My Dreamy Old Husband

Bearing in mind the fact that Anna Yard was fond of Sophia, the bodyguards weren’t too harsh on her when they said, “Miss Edwards, this way, please.”

Sophia got onto her stilettos-clad feet and began to make her way to the door. She didn’t look back at Anne as she drawled, “Miss Osborne—no, Miss Yard, let this be my warning to you: stay away from my father. He’s a lineal descendant and the head of the Mitchell family. People like you of collateral descent will never be good enough for him!”

Anne did not miss the cruel emphasis on the last few words.

She also did not miss the mockery in Sophia’s tone when she addressed her as ‘Miss Yard’.

Sophia’s message was as clear as day: the title was meaningless, and the novelty was lost on Anne.

Anne claimed to be a young lady of the Yard family, but she did not even have one single share to her name.

The door did not close all the way following Sophia’s exit, so Anne could still hear her contemptuous voice resonating down the hall. “My father’s a busy man, so don’t bother looking for him if you ever decide to kill yourself again because it has nothing to do with him! He has no time to entertain your petty life decisions! He can’t be bothered to remember the faces of those he’s only met once or twice, so don’t even think that he knows what you look like, Anne Osborne! How dare the Yards think that I would set my father up for some twisted arranged marriage just to gain the benefit of a business deal? My father is too good for any of you, so you can go screw yourself if you think he would ever be interested in someone like you!”

……

Every one of Sophia’s words pierced through Anne’s heart with unrelenting precision.

She was struggling to come to terms with the possibility that Cooper didn’t love her.

Why would he keep quiet all this while if he had never loved her?

And why did he go along with her to meet Louis Osborne on the day of the art exhibit?

Meanwhile, Sandra tried her best to console the shell-shocked girl. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s all over now. She was only lying to you. She just wants you to think that you’re not good enough so that you would back off on your own. She’s jealous because she’s a b*tch born out of wedlock, whereas you are a direct descendant of the Yard family. She knows her life will be ruined once you marry Cooper, so she’s doing everything she can to stop that from happening! How could Cooper not love you when everybody else adores you so?”

was worthless without shares in Ronney Group. The girl had neither power nor authority, and she was only collateral for the Yards to gain a powerful ally in the Mitchells. She was

knew that it was meaningless to have only a title to her

themselves

she needed Anne to marry into the Mitchell family. If the marriage fell through, Sandra would

to do all she could to placate Anne before the silly girl gave up

family had dropped by between intervals to talk about business, but their presence had been deliberately arranged by Sandra

for her, and she would not consider anyone else despite Sandra’s best efforts to persuade

in the Mitchell family who had nothing to offer. There were plenty of other men

of ways to make Anne take interest in

knew she was racing against time, for there were

family or adopted different family names, and while it was true that such reconciliation had brought forth the emergence of many young ladies of the Yard

holding a single share in the conglomerate, she was still Anna Yard’s niece—that alone ought to have warranted her a more favorable disposition in the family than the other

for when Anne

a string of abusive remarks toward the bodyguards who worked for the Yards,

knock Anne down from her high horse before

scoffed in disdain as she thought about how Anne had asked to be

made the public declaration that

would never have risen to the peak of its glory if it hadn’t been for the efforts of those who came before her. Brick by brick, Michel Group had been built up by the likes of Cooper, Linus and Alice. These geniuses were behind the conglomerate’s power and glory, whereas Sophia had contributed nothing at all. She had no right to ask to be a shareholder

to be a young mistress of Michel Group—she

by panicking shareholders when they had first gotten word that Michel Group would be

was going to be married off for a profitable agenda, Sophia was waiting for the right time to use these shares to enter the conglomerate so she could take

shared the same

of ways to procure more useful resources, Sandra was obsessed with fortifying her position, and Anne was thinking of ways to convince Anna to give her some of the shares