CHAPTER 527: AUNTS LIKE ANTS (1)

In the conference room that Brad had exited, Molly and Sally still sat frozen, mouths agape.

Even long after the double doors had swung shut behind Brad’s assistant, the two could still not believe their ears. Never in their lives!

This was so humiliating, especially seeing that the cameras in the room were still blinking, showing that there were third parties who could have witnessed this exchange. Molly wished she could disappear, and her sister was not faring any better, but Sally always wore her emotions on her sleeve, so she was easier to read.

Silence lingered for what felt like an eternity before the two elegantly dressed women started talking furiously,

"How dare he speak to us like that?" Molly hissed, her usual composed exterior now fraying at the edges. Her perfectly coifed hair trembled with each sharp step. "After everything we’ve done for him—after all the respect we showed him by coming all the way here and not asking him to visit us as elders!"

This, coming from Molly, was surprising because she had always been the sanest amongst the lot. Any listener would wonder what they had done for Brad and how he had been ungrateful for the words, which were ambiguous.

"Respect?" Sally snapped. "We offered him power on a silver platter! We gave him the opportunity of a lifetime! And how does he repay us? With arrogance. With accusations. With insults to our name!"

From a bystander’s perspective, that did not even make sense, any more than the previous utterance, but unfortunately, their only audience was their three grown dumb sons.

Sally scoffed, tossing her silk shawl over her shoulder. "He has the audacity to defend that woman—his so-called mother—as if she were royalty! That woman tricked her way into this family! How could she?! Our parents would roll in their graves if they knew that an outsider is holding on to the mantle of our long-lasting family tradition!

If we had known that Geneva was already with child, then we would never have allowed her to become the matriarch! Why did we even have to fawn over her because she had supposedly given birth to a male heir, just a few months after marriage? We should have questioned it then! Damn it!"

"Language, Sally!"

Sally rolled her eyes at her sister’s words, thinking that they were already that old, so who cared about their choice of words? Instead, she muttered,

"... and now her son thinks he can speak to us like we’re his subordinates? Brad of all people?!"

For once, Molly’s eyes glittered with resentment. "He’s just like his brother. That same coldness. That same pride. The same refusal to kneel when he should. I never liked that boy much, and I had thought that Ian bastard only took after his mother and that was why I did not like him.... Seems like my subconscious mind had been trying to tell me something, but I never listened!"

"And yet... didn’t you see the way he stood? The contempt and disgust?" Molly murmured after a pause, voice low. "He’s no longer the smiling, soft-spoken boy we used to bribe with candy and praise. That man in there... he was no fool."

".... But what do we do now? He did not take the bait! In fact, he was not even surprised!"

A long silence stretched between them as Sally clenched her purse tightly. "He made a fool of us. I have never been this belittled!"

"No," Molly replied, her voice hardening. "He thinks he made a fool of us. But this isn’t over. Since he has decided to side with his brother, and that harlot of a mother, I’ll make sure that they are buried together! It’s even better that that Ian bastard has gone missing and his wife too! It makes things less complicated for us!"

"I-"

A sharp knock echoed on the double door before it creaked open just enough to reveal a young man in a perfectly tailored uniform. He hesitated a moment too long under their glare, then cleared his throat and poked his head in.

"Pardon me, madams," he began carefully, his tone polite but firm, "I’m going to have to ask you to leave—"

"And why is that?" Sally snapped, her voice slicing through the air like glass.

The man blinked, then adjusted the tablet in his hand. "The venue has been booked by another party. We need to prep for the next meeting, ma’am."

Sally looked like she wanted to tear him apart with words. The man’s words were polite, but it did not need a discerning eye to notice the underlying mockery. Her jaw clenched, nostrils flaring as if she were holding back the torrent of resentment Brad’s rejection had stirred. But she bit her tongue—for now.

This time, Molly, however, was not so merciful.

"Is this how you treat clients now? Toss us out like yesterday’s garbage?" she barked, rising from her seat with the full authority of old money and wounded pride. "Do you even know who we are?"

The poor man took a respectful step back. "Of course, ma’am. I do. But I was given strict instructions. This room is no longer yours to occupy."

He lowered his head briefly and muttered, "It was never yours to start with...." But his voice was so low that the two older women did not hear it. He had also only given them that respect because they were from the Thornston family. If it had been anyone else, he would not have hesitated to let security do their job!

"Unbelievable," Molly muttered, gathering her clutch with stiff fingers. "First their mother tricks our stupid brother, then the boys grow up to be tyrants... Now even the staff have the audacity—!"

The man simply stood there, head bowed slightly, bearing the weight of their fury without blinking. The silence that followed was so thick that it almost felt insulting to the sisters.

With an indignant huff, Molly and Sally turned on their heels.

The three sons, however, remained seated, oblivious. One was staring at nothing, almost as if struggling to understand what was going on there, while the other two played on their phones.

The staffer glanced at them, then plastered on the most plastic smile he could muster. "Gentlemen—well, sort of—I hate to break it to you, but your chariots await. Unless, of course, you’d prefer to be carried out?"

"Like real chariots! How cool is that! Where is it?!"

The staffer face-palmed himself but bowed and pointed at the entrance,

The second of them blinked. "Wait, you want us to leave too?"

"Sharp as ever," the man said with a grin, clearly not even trying to hide his sarcasm now. "Yes. Out you go. This room needs to be aired out."

"Oh! So, that’s what you meant? Couldn’t you have just said that? Weird guy!"

Still none the wiser, the three stood up—one bumping his knee into the chair, another muttering something about needing snacks, the third checking his hair in the mirror on the way out.

"Have a brilliant day, lords of intellect," the worker muttered under his breath once they were gone, tapping his earpiece. "Clear. The storm has passed, and the air is breathable again."

A chuckle sounded from the other end of it. This staffer had literally pulled the short stick and had been assigned to get rid of the Thornston sisters. Every single person on the island knew how impossible these two were. While Ian and his immediate family commanded respect just from existing, these two demanded it even when it was not due to them.

Inside the now-empty conference room, the worker exhaled quietly and tapped his earpiece again. "All clear. You can send the next team in."

While the workers went about their next task, Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest caught up to their mothers and trailed behind them like confused shadows. Though the three were eye-catching and hailed from the best of families, most women preferred to stay clear of them; after all, few women wanted to produce offspring like those. Hence, though not far from Ian and Brad’s age, they had no female relations.

An elevator dinged open, and all five stepped in, heading for the underground parking. Because of this, they missed the rolling news of Ian and Shelby’s return that was rolling on the giant ad screen outside the grand hotel where they had been.

The sisters’ eyes met as the elevator doors closed slowly—two powerful women, now wounded, humiliated, and most of all, vengeful.

"He just declared war," Sally whispered.

Molly smiled bitterly. "Then let’s give him one."

"How?"

"I have a plan...."

Sally said and pulled her phone, dialling as they stepped out of the elevator. Their sons, who had come in their own sports cars, each stepped into theirs and zoomed off, not bothering with their mothers. Besides, Molly liked this for once, as she was in no mood to deal with their gimmicks on this day.

Though she was always considered the sane one, this feedback from Brad had punched her in the gut more than she would care to admit, and for that, she was ready to go the extra mile to teach Brad and his family a lesson. The fact that Brad’s stance actually would help Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest was beside the point.

"Director Park? It’s been a while..." Sally said, smiling.

"Remember our discussion? I’m ready to give the exclusive as requested."

*********

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