Chapter 184 He Minds Our Past
Caroline never in a million years imagined Anthony could be this cold-blooded and heartless.
She struggled and shouted, "Anthony, I'm your mother-in-law! Even though you divorced Cassie, you once called me Mom! How can you treat me like this?"
Not treating her like an honored guest was one thing, but throwing her out without a word?
Bentley also yelled, "Anthony, you have to help us! You promised my sister you'd treat me like a real brother! I've suffered so much, you can't just abandon me!"
Hearing their words, the guards hesitated. These people had some connection to Mr. Watson. If they just threw them out and they came back for revenge later, it wouldn't be good at all.
Seeing the guards still not moving, impatience flashed through Anthony's eyes. "If you keep standing there, don't bother coming in tomorrow!"
The guard immediately shuddered. He'd worked so hard to land this job in this wealthy villa district—easy work, good pay, great environment. He couldn't lose it.
Without further hesitation, he grabbed Caroline and Bentley and hauled them out.
Caroline was just a woman, she was no match for a specially trained security. Mother and son were quickly dumped outside the villa district.
Caroline wasn't ready to give up, she tried to rush back in. The guard advised, "Miss, everyone inside has power and influence. If they recognize you as family, you're an honored guest. If they don't, you're a stray dog. I'd advise you not to go in. Think of something else. Rich people aren't that easy to mess with."
As she recounted Anthony's cold glare earlier, Caroline couldn't help shuddering.
She'd never been good at distinguishing kindness from malice. Though the guard was clearly advising her for her own good, but she showed no appreciation. Instead, she cursed, "Sucker!"
She dragged Bentley away a few steps, feeling lost. "Bentley, what do you think we should do now?"
Her husband was locked up. Bentley was the only man in the Sanders family now. Of course she had to treat him as the head of the household.
Bentley thought for a moment. "Mom, we can't give up. Even if not for Dad and my sister, just for me—we need to get my brother-in-law to help. Otherwise, am I really going to be a eunuch for the rest of my life?"
As he spoke, darkness flashed through his eyes.
When he'd woken up that day and learned his manhood had been cut off and couldn't be reattached, he'd nearly lost his mind. He was only seventeen! He was a man!
If he had to live the rest of his life incomplete, how could he hold his head up? How could he even keep living?
Originally, Cassidy had been helping him contact overseas research labs, planning to get him a realistic prosthetic organ installed—better than nothing. If the technology was good enough, maybe some function could even be restored.
Everything had been going well, but then suddenly Cassidy got arrested. Her arrest didn't matter much to him, but the prosthetic issue affected the rest of his life. It couldn't be dropped!
But Cassidy had been handling all the arrangements. He and his mother had no idea how to contact the people involved—they were completely in the dark. That's why they'd turned their attention to Anthony.
They'd thought that even if Anthony couldn't save Cassidy and Dad, at least he could help resolve the prosthetic issue. Who knew they'd be thrown out before they even finished talking!
Bentley was an unruly man at heart. He couldn't take this kind of insult. He gritted his teeth and told Caroline, "If nothing else works, I'll sneak in tonight. I don't believe that if he's being threatened, he still won't agree."
The more he thought about it, the better this plan seemed. Maybe he could even squeeze some extra money out of Anthony.
But Caroline disagreed. "No. What if you get caught? What would I do then? Let's think of something else."
Bentley's tone turned irritable. "Think of something, that's all you know how to say! You come up with something then! Look what's happened to me, you don't care at all whether I live or die!"
Caroline's heart ached. "My precious boy, don't be so impulsive. I'm stopping you for your own good. Think about it, Anthony's status, his villa—is it that easy to sneak into? What if he calls the police? What if he has bodyguards?"
Bentley snapped impatiently, "Then what do you suggest?"
Caroline thought for a moment, a glint appearing in her eyes. "Your sister kept saying Anthony wants to remarry Arabella. Let's go find Arabella."
"Arabella..." Hearing that name, Bentley immediately thought of someone else.
Daniel.
Everything he'd suffered was Daniel's fault.
