Chapter 157: His Worry
They had met before.
Vivian had met many business partners alongside Julian. She had an excellent memory when it came to drafting and design work, but remembering faces was a bit of a weak point.
"I forgot," Vivian said, shaking her head. She asked straightforwardly, "Julian, who is he?"
Julian handed the phone back to Vivian. "Lawyer Donovan. You just mentioned that after Annie returned to Veridia, her series of maneuvers and the fermentation of public opinion online clearly showed someone was helping her.
"She has connections within Veridia. Now it seems Annie’s connection is Rachel."
Julian spoke these words with the utmost calmness. His tone when drawing this conclusion was so casual, as if he were discussing something utterly trivial, that Vivian almost failed to process it.
The person backing Annie was actually Rachel?! Vivian’s immediate reaction was that it was simply impossible.
Why would Rachel help Annie? Annie had caused Grandma Faulkner to be hospitalized and was scheming to seize the Faulkner family’s assets. Meanwhile, Rachel was a Faulkner, a granddaughter who had grown up under Grandma Faulkner’s care. What good would it do her if the family’s wealth diminished? It just didn’t make sense.
But then Vivian thought of Rachel’s string of strange behaviors at the hospital that morning. Rachel had suddenly claimed she was dizzy from skipping breakfast and sent Vivian downstairs to buy food. Shortly after, she said she needed to use the restroom and called Ms. Shaw away. With no one by her side, Grandma Faulkner ended up running into Annie. The two had an altercation in the corridor, and coincidentally, the surveillance cameras had been tampered with, leaving no visual evidence.
As a result, the internet was torn over whether Grandma Faulkner was truly responsible for Annie losing her child. Both sides stuck to their own stories, and neither had conclusive proof. The deadlock seemed to have been meticulously calculated from the very beginning.
Vivian fell silent. Although she couldn’t fathom the motive, working backward from the outcome made the entire sequence of events perfectly logical.
Annie had no network in the country and was ignorant of how certain internal channels operated in Veridia. Rachel, on the other hand, was well-versed in these matters, even though she had only recently returned herself. Furthermore, the Faulkner family had numerous acquaintances domestically. A while ago, Rachel had been leaving early and returning late every day, claiming she was visiting old friends to quickly integrate into Aethelburg’s high society.
Now it seemed she was visiting someone else entirely. Perhaps Rachel simply wanted to collude with outsiders to bring down the Faulkner family and usurp their wealth. If so, her ambition was terrifyingly vast.
Meeting Lawyer Donovan was undoubtedly her way of passing a message to Annie about their next steps, as it was inconvenient for them to meet directly. After all, Annie was still hospitalized and heavily monitored by Julian’s people. Meeting the lawyer was her safest bet. What Rachel didn’t realize was that Eleanor had witnessed everything today.
Downstairs in the dining room, Vivian and Julian sat at the table in relative silence, their minds still occupied by the revelation.
Vivian felt a headache coming on. Not knowing who was backing Annie had been troublesome enough, necessitating an investigation. But now that they knew, the situation felt even more thorny. Rachel was a Faulkner, after all. Despite her suspicious actions previously, Julian had only harbored doubts; he hadn’t taken any concrete action against her. Now, everything was different. The balance had been shattered.
"Julian." Seeing his poor complexion, Vivian felt a pang of worry and took the initiative to speak up. "Didn’t you make dinner? Is it in the kitchen? I’ll help you serve it!"
Julian snapped out of his thoughts. "No need, I’ll do it. You just sit. Let’s eat."
"Okay," Vivian nodded. A moment later, Julian emerged from the kitchen, bringing out the dishes.
There were two meat dishes and a vegetable soup. The soup contained several meatballs—the exact kind Vivian loved, soft, glutinous, and incredibly delicious.
"These are all my favorites!" Vivian picked up a piece of spicy boiled beef and couldn’t help but praise him. "Julian, your cooking skills are amazing. This beef is so tender and smooth! It retains the natural umami of the meat, and the chili powder and peppercorns on top don’t overpower the flavor. They complement each other perfectly. It’s really good!"
After speaking, Vivian placed a piece of the beef into Julian’s bowl.
Julian ate it and replied, "The recipe for this dish is actually quite simple. All you have to do is..."
He gave a rough overview of the cooking process. Vivian listened earnestly, jokingly claiming her brain had mastered it, but whether her hands had was another story entirely. Thanks to Vivian’s lighthearted interruptions during the meal, Julian gradually forgot about the unpleasant matters, at least for the moment. Seeing his expression soften, Vivian let out a breath of relief.
After dinner, Vivian kept Julian company while he washed the dishes. Afterward, the two went to the gym. They walked on the treadmills for a while to digest their food before Vivian brought out the protective gear Vance had prepared.
"I just tried these pads on, and they fit perfectly!" Vivian strapped on the protective gear and smiled at Julian. "I know they fit this well because you gave Vance my measurements! Who would have thought our President Faulkner could be so considerate!"
Hearing this, Julian let out a chuckle and shook his head as he looked at her. He had already noticed that Vivian was being exceptionally sweet tonight, as if her words were coated in honey. One moment she was praising him, and the next she was bringing up random topics to distract him. He knew she simply didn’t want him dwelling on unhappy thoughts.
In truth, he wouldn’t. What she didn’t know was that he had already experienced his fair share of betrayal and deceit from relatives at a very young age. He no longer took such matters to heart. He only cared about the people he truly valued—Grandma Faulkner, and... as long as they were safe and sound in his presence, his entire world would remain as stable and indestructible as ever.
As for others—the people he didn’t care much about—no matter what they did, he wouldn’t let it bother him.
His only concern was Grandma Faulkner’s feelings for Rachel. His grandmother was a deeply sentimental person. She had treated his mother wonderfully back then. Out of guilt toward his mother over the Felix Faulkner incident, she had even severed ties with Felix entirely. Although she had handled that situation with clean, decisive strokes, only Julian knew about the times she had secretly wiped away her tears in private.
Now, a similar situation was unfolding once again, and it involved Rachel, someone his grandmother had personally raised. Julian knew he would be fine; his only worry was for Grandma Faulkner.