Filed To Story: Returning to Her Not-So-Poor Family
“You wretch!” Teresa was terrified, her teeth clenched in anger. “Bard was too busy working to discipline you, so today I will teach you a lesson.”
“No need to trouble yourself, Teresa”
Suddenly, a man’s vaice cut through the crowd. All the bodyguards turned, and the elders were stunned to see Bard had arrived!
He was decked out in a suit, looking as calm and collected as ever.
“She’s my woman. I’ll handle her.”
Bard’s words froze everyone in their tracks, especially Teresa, who couldn’t believe her eyes.
Bard wasn’t dead?
He was still alive?
“Bard??” The elders were in utter disbelief.
Eunice and Mirabella just slightly curled their lips, not surprised, as if they had expected this moment.
Bard pushed a wheelchair forward, and sitting in it was none other than Darren!
Mirabella’s grandfather was not only awake but looked furious.
“Darren??” Calvin couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “You’re awake.”
“Calvin, were you hoping I’d never wake up?”The icy question made Calvin’s legs turn to jelly. He hurriedly responded, “No, no, Darren, you’ve got it all wrong.”
“You lot are quite something. I’ve barely been out for a few days, and you’ve already started tormenting my daughter-in-law!” Darren’s voice was strong and indignant, with an air of authority.
“Dad!” Eunice rushed to her father-in-law, squatting by the wheelchair, her voice filled with grievance.
“I’m so glad you’re awake. If you hadn’t come, they would have devoured me!”
It was the first time Mirabella had seen her aunt act so coquettishly. It turned out that she had many facets, an interesting character indeed.
As Darren heard his daughter-inaw’s complaints, his anger intensified as he addressed his siblings, “What are you all doing? By seniority and age, which of you isn’t older than Eunice? A bunch of you ganging up ona defenseless woman, I’m ashamed of you!”
Defenseless? Mirabella couldn’t help but smirk at the irony of that description.
Teresa’s eyes popped, “Darren, do you even know what that word means?”
Just moments ago, Eunice and Mirabella had teamed up and knocked down over twenty bodyguards.
So much for being helpless.
“Darren, you didn’t see it. She just flew into action, like one kick per person.”
Before Teresa could finish, Eunice retorted with a pout, “Dad, you heard them. When could I ever fly, let alone kick them like that? When someone wants to accuse you, they’ll find any excuse.”
Teresa was floored by Eunice’s acting skills.
“Everyone shut it! I’m still here. Do you think you can frame her?” Darren barked, then his gaze softened as he turned to his daughter-in-law, ‘Dont worry, sweetheart. Daddy’s here, and I won’t let anyone bully you!”
Eunice nodded meekly, but when she looked back at Teresa and Bess, her face broke into a triumphant smirk, as if to say: What can you do about it?
Teresa and Bess were furning, “Darren.”
“Zip it. We’ll settle your scores tomorrow! It’s late. Eunice, let’s head home!”
Upon hearing this, Eunice quickly scuttled over and took Mirabella by the hand, “Dad, did Bard ever mention Bella to you?”
Darren suddenly realized he had let his anger get the better of him, almost forgetting his granddaughter!”Bella, is that you?” Darren’s voice quivered with excitement as he studied Mirabella, “You look so much like her.”
She was the spitting image of his daughter Louisa!
Only, the girl before him was even more beautiful than his daughter in her younger days, with an even more striking presence.
“My dear, you’ve had it tough out there.” Darren grasped Mirabella’s hand, his voice choked with emotion, his hands trembling.
“Grandpa.” Mirabella knew something was off.
Perhaps overwhelmed, and still recovering from his outburst, Darren’s hands shook violently as he struggled to breathe, his expression growing more pained.
“Grandpa? Grandpa.’ Mirabella’s hand rested on her grandfather’s wrist, urgently saying, “To the hospital! Quick!”
Darren had passed out.
Everyone was in disbelief. Just a second ago, Darren was scolding them, and the next, he was unconscious.
Bard and Eunice called out to him, but to no avail.
“If anything bad happens to my dad, I will never forgive you.”
With those words, Bard rushed off, pushing the wheelchair swiftly.
Eunice and Mirabella followed close behind.No one dared to stop them.
Arlen stood frozen, only after a long while turning to Calvin, ‘Calvin, what do we do?”
Had Darren heard their insults to Eunice, and if so, how much had he heard?
If Darren found out the dirty tricks they’d played behind his back, even plotting against Bard, then none of them would be safe!
“When did they come in?” Calvin didn’t answer Arlen but turned to the bodyguards in the hall.
All the bodyguards shook their heads, none had noticed their arrival.
When exactly Bard had wheeled Darren in? They hadn’t heard a sound.
“Are the people outside dead or what? Call them in now!” Calvin was livid. How could someone enter without them being notified?
Panic rippled through the grand mansion as a breathless servant burst into the dimly lit drawing room, “Everyone outside has passed out and they won’t wake up no matter how much we shout!”
“What do you mean, every single bodyguard is out cold?” Calvin’s voice was laced with disbelief.
“Yes.”
Calvin stood frozen, his mind racing, until a thought struck him, “Arlen, don’t you have guys posted in the security room watching the monitors? How could something like this happen?”
“Mr. Clarence, get to the security room now! See if the guy in there fell asleep on the job!” Arlen barked, his temper flaring. “If he did, I want him gone!”
Incompetent fools! They’ve messed up everything!
Mr. Clarence hurried off, returning a while later, trembling, “Jacob’s awake, but the cameras are not working.”
Fury washed over Arlen. “The cameras are down and Jacob’s blind? He didn’t notice until now?”
“It’s not Jacob’s fault. The cameras at the back door and the east side of the villa stopped working.
They seemed to be recording, ticking away second by second, until I asked Jacob to pull up the footage of Bard’s appearance. That’s when we found out, nothing was recording at all, the mouse clicks did nothing.”
Arlen, for the first time, was hearing of such a mess. A name suddenly flashed in his mind.”It has to be that girl!” Arlen seethed with rage, “When did she get into the security room? Did Jacob step out? Or was he knocked out and didn’t know?”
“Jacob swears he never left the room. He’d stake his family’s lives on it, no one came in or out.”
“What the hell happened then?” Arlen was on the brink of madness. Ever since Eunice and Mirabella showed up, he felt like a monkey being played in circles.
Bess spoke up, fear tinging her voice, “Didn’t our men surround the villa? How could Darren be with Bard? And how did Bard come back alive? Our men were all around the villa, how did Darren leave?
And how did they manage to knock out all the guards outside. There are too many questions.”
“I’ll make some calls.” Calvin, equally agitated, dialed his men, but no one answered. In a fit of rage, he hurled his phone to the ground!
They thought Bard was dead, Darren comatose, and Eunice would sign over the Griffith estate to them.
But their plans had crumbled.
“Even if Darren didn’t hear what we said, once he wakes up, Eunice will spill everything about tonight,’
Arlen fretted, “Darren’s still out, but Bard is wide awake! If Eunice tells him that we’re linked to his plane’s explosion.”
Even if Darren couldn’t step in to deal with them right away, with Bard’s principles, he’d turn against his own kin!
None of them here would be spared!
“Better to strike first than wait for doom!”
Acold glint appeared in Arlen’s eye as he plotted, “Darren’s down, and Bard and Eunice are at the hospital with him. They won’t have many guards, and the hospital won’t allow a crowd in the ward.Tonight’s our best chance to make a move!”
Calvin felt the same, though the risk weighed on him, “But if we fail, it’s the end of us.”
“If we don’t take action, we’re done for!” Arlen’s voice trembled with fervor. “Calvin, we’re out of options.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.