An influential figure?
Tanya looked at Karl. She had never been afraid of influential people. After all, Karl was only one thing to her at the moment-a father who had tried to help someone else to take her child from her. When Sue saw that she wasn’t saying anything, she went on. “You’d best not do anything stupid. I’ll tell you this, Joel is willing to stand up for you today because he’s still in love with you now. Once he gets bored of you, he can easily push you out and make you suffer! You know what I mean, right?”
Tanya lowered her gaze and replied frostily, “Yeah.”
Then, she walked around Sue, stood right next to Joel, and looked at Karl. She said very coldly, “I have nothing to say to you.”
Anger filled inside her the moment she thought of how Karl had forced them to go to court with Hillary.
Her words and behavior shocked Sue! She and Samuel looked at each other and hastily took a step forward. Sue grabbed Tanya and chastised her. “Child, watch the way you speak!”
Samuel looked at Karl and explained, “Don’t take this the wrong way, Mr. Moore. She is from a small family, so she doesn’t know how to speak properly. Rest assured that her attitude is not representative of the Smiths’. After all, she is not Joel’s wife yet!” He then looked at Tanya and reprimanded her loudly. “What kind of attitude do you think you’re taking towards Mr. Moore?! Hurry up and apologize!”
Joel’s eyes turned cold. However, when he saw that Karl’s expression had darkened, he thought for a while and decided not to say anything.
Tanya would be living with the Smiths in the future. If Karl unleashed his wrath, perhaps he would be able to intimidate those two old fogeys and stop them from creating so much trouble in the future!
His silence made Samuel think that he had given him his tacit approval. Thus, his voice became even louder as he reprimanded Tanya. “I’m talking to you! Why aren’t you listening? Hurry up and apologize!”
Tanya lowered her head and sneered, “He doesn’t deserve my apology.” Her words horrified Samuel even further. He looked back up-sure enough, Karl was already pulling a long face. He immediately misunderstood and hastily scolded Tanya angrily again. “What’s the matter with you? If you don’t apologize, then you can forget about ever marrying into the Smiths!” Then, he turned to Karl. “Mr. Moore, please don’t be mistaken…”
Next to him, Sue also said, “Mr. Moore, don’t be angry. Insensible, awkward, foul-mouthed, and short-sighted; she has always been like this since she was a child! It’s all because she’s a stray child without a father to bring her up. That’s why she has no family upbringing whatsoever!”
As soon as she said that, she heard a click. The next moment, an icy-cold object was pointed right at her head.
Sue was stunned. She slowly turned her head to see a pitch-black hole aimed at her head. When she realized what it was, Sue’s legs went limp and she almost fell straight onto the floor!
She was so terrified that she was shaking all over. She pointed to Tanya and said, “Mr. Moore, you… you are pointing that at the wrong person. Tanya is over there…”
Karl’s gaze, however, was fixed right on her.
She had the guts to mock his daughter when he was standing right in front of her. He then thought of all the things that his men had found out about Tanya while they were on their way here… His daughter had suffered so much all these years!
Just the mere thought of it made his heart ache terribly!!
He asked coldly, “Did you just say that she doesn’t have a father?”
Sue immediately nodded. “Yes, yes, that’s right. She is the extra baggage that Jill brought with her when she married into the Joneses. Everyone knows that. I even heard that Jill’s ex-lover was some small-time gangster. With a gangster for a father, she must be rotten through and through, either…”
Almost as soon as she said that, she heard a bang!
A gunshot rang out right beside Sue’s ear, which made her jump in shock and fright. Her trousers immediately became scorching hot…
When she recovered, she saw that the gunshot had landed right next to her foot. It had even created a small hole in the Smiths’ marble flooring.
Her legs turned into jelly and she fell onto the floor.
Karl blew at the muzzle and dissipated the smoke rising out of it. Then, as if nothing noteworthy had happened, he said, “Sorry, it went off accidentally.”
Sue: “…”
She nodded obediently. Before she could say anything, Karl lifted the gun and pointed the pitch-black hole at her again.
Karl’s voice seemed like it was coming from the heavens, yet also as if it was close at hand. He said, “Hearing you insulting me like that doesn’t make me very happy, though. How am I a small-time gangster? How is my daughter rotten through and through?”
