Chapter 267

Chapter 267

"Katya will be our only child." William smiled, pulling the stunned Evelyn into his arms. "Is that what you're worried about?"

He sounded puzzled, as if he didn't understand.

But Evelyn was confused. "What?"

"If I hadn't made any moves on my end, why would Uncle merge the Thomas family business into the Brown family business? He's a businessman - he would never allow any unusual situations to happen, right?"

William lowered his head, his forehead touching Evelyn's.

His words made Evelyn think about Milan's attitude toward Katya.

Evelyn had known from the start that Milan saw Katya as his successor, so she hadn't noticed anything odd about it.

It wasn't until William pointed it out that she realized.

After her "death," Katya had been taken back to Suncrest City to be raised - that was the Thomas family's business and had nothing to do with the Brown family. She, the Thomas family member who had married into the Brown family, was dead, and the child she'd given birth to was being raised by the Thomas family. Why would they bother maintaining ties with the Brown family?

Unless, as William said, the Brown family had made some kind of move.

And this move had to benefit the Thomas family.

Because at that point, the Brown family was completely passive. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the Thomas family in Suncrest City was taking advantage of the situation.

Yet William had actually gone along with it. Not only that, he'd even taken the initiative to change Katya's surname to Thomas, and he hadn't had much to say about her naming either.

William's sincerity came from his hands-off approach with Katya.

As Katya's biological father, William had the right to keep Katya with him after Evelyn's death, but he didn't. Instead, he openly handed custody of Katya over to Milan.

He even made trips to Suncrest City from time to time to see Katya.

From Katya's attitude toward William from the very beginning, you could tell they were familiar - William clearly visited her in Suncrest City often.

After realizing how wholeheartedly William had been raising Katya, and how he'd been gradually tying the two families' interests together, Evelyn's heart started beating fast.

She stared at William blankly, as if seeing him for the first time.

"I'm a businessman." Seeing her looking at him, William smiled and continued, "Where I put my interests is my choice."

And given the current situation, most of the Brown Group's interests couldn't be completely separated from the Thomas family business.

Even if they were separated, Milan would definitely bite off a chunk of the Brown Group.

But this situation would probably never happen.

William had gotten a vasectomy.

He would only ever have Katya as his daughter.

Katya had both the Brown family and the Thomas family blood running through her veins. She was destined to be the heir to both families' assets.

What Milan and William were doing now was paving the way for Katya.

Evelyn could already fully imagine what kind of position Katya would hold in the future.

"By the way, I'm planning to assign Ewan to her after Katya starts school." William held Evelyn close, speaking softly in her ear.

"Ewan?" Evelyn was surprised. Though she didn't know the details of William's personnel arrangements, she knew something about Ewan. "That's overkill."

"The government would be thrilled if he had less to do." William cut her off, his voice slightly heavy.

Recently, he'd been frequently having Ewan handle various matters. Though it was effective, the government wasn't too happy about it, since Ewan always mixed personal business with official duties.

But if Ewan were assigned to Katya, there would actually be benefits.

Having Ewan pick up and drop off Katya from school every day, with surveillance of the surrounding families, the government was very much in favor of this.

It was because of this promise William made that the government turned a blind eye to previous incidents and agreed to let Ewan go abroad to handle one last matter.

Of course, Ewan didn't know about this yet.

William wasn't worried that Ewan would refuse.

He understood Ewan well. Ewan valued relationships and loyalty. Ewan treated his affairs as his own. An arrangement to personally protect Katya would be a reward for Ewan.

Evelyn licked her lips. She'd never thought about these things before.

Now she had to admit that William considered things from angles that were more thorough and far-reaching than hers.

Having finished discussing Katya, William picked up that ring again - the fancy diamond ring.

"Try it on, how about it?"

He was holding Evelyn from behind now, his voice gentle, like coaxing a child.

Evelyn pressed her lips together, not understanding how they'd gone from talking about Katya to this ring.

She'd never worn such a flashy, expensive ring before.

Seeing her hesitation, William gently grasped her slender hand and slowly slipped the ring onto her finger. The size was perfect, fitting just right.

Her hand was pale and slender, her skin soft and delicate, so clean you could barely see any pores.

Her pearly white fingertip set off this pigeon-egg diamond ring, with smaller diamonds surrounding the main stone. The light was dazzling. Her warm white skin against the brilliant fire made her fingertip look even more refined and precious, gentle yet eye-catching.

William really didn't like such overly fancy jewelry. When he'd chosen this ring before, he hadn't looked at it carefully because the sparkle hurt his eyes.

But now that Evelyn was wearing it, he stared intently, unwilling to look away.

He held Evelyn's hand, studying it, never feeling like he'd looked enough.

After a while, his gaze moved down, his palm gently circling Evelyn's bare wrist. He frowned slightly. "Why don't you even have a bracelet?"

He seemed dissatisfied.

He suddenly thought of Amelia - she wore lots of jewelry.

But when it came to Evelyn, she had nothing.

Evelyn felt a bit embarrassed. She curled her fingers. The unfamiliar metal pressed against her skin. She wasn't used to it, opening and closing her hand repeatedly, trying to suppress that unfamiliar feeling.

"Not used to it?"

William was familiar with this behavior.

When he'd first dug out his wedding ring and put it on, he'd done the same thing.

"It's too big." Evelyn didn't shake her head, just said this with her head down. She looked at it again - it really was beautiful, but it didn't match what she was wearing today.

So she took the ring off and put it back in the box.

"I'll wear it to a party someday."

Watching Evelyn remove the ring, William's heart tightened, but then, hearing this, his heart settled back down. He heard himself laugh, a relieved laugh that made his whole body relax.

"Okay. Then wear the other one?"

As he spoke, his hand was already reaching for the other ring.

Actually, when choosing this ring, he'd intended it for daily wear, along with the previous one.

Evelyn didn't refuse.

Since William was working hard for their marriage and planning for their daughter, she did not need to stubbornly reject his gestures.

"Eternity" was carefully placed on Evelyn's finger by William.

He immediately put on the other men's ring as well. Of course, he didn't forget the previous plain silver band - he put that on too.