Rina’s Relief
“Grandma!” Tyler yelled when he saw Rose beginning to topple over. Then, he rushed to grab hold of
her before she collapsed to the ground.
At this moment, Mary happened to be making her way downstairs. Upon seeing Tyler holding onto
Rose, Mary demanded in shock, “Young Master Tyler, what’s going on? Is Old Mrs. Fuller okay?”
“I don’t know what happened, but she fainted,” he explained with an ashen face.
Mary hurried over and helped to lay Rose on the floor before performing CPR on the older woman. As
she did so, she urged, “Call an ambulance, Young Master Tyler.”
“Oh, right!” He snapped out of his frantic daze and glanced around before he spotted the phone that
had slipped from Rose’s grip and landed on the floor earlier. Then, he bent to pick it up.
Coincidentally, the call with Sonia was still ongoing and her alarmed voice filled the other line as she
shouted, “Grandma? Grandma!” She had heard the phone clattering onto the ground as well as Tyler’s
anxious cries on the other end and instantly knew that something had happened to Rose. She only
grew more panicked when Rose didn’t make a single sound over the phone.
Sonia had no idea what was going on. Since she was not with Rose, it meant that she could only clutch
her phone with trembling hands and anxiously call out for the latter while hoping desperately for some
response. Alas, all that greeted her on the other line was not Rose’s voice, but Tyler’s trepidation as he
said, “Sonia, Grandma has just fainted.”
“What do you mean she fainted?” Sonia bolted upright in bed. She was just about to press for details
when the call ended with a decisive beep.
Thinking that Tyler might have accidentally hung up, she called the number once more only to find that
the other line was busy.
Sonia let out a groan of frustration and set her phone aside. Worry and panic weighed on her as she
wondered whether Rose had collapsed after learning that she had terminated her pregnancy. If that
really is the case, then it would be my fault if anything bad happens to Grandma!
Meanwhile, over at the Fuller Residence, the ambulance Tyler called for arrived as quickly as it could.
The paramedics eased Rose onto the stretcher before they brought her and Tyler to the hospital.
That night, it seemed as if the Fuller Family was thrown into predestined chaos; three out of the four
family members had collapsed, leaving a helpless Tyler trying to shoulder the burden alone. If Mary
hadn’t been next to him throughout the process, he had a feeling that he would black out too.
After all, he was only a boy in his late teens whom Rose, Jean, and Toby had sheltered. For the most
part, he was coddled and free to do whatever he pleased. Never once had he thought all three of his
pillars would crumble before him.
Presently, Titus was unsettled as he returned to the Gray Residence. At the sight of him, Julia’s eyes lit
up and she hastened to greet him at the threshold. “Honey, you’re home.”
“Welcome home, Dad,” Rina said cheerily while walking up to him.
Titus nodded sullenly and as Julia helped him over to the armchair, he said, “It’s good to be home.”
“I’ll get you a drink, Dad.” With that, Rina poured tea into a cup and handed it to him.
He took the cup, his expression softening as he pointed out, “How very thoughtful of you, Rina.”
The girl smiled unassumingly and lowered her gaze, hiding the dark gleam in her eyes.
There was something incredibly gratifying about being praised. Rina had spent the last twenty-six years
of her life being subjected to abuse and she never understood parental love until she arrived at the
Gray Residence, whereupon she discovered how potent and enthralling it was to become the object of
parental affection. Why can’t such wonderful parents be my biological family?
“How did it go, honey? Has Toby agreed to reinstate our partnership and the engagement?” Julia asked
nervously, clutching her hands together like she was in prayer. “If the engagement were to resume,
would he choose Tina or Rina?”
Upon hearing this, Rina became tense and watched Titus with wary eyes.
Titus, on the other hand, tightly clenched the cup in his hand as his features twisted into a grimace. If
the cup wasn’t made out of glass, he would’ve squeezed it into pieces.
“No, he has not!” he finally bit out through gritted teeth, rage and spite coloring his voice.
Julia froze. “He hasn’t? As in, he doesn’t want to reinstate both the partnership and the engagement?”
He practically threw the cup onto the table as he answered gloomily, “Yes, that’s what I meant. He
hasn’t agreed to do anything at all!”
“How is that possible, though?” A stunned Julia covered her mouth with a shaky hand.
While standing at one side, Rina was elated to hear this. She was more than relieved to know that the
engagement would remain canceled. She had neither wanted to marry into the Fuller Family nor have
Toby reinstate his engagement with Tina; she didn’t want Tina to marry well, for fear that it would only
make it harder to throw that infernal girl out of the Gray Family.
And as for me… The silhouette of a cavalier and lean figure flashed in Rina’s mind and she couldn’t
help the blood that rushed to her face as her heart began to race.
Since she was afraid that Titus and Julia would catch her looking flustered, she quickly looked down
and hid her face from their view.
However, it was clear that neither Titus nor Julia were paying attention to her, so they were unaware of
how flushed she looked right now.
Julia dug her nails into her palms, growing antsy as she demanded, “Why in the world would he turn us
down? We have evidence of his affair and he should know better than to refuse us—”
“Why should he know better?” Titus let out a hollow, self-deprecating laugh. “His name alone is enough
to keep anyone from aggravating him, even if we were to publicize all proof of his affair. The most
damage he’d get out of it would be a couple of scathing remarks made behind his back, and as for the
netizens…”
He broke off in a contemptuous scoff, then continued, “Toby would probably have liaised with all the
media powerhouses and social media platforms before we could even air his dirty laundry on the
internet. And our plan to use the netizens to tarnish his reputation would be stymied. From how I look at
it, there’s no way he would be threatened by the mere likes of us.”
“But…” Julia was rendered speechless by her husband’s sour analysis. She stammered to filter her
thoughts into words, but in the end, she could only manage hoarsely, “So, we were excited over
nothing?”
“Pretty much,” Titus agreed with a sigh.
They had believed that they could finally one-up Toby with evidence of his scandal and needle him into
giving them what they wanted, but as it turned out, their plan was only good on paper.
As she sobbed into her hands, Julia wailed, “At this rate, what’s going to happen to our enterprise?”
Titus thoughtfully narrowed his eyes. “If push comes to shove, then we’d have to settle for a merger.
We could let go of some of our shares, but at the great risk of losing control over the enterprise, and
that would be the end of the Gray Family’s reign over the company.”
If that happened, then Triforce Enterprise would no longer be the Gray Family’s business; they would
be reduced to the same standing as any other shareholder.
Triforce Enterprise was Titus’ brainchild and after having poured his blood, sweat and tears into
building it up from scratch, he could not sit by and watch it slip through his fingers like fine sand.
However, he could not obtain a loan anywhere—even from financial institutes. As things stood, he had
to resort to desperate measures, even if it meant settling for a merger, which was something he would
never have considered otherwise.
Julia stared at her husband, her heart twisting when she noticed how withered he looked. “Honey—”
“Right, it’s getting late and we should all get some rest. When Tina comes home from the hospital
tomorrow, keep an eye on her so that she doesn’t cause us any more trouble.” He rose from his seat
and rubbed his temple tiredly. “I finally realized that she is no match for Sonia, not even in the
slightest.”
With an obedient nod, she replied, “Alright.”
…
The darkness of the night slowly passed and when the morning arrived, Charles showed up at the
hospital to escort Sonia.
She eyed him in askance. “Did you come alone?”
“Who else were you expecting?” He cast her a sideways glance.
Sonia stood next to her bed and placed a hand on her lower abdomen, which was still sore from the
procedure. “I just thought Carl might come along with you.”
“I called him to ask if he wanted to, but for some reason, I couldn’t get through his phone. I don’t know
what he’s up to either, so I figured I’d just come here without him,” Charles explained with a casual
shrug. Then, a sudden thought crossed his mind before he asked, “By the way, did something happen
between you and Carl yesterday?”
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