Chapter 187 Mr. Brown is Anxious?
"Thalia, do you know what karma is?"
Hearing the voice from the other end of the line, Thalia pulled the phone away from her ear to look at it. Seeing the unfamiliar number, she frowned slightly: "How did you get my phone number?"
"Is it that hard? Not everyone in Emerald City is trying to suck up to you," Elowen mocked.
"Elowen, you really are rushing to get yourself killed! Done dealing with your fiancé's mistress? Still have time to come show off in front of me?"
"I just don't like you," Elowen nearly rolled her eyes, annoyed by Thalia's retorts.
"If you don't like me, then gouge out your own eyes. You can't expect me to disappear just because you have a problem, right? What, did you save the planet or something? Got enough good karma for people to put up with you? At the bar today, I was doing you a favor, you know? When I treat you like a human being, please try to act like one."
"If you don't like me, either gouge out your own eyes or come kill me!"
"You..."
Thalia couldn't be bothered listening to this idiot's nonsense and hung up.
She had just turned to go inside when she heard Finn say respectfully: "I understand."
"Understand what?" She'd only been on the phone for a few seconds—had they already finished discussing everything?
William tapped his cigarette ash, waving his fingers holding the cigarette, signaling Finn to leave.
Thalia sat cross-legged beside William, her puzzled gaze falling on him: "What were you talking about?"
"Why didn't John come with you?"
"I sent him back to the Smith Villa. I'm just filming on set all day and don't go out much—it's too boring for him to follow me around."
John was someone Hayden had specifically found to protect her and had been with Thalia for many years.
"Have him stay with you from now on."
"What? Someone wants me dead?"
William laughed at Thalia's mock inquiry: "Are there few people who want you dead? Today's Walter and Elowen—which one of them doesn't want you gone?"
Thalia was surprised: "Mr. Brown is impressive, you know all about my business."
"If Mrs. Brown can handle things herself when something happens, I can stay out of it."
Thalia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear: "That won't do. With the position comes the responsibilities—if I'm sitting in your wife's position, I should enjoy the benefits that come with being your wife. Otherwise, I'll feel shortchanged."
Hearing this, William chuckled softly: "You've enjoyed the benefits, so shouldn't Mrs. Brown also fulfill her duties and obligations?"
"What?"
As soon as Thalia finished speaking, she saw William stub out his cigarette. His other hand slipped around her waist, pressing on her back and pulling her against his chest, their upper bodies fitting together perfectly.
Their heartbeats intertwined.
Before meeting William, it wasn't like Thalia hadn't seen handsome men. Emerald City was full of people wanting to please Hayden, and they usually started by trying to please her.
Those capitalists would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Hearing she liked good-looking men, they'd search everywhere for handsome guys to send her way, trying to build connections with her or get some dirt to threaten Hayden with—after all, she was Hayden's favorite child!
But having grown up in a wealthy family and witnessed how Hayden dealt with relationships, when it came to men, she could play around, but would never get involved. Walter was a perfect example. Thalia was serious about being cautious of people.
Without legal protection, many things could become your weakness.
Until she got together with William—then there was no stopping it.
"When are you planning to deal with Walter?"
"Is Mr. Brown getting anxious?"
William touched her waist: "I don't like constantly hearing gossip about you two at the dinner table."
Those people in Emerald City—whenever Wesley was mentioned, they had to talk about his rebellious son Walter.
Once Walter's name came up, Thalia would be mentioned too.
"What gossip? How come I don't know about it?"
"There are plenty of things you don't know about. So are you going to handle him yourself, or should I step in?"
"Why would I trouble Mr. Brown with my business? Don't worry, I'll handle it myself."
...
The next day, before Thalia even opened her eyes, she was woken by her phone.
Amara rarely called her.
"You might not believe this, but Walter's wife just gave birth."
"If his wife gave birth, she gave birth. What's not to believe?"
"Premature birth, seven and a half months."
Thalia was half-awake, but hearing this, her eyes snapped open: "Premature?"
"That's not all. This morning she was brought in by ambulance, covered in blood. The ER doctors called in specialists from multiple departments for consultation. They said she'd been beaten so badly by domestic violence that she couldn't even get up. She was beaten unconscious but still protecting her belly. It's really tragic. I just came out of the operating room—both the baby and the mother are in ICU."
Amara held the phone between her ear and shoulder while turning on the faucet to wash her hands: "Thinking about it now, thank god you didn't choose that scumbag back then, or you'd be the one getting beaten now. Walter seems like a good person on the surface, but does this kind of thing behind closed doors. What makes me angriest is that the Clark family chose not to call the police."
Thalia pulled at her blanket: "Everyone has their own fate."
"What fate? What's the point of living with that kind of fate? The Clark family was going to call the police, but I heard from the nurses there that Wesley transferred them five hundred thousand dollars on the spot to keep them quiet, and the Clark family just agreed."
Thalia thought to herself, that's exactly something Wesley would do.
"Do you have any videos or photos?"
"Yes, I'll send them to you."
"Will it affect your work?"
"William is a shareholder of this hospital—would he dare fire me?" With someone backing her up, Amara was quite bold.
"His business extends to healthcare too?" Thalia felt like ever since marrying William, it was like marrying an onion—peeling back his layers every day, one after another.
"Yes! My brother's involved in quite a few industries. You can ask him about it later. Let me go find that video for you."
As soon as Thalia got the video, she had someone send it to the Wood Group's group chat.
In less than an hour, everyone in Emerald City knew that Walter had beaten Aria into premature labor.
"No wonder they say Thalia is lucky—she perfectly dodged a scumbag," someone in the group sighed after watching the video.
Someone replied below: "If it were Thalia, would Walter have the guts to lay a hand on her? Even without her birth father, Thalia would have destroyed him."
"Walter just bullies the weak and fears the strong. He only dares to be this bold because Aria has no family backing her up."
"That's why Walter is a scumbag. Walter really has no brain either. If he hadn't caused all that trouble back then, wouldn't he have gotten half of the nearly ten billion dollars in inheritance Thalia has? Some people are just fated that way."