The Wilson Estate.

Mr. Wilson set the tablet down, his expression frozen in disbelief. For the past few days, he''d thought the Wilson family was finally on the rise again. But after reading that email... the whole thing just felt unreal.

"Where''s Vivian?" he asked coldly.

The butler replied, "Miss Vivian should be at the hotel right now handling some business."

"Call her. Tell her toe back immediately."

"Yes, sir."

Less than thirty minutester, Vivian walked through the front door, still trying to figure out what had happened-what could be so urgent that her grandfather needed her home right in the middle of everything?

Before she could even say a word, a pnded hard across her face.

Her eyes flew wide in shock. Staring at her furious grandfather, her voice trembled. "Grandpa... why-why are you-?"

"Why?" Mr. Wilson snapped, his voice sharp with fury. "You''ve got the nerve to ask me why? Do you even know how many things you''ve done behind my back? You buried the Westridge incident-on your own! Didn''t breathe a word of it. Still can''t get over Zachary, is that it? You''ve forgotten who you are?"

Vivian''s mind raced, scrambling through the things she''d done recently. What exactly had set him off this time?

"I don''t understand," she said, her voice cracking. "What did I do wrong?"

Mr. Wilson''s hand clenched around his teacup. "The Wilson family shares-what''s going on with those? They hit the market and vanished in minutes. You sold them without consulting me. Why?!"

Vivian stood frozen, caughtpletely off guard. She''d handled everything quietly -how did he find out? Who told him?

But there was no time to think.

"Grandpa,& did it for thepany! The marketing department already evaluated the move. Merihan Group was nning to sell anyway-must got ahead of it! I was trying to expand Wilson Corporation''s reach."  s

She truly believed he would understand once he heard her reasoning.

But to her surprise, Mr. Wilson''s fury only deepened. His hand trembled as he pointed at her. "You... you reckless child!"

His chest heaved. For a moment, he couldn''t catch his breath.

Thankfully, Marianne rushed over with a ss of water. He drank it slowly, and after a few minutes, he managed to calm down.

Once he''d steadied himself, he looked at her with nothing but disappointment. "I''ve always known you were impulsive. But not like this. This.. this is beyond anything Rever imagined. All you think about these days is your resentment toward Zachary, not thepany Haye you ever heard the saying about pulling up seedlings to make them grow faster? You overestimated our strength. You tried to acquire Merihan without the capital to support it. So what now? You tell me-what''s your n after this brilliant purchase?"  s

Vivian hesitated. "I... I haven''t figured that part out yet. But Grandpa, Merihan is genuinely a strongpany."

"I don''t need you to tell me that," he snapped. "Of course I know Merihan is solid. But we don''t have the liquidity to keep it running. Do you understand that?"fn4072 Read full story at find?novel/fn4072

Vivian hadn''t thought that far. In her mind, even if the Wilson family had taken a few hitstely, a skinny camel was still bigger than a horse.

"Grandpa, I''m sorry. I didn''t think it through."

Mr. Wilson''s voice was heavy with regret. "Vivian, your obsession with Zachary has clouded your judgment. You''re not thinking straight. Ever since the two of you split, you''ve

been making one mistake, after another, I thought maybe, maybe after what happened at the birthday banquet, you''d learn. But clearly... I was wrong."  s

Disappointment etched every line of his face.