Chapter 351: Chapter 351

A few minutes later, the guests who had come for the celebration were left stumped. They wanted to know what Abi Mush’s accusation had been about, but they had been conveniently left out of the conversation.

Whispers floated around with varying views, but none were brave enough even to say it in their normal voices. Of course, they all had come with other agendas for attending the famous Gala Dinner that evening.

On the surface, this was supposed to be Alex Thornston’s birthday dinner, but most of those gathered had come for another reason: to have their daughters get a shot at Ian himself! Any keen observer would see young women of child-bearing age, lavishly dressed and eagerly waiting for someone, as well as their fretting parents.

It was not an exaggeration to say child-bearing age because of the vast age difference ranging from fifteen to the early forties—everyone wanted a pound of the Ian cake, and nothing was being left to chance.

The guests exchanged glances while they stood looking at the two black-clad bodyguards standing aloof by the closed door not far from the garden where the dinner was being held and gave up on the Abi accusation.

They had better things to look out for. Besides, that conversation was absurd; no matter how they regarded it. However, it did not take long before another event captured their attention.

Menwhile, in the estate’s main receiving hall, Ian occupied his usual chair, looking down at Abi and Abram. He chose not to offer them seats, believing it unnecessary.

The room was silent apart from Abi’s occasional sniffles. Ian raised an eyebrow but did not comment on that. It was true that parents could be reduced to emotional messes because of their children.

Abram was still hung up on a new issue which was the fact that he seemed to react and do everything that Ian asked of him.

’Am I so affected by Brianna that I am losing my head?’ He asked himself because Abram knew that this was not like him to blindly obey anyone... except his wife and daughter, even if that person was Ian.

Ian drummed his fingers against the handrest while looking at them patiently. His gestures were slow and calculative, as if each finger took about a minute to hit its target. This seemingly harmless gesture also created an air of distant oppressive authority that the couple felt, making them shrink back a few steps unconsciously.

Suddenly, "I was wrong! I know my faults now... so please," Abi rubbed her hands together in a desperate gesture, "Please, let Brianna go..."

"Your faults?" Ian raised an eyebrow, his eyes sharp and calculating, almost to a predatory intensity. His lip arched up in a cold, tight-lipped smile.

"What faults are those, and why would I be interested in your daughter?"

"I – I know you will never be interested in Brianna! I know that now.... So pl-"

"If you know that I will never be interested in her, why are you asking her of me? I don’t believe you ever entrusted her to me, so why are you here to make trouble?"

"I- You must have hidden her here somehow-"

Ian straightened up in his seat with a low warning, and Abi shut up immediately.

"WOMAN! I have not hounded you for what your daughter tried to do to my wife... how do you even have the audacity to come to my home to throw such accusations?"

"Get them out of here!" Ian bellowed.

Currey and Murray appeared soundlessly by their sides,

"Please-" The two assistants bowed and pointed to the hallways leading out.

"Wait-" Abram stepped up this time,

"My apologies if that came out wrong. My wife is just too distressed. We are just concerned parents-"

"You are in the wrong place, Mr. Mush. The police should be able to help you with what you see, so why come here? I don’t work in law enforcement, and I believe the police are hard on this case as much as you are."

With this, Ian stood up to his full height, which towered over the couple making them feel even smaller than they were.

"We didn’t come empty-handed..." Abram quickly added as they were being ’ushered’ out.

Ian stopped and looked at Abram, wondering what they had up their sleeves. The man reached into his coat and pulled out a file.

At that, Currey reached for it and walked over to give it to Ian.

Ian returned to his seat, opened the envelope and took out its contents.

"Well... well... well... what do we have here? Can you explain yourself?"

"That’s the deed to the port on the Island that we control. It’s the largest one out of them. This is a gift to you on your recent marriage. We never congratulated you on that."

Abi sucked in her breath and Ian smirked, "... and why would you give that to me?"

"There are no strings attached! It’s just....."

Abram strengthened his hold on Abi because he knew that she was not 100% on board with this idea. That was supposed to be given as a dowry had Brianna married Ian. In doing that, they would have had no issues at all because the benefits of them becoming in-laws with the Thornstons would have offset that loss, but why did they have to give that out for ’free’?

Abram turned with a pleading eye to Abi which went unnoticed by Ian. Actually, the deed brought back memories of Abi’s humiliation that she had suffered under Geneva’s hand. This day was supposed to be the day she got her revenge.

She had borrowed the hands of Geneva’s sisters-in-law but then, she never knew that she would find herself in such a predicament. That deed had still found its way into Ian’s hands. They were about to suffer a big loss!

"What do you want in exchange for this...?" Ian asked, placing the file on a small adjacent table. "We are sorry for what our daughter tried to do and for barging in here...."

"At least one of you is sane enough..." Ian crossed his legs and leaned back casually, while his eyes took in the clenching of Abram’s hands and well as the slight workings in his jaw, indicating a grinding of teeth.

"There is no excuse for what my daughter tried to do, but then I am hoping that with your vast network and connections, you can give me any news relating to her...."

For a moment, there was absolute silence but their shallow breaths.

"Any news?" Ian cocked his head.

"Yes! any news about her...." Abram repeated, and Ian gestured at Currey.

Ian picked up the deed again and saw that Abram had signed away all pre-requisites. He smiled just as Currey showed up and typed away on his computer. It took all but five minutes before he said,

Ian stood up, handed the file to Currey and walked past the puzzled and shocked duo.

Abi turned o her husband with glee but he was gloomy.

"Chairman Thornston....?" Ian stopped in his tracks and turned to him,

"Is there anything else?" Ian asked nonchalantly...

"That was NOT what we agreed!" Abram looked like he was holding all of his emotions in so that he would not do anything stupid.

Currey stepped up and bowed to Ian. " Mr. Mