I Am The Novel's Villain

Chapter 9

What?

I stared at her, dumbfounded.

No, she's supposed to be engaged to Richard not me! Plus, I'm still trying to be a guy, I still have girlish tendencies, I don't even think I could get married!

“Too bad, we already agreed to the Henneys”, she added on.

“If only I have known you were Sylv's son”, she smiled sadly at me.

“But you can still take it back, right? My son is a fine specimen here”, Father chimed.

“Unfortunately, no. We signed a 10 year contract with them and my father owes that family. I tried to remove Laeticia in that talk but..those bastards wanted to ensure we wouldn't turn our backs on them. I never needed that negotiation anyway but father came suddenly in our house after my daughter was born”, Mr. Robert said, anger apparent in his face.

“He said it was our duty to fulfill the promise he made with the Henneys. I said no, but then he said that he already signed the deal to get the land we needed for the new franchise of our hotel. It seems that family owns that land and would never sell it to us if we don't marry her off to their son.” he added on.

“I just wish Laeticia finds happiness. If possible, it would be better if the Henneys break the engagement first.” Lady Erica added.

“Erica, if you like, I can contact my friends that own lands in that area, I don't feel good about the Henneys. Though they also invested in my company, I made sure I had all the stocks and the board member's trust in me. They're too shrewd.” Mother said.

“Thank you, but it's too late. Robert's father has power as a shareholder and he sealed the deal to them using us. Naturally, they'll grab this opportunity. My parents also do not want to oppose them, they're more powerful than them. Plus they also had a dark history of making opposing companies go to debt. I'm so sorry Sylv.” Lady Erica tearily said.

Mother was saddened too. The room suddenly became quiet until father decided to break the ice.

“I thought you moved out from that stupid old man of yours, Robert?” Father asked.

“I did. Heck, he didn't even tried to find me after running away. But when he knew I started to flourish, he came to our house, with media men at that! He wanted to show how affectionate he was to me! I couldn't drive him away, it would hurt my reputation and I was just still starting that time.”

“With the help of my parents, we managed to live in peace for a few years. But then he came barging saying if we didn't agree to this stupid engagement, Robert's name will be sullied. He used his son's name just to show off how he got a rich son to the Henney family and seal a deal with them!” Lady Erica irritatingly said.

“This isn't the first time he used me to make his business flourish more. I hate him.” with an extremely cold voice, Mr. Robert said those words.

With those heated exchange, Laeticia stirred and was about to cry. I lulled her a simple tune. I always wanted to have a daughter in my past life, even though I was never attracted to anyone. I have planned to adopt, but then I died.

As I was just humming her back to sleep. She looked at me and smiled.
The surrounding people were surprised.

But more than that.

Something inside me stirred.