Chapter 172: Trapped
When they entered, the older generation was gathered in the living room chatting, while the younger ones sat far away and listened. Bruce and his grandchildren were not allowed to sit with them.
Aurora seized the opportunity, nodded to Selena without moving her head, and warmly guided Bruce and Lindsey to the tea room in the side room.
Bruce was not at all impressed by Aurora’s enthusiasm, he was only concerned about Lindsey and whether she was comfortable with the atmosphere.
Once in the tea room, he leaned in slightly and whispered into her ear, despite the stares, “If you don’t like it, we’ll sit here for a while and then go back to my uncle’s house.”
“That’s fine.” Lindsey smiled and was bored to see that there were actually quite a few people of her generation in the tea room, but many of them were new faces.
After a while of talking, Old Mr. Palvin’s guard suddenly came over and asked Lindsey to go to the living room.
Lindsey knew that Old Mr. Grant was there, so she didn’t think much of it. She was just a little suspicious, as she did not know Old Mr. Palvin, but it was too much of a courtesy for her personal guard to invite her.
Bruce saw her confusion and gave a gentle reminder. “You wrote the words.”
Lindsey snapped back to her senses and, all relaxed, followed the guard to the drawing room.
Just as she stepped through the living room door, she heard Old Mr. Grant’s cheerful laugh. “I told you you weren’t expecting that.”
“Lindsey wished Grandpa Palvin a long and prosperous life.” Lindsey greeted him good-naturedly, her eyes falling on Professor Lee, and added, “Hello Professor Lee.”
Lindsey remained standing graciously, disciplined and proper, with a breezy smile on her face.
Old Mr. Palvin laughed for a while and ordered the guard to fetch a pen and paper to test Lindsey’s penmanship on the spot, Old Mr. Grant narrowed his tiger eyes slightly, looking in a very good mood as he sipped his tea.
“Nonsense!” Old Mr. Palvin slapped his hand on the arm of the sofa and grumbled as he rose to his feet.
Lindsey didn’t know what was going on, so she immediately put down her pen and raised her feet to follow.
No one in the room knew what was going on and Aidan, not far away, was confused and looked at Old Mr. Palvin’s eldest son Rhett.
The latter returned a similarly puzzled look and continued to look uneasily towards the drawing room door.
A short while later, the guard returned and invited Laura and Rhett’s wife through.NôvelDrama.Org: text © owner.
The group entered the tea room in the side room, where Old Mr. Palvin sat down with a grunt and gestured for Laura and his eldest daughter-in-law, Merry, to lead Lindsey to the guest room with the guard.
The tea room becomes abruptly quiet and later Aidan and Rhett enter and sit down in fear.
Outside, in the corridor, Lindsey followed Laura uncomfortably as she pushed the door into the guest room. As soon as the door opened, an unpleasant scene in the room came into view unannounced.
Bruce, delirious, was lying on top of a naked Aurora, her clothes scattered all over the floor.
Aurora’s eyes were facing the door to the guest room and when she realised someone had entered, she turned white with fear and hastily pulled the covers over herself and Bruce.
“It’s broad daylight! You are a disgrace to The Palvin family.” Aurora’s mother, Merry, almost fainted with anger, raising a shaking hand to point at Aurora. “Shame on you!”
Laura’s face was pale, and when she saw Bruce’s scowl, she tried to steady Lindsey.
But Lindsey was one step ahead of her and the only thing she heard was the muffled sound of the door closing and the man was gone.
Bruce’s mind was foggy and he couldn’t muster any energy, and he had no idea what was going on. It wasn’t until Lindsey’s figure disappeared that he realised, as an afterthought, that Aurora was underneath him.
“Mum, I didn’t mean to …” Aurora dropped her eyes in time, tears pounding down her face, “It’s Bruce he … ”
Although she didn’t finish her sentence, Merry and Laura are after all, they have been there before, and what is there not to understand when the words have come to this point.
The Old Mr. Grant birthday party was supposed to be a happy event, and now that this scandal has occurred, neither family can afford to lose face.
Laura doesn’t like Aurora and no one knows better than Lindsey how she is in The Grant family. If she left now, no one could be sure what would become of Bruce.
With her mind made up, she immediately opened the door, walked quickly back to Old Mr. Grant and told him what was going on in the room. As she finished, she looked around the tea room and saw no sign of Lindsey, and felt a vague sense of unease and distress.
Whether she admitted it or not, Lindsey’s presence did make a big difference to the stability of The Grant family.
Old Mr. Grant’s face fell, tense as if it had been brushed with paste, and his eyes, sharp as hawks, stared straight into the direction of the guest room.
The look on Old Mr. Palvin’s face was equally grave and serious, and the air seemed to freeze as if no one dared to make a sound.
As the two families were caught in a dilemma, a military jeep was speeding along the highway from the Royal Garden to the city.
The hot evening breeze was pouring in through the windows, messing up Lindsey’s long hair and her heart.
