Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

Marlon was indeed insatiable. ”Jean Grant, I told you. If you don’t get back together with me, I won’t stop, no matter how much money you give me. You’re just buying yourself some temporary peace.”

Jean Grant’s hand tightened. ”Fine. Where’s the meeting place?”

He told her the location, and Jean Grant hung up the phone.

After thinking it over and over, she decided she had to get rid of him sooner rather than later.

But she didn’t want her brother to know, so she had to take care of it herself.

She took a gun and a fruit knife with her to the meeting place.

The chaotic lounge of a casino.

A small private room partitioned off with wooden boards.

Inside was a bed with two quilts, a pile of cigarette butts on the floor, and dust everywhere. It was clear the room hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.

Just as she closed the door, Jean Grant’s phone rang.

It was a reporter from New Entertainment Weekly calling her. ”Hello? Is this Miss Grant? Your ex-husband says he’s about to break a bombshell story and needs to confirm some things with you.”

Jean Grant said through gritted teeth, ”That won’t be necessary.”

”Your ex-husband said that if he doesn’t call us within half an hour, this will be front-page news. He told you to be careful.”

Jean Grant furiously hung up.

Marlon lay on the bed, looking at her smugly. ”I was prepared for you. If you brought a gun, you’d better not try anything. Otherwise, your reputation will be ruined for life. We’ll see what man would ever marry you or even be with you then.”

Jean Grant sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him. ”Marlon, you’re only in your twenties, but you’re already like some old man in his forties or fifties. You’ve done it all—eating, drinking, whoring, gambling. You’re really living the high life, huh?”

Marlon smiled. ”Just hand over the money. Don’t worry about the rest.”

Jean Grant snorted. ”You think I wouldn’t kill you right now and have my brother buy off that damn reporter?”

”But I didn’t just leak the story to one agency. Go ahead, do it. You think I’m afraid of you?”

Marlon’s words nearly drove Jean Grant insane, but there was nothing she could do.

Of course, she didn’t want those things to get out for the whole world to ”appreciate.”

The Marlon before her now was just disgusting.

But this meant she was completely under his thumb.

’It seems the only way to get rid of Marlon is to let the videos and photos be exposed.’

’But if they are, can Nicholas Ainsworth and I still have a future?’

’The whole world will curse me.’

’That’s not what I want to see happen.’

’How would I even survive then?’

But for now, she thought, her only option was to ask for help from the one person she didn’t want to involve: her own brother.

’It’s humiliating, but it’s better for my own brother to know than for the entire world to see.’

”I’ll go back and get the money for you.”

”You’d better not try any tricks. Otherwise, I’ll make sure you’re utterly humiliated. I don’t care what happens to me, but you’re different.”

”I know.” Jean Grant pulled the door open.

”If you’re not back in an hour, you’ll face the consequences!”

Jean Grant drove to the Grant Group building.

Quentin Grant was in a meeting, so she had to wait for him in his office.

She waited for more than twenty minutes before she finally saw him.

”Quentin, you have to save me!”

Quentin Grant looked as calm as ever. ”What trouble have you gotten into now?”

”I didn’t get into trouble, it’s Marlon! Quentin, Marlon won’t leave me alone! He’s threatening me, demanding money, and he said if I don’t give it to him, he’ll leak videos and stuff from our marriage to the media, and—and—he forced me to sleep with him—”

Quentin Grant’s brows knitted. ”How long has this been going on?”

”It’s been recent. Today, he told me to give him a million, saying it would buy me peace for a while, but then he’d come back for more later. He said if I don’t remarry him, he’ll keep doing this,” Jean Grant said, telling him everything.

Quentin Grant said in a low voice, ”I understand. Go home.”

”He said if I’m not back within an hour, he’ll release everything to the public. Quentin, I’ve already been here for almost half an hour.”

Quentin Grant looked at her. ”This is a testament to your judgment. You go home first. I’ll take care of this.”

Jean Grant’s heart finally settled a bit. ”Okay. Quentin, don’t tell Mom about this.”

”I know.”

Only then did Jean Grant leave, feeling relieved.

Quentin Grant quickly made a phone call, gave a few instructions, and hung up.

Jean Grant was initially on edge. At home, she kept checking the news. After an hour passed and she saw nothing about herself, her mood finally eased.

Two hours later, she checked the news again. Still nothing about her.

Jean Grant finally called Quentin Grant. ”Quentin, what did you do to him?”

Quentin Grant answered calmly, ”Nothing much. I’m not in the business of killing people. I just sent him a video of his mother with another man. He grew up with just his mom, so I figured this would be the most effective method.”

Jean Grant couldn’t help but give her brother a mental thumbs-up. ”Thanks, Quentin!”

”Just try to stay out of trouble from now on.”

Jean Grant hung up the phone, all the pressure completely gone.

’My happy days are about to begin. I no longer have to worry about Marlon.’

*

When Zoe Ellsworth got home from work, she found that Herman Hawthorne wasn’t back yet. ’He should be back in a little while,’ she guessed.

The clock struck seven.

There was still no sign of him.

She called him directly. Herman Hawthorne told her the truth: Bianca Rhodes’s family was there.

Upon hearing this, Zoe Ellsworth immediately hung up.

She got in her car and sped over. ’This woman really is impossible to get rid of,’ she thought.

When she arrived, Zoe Ellsworth pushed open the door and immediately saw a well-dressed middle-aged couple, as well as Shea Rhodes.

Putting two and two together, Zoe Ellsworth understood the situation.

”I’m Herman Hawthorne’s wife, Zoe Ellsworth. If you have something to discuss, you can talk to me.”

Mrs. Rhodes was displeased. ”Talk to you? What does a silly little girl like you know? I’m here to see Herman.”

Zoe Ellsworth scoffed. ”Silly little girl?”

She stood haughtily beside Herman Hawthorne in her high heels and said, ”Ma’am, you’d better watch your tone. Otherwise, I can have people ’clean’ all four of you out of here.”

Mrs. Rhodes snorted. ”Clean us out? On what grounds? Herman, even though we didn’t quite approve of Bianca being with you back then, you two later moved in together, so I didn’t say anything. But my daughter got pregnant, and not only did your wife cause her to have a miscarriage, but now, after a follow-up with the doctor, she’s been told she can never get pregnant again. What do you have to say about that?”

”I gave her ten million. Is that compensation too low?”

Mrs. Rhodes stood up. ”Can ten million buy back my daughter’s ability to have children?”

Zoe Ellsworth let out a soft snort. ”Then what do you want? She came here carrying someone else’s bastard, trying to pass it off as my husband’s child. I haven’t even settled the score with her for that, and now the four of you show up at our door. What are you trying to pull?”

Mrs. Rhodes refused to admit it. ”Who says it was someone else’s child? It was obviously Herman’s.”

Zoe Ellsworth laughed coldly. ”Ma’am, don’t say my husband’s name so intimately. Please call him Mr. Hawthorne. Do you take my husband and me for fools? My husband already had a DNA test done. We know the truth better than you do. Your daughter was sleeping around, yet she comes demanding compensation. We gave her ten million and you’re still not satisfied. What exactly are you trying to do?”