“Wait a minute.”
She responded listlessly and tiredly went to the bathroom to wash up.
There were a lot of affairs waiting for her to settle in Downey Group which she never knew that her
daddy had to deal with so many things every day before she took over the company. It had only been a
few days since she succeeded her daddy as the president of the group but she already felt exhausted.
Thinking of the voting by the board of directors which would be held that day, she felt even more
distraught.
The position of the president had been reserved for her by her daddy, but with her mother’s
involvement, she felt like she had stolen the position and she was on pins and needles right now.
…
The rain finally stopped. Early in the morning, Hayden met Mr. Lionel, who was her daddy’s lawyer for a
coffee.
Mr. Lionel was a good friend of her daddy for many years and he was well established in the legal
profession in Nanking. Although he had been involved in defending commercial lawsuits over the
years, Hayden felt that she was someone she could trust, so she planned to seek his advice on Noah’s
matter first.
To her surprise, Mr. Lionel handed an insurance policy to her first before she opened her mouth.
“This is the insurance policy that Mr. Downey bought in Hong Kong before he passed away. It had been
paid for five years and the beneficiary is you, Ms. Downey.”
Hayden was stunned, staring at the line ‘Death from Major Illness Insurance’ written on the insurance
policy in a daze.
“My dad, how did he…”
How did he suddenly go and buy this kind of insurance?
Who would anticipate that they would die of a major illness in the first place?
Mr. Lionel said with a gloomy face, “The insurance was bought a long time ago, around the year before
you went overseas. At that time, Mr. Downey was still very healthy and had a health certificate from the
hospital. In fact, at that time I wasn’t sure why he thought of buying this insurance. But now it seems
that Mr. Downey is a man with foresight.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Mr. Downey was hospitalized some time ago, I had been helping him revise his will and sort out
the issue of property ownership. I had researched the financial situation of Downey Group and knew it
very clearly. Hadn’t you ever wondered why your daddy didn’t leave any fortune for you?”
Hayden vaguely realized something, “What happened to Downey Group?”
“Many people are fighting for the power as Mr. Downey had been giving up his power to others
gradually over the years. The workers in the subsidiaries also tried to compete with each other and
intrigue against each other. It seemed like the Downey family had a lot of real estates, but all of them
had been mortgaged to the banks. Almost every year some of the properties were mortgaged like
robbing Peter to pay Paul and this caused the company to struggle a lot.”
“How can this be?”
Hayden looked stunned, “My daddy never told me about it.”
“Mr. Downey knew that you had no intention of inheriting the group and he didn’t want to get involved in
this mess. He had already made all the arrangements for the succession of the group before he passed
away.”
“Arrangements?”
She wondered, “What arrangements?”
As they were talking, the program showing on the wall-mounted LCD TV in the cafe was suddenly
interrupted by the social news.
At exactly ten o’clock in the morning in Beijing, twenty minutes ago, the headquarters of a family
business group in the city was suddenly sealed off by the court authorities. During the evidence
gathering work done by the police, a dispute broke out among the board of directors of the group. The
female president of the group, Ms. Downey who had been appointed recently unfortunately jumped off
the building and had been confirmed dead on the spot. In the confusion, the vice president Ms. Mason
is missing.”
Hayden’s hand trembled and she didn’t hold the coffee cup in her hand steadily, spilling the coffee all
over.
The waiter hurriedly came over to clean it up, while Hayden’s eyes stayed motionless staring at the TV
screen. She looked shocked, puzzled, and also panicked.
After a long time, she heard the waiter saying sorry to her and she slowly regained her consciousness.
“It’s okay. I’ll handle it myself.”
Returning to her seat, she asked Mr. Lionel embarrassedly, “Mr. Lionel, what’s going on with the
group?”
Mr. Lionel hadn’t been watching the news. His expression was a bit cold, “If I’m right, someone
reported Downey’s Group for tax evasion, and now the group is facing a huge fine. Someone needs to
come out and take responsibility and the one may be punished by life imprisonment as the amount of
money involved is too large.”
“Someone reported it?”
Hayden was a little confused, “Who will do it?”
Mr. Lionel gave her a meaningful look and said clearly, “Your daddy.”
Everything had already been arranged, and it was the best arrangement.
Brook had been in the business world for so many years, and he was very wise. He knew how the
people around him treated him, and he even pretended that he knew nothing, in order to give them a
fatal blow.
Hayden never expected Brook was so ruthless that he planned to treat Chelsea and Sofia like that
before he passed away.
She felt it was ridiculous.
This was the kind of marriage in which Brook and Sofia were so calculating, and Brook even left a trap
inside his will which would make Sofia and Chelsea in trouble after inheriting his fortune. She still
naively once thought that her daddy was kind.
Now she only knew that every businessman in this world would not be fully committed to loving others.
They were all hypocritical.
At noon, after coming out of the cafe, Mr. Lionel walked along the street for a few hundred meters
before getting into a black Ferrari on the side of the road quickly.
The gentle brows of the man sitting at the back were reflected in the rear-view mirror. His well-tailored
suit made him look aristocratic.
“You have finished talking with her?”
Mr. Lionel nodded.
“I have done according to what you told me. I only told her about the problem of Downey Group and the
trap inside Brook’s will. I never mentioned that Mr. Downey already knew Sofia and Chelsea were
going to poison him.”
“Okay.” The man breathed a sigh of relief. “My assistant will pay you the money I promised I will give
you.”
Mr. Lionel smiled.
“No need. Mr. Downey already paid me the money I should get, and he didn’t want Ms. Downey to
know too much. He just wanted her to live out her life in peace after taking the compensation from the
insurance. It’s a way for him to compensate what he owed him, and that’s the end of my duty.”
The man nodded and the car slowly pulled over, dropping Mr. Lionel before going on the road.
“Edison, I don’t understand why Hayden cannot know the truth. She has a right to know the real cause
of her daddy’s death, doesn’t she?”
“Hayden is not a person who likes to investigate the causes of the event after the event had happened,
so telling her would just make her worried. Since Brook intended to hide the truth for her, not wanting
her to be sad should not be the only reason.”
Edison said unhurriedly like spring in the mountains, telling the story in a way that one would be easy to
understand his words.
“Then what else?” Lorraine wondered.
“He did this for the sake of Downey Group.” Edison glanced at Lorraine. “Brook used this way to tell
Hayden that he knew everything and didn’t need her to do anything more, and even to let Hayden
misunderstand that he deliberately left the group to take revenge on Sofia and Chelsea. He didn’t want
her to get involved in the affairs of the group if she thought that it was her family business.”
The real situation was that Downey Group already had a big problem for a long time and the issue of
tax evasion was just the trigger.
“It’s better to hide the truth from her. She’s had many troubles lately. I’ll help her to settle these small
problems.”
Edison looked out of the window. His normally warm eyes darkened a little bit.
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