Chapter 10 The Uncle
“Why are you speaking up for Miah, Mr. Gentry? Have you taken a liking to her?” Eliza then questioned.
Lawrence may be Miah’s uncle, but he wasn’t much older than her.
And seeing as he had unmatched looks, Eliza had mistaken his intentions.
“You’re downright stupid!” Lawrence’s detest towards her was obvious.
Eliza lost her cool. “I’m stupid? What’s so good about that Miah then? She’s even willing to sell her body for money, she’s just a slut!”
Miah turned and looked at her. “Watch your mouth, Eliza, spreading baseless rumours is a crime!”
“Am I wrong? You don’t even know Bobby Gallagher at all but you’re willing to marry a disabled man in a wheelchair like him! And you still dare claim that it’s not for money?” Eliza screamed, completely hysterical.
Hearing this, all the guests gasped.
She had just brazenly insulted Bobby in front of so many people. Had she really gone mad? Or had she just grown tired of living?
“Bam!”
A glass fell from above at this moment.
“Crash!”
It landed loudly, brushing past Eliza’s forehead before it smashed into the ground less than two centimetres away from her feet.
“Ah!”
Eliza was so startled that she let out a shriek.
Looking up, she saw the cold, handsome face of a man on the second floor.
Eliza was stunned the moment she did.
“Bobby Gallagher? Why is he here?”
“Didn’t you say that he wasn’t coming today?”
The Sampsons were currently in a disorderly state after discovering that Bobby had been upstairs the entire time.
“M-Mr. Gallagher, why didn’t you tell me that you were here?”
Bobby’s technologically-advanced wheelchair descended the stairs automatically. He radiated an imposing aura befitting a king even though he was seated.
“Would I still have been able to witness such a spectacular scene if I did?”
He shot a hostile gaze directly at Eliza once he finished speaking.
Eliza took a step back but was immediately pushed forward by Holly.
“Shouldn’t you hurry up and apologize, Eliza?”
Holly was still Holly after all, so she reacted faster than Eliza. “I apologise, Mr. Gallagher, it seems our dear Eliza is in a terrible mood today that’s why she spoke without thinking. She usually idolises you very much! Someone as magnanimous as you surely wouldn’t hold something like this against your future sister-in-law, right?”
“That’s right.” Dylan chimed in. Taking advantage of the situation, he continued, “We’ll all be a family soon, and it’s normal to have squabbles. Don’t you agree, Miah?”
Eliza was truly panicking now that she had to face Bobby. She lowered her head and didn’t dare look him in the face.
“M-Mr. Gallagher, I was wrong. I’m sorry,” she stammered out, her voice as soft as a mosquito.
Bobby’s demeanour remained unmoved. “I’m not the one you should be apologising to, it’s Miah!”
He had never once cared about others calling him disabled.
The Gallagher family’s internal power dynamics grew more complicated in recent years, so he was deliberately pretending to be disabled to keep a low profile in order to protect himself, but it didn’t mean that he really was one.
And when it comes to people like Eliza, getting angry was a waste of energy to him.
However, to insult Miah was to court death.
Looking at Eliza who was stubbornly clenching her jaw, Miah said, “Did you hear that? Apologize to me!”
Eliza’s nails were about to draw blood from her palms given how hard she was clenching her fists, but no matter what, she couldn’t bring herself to apologise to Miah.
How could she when she hated Miah to the extreme? She would rather die.
Seeing that the situation was at a stalemate, Holly abruptly interjected. “Let’s forget it. Eliza isn’t obtuse, so she already knows that she’s in the wrong. As her mother, I’ll apologise to you on her behalf, Miah, so please don’t hold this against your sister!”
But Miah couldn’t.
One apology couldn’t eliminate the grudge she carried from her previous life.
The feeling of excruciating pain when being swallowed by the fire.
Watching the person she loved die right in front of her as his body burned into a charred black corpse.
The desolate smell of cooking human flesh.
How could one apology erase a blood feud?
Miah knew that Eliza wouldn’t apologise sincerely to her, so she wasn’t going to let go of her grudge, and she definitely wasn’t going to let Eliza off either.
She had come prepared today.
Miah pressed a remote control in her hand right at this moment.
The large LED screen in the hall that was originally displaying a backdrop for the celebration instantly changed to a video of Eliza and Holly’s earlier conversation.
“Your father dotes on you so much, how could he possibly give the money to that good-for-nothing Miah?
“Do you really think that she went missing all those years by chance? It was…
“Forget it, let’s not talk about the past…
“So dress yourself up a little prettier today—”
“Turn it off! Someone turn it off right now!” Holly screamed, but the video continued.
“—find any young man downstairs to date. Once you’ve gone abroad in future and have found yourself a rich man to marry, do you really need to worry about how you’ll be living for the rest of your life?”
Holly would never have thought that her words would be recorded and that Miah would play them back in front of so many people.
The guests were in an uproar after watching the recording.
“How could mother and daughter both be so crooked?”
“It would appear they had something to do with Ms. Miah’s disappearance all those years ago!”
“Could it be that Holly orchestrated it on purpose? Miah was only two years old when she went missing! That’s too vicious!”
“This is all too earth-shattering!”
Dylan had gone pale.
He was also partially responsible for Miah’s disappearance all those years ago.
No one could find out about it. He desperately called for help to cut off the power, but the screen wouldn’t shut off.
Miah was calm and determined, like a proud queen, as she stood there holding the remote control.
“See that? That is your so-called idea of welcoming me home and familial love!
“I won’t pursue matters that took place in the past, but from now on, I, Miah Sampson, will no longer have anything to do with the Sampson family!” She declared.
“The family’s bankruptcy is your own business; I will only take back the shares that belonged to my mother. I am marrying Bobby Gallagher out of my own free will, and I will not let him invest a single penny in you!”
With that, Miah signed the inheritance contract and headed towards the gate while publicly holding Bobby’s hand.
…
A man chased after and stopped them as soon as they left the Sampson family’s villa.
“Miah! Wait a moment!”
Turning around, Miah wasn’t surprised to see who it was.
Lawrence, her uncle.
His eyes were full of concern as he asked, “Have you really decided to marry him?”
Under the darkness of the night, Bobby didn’t speak and merely turned his gaze towards Miah’s face, awaiting her reply.
Miah held his hand tightly. “Yes, I have. I’m serious about this, Uncle Lawrence.”
Lawrence was momentarily stunned by the way she addressed him.
“So you know who I am…”
Lawrence sighed. “When your mother committed suicide, we—your uncles—all went crazy trying to find you but we couldn’t.
“I rushed back from Onionates country as soon as I heard news that you were in Pattul!”
“Thank you, Uncle Lawrence.” Miah expressed from the bottom of his heart.
Due to the Sampsons’ brainwashing, she wasn’t close to her uncles in her previous life and had committed a series of actions that hurt them.
Now that she thought about it, she realised that they were the ones who were truly good to her.
Therefore, she couldn’t let them down again in this life.
Looking at Bobby, Lawrence said, “Although the Gentry family has been building our influence abroad all these years, Bobby Gallagher, our niece is the apple of our eyes. She isn’t someone you can bully!”
