothly replaced him.
What a meticulous scheme.
If he hadn't fallen down the stairs and gone into a coma three days ago, he could have stopped all this before everything was settled, and wouldn't have to go through the trouble of collecting evidence to bring down Rhett like he was doing now.
"...Mr. Thomas? Mr. Thomas, what are you thinking about?"
James snapped back to attention and said calmly, "Nothing. Marc, do you think that during the two months I was sick, Rhett only laundered money? He didn't do anything else?"
Based on his understanding of Rhett, with that much power in his hands, he shouldn't have been so well-behaved.
"Speaking of which, there is one thing that's rather strange."
Marc thought for a moment and said, "Rhett once launched a project called the 'Golden City Project' and invested a lot of money in it. However, this project suddenly stopped a week after it started. No one knows why, and there's no record of this project in the company's project reports. I only found out about it through some special means."
"Then this project probably has major problems."
James's eyes darkened as he said coldly, "Investigate this project in secret. Don't overlook any suspicious details. I have a feeling there's definitely something in this project that can bring down Rhett."
"I'll send people to investigate secretly right away."
Marc nodded. He hesitated for a moment, then slowly said, "Mr. James Thomas, Mrs. Qiana Thomas has always hoped for family harmony and doesn't want to see brothers fighting. If you want to bring down Mr. Rhett Thomas and make a big deal out of it, you definitely won't be able to hide it from Mrs. Qiana Thomas. Have you thought about how you'll explain it to her?"
"...Tell her the truth."
After a moment of silence, James said calmly, "Because of Grandma, Rhett and I have been pretending to be good brothers for so many years. Now that he's stopped pretending, I don't need to hold back either. Grandma has always been very reasonable. I think if she knew everything Rhett has done, she'd probably hate him even more than I do."
"Go ahead and handle it."
Marc nodded and left the room.
At the same time, in Xanthe's bedroom, Xanthe was frowning, glaring coldly at the uninvited guest who had barged into her room.