Sue: “???”
Samuel, who was also scared witless beside her: “???”
Both of them looked at Karl, question marks popping up in their minds at the same time: ‘Huh?’
Just as the two were utterly confused about what was going on, Tanya’s voice rang out. “I’m not your daughter!” Karl immediately stopped paying attention to Sue. It was just that he didn’t move his hand away, either, so the gun was still pointed at her, making her afraid to move.
Karl panicked and said, “Tanya, Dad knows he’s in the wrong now! Jill tricked me! She told me that Hillary is my daughter… That’s why I helped her to take your child!” Sue: “???”
Samuel: “????”
The two of them felt that they might be mishearing things due to old age.
What did Karl just say?!
Samuel swallowed and asked, “Mr. Moore, w-what do you mean?”
Karl, who was very troubled that his daughter was refusing to acknowledge him, immediately replied angrily, “What I’m saying is, Tanya is my daughter, and I’m her father! I will fight everyone who dares to bully my daughter, to the death!”
Samuel: “!!!!”
When Sue heard the words “to the death” and saw the muzzle again, her eyes suddenly rolled up in fright and she passed out, her lower body was all wet.
However, no one was paying any attention to that at the moment.
Karl was anxious to acknowledge his daughter, but Tanya had a complicated look on her face. She couldn’t accept him right away.
While the two were looking at each other, the butler at the door came in again. With a complicated look on his countenance, he looked at Tanya and said, “Ms. Turner, Mrs. Jones is here. She’s at the door and insisting that you go out!”
Tanya frowned.
She glanced at Karl before she turned and went out.
The moment she came to the manor’s gates, she saw Jill standing outside with a group of reporters.
Jill was currently holding a dagger to her neck. As soon as Tanya appeared, she yelled, “Tanya, write and sign off on a letter of forgiveness right away! Save Hillary and get her out of jail!”
Her eyes were icy-cold. “Even if we have severed our ties as mother and daughter, it doesn’t change the fact that I am still your mother! My blood flows through your veins! If you refuse to save Hillary, I will kill myself right in front of you. Everyone is watching! You drove your mother to kill herself! I want you to never be able to rest in peace for the rest of your life!”
As soon as she said that, a fervor went through the reporters!
A mother killing herself in front of her daughter?!
This was breaking news!
Everyone rushed forward with their cameras and pointed their microphones at Tanya.
“Ms. Turner, what is your decision?”
“Ms. Turner, are you really going to disregard your mother’s life?”
“If she dies here, you’ll become the person responsible for driving her to her death, and you will definitely regret it in the future. Ms. Turner, hurry up and accede to her request!”
“Ms. Turner…”
At the same time, there were also people doing live-streams of the situation.
With a microphone in his hand, a reporter spoke to his live-stream audience and said, “I heard that Tanya’s mother has never treated her well ever since she was a child. But she is ultimately still her mother and the person who gave birth to her. She gave Ms. Turner life. Surely the fact alone that she hadn’t abandoned Ms. Turner but fed her and brought her up all the way until she became an adult is enough that Ms. Turner shouldn’t let her down, right?”
People were also commenting in the live-stream:
“It’s all over! Tanya has gotten into huge trouble now!”
“She doesn’t need a mother like that! She shouldn’t forgive her. Why should she forgive her?!”
“What a horrific mother. But if Tanya doesn’t save her, she will really become someone who killed her own mother. No matter what, she brought Tanya into the world!”
“What can she do now? Can Tanya really watch her mother die in front of her?”
Even without looking at the comments, Jill seemed to know what the people would say.
She sneered at Tanya and brought the dagger even closer to her neck. Someone wanted to come forward and stop her, but she shouted, “Don’t come near! If you come any nearer, I will stab myself with the dagger!”
Her words made everyone stop.
Tanya looked at her.
In this instant, her heart was dead.
Would you look at that? That was her mother. For the sake of her other daughter, she was willing to threaten her with her own life.
Tanya closed her eyes. She felt like a trapped beast forced into the most desperate of situations! What could she do?!
In her despair, Karl and Nora came out of the manor.