If Daniel hadn't pointed those gang members looking for him in the right direction, how would they have found him? How would he have suffered their revenge?
To be honest, the whole thing started because he'd slept with a gang boss's woman, but he didn't think he'd done anything wrong. Getting to sleep with her was not a big deal to him.
Daniel had done it on purpose. Just because they had bad blood, Daniel had destroyed him like this.
He'd already been planning to settle up with Daniel once he recovered. Now was perfect—he could settle both new and old grudges with Daniel and Arabella at the same time.
Bentley asked, "Should we go now?"
Caroline shook her head. "Let's wait here and watch. If Anthony doesn't go looking for Arabella, then we'll go."
The two hid in a corridor behind some landscape, watching the villa district.
Before long, a stretched Lincoln drove out from the complex.
In the car, Jennifer thought back to the scene at the gate, a frown slipping onto her face. "I told you before, Cassidy's whole family is trash. How did you still end up getting tangled up with her awful relatives?"
Anthony sat in the back seat with his eyes closed while he rested, his eyes fluttering open at her words. "You didn't stop me from marrying her back then."
"That's because she was pregnant!" Jennifer said irritably. "Arabella occupied the Mrs. Watson position for two years without giving the Watson family a child. Cassidy's background wasn't great either, but at least she was pregnant. Plus, before the wedding she was so obedient to me. Who knew she'd be so difficult after marriage!"
She wouldn't do chores when asked, she wouldn't tend to the garden, she wouldn't cook or do the laundry either!
Thinking of those incidents, Jennifer felt full of regret. "If I'd known marrying her would bring home problems, I never would've let her through the door!"
Anthony's lips curved slightly. He couldn't be bothered to say more.
His mother was always like this. It hadn't worked with Arabella, it didn't work with Cassidy.
He could probably marry a princess and his mother still wouldn't be satisfied.
But this time he'd made up his mind. Regardless of Jennifer's attitude, he was going to remarry Arabella.
If his mother still couldn't accept Arabella after the wedding, then he and Arabella would just move out. It wasn't that big a deal.
At the thought, he felt a flash of regret. Right, why hadn't he thought of that solution before? If he'd moved out with Arabella back then, without his mother making things difficult, Arabella might not have been so willing to divorce him.
Thinking about how she'd married into a family with a higher societal standard than his family, and how he had to ask her for help smoothing things over with the FitzRoy family, his mood soured again, his expression darkening.
Seeing his mercurial expression, Jennifer didn't dare say anything more.
The car soon stopped below Arabella's office building.
Anthony knew that calling Arabella directly wouldn't get her to come down.
So he used the driver's phone to call her, having the driver tell her they wanted to purchase medical equipment and hoped to meet in person.
Arabella readily agreed. After setting a meeting location, she came down from upstairs before long.
The stretched Lincoln followed slowly behind her until she walked into the agreed-upon coffee shop.
Arabella sat in the coffee shop waiting for the client. She never imagined she'd be meeting Anthony and Jennifer instead.
She'd thought it was an accidental encounter, but they walked straight up to her. Anthony waved his phone at her. "Sorry for using this method to get you here."
Arabella's expression changed. She immediately stood up. "You're the one who called me?"
Anthony smiled bitterly at her. "If I didn't do this, you wouldn't have agreed to see me at all, would you?"
Arabella turned to leave but Anthony grabbed her wrist. "Wait. Arabella, I really do have something important to say. And I'm not trying to trick you, if you help me with this favor, I really will buy the medical equipment I mentioned on the phone."
Arabella frowned and shook off his hand. She glanced at Jennifer then asked, "What could I possibly help you with?"
Anthony pulled out a chair. "Don't be so hostile, everyone's watching. Sit down and let's talk, okay?"
Seeing Arabella not moving, he smiled helplessly. "Broad daylight, public place, are you really worried I'd do something to you?"
Arabella finally sat down with a stony expression.
"Talk. You went through all this trouble to trick me here. What do you want?"
Anthony looked at her. "Do you know Alexander's true identity?"
Arabella's expression flickered.
Seeing her reaction, Anthony understood—she knew.
