Chapter 135 How Did This Person Come from Port City?
Although Holden let Hannah into the Smith Manor, deep down he still looked down on her as a homewrecker.
After Henry registered his marriage with her, Holden immediately cut off his cards.
Holden made his position clear: "You can have a wedding if you want, but go find some place to do it quietly. You absolutely cannot use the Smith family name or give Hannah any benefits!"
Later, Holden directly made Henry move from the main building of the Smith Manor to a small building next to it, and wouldn't let him take any of the valuable collectibles from the Smith Manor - only the clothes from his closet.
Although Henry and Hannah's quality of life took a nosedive after they got together, for ordinary people, Henry's life was still pretty comfortable.
On the other side of the small building were the servants' quarters, which had the exact same appearance and layout as the building Henry lived in.
Even the wages of the servants who took care of Henry's small building had to come out of his own pocket, and daily expenses came from his own separate account.
As for Hannah, Holden definitely wasn't going to give her any living expenses.
Whoever married the wife was responsible for supporting her.
The Smith family would at most cover Melinda's education costs, but Holden had made it clear - Henry couldn't spend money to send her to a top private school, and after she came of age, she couldn't inherit any of the Smith family's assets.
So Melinda attended ordinary schools from childhood through adulthood. Although the university she eventually got into was only third-rate, she met some rich kids from other small cities there and dated them for their money.
From the day William officially took over Peace Group, Henry was forced out of headquarters and received fixed dividends each month.
As for Henry's loyal subordinates, they were all cleaned out by William's decisive methods.
Today's Peace Group belonged completely to William.
At first, Henry wasn't willing to lose his power and tried to resist and struggle, but he was crushed by William's absolute strength, lost completely, and could only go home obediently to retire.
For Henry, who was used to spending money freely, his current life was like falling from heaven to hell - extremely tight financially.
So when William gave the word, Henry, who was traveling abroad and had just finished enjoying himself and was about to pay, discovered his card was frozen!
He pulled out another card and found the money in it was also frozen. Furious, he called the bank directly, then learned that William was behind all this.
Henry immediately called William's work phone, but no one answered. When he called a second time, it was already turned off.
As a biological father, he didn't even have his son's personal number - that would be laughable if word got out.
With no choice, Henry could only call the Peace Group CEO's office.
Tony answered the phone, with William's work phone sitting right next to him.
After confirming it was William who had stopped his cards, Henry's anger flared up instantly. He shouted furiously, "What right does William have to stop my cards!"
Tony said, "Mr. Smith, I really don't know the reason, but you could ask your wife and daughter - maybe they know."
Henry hung up hastily.
He immediately called Hannah. As soon as she picked up, he started yelling at her: "Hannah, why did you go provoke William again?"
"This time, you even dragged Melinda into it. Do you know William stopped my cards? This is all trouble caused by you two not staying in line!"
"Now! Immediately! Right away! Go to the company and apologize to William, get him to unfreeze my cards, or I won't let you off when I get back."
Years ago, the high-spirited Henry had gotten drunk during his wife's postpartum recovery period and slept with the caregiver.
After that, he built a "love nest" outside.
Until his original wife was literally angered to death by the mistress showing up at their door, while he watched coldly from the sidelines - a scene witnessed by his biological son, who had come home early to celebrate his mother's birthday. From that moment, the seeds of hatred were planted.
During the decades Peace Group was in Henry's hands, its development stagnated. But after William took over with bold reforms, the company's scale expanded several times over, leaping forward and securing a leading position in the business world.
And the first thing he did after taking power was to directly cut the living expenses Holden had promised Henry by half.
In the past, Henry would regularly give Hannah some money, but now he gave her nothing - which was why she was so desperate for her birth family's business to succeed.
Hannah was still lying in the hospital bed, with a nurse disinfecting and treating her ankle and knee.
She had wanted to complain to Henry about her grievances, but instead got yelled at by him. His voice was so loud on the phone that the whole room could hear it, and the nurse looked at her several times in surprise.
