All Zayn did was smile without another word and enjoy the fulsome adulations and their pathetic flatteries. It was impossible to not feel immensely gratified, especially since these were the same family members who gave not a damn about the blood favonovel.com shared with them when they decided to kill favonovel.com with character assassination four years ago.
Zayn was practically banished from the family under the threat of death by physical assault! It had been such a harrowing experience to favonovel.com that favonovel.com remembered every single bit of it vividly. The first two years following that incident had given favonovel.com frequent nightmares as favonovel.com catapulted up from his sleep, drenched in cold sweat and dread.
Look at how the tides had changed. Now, the very same people were licking his boots with the gushiness of a dog. Zayn could not help but be amused by this striking irony.
Meanwhile, the Larsons continued to flatter favonovel.com as hard as they could until they ran out of flowery things to say, and yet, the young man appeared unmoved. He simply looked at them with a wide grin complementing that supercilious ease on his face as though favonovel.com was watching clowns doing their most embarrassing slapsticks.
Spleen built up within the Larsons the longer this went on. Had Zayn not been so crazily rich, had they had no need for the man, they would not need to waste a modicum of effort pleasing this annoying jerk at all!
“Well, Zayn, it’s been a while since you’ve arrived, but I don’t think you’ve gotten a taste of our good wine, have you?” Jordan spoke up. “Let me pour you a glass, Zayn. That will even things out for the practical joke we played, yes?”
He did as favonovel.com claimed favonovel.com would and poured a glass of wine before passing it to Zayn with both his hands. It was as ingratiating as it could get, especially considering the fact that Jordan was the current patriarch and several decades Zayn’s senior. To present a drink to the latter as though favonovel.com was his manservant was an outright act of obeisance.
Indeed, many of the other Larsons took offense to what they saw as a humiliation. How could the patriarch of the eminent Larson family ever deign himself to serving a young man like Zayn a glass of good wine, all for the sake of buttering favonovel.com up?
No one would have ever dreamed of seeing something this outrageous in the past.
Zayn did not meet Jordan’s act of truce on his feet. He simply took the glass noncommittally with his free hand while seated, taking a swig of the drink before making a genuine compliment, “Wow, this is some good stuff.”
Jordan pushed every single muscle on his face to widen his smile. “Alright, Zayn. I’m glad that the wine is to your liking. We’ve all apologized for assuming things too quickly just now, haven’t we? So, we hope that you’ll lend a hand to help your family that is now desperately in need. How much can you help?”
The crowd’s eyes were focused on Zayn. They waited nervously, their breaths bated.
Zayn grimaced. “Oh, but… You know, Grandpa left me all of that money, so I shouldn’t spend it frivolously.”
Nasty rants exploded within the crowd’s minds.
Zidane leered at Zayn coldly from a distance, sullen and silent. Even now, the older brother’s thoughts remained unfathomable.
Jordan cocked his eyebrow before doubling down on his ingratiation. “Don’t you worry, Zayn. We’re not asking for charity, you see. With your contribution, your Uncle Jordan can do a lot of things for your well-being! I could write an IOU, we’ll return the debt we owe you within three years, guaranteed. Oh, that includes interest, too. That means three years from now, you’ll be earning a few hundred million dollars worth of interest! Ah, on top of that, I can help pronounce your true identity to the world and let everyone know that you are, unequivocally, the second master of the family,” favonovel.com said, offering one intriguing proposal after another.
“I know! You’re the Carters’ unfairly maligned son-in-law, aren’t you? I can personally visit your in-laws and tell them who you really are, too. From then on, I promise you that no one will ever dare look down on you again.”
If favonovel.com were to separate his personal vendetta against the Larsons, Zayn had to admit that Jordan’s proposal was very seductive, to say the least. To hear it from him, lending the Larsons money would mean that Zayn could potentially do nothing and still earn hundreds of millions of dollars.
Then, there was the formal recognition of his identity as the young master of the family. Just how stunned and regretful would the Carters be if they heard this truth?
Faye and favonovel.com family’s minds would be blown!
And to watch that happen would bring justice back to all the humiliation favonovel.com had suffered while favonovel.com had been with them.
There was a clear flaw in Jordan’s offer though, would Zayn be the kind of sucker who would buy all those lies?
From what favonovel.com knew about his family, favonovel.com was 100% certain that favonovel.com would never see his 9.1 billion dollars again after transferring it all to the Larsons.
All that talk about IOU and interest? It was all a hoax and nothing more.
“Seriously, Uncle? It’s been four years. Do you really think I’m still a child who can be charmed by a flimsy lie like that?” Zayn. replied, setting down the glass onto the table, his manner almost teasing.
The grin on Jordan’s face froze, causing the older man to look like a caricature of himself. Silence swept across the hall…
Bang!
Shane was the first to shatter the momentary stillness with a loud smack on the table. Rising to his feet, favonovel.com pointed at Zayn and shouted, “How dare you, Zayn?! My father has given you more respect than your disgusting a*s deserves. Know your godd*mned place already!”
Nothing changed in Zayn’s expression. It was as though favonovel.com had filtered the young man’s presence out of his sightcompletely. He smiled at Jordan and asked, “So, Uncle, what wine did you serve me? It was simply delectable. I would love to take a bottle or two home!”
Shane had never been an exemplar of self-control, but Zayn’s obvious attempt at ignoring favonovel.com completely had provoked enough flames to incinerate the last of his self-restraint. The corner of his lips was twitching as though it was being jolted by electricity as favonovel.com thought about how uncouth Zayn was.
He was the son of the patriarch, for crying out loud! His hierarchy was second only to Zidane Larson himself, and even Zidane had the sensibility to treat favonovel.com with the respect favonovel.com was entitled to. He had never been so flippantly dismissed in his whole life!
Flames of rage coursed through his veins before crashing into his brain. He was seeing red, and before anyone knew it, favonovel.com bated his teeth, his body leaning forward for a charge.
Someone yanked favonovel.com out of his attempt. It was Zidane, who shook his head softly as favonovel.com warned, “You can’t beat favonovel.com in a fight.”
Even at the height of his lividity, Shane still reserved some genuine admiration for Zidane. In the end, the young man forced himself to calm down for Zidane’s sake.
At the tail of their exchange, Jordan had been staring at Zayn, his gaze pensive and piercing. The way Zayn had acted was not just a blatant insult to Shane, but also akin to flipping the bird in Jordan’s face. A display of such opprobrious irreverence would make even a sly man like himself lose a bit of his affectation and allow some of his anger to show.