He couldn't help feeling disappointed. He'd been hoping to use this to drive a wedge between her and Alexander. Apparently that wasn't going to work.
"The Watson Group has faced multiple targeted attacks of unknown origin over the past six months." Anthony stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point. "Especially the last time, someone sabotaged the Watson Group's accounts and cut off thirty percent of our business. Arabella, right now, I'm facing total disaster."
Arabella looked at him suspiciously. "You can't possibly think Alex did all this, can you? Impossible. He's not that petty."
Hearing her call Alexander so intimately made Anthony's expression darken. After a pause, he said, "It can't be anyone but him. He must resent our past, so he's coming after me. Arabella, I want you to help me ask him to stop targeting the Watson Group."
Arabella frowned, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Are you okay?"
Asking her to help him? Given their relationship, not kicking him while he was down was merciful enough.
Anthony sighed. "Actually, this is for your own good too. If he's willing to come after me, it shows he's bothered by your previous marriage. I can understand, men have possessive streaks. You had such an intimate past with me, of course he's jealous. But I'm afraid if this continues, it'll affect your relationship."
Arabella had dismissed his earlier words as garbage, but these last few sentences got to her.
Though she and Alexander had been intimate, it was only that one time. She'd always worried a bit if Alexander would mind that she wasn't... experienced? She knew the thought was absurd, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking about it.
He said he loved her. But despite claiming he loved her, he'd only touched her once.
She'd been conflicted about this before, though now these concerns didn't matter much to her anymore.
Because she'd already decided to separate.
Her silence left Jennifer deeply dissatisfied. Since their arrival, Jennifer had been forcing herself not to speak. Looking at Arabella now, she found everything about her irritating. That formerly obedient demeanor was completely gone. Faced with her son's request, instead of bowing and scraping in agreement, she was downright impolite.
If not for Anthony, Jennifer really wanted to throw her coffee in Arabella's face and teach her a lesson about how to be a proper woman.
Anthony noticed his mother's mood and shot her a warning look before turning to Arabella. "I know you suffered a lot of grievances in the past. Which is why I brought my mother today, specifically to apologize to you. Mom."
He glanced at Jennifer.
Jennifer was seething inside, staring at Arabella with resentment.
Making her apologize to this bitch? she might as well kill her.
But thinking about the company's current situation and Anthony's warning before they came, she could only say reluctantly, "Arabella, I was too harsh on you in the past, don't take it to heart. Please help Anthony, he truly loves you."
Arabella said nothing.
She felt a strange sense of disconnection. Jennifer had always been arrogant and domineering . She'd been trampled under Jennifer's foot for two whole years. Now Jennifer was behaving humble before her.
All because the man she'd remarried had a better background.
Power and influence really were wonderful things.
She smiled wryly and stood up. "Coming to me won't help. Alex and I are preparing for an amicable divorce. If you two have conflicts, I'd suggest you go directly to him."
With that, under Anthony and Jennifer's obviously shocked gazes, she stood up and walked out.
At Aurigen Global headquarters, a tedious meeting finally ended. Alexander closed his laptop and handed it to his secretary before standing and leaving the conference room.
He'd just returned to his office when he received a call from Moris.
"Mr. FitzRoy, we found it. That car this morning was a scrapped vehicle from another province. The driver had an overseas account. Ten minutes before the incident, ten thousand dollars was deposited. The transfer was encrypted, but our tech people analyzed the signal source and traced the sender's location. Security footage shows the person who sent the money was Anthony's assistant."
Alexander held the phone, a cold smile appearing on his otherwise expressionless face. "I knew it."
As if there could be such a thing as a random car accident.
It was definitely Anthony's doing.
Moris continued, "At the Tucker family wedding yesterday, Mrs. FitzRoy accidentally exposed information about you. Anthony must have gotten accurate intel and wanted to strike first. Good thing we modified the car ahead of time, otherwise the consequences would've been unthinkable."
He paused for a moment, then added with surprise, "Mr. FitzRoy, we just received word that Anthony had someone kidnap a male escort. Sending you the location now!"