Chapter 310 The Jimenezes Are Looking for You?
The private room was filled with the fragrant aroma of tea, and water bubbled in the teapot.
Thalia rinsed a cup and handed it to Michael. "Mr. Jimenez."
Michael took the cup with an elegant smile. "I should be the one doing this, Ms. Smith."
"When we meet in Regal City next time, I definitely won't fight you for it."
Michael was caught off guard by Thalia's casual remark and chuckled softly. "Alright."
"I heard you talking to someone yesterday, saying you're here looking for family?"
"Yes."
Thalia continued along with his words, "I'm not super powerful in Emerald City, but I'm not bad either. If you need help, I can give you a hand when appropriate."
When Michael heard this, he thought it was brilliant!
Helping because she approved of him as a person, but "giving a hand when appropriate" didn't necessarily mean she approved of him - maybe she was doing it for someone else's sake.
Thalia had pulled off the perfect distance - not too close, not too far.
Too close would cause misunderstandings, too far would seem insincere.
Michael suddenly thought, if Thalia and William really weren't just casual acquaintances, then these two working together could take over all of Emerald City.
Michael pretended not to understand. "I thought you didn't have a good impression of me."
Thalia didn't hide it. She picked up her cup and took a sip of tea, the fragrance rising as it entered her mouth. "My impression isn't good."
"But who told you to be Gregory's friend?"
"Ms. Smith, you have a good relationship with Gregory?"
Thalia's fingertip traced the rim of her cup. "I approve of his character."
Not saying nice things, just confirming what deserved to be confirmed.
Respecting herself, respecting others.
Evelyn sat to the side listening to Thalia's high-level conversation. Everything she said was true, but for Michael, not a single word was true. How exciting! Wasn't this totally driving someone crazy?
The meal was tasteless.
Michael got a phone call and left early. Evelyn propped her chin up and looked at Thalia. "The mood was built up to this point, and I thought he'd at least tell us his family-search story?"
Thalia picked up a piece of sushi and put it on her plate. "He won't tell."
"Why?"
"Because looking for family is fake." Looking for revenge is real.
William wasn't his relative, and they wouldn't want William to be their relative either.
If what Gregory said was true, and William's birth mother was now some big shot's wife, then Steven bringing William back was either to deal with the Jimenezes, or to deal with the eldest daughter.
Otherwise, with both kids having complete families, why would he bother bringing back this unwelcome child to make everyone uncomfortable?
Since William's birth mother didn't take him when she left, that said it all.
Now the Jimenezes were coming around, plotting who knows what conspiracy. They couldn't have thrown him away when the kid was useless and now want to bring him back when he's successful, right? What would that make William?
"What are you thinking about?" Evelyn called out when she saw Thalia hadn't moved for a while.
Thalia snapped back and looked at Evelyn. "Take me to my mom's place later."
"Okay!"
At the top floor of Vanguard Innovations Group, Thalia went straight up with her bag. Before she even reached the office, she saw many executives standing outside Grace's office door, heads down, lined up like they were waiting to be scolded.
The sound of high heels stopped, and Thalia's desire to see Grace stopped too. Knowing Grace was in a bad mood right now, if she went up, wouldn't she be asking for it?
Just as Thalia was about to leave, someone among the executives saw her and called out loudly from the doorway, "Ms. Hernandez, Ms. Smith is here."
Thalia was speechless.
Sure enough, within seconds, Grace's office door opened. The secretary came out with an executive, waved her hand to signal the people outside to disperse, then looked at Thalia and spoke respectfully, "Ms. Smith, Ms. Hernandez wants you to come in."
Thalia's mouth twitched. If this didn't prove how sneaky these people were, what would?
Wasn't she totally being used as a human shield?
When Hayden was around, everyone respectfully called Grace "Mrs. Smith." After Hayden passed away, Grace became "Ms. Hernandez."
"What's wrong?" Thalia pushed the door open and asked with concern, seeing Grace's dark expression.
"Why are you here?"
"What kind of question is that? I missed you, Mom."
"Hmph, I gave birth to you, don't I know you? Hurry up and say it, then get lost."
"Mom, if you're too harsh with me, I'll run off with any man who shows me a little kindness."
Grace thought, 'If Thalia became boy-crazy, Hayden would definitely be the first to crawl out of his grave and drag her to get a paternity test to see if she's really his daughter.'
Seeing that Thalia wasn't being serious, Grace had no interest in chatting with her and walked to the printer to pick up the documents the secretary had just printed.
Thalia immediately went over. "Tell me about William's birth mother."
Grace's hand paused. "Didn't I tell you not to get involved in these things?"
"I'm just curious. I'm not getting involved, don't worry."
"You'd better stay clear-headed. If it's not your own business and doesn't affect your interests, act like you don't know anything. Don't stupidly get involved."
"I know."
"Can you tell me?"
"Get lost." Grace didn't want her involved in these things, so she definitely didn't want Thalia to know.
"Think about it this way - if you don't tell me, I'll definitely ask someone else. Rather than me asking others, wouldn't it be better if I ask you?"
"It's not that I want to meddle in William's business, but someone from the Jimenez family in Regal City came to me. If I don't know the whole story and get played, wouldn't that be worse? Better if you tell me what happened, then I'll naturally be on guard."
"The Jimenezes came to you?"
"Yeah."
"Who?"
"Michael."
The corners of Grace's lips turned down, her mood displeased. "He sure knows how to pick people."
"Michael is basically a discarded piece in the Jimenez family, in a similar situation to Raymond. But the one thing he's better at than Raymond is scheming for himself. The Jimenez family has been declining these past few years, and Steven is losing power. The Jimenez family has a son and daughter. The eldest daughter married someone important. Back then, because she didn't follow her parents' arrangement, she got divorced, abandoned her child, and remarried. Her relationship with the Jimenez family isn't great, but recently, supposedly, Steven begged her to help the Jimenez family out, but she refused."
"Maybe they're desperate. After being rejected by the eldest daughter, they want to find her child from back then, which is William, to warn her, or maybe they've taken a liking to William's current status and position and want to pull him into their camp."
"Anyway, remember this clearly - with William's current situation, plenty of people want him dead."