Chapter 159 Gregory Leaves the Scene with Thalia
"Emma and Thalia ran into each other. I've seen it happen a few times before, but Thalia never bothered with them. Why did she actually get physical today?"
"She has someone she wants to protect now. If that drink had been thrown on her, she would've just argued with Emma a bit, but she wouldn't have gotten physical."
"You mean, she did it for Gregory?"
"That's my guess."
Everyone in their circle knew Thalia's personality. She usually acted all high and mighty, like she was above it all, too lazy to bother with ordinary people like them.
Everything in her eyes could be described as "not my problem." Before Hayden's incident, she was the typical person who played around with life without getting involved.
Back in middle school, she was kidnapped. The kidnapper was caught and sent to prison, legally sentenced.
At the time, the kidnapper's son came to Thalia and knelt down in front of the whole school, begging her to forgive his father.
Thalia took the microphone and asked the boy: "Why should I?"
Before the teachers and students could react, Thalia added: "Your father committed a crime. What does that have to do with me, the victim?"
She was only 14 then. Ten years have passed since.
Thalia's cold and detached personality has only become more ingrained.
Normally, she thinks even arguing with these people is a waste of life, let alone getting physical.
But today she didn't let Emma off.
"Ms. Smith did this for Gregory?"
"Getting angry for her man? Wonder how Hayden would feel if he were awake?"
William stood at the front of a group of political and business elites, with a bunch of well-known figures from both worlds in suits standing behind him.
Thalia was clearly famous in Emerald City. Both political and business leaders had heard of her.
Their assessments of her were basically the same: cold, proud, refusing to go along with the crowd.
Even the big shots in Emerald City used the phrase "smooth operator" to describe Thalia.
Getting physical in this kind of setting wasn't like her.
That's how society is. When someone does something out of character in a specific situation, there has to be a reason, and today's reason was Gregory.
William reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a cigarette from his inner pocket. He wanted to light it but couldn't find his lighter after patting himself down.
Suddenly, someone nearby quickly pulled out a lighter, lit it, and held it up to William's lips: "Mr. Brown."
"Thanks."
William frowned, his eyes lowered, bringing the cigarette to his lips and leaning toward the flame to light it.
In an instant, thin smoke rose.
Nicholas looked at William through the wisps of smoke, coughed awkwardly, and moved aside.
Dry weather, watch out for fire.
"Thalia, if you keep hitting her, there's going to be trouble." Thalia was pinning Emma down and beating her, showing no signs of letting up.
Everyone knew that being Hayden's daughter wasn't easy. She'd been through dozens of kidnapping attempts since childhood. In her own words, she'd gotten so much experience dealing with kidnappers.
Later, to keep her from getting hurt, Hayden hired a martial arts teacher to teach her kickboxing.
Emma was no match for her.
Gregory heard the whispers around them. Phrases like "getting angry for her man" reached his ears, making him quite uncomfortable, but now wasn't the time to worry about that. He reached out and grabbed Thalia: "If you keep going, there really will be trouble."
Thalia took a deep breath in anger, let go of the dress, and fidgeted with her feet under her long skirt.
She'd taken off her shoes to fight more easily.
Gregory glanced at the high heels lying nearby, went over to pick them up, and placed them neatly by Thalia's feet: "Put your shoes on first."
"Such a gentleman!" came an amazed comment from a socialite.
"Didn't expect him to be so gentlemanly," said an older person behind William, who was also watching this drama. Seeing Gregory pick up Thalia's shoes, he nodded in praise.
Nicholas heard the praise and glanced at William: That's gotta hurt!
William not only had to watch this scene himself but also had to listen to live commentary from the person next to him.
William quickly finished his cigarette.
Angelina was standing right there but was so shocked by the scene that she couldn't react for a long time.
Even after Gregory left with Thalia, she still hadn't snapped out of it.
She turned back to look at William.
William had already gone to the back lawn with a group of business leaders.
William had entered his work mode.
"Mr. Brown is so calm about this?"
Nicholas heard Angelina's question and shook his head: "I don't think he's calm at all."
"All emotionally repressed men are the same. It won't kill him, don't worry."
Angelina: "But he's still in the mood to talk business."
"What else? If he fails in love and also fails in business, he'd have nothing left, right? You have to understand, he's an older guy! He's got to find his sense of worth somewhere."
"If he can't find it with his wife, then it's got to be in his career."
Thalia and Gregory left the banquet and found a nearby mall. Thalia lifted her dress and went in, pointing at the men's section: "Go pick something! I'm buying you a clean outfit."
Gregory looked at Thalia's generous attitude and his mouth twitched: "Actually, right now, I'd be more grateful if you just took me home."
"Gregory, I will take you home, but before I do, I need to pay back this favor." The only reason she got physical with Emma tonight was because that drink made her owe him a favor.
Gregory blocking it was nothing special, but for Thalia, she didn't want to owe anyone.
"Are you Gregory?" A store clerk recognized him.
As this excited voice came out, the person covered their mouth, barely stopping themselves from jumping up and down.
Gregory saw this scene, frowned, and held out his palm toward Thalia: "Give me your hand."
"What for? You want to hold my hand?"
"Hand." Gregory kept it brief.