Under the Heiress' Facade

The longer Mildred spoke, the more furious she became. She slapped the cutlery onto the table with a resounding thud.

"Calm down, Mom," Lilith told her.

"You'll fall sick if you get too angry."

But Mildred wasn't going to calm down just like that.

She shoved Lilith's hand away and huffed, "I'm still pretty solid, okay? Judy, bring me some water. I still have the energy to curse the Gaskells for another half an hour!"

Hera was speechless at Mildred's behavior.

Soon, Judy returned with a warm glass of water.

"Don't worry, madam," she said.

Then, she told Lilith, "Ever since the madam took the pills Ms. Hera gave her, she started feeling much better than before."

"Speaking of which, I feel much better after taking the pills you gave me, too," said Lilith, changing the topic.

"James' stomach problem seems to have improved a lot too. He didn't complain to me about any discomfort for the past few days." "That's great," said Hera.

Just then, they heard a ruckus from the yard. It was most likely James and Gideon returning home.

Judy headed outside to check if the two men were back. A moment later, Gideon and his assistant walked through the door.

The two of them supported James as he stumbled into the house in his drunken stupor.

"Why did he drink so much? Quick, bring him upstairs. We don't want him to catch a cold," Mildred said.

"Judy, go and prepare something for his hangover."

Then, Gideon and his assistant took James back to his bedroom. Lilith hurriedly followed them from behind.

When Gideon came downstairs sometime later, he asked his assistant to return home before sinking into the couch.

He reeked of alcohol. Although Mildred pestered him about what happened before he and James returned, Gideon wouldn't say a single word.

After all, he didn't want to bring work-related problems home. He just didn't want anyone in the family to worry.

Meanwhile, Hera followed the assistant out of the house.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

Since she was a part of the Everett family, and the assistant was still pissed off about what happened earlier, he told her everything about it.

Apparently, Gideon was about to sign a contract with a public limited company, but Queenie found the company's general manager before the contract was set in stone.

She proposed to earn less so that the company would earn more and even had someone spread false information about the Everett family. The contract between Gideon's company and the public limited company was put on hold.

Gideon initially planned to tell all his staff about the good news after signing the contract. But now, his plan was ruined.

Later on, the Imperial Hotel's staff informed Gideon that the site he'd booked for the company's annual meeting at the Imperial Hotel was canceled because the Gaskell family paid more to rent the place. The staff asked him to look for another venue to rent for the event.

Imperial Hotel was one of the many hotels Killian Corporation owned. It was well-known in Norburgh and was popular with the affluent.

It was usually challenging to make a reservation there. After much effort, Gideon finally made one.

Logically speaking, a luxury hotel like Imperial Hotel would value its honor and credibility. Hotels like these held the concept of first come, first served in high regard.

They wouldn't cancel a reservation simply because another party was willing to pay a higher price since doing so would ruin their reputation and undermine their authority as a premium hotel.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

But the current manager of Imperial Hotel was a distant relative of Queenie's. Queenie also had quite some influence among the Killians. With the power in her hands, she could order others around rather easily.

The most concerning thing was that the reservation was canceled when the annual meeting was just around the corner To make things worse for Gideon, it was the end of the year, making it extremely difficult to make a reservation at any other hotel since most luxury hotels were fully booked at this time of the year. It'd be humiliating to book a venue at the very last minute.

The Gaskell family had provoked James before this, and he'd been miserable for quite some time. After so long, he'd finally gotten back on his feet, but Queenie appeared and wreaked all this trouble for him and Gideon.

Naturally, James wasn't pleased with it. He met with Imperial Hotel's manager, thinking of using persuasion to handle this problem.

Who knew that he'd end up so drunk that he was almost unconscious? Still, the manager refused to change his mind.

"There's nothing Mr. Gideon can do now," said Gideon's assistant with a sigh.

"Does the hotel's manager have the final say in this?" Hera asked.

"Yes. We can't do anything unless the managing director interferes," said the assistant.

"But the managing director is also a member of the Killian family."

He sighed again, helpless at how power can influence just about anything in this world.

Hera understood it all now.

"I see. Drive safe," she said.

Gino wiped Gideon's face with a towel in the living room while Mildred stood beside them, ranting incessantly.

When she saw Hera return to the house, she said, "Have you called Bernard? Queenie's not even that significant of a person in the Killian family, and yet she's so full of herself! Our Bernard will be

Killian family heir in the fut the

but

you don't see us being that proud of ourselves!"

Hera fell silent.

A moment later, Gino broke the silence.

"Since when was he a part of our family?"

Gino never agreed to it!