Chapter 37 Family meeting
The next morning, Henry went to the hospital to work as usual, but today there was a small event in the afternoon, which was a dinner at the Bollton mansion. Because of that, he will come home later, Henry has instructed Gula, his maid, to bring food to Wendy when she wakes up. On his side, he hurriedly handled the work at the hospital and then went to Bollton to attend. Henry didn’t want to go there at all, so he ignored Ingo’s butler’s texts repeatedly reminding him of this afternoon’s date.
But he had to come and when Henry had just finished his work, he looked at his watch and found that there were about thirty left, he hastily arranged the documents on the table and took a bag of things to change clothes on his body. Henry hurried down to the parking lot and drove to the Bollton mansion.
A few minutes later, he was there, a magnificent mansion with a massive front gate. Outside in the yard, there are a few cars already parked, Mrs. Viona and her son Rud wearing expensive and trendy clothes are leisurely entering. When they saw Henry, they asked:
“Oh, isn’t this my grandson? I haven’t seen you in a long time, I thought you disappeared and won’t come back.”
Henry gave a sarcastic smile and replied:
“Hello, Lady Viona and Mr. Rud, how are you?”
Rud nonchalantly replied:
“I’m fine, but Viona and Norton aren’t. Because of your appearance.”
Viona lightly hit Rud’s body with a warning, she said:
“I’m fine. Your father looks forward to seeing you.”
Henry smiled, he didn’t want to continue with the two of them, so he politely greeted and walked inside quickly. There was a long banquet table skillfully prepared in advance with beautifully decorated candles and flowers. Around the table were beautifully decorated by the servants with napkins folded into the shape of luxurious style propellers.
There were Farim – Henry’s stepmother, Tule – Farim’s sister and Kent, Yaira – Farim’s two children and they were also Henry’s younger brother and sister. They had just seen Henry with an annoyed expression on his face. Yaira whispered to Farim:
“Mom, why is he here?”
Mrs. Farim shook the wine glass in her hand and replied:
“Ask your father, I don’t understand why Norton invited him either.”
Kent adjusted the cuffs of his shirt and watched Henry sit down at the table. Henry noticed that and smiled slightly, picking up his glass of wine and taking a sip. At the same time, Mrs. Viona and Rud entered to the welcome of everyone, followed by Norton and Nell – Norton’s sister and also Henry’s aunt. When Mr. Norton saw Henry, he walked up to him, hugged and greeted him warmly:
“My son, you have returned home at my invitation. I’m glad to see you here.”
Henry smiled coldly and replied:
“Yes. Coming home to my family is very happy.”
Mrs. Farim heard this and laughed.
“Haha. The kid really knows how to joke.”
Norton just smiled and motioned for the servants to serve the food. After the food was served on the banquet table, he stood up and said:
“Today is the Bollton family gathering, there are two reasons that I want to organize it, that is I want the family members to be closer together, and the second thing is that I want to congratulate Kent with a new position as director of Palamoka trading company will achieve many new successes in his career.”
Uncle Rud was overjoyed to hear that, and said in an excited voice:
“It’s something to be congratulated on, let’s raise a glass and share the joy with him.”
Everyone at the table looked happy, they raised their glasses, but only Henry did not, he shook his glass of wine and said:
“I don’t think it’s anything to celebrate. He doesn’t deserve to be applauded.”
Farim pouted and replied:
“What do you mean? Is my beloved son not worthy?”
Henry coldly said:
“Yes, that’s right. He did not go up on his own. He used his money and connections to get in that position. So is it worthy of acclaim?”
Kent now applauds Henry himself, he laughs and replies:
“I didn’t expect you to know so much about me, Henry. But I’ve always been proud of that because I have my family on my side, I have all and you don’t. That’s truth, but what can you do to me? You want to take it back? No, no… That’s too stupid. Because you don’t have anyone in this family to support you. And beside you, there’s only Grandma Sadie, run home and cry to her.”
Henry could not control the anger that was boiling inside of him, he rushed to Kent, punched him so hard that Kent fell to the ground. Aunt Nell hurriedly helped Kent to his feet, threw a glass of wine at Henry and shouted:
“Insolent, who gave you permission to act like that to Kent? He’s your brother and head of the Bollton family.”
He gruffly retorted:
“I do not recognize him as my brother, the son of my second wife. A son she surreptitiously gave birth to while secretly knowing my father. Poor my mother, she didn’t know it and married him and gave birth to me later. But on paper, she was only called the second wife, because he did not marry a poor girl like her, but married a rich woman like my mother first.”
Farim lunged forward to slap Henry, but he caught him in time, Henry pushed Farim aside and wiped the wine stain Nell had thrown on him with a towel. Farim refused to give up, she turned around and was about to go and beat Henry again, but this time Mr. Norton stopped her. He motioned for Farim to stop:
“Farim, that’s enough. Stop it.”
At the same time, grandmother Sadie, Uncle Earl, lawyer Vance and housekeeper Wystan entered to the amazement of everyone present in that room. Norton regained his composure, put on a fake smile and asked:
“I wonder what wind brought you here? My first wife’s mother.”
Mrs. Sadie laughed and replied:
“Today is a family reunion and Kent is legally still my grandson. Am I not allowed to come here to congratulate him?”
Norton smiled softly.
“Okay, Kent and I are honored to have Sadie’s attention.”
Sadie and her followers quickly sat down at the banquet table, and she said in a disapproving voice:
“The lady comes, and the servants don’t pour the wine and serve the food?”
Norton hastily motioned to his servants to follow Sadie’s request. The atmosphere became even more awkward, Mrs. Sadie ignored the people and continued to drink and eat dishes on her plate. She tasted only a little of each and said:
“The food here isn’t bad, but the personality of the people here is bad. Did you find my comment correct, Norton?”
He smiled but said nothing, carefully observing Sadie’s actions. She lifted her wine glass and took a sip and continued:
“I came here not simply to congratulate my grandson, but also to have a surprise gift for everyone present here. A secret Norton Bollton wanted to hide all this time.”
Sadie motioned for lawyer Vance to stand up and speak, he said:
“I have come here with a very important mission to complete. It was the will of Lady Zola, she was the biological mother of Young Master Henry and the only daughter of Lady Sadie. About the fact that I came here today to read the will, perhaps the butler Ingo is the one who knows best, although he is Bollton’s butler, he is a close servant of Lady Sadie. And he secretly informed Master Henry about it in advance.”All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.
Norton turned to Ingo and scolded:
“It turned out to be you, a dog for old Sadie. No wonder all the information in the house is kept and known by her.”
Ingo was not worried when Norton cursed to himself, he optimistically looked at Sadie smiling because he had successfully completed the assigned task. As for Mrs. Sadie, she motioned for lawyer Vance to continue speaking. He said about Lady Zola’s will:
“The content of this will was revealed because of my carelessness when I accidentally let my lover Oran see. She cheated on me, knew another opium dealer outside, so when she was robbed of all her property and money by him. She ran to me and sought help, but I was apathetic. So she ventured to Sir Norton for help when Oran learned of the contents of the will concerning him.”
Lawyer Vance paused for a moment and said:
“For everyone to understand better, I would like to read Lady Zola’s will here.”
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