It doesn’t matter what the truth is; Bruce’s affair with Aurora at Old Mr. Palvin’s birthday party has been broken up, and the marriage between the two families is a foregone conclusion.
She is still an insignificant outsider.
With her heart aching, she could barely breathe, Lindsey’s head bowed and her lips pursed in a frenzy of confusion.
The car soon entered the city, and she found a random place for Cary to park and opened the door to get out.
Cary was a little uneasy, not knowing what was going on in the hills, so he told Hector to stay close and not let anything happen to her.
Lindsey walked on in a daze, no calls kept coming in on her phone, not even a tweet.
Little did she know that Charlotte was also at the Royal Garden at the moment, but couldn’t meet up with Bruce.
A low, oppressive air hung over the living room of Aidan’s villa as Old Mr. Grant held his cup of tea and gazed out of the window into the small courtyard, his face majestic, his back straight, a lifetime of military service making him always stand with military style and sit with military authority.
“Say something, Dad, about how this is going to be handled.” Aidan’s gaze was sharp and steady, but in front of Old Mr. Grant, his aura was noticeably weaker. “The Palvin family means that a marriage is hoped for.”
Old Mr. Grant was silent; there were good and bad things about marriage, but otherwise, relations with The Palvin family would be completely dead. And Bruce might have to live with the notoriety of being an unfaithful man.
But when he thought about Lindsey, he felt a lot of discomfort.
She had been his first choice, in fact he had already accepted her as his grandson-in-law, but in the end there was no ceremony and many people were waiting to see what she would do.
Charlotte, seeing Old Mr. Grant’s dilemma, interjected, “Grandpa, can I say something?”
Old Mr. Grant lifted his eyes, and his sharp gaze looked straight at her, signalling for her to continue.
Gu Yaxin opened her mouth and plucked up the courage to say, “We should wait until Bruce wakes up and ask for clarification before deciding on this matter.
Old Mr. Grant sighed soberly at his words and got up without saying a word and went upstairs.
As soon as he had gone, the atmosphere in the quiet drawing-room became even more subdued.
—
It was getting late and the neon lights on the street were getting brighter and brighter.
Lindsey walks with heavy, disorientated steps in the direction of the Academy of Fine Arts.
As she passed through the city park, she was too tired to walk, her legs were heavy as lead. She looked around vacantly and was about to find a place to sit down when an unmarked, modified car suddenly came barreling down the road towards her.
The blinding high beams made Lindsey go blind for a moment.
But her martial arts instincts quickly calmed her down and she dodged aside and ran for her life.
The car paused for a moment and continued to turn around and chase after her with a clear purpose – to run her over.
There were many flower beds in the municipal park near the street, but unfortunately not too high up.
Lindsey wanted to run towards the crowd, but considering that her opponent would not care about the death of innocent people if he wanted to kill himself, he had to avoid the back of the flowerbeds.
As she expected, the car continued to accelerate and was about to cross the flower bed when Hector appeared out of nowhere, lifted her onto his shoulders and turned around to run in the opposite direction.
As the modified car turned around, Hector quickly shoved her into a car, flipped it over and opened the door to get into the driver’s seat. In the next instant the car accelerated and slid thrillingly into traffic.
Lindsey took a few ragged breaths, her nerves relaxing, and thanked her gratefully. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Are your feet okay? It looked like you fell.” Hector glanced at her through the inside rear view mirror and said with concern, “Do you need to go to the hospital.”
He mentioned it and Lindsey instantly felt a sharp pain coming from her ankle.
Taking off her shoe and looking at it, she found that it was sprained and couldn’t help but feel frustrated and inexplicable. “No, just take me back to the beauty school.”
Hector opened his mouth to say something, but ended up saying nothing.
Lindsey returned to her dorm room at school and took a closer look at the injury on her foot, and the feeling of powerlessness that radiated from her bones instantly spread throughout her body.
It was so close that her life was at stake. Although she had only taken a quick glance, Lindsey was sure that Bruce had been given an anaesthetic, and that the dose was unusually high.
Aurora said that Bruce was the one she was going to marry, and now she finally did.
Lindsey had always thought she was strong, but she couldn’t help the tears that fell onto the sheets and soon drenched a large part of them.
After smearing her feet with her grandfather’s special ointment, she drifted off to sleep, clutching her phone.
The night was a mess of dreams, except for the image of Bruce and Aurora’s wedding, which stuck in her mind.
It was only 6am when she woke up from the shock.
Sitting up and moving her injured foot, she stared blankly out of the window with a little light and fell heavily into bed again.
Within ten minutes of drifting off to sleep, her mobile phone rang harshly.
Lindsey jolted awake and fished the phone out from under her pillow.
The call was from Larissa and when she picked up, she exclaimed incredulously, “Lindsey, you’re in the headlines, what’s with Mr. Grant marrying the daughter of The Palvin family?”