Wesley wasn't as furious as he pretended to be. He always assumed a strict face in front of Erica, because otherwise, she would never be afraid of him. But he had already given up on scolding her.
During this time, Matthew whispered something into Gwyn's ear. Shifting her gaze back to look at the angry Wesley, she ran to him with spread out arms and called in a sweet voice, "Grandpa! Hug."
At the sight of the little girl, Wesley's anger melted away completely. He crouched down and picked her up, laughing. "Gwyn, did Grandpa scare you?"
'Ah, no wonder Carlos is doing everything he can to keep Gwyn by his side. Who wouldn't want to spend their old age with such a lovely granddaughter?'
Erica saw that her father's mood had changed and made a face at Wesley before sitting next to Evelyn. "Evelyn, you're much nicer to me than Dad. I'll stay here with you hereafter! I can cook fried steak, drumsticks, make crisps and chicken popcorn! I can wash clothes and clean. I'm an expert. Let me stay here as your sister."
Wesley undercut her. "Evelyn, don't trust her. You think she can do all that? The only thing she does best is eat!"
Evelyn chuckled. She held the pouting Erica in her arms, and said, "Erica is just a teenager, Uncle Wesley. She will learn soon."
Erica nodded violently. "Yes! Yes! I learned to cook French fries and—"
"And you almost blew up the kitchen!" Wesley cut in without mercy.
"But I didn't! The kitchen is still intact. I also cooked steak once."
"You mean, charred steak."
Erica's face darkened. She protested loudly, "Dad! How can you treat me like this? I'm your daughter! Did you pick me up from the street or something? Why are you so mean to me?"
Everyone in the room laughed at her heated protests.
Wesley pretended to think about her argument for a while, and then nodded. "Actually, I found you in a trash bin. You are not my biological kid," he said, shrugging casually. It was hard not to believe that. After all, Erica didn't take after Blair or Wesley.
"Fine! I'll call Mom and tell her that you suspect her of cheating!"
"What? Hey, I never said that! Get over here! You're going to be punished for that!" With Gwyn in his arms, Wesley took two steps forward towards his daughter.
Gifford sighed. "Dad, you are nothing but talk. You never punish her. So, could you stop saying that?"
Everybody laughed. They knew that Wesley didn't have the heart to be harsh on his little daughter.
Wesley looked back and forth between the brother and sister duo and answered stubbornly, "I don't want to embarrass you two in your uncle Carlos' presence. I'll teach you both a lesson after we get home!"
But Erica had already taken out her mobile phone to play games, completely ignoring her father. Gifford wasn't afraid of Wesley either, because he knew that his mother would back him up.
The Li family stayed back in the manor that night. Sheffield stayed too. It was his first time entering Evelyn's room aboveboard, and he spent the whole night with her.
Erica played with Gwyn in Evelyn's room for a while. She didn't want to overstay and intrude on their family time, so after a while, she excused herself and left the room.
As soon as she closed the door behind her, she saw Matthew who was about to go back into his room.
She said quickly, "Hey Matthew, thank you for helping me out back then."
Matthew knew that she was talking about him echoing her words earlier. But after casting her a quick glance, he silently entered his room and locked the door.
'Huh? Did he just ignore me? Humph! What an impolite, arrogant guy!' Erica scoffed.
The next morning, Sheffield left the manor and went back straight to the Tang family residence.
The family was having breakfast when he arrived. Nastas was still asleep. At the table were Peterson, Lea, Sandra and her husband, Peterson's second daughter-in-law—Daphne Bi, Sterling and Kaylee, and Felton. The others seemed to have already left after breakfast or Sheffield assumed that they hadn't come back home the previous night.
When they saw him enter, the harmonious atmosphere at the table suddenly changed.
Sheffield didn't care. He sat at the table, but dismissed the breakfast served by a servant. He turned to Peterson. "You should pay the Huo family a visit in the next two days."
Peterson put down his chopsticks and didn't speak until he had swallowed the food in his mouth. "Carlos Huo hasn't given his blessing, has he?"
"He has."
"Really? What made him change his mind?" Peterson didn't understand what Carlos was thinking at all; first, he pretended to have his daughter cut off from the family, and now, it seemed that he had accepted the marriage.
Sheffield raised his eyebrows and lazily leaned against the back of the chair. "You don't need to worry about that. Have you prepared the betrothal gifts?"
Peterson was silent for a moment and announced without caring about the others' presence, "A check for about 990 million dollars, five percent shares of Theo Group, two urban houses, four cars and some other properties. Are you satisfied?"
The crowd at the table gasped in surprise. They stared unbelievingly at Peterson; he was being too generous towards Evelyn Huo.
What pissed them off even more was that Sheffield was still not satisfied. He stated, "5%? I would be satisfied with 15."
Peterson tried hard to hold back his anger and growled sarcastically, "I only have 20% of the shares left after I gave you the shares. You know that. Why don't you just hand over Theo Group to the Huo family as the wedding gift?"
"Hmm, I did think about that. But the Huo family is so wealthy that they don't give a crap about Theo Group."
"Sheffield Tang! How dare you?" Peterson bellowed, his hands trembling.
Kaylee cut in softly, "Sheffield, when I married into the family, I only got a few million dollars, a house and one car as the betrothal gifts. Dad has given you so much more. You should be satisfied with it."
Felton echoed angrily, "That's right! My wife's betrothal gift was also only a few million dollars. Dad is offering your wife more than a billion, and yet you are being ungrateful and greedy!" He turned to Peterson and said, "Dad, how can you be so partial towards him?" Sheffield was about to get a thousand times more fortune than they had gotten.
Sheffield looked around the table and asked calmly, "Both Kaylee and Felton have a problem with the betrothal gift. Daphne, Sandra, what about you? Do you have a problem with it too?"
When Daphne Bi married into the Tang family, her betrothal gift had also been the same as the others. But she was smarter than the rest of them. She shook her head slightly, saying, "As long as Dad is happy with the decision."
As a daughter-in-law, Daphne Bi had no rights to argue. But Sandra was Peterson's daughter. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind. "How can Dad be happy after giving away so much money? Sheffield, don't put him in an awkward position. The Tang family is a large clan. He needs to be fair to everyone. If he shows partiality like this, he will not be able to govern this family."
Lea had no say in such matters. She sat silently next to Peterson, eating her breakfast.
If Peterson gave away all the good stuff to Sheffield, what would be left for her one-year-old son? But even though she was dissatisfied, she could only silently bear through the conversation.