First Place From Behind
When mentioning the past, Floyd had a rare and warm smile on his face. Nicole stood there in
embarrassment.
”You must’ve remembered wrongly, Dad. I’ve never gotten bad grades before!” Grant snorted in
disdain. “Before I tutored you, you were definitely the first place in class, counting backward, of course.”
Grant exposed her unceremoniously.
Nicole was speechless. ’Did he have to do that? Are we really family? Why do we have to hurt each
other? No, why did they have to hurt me?!’ Clayton could not help but laugh. His eyes when he looked
at Nicole became gentler and curious. It was such a nice story. He wanted to know more. Outsiders
saw Nicole as excellent and perfect, but she had bad grades before? After dessert, there was still a
while before lunch
. Floyd could not rest assured and called Grant to the study to talk. Although Nicole could hold her own
in the business world, there were some shady areas that they had never let her touch. Thus, Grant had
to stand out instead. Aida sat there with Nicole and Clayton. Her posture when she was eating was
graceful and flawless. Nicole and Clayton looked at each other from time to time, smiling sweetly.
The air seemed to be infused with a sweet smell. Aida smiled and lowered her eyes gently. “Am I
disturbing you guys here? Do you guys want to talk intimately?” Nicole was stunned, and her
movements froze. She was instantly a little embarrassed after hearing the snicker in Aida’s voice.
“Aida…” Nicole’s relationship with Clayton had not been officially announced in the Stanton family.
However, Grant already knew, and Floyd only pretended not to know. The only person who exposed
them was Aida. Aida smiled gently at them. “Mr. Sloan, you did investment banking on Wall Street?”
Clayton nodded. His attitude was warm and sincere. Since Aida was Grant’s wife and Nicole’s sister-in-
law, Clayton was very respectful to her.
“It’s not easy to get a firm foothold on Wall Street, not to mention that your experiences don’t seem to
have been smooth. You must’ve put in much more effort than others to get to where you are now.”
Aida’s voice was soft like a breeze in a drizzle. Nicole enjoyed listening to Aida’s voice. It always felt
pleasurable. In some ways, Aida was quite similar to Clayton. They both had an external aura that was
extremely warm. However, Clayton had a firmness in his warmth. Aida’s warmth was tactful and gentle.
It was not annoying at all. Clayton smiled modestly.
“There were difficulties, but compared to returning to my old life, it wasn’t as unbearable.” Aida nodded
to show her understanding. Nicole suddenly thought of something. “Were you also on Wall Street back
then, Aida? I remember the first few years when Grant took over the company, he often went over for
business trips. It obviously wasn’t important enough for him to go there in person, but he never missed
an opportunity to go there.”
Aida jumped slightly. Her expression was clearly a little shocked. She had not known about that. Nicole
smiled. “Didn’t he tell you? I think he might have gone there to secretly see you…” “Lil N…” Grant’s
voice came down from upstairs, tinged with an inexplicably cold warning. Clayton seemed to notice
something and smiled meaningfully. Nicole blinked and looked at Grant, who was walking over. “Big
Brother, did you take those business trips back then just so you could see Aida?”
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