Georgia had purposefully raised her voice to ensure that everyone there heard her. Now that everyone’s attention was on Gerald, Justin smiled subtly before saying, “Ah, so you’re my cousin-in-law! A pleasure to meet you!” He showed no interest in even wanting to shake hands with Gerald, and his wife simply stared at Rita’s boyfriend, sizing him up from her husband’s side. While Gerald certainly didn’t dress luxuriously, she just had a gut feeling that something was wrong with him. “Since you’re so exceptional, I believe that your boyfriend must be equally as excellent as well! Do introduce him to us!” said Georgia. “Apologies, Lady Walford, but he isn’t my boyfriend,” replied Rita as she turned to look at the rest of her family who were still seated at the table. The Smiths hadn’t even recovered from their shock yet, and their mouths simply remained wide open as they continued staring at the duo in silence. Even Serenity hadn’t been able to regain her wits in time to reply.
Suddenly hearing all this truly touched every single one of the Smiths, including Serenity. They now finally realized that they had misunderstood Gerald this entire time, and that Mila hadn’t misjudged him. Regardless, the atmosphere of the setting instantly changed rather drastically now that Gerald was here. Though not many of the guests had even paid the Smiths any attention earlier, more and more of them were now heading over to their table to toast and chat with them in hopes of being able to deepen their relationship with that family. Of course, there were also those who immediately began fawning on the Smiths as well. Even a few of the presidents were already surrounding Serenity while saying, “Speaking of which, it was your birthday yesterday, wasn’t it, Madam? Why didn’t you send us invitation cards to attend? Such a pity that we weren’t able to celebrate with you… Whatever the case is, we’ll certainly make up for it later!” With all this happening, the person who was su
Yana’s voice sounded much more determined now. “A… A classmate?” replied both Justin and Georgia, both equally shocked by her claim. It was as though they were hearing some story from The Arabian Nights, and they had their reasons to be doubtful. After all, such a coincidence was pretty much unheard of! What more, though Yana had a powerful family background, there was simply no way she would have been able to afford or even have the status to be Gerald’s classmate! “…What kind of classmate could you be referring to? Do note that we can’t afford to make jokes about such things, Yana. I’ll have you know that I have some prior knowledge about Mila’s boyfriend, and I can confirm that he truly is extremely powerful. It’s the reason why so many of us are willing to believe that Mr. Crawford really is her boyfriend after he revealed his identity! If we end up offending him now, we may not be able to survive in Mayberry any longer!” said Georgia as she began smacking her thighs in her a
“…And who might you be?” asked Gerald as he looked casually at her. ‘Smacking someone on the head as a greeting… I wonder if she’s lost her marbles…’ After seeing Yana actually smack Gerald on the back of his head, Georgia and the others instantly began trembling in fear. Quickly snapping out of it, all those from Georgia’s family—as well as the guests—quickly ran over and stood behind Yana. “Are you really still pretending in front of me, Gerald?” asked Yana. “Pretending? Do we even know each other?” replied Gerald in resignation. He truly had no idea who she was. “Haha! So that’s how it’s going to be! Maybe this little refresher will help! Let me ask you something. Did you study in Third Primary School in Serene County as a kid?” sneered Yana. “That I did… Though I’m curious as to why you’d know that…” replied Gerald with a nod. “Hah! And did you study in the second class in third grade?” added Yana. “…I did, indeed…” said Gerald, sensing that something was wrong. Aft
Undoubtedly shocked by Yana’s claim, everyone turned to look at her in disbelief. “Don’t buy into his act, everyone! I, for one, know for a fact that this isn’t the real Mr. Crawford! His name is Gerald and he comes from some village in Serene County! He was also an extremely poor loser back when he was young! If you need proof, I’ll get someone to find his photograph in the past, right this instant! All of you will surely believe me after that!” The photograph she was referring to was a group photo that had been snapped while they were still schooling together. Yana had a habit of keeping photos of herself, and it wasn’t long before one of her men brought that exact photo over. Showing it to everyone, they all saw that the photograph truly did show a young Gerald in it! “So he really is Miss Shute’s primary school classmate! What more, he was wearing such shabby clothes back then!” As everyone remained momentarily shocked, Georgia laughed loudly before saying, “My, my, Seren
Before any of the guards could make a move, however, the receptionist—who had been sitting by a table at the entrance this entire time—suddenly shouted, “A guest has sent over prestigious gifts for Lady Jordain from the Smith family!” Upon hearing that, everyone immediately fell silent. While Yana and the others simply exchanged glances of dismay, Georgia found herself trembling as all of them slowly turned to look at the entrance, slight curiosity reflected in their eyes. What on earth was happening? Prestigious gifts from a guest? And they were for the old lady of the Smith family of all people! Given the ‘prestigious’ part of the gifts, it was clear that whatever the guest had sent over, they were most definitely greater than any of the previous presents that the other guests had gifted Georgia. After all, gifting someone with a prestigious present was far from a common practice. While it was obvious that the gifts themselves would definitely be of great value, the more import
In each of their hands, were the eighteen gifts that the receptionist had earlier announced! As for the most expensive gift—that being the forty million dollar villa—it was presented in the form of a contract. “…H-how… How is any of this possible…?” muttered Georgia to herself, completely flabbergasted. “We’ve brought the gifts over, Mr. Crawford! Here’s the list of the gifts!” said one of the bodyguards after walking toward Gerald and bowing respectfully. “And why are you showing that to me? You should be showing it to grandma instead!” replied Gerald as he turned to look at Serenity with a smile. “Since it was your birthday yesterday and I wasn’t able to attend, these are my gifts to you.” Meanwhile, the others had their eyes widened in shock as they took turns muttering, “…M-Mr. Crawford…?” All of them had heard the guards calling Gerald, Mr. Crawford, and this included Yana. Now feeling completely stunned, Yana and the others could barely believe it as they turned to fa
Yana had spent most of her life relying on her family’s background, which led to how condescendingly she behaved today. It was also because of that reliance that she had no idea how terribly she was going to suffer, now that she had behaved so terribly before Gerald. Gerald had made sure to word his previous sentence in a way that warned her that she wasn’t the only one capable and powerful in the world. In fact, there were many others who held much more power than her. Georgia and the rest of the Sier family members themselves were now so frightened that they didn’t even dare to utter a single word. Regardless, the birthday party had long lost its meaning and after a short while, Gerald and the Smiths simply left their villa. Though the incident hadn’t really taken place for that long, Serenity felt like she had just experienced a roller coaster of emotions. Quite literally as well. By the time the Smiths stepped out of Georgia’s villa, the old woman could already feel her blo