"What are you looking at? Look again, and I'll file a complaint against you!"
The nurse silently cursed her as crazy and applied a bit more force while cleaning the wound. Hannah grimaced in pain and swung her hand to slap the nurse.
The next second, someone pressed hard on her wound.
The nurse said, "Ma'am, you scared me."
Hannah had already driven away three nurses. There were already many patients today, and the nurses' station was overwhelmed. After this nurse was also driven away, her half-treated wound was left exposed for several hours.
Looking at the shabby single room, Hannah was furious!
Peace Group owned a private hospital, yet William wouldn't let them go there.
He had even put them on a lifetime blacklist!
After Melinda had her wounds treated in the next room, she remembered how Hannah had pushed her at the Johnson Villa entrance. Her heart ached, so she just lay down to sleep and didn't come to check on her.
-
Empire City Laboratory.
Sophia had assembled a research team of six or seven people here, of various ages.
She spent the whole day in the lab and didn't even remember to eat lunch.
Seeing the long-cold takeout next to her, she heated it in the microwave and ate it reluctantly.
Everyone else had already gone home from work, leaving only her to finish up.
By the time she left the lab, it was already past nine at night.
Sophia took her car keys and headed to the surface parking lot. She hadn't walked far when she heard footsteps behind her.
She glanced at where the surveillance cameras were, slowed her pace, and listened carefully. From the footsteps, she could tell the person behind her was male.
Just as the iron pipe in the man's hand swung down at her, Sophia quickly turned around and, fast and precise, kicked hard at his vulnerable spot with all her strength.
"Ahh—"
With a cry of pain, the man was kicked to the ground, his body contorting into a strange shape.
Tanner's penis, which hadn't yet healed, was wrapped in gauze shaped like triangular underwear. Now the wound had burst open again, blood flowing freely, The pain made his eyes fill with despair.
Sophia hadn't initially seen the man's face clearly on the ground. Only when he glared at her furiously did she see Tanner's bruised face clearly in the streetlight.
He was hunched over, clutching his penis, roaring: "Sophia, you bitch, I'm going to kill you!"
Sophia pressed her lips together, finding his threat ridiculous.
Sophia looked down at him from above, a cold sneer curling at her lips.
"Really? I'm so scared. Please don't hold back."
The sarcasm in her tone was like a slap across Tanner's face.
These past few days, Tanner had been laughed at by everyone around him until he couldn't show his face. His dignity as a man was completely gone, and the culprit for all this was Sophia standing before him.
He endured the intense pain and grabbed the iron pipe beside him to stand up, something dripping down between his legs.
"Today, either you die, or I do!"
With that, he rushed at her.
Sophia flexed her ankle, her eyes suddenly cold. The moment he got close, she kicked Tanner away again.
This time, she didn't give him a chance to get up again.
She measured her force carefully. Every time Tanner tried to raise the iron pipe to fight back, she would kick him down hard. Not fatal, but enough to make him wish he were dead, until he completely passed out.
Sophia first called the police, and they contacted emergency services to come.
The video surveillance clearly showed Tanner holding a weapon and attempting to harm Sophia first.
As the victim, every kick Sophia delivered was when Tanner raised the iron pipe in his hand - everything she did was legal self-defense.
So Sophia was soon able to leave and go home, while Tanner was detained.
His actions constituted attempted murder, with sentencing ranging from three to ten years in prison, to the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The specific punishment would have to wait for the final verdict.
Because Tanner's injuries were too severe and his life was in danger at any moment, he was temporarily sent to the nearest hospital for treatment. When getting out of the ambulance, he happened to see Hannah coming out of the hospital.
Hannah looked at him in shock, feeling like the sky had completely fallen.
-
Meanwhile, Sophia, on her way back, saw a Rolls-Royce at the entrance of her residential complex.
Under the warm yellow glow of the streetlights, a tall man leaned against the car door, hands crossed over his chest, his slightly long hair half-tied up, looking up at the room on the third floor of the villa.
Sophia looked at him in surprise. Why had this person come from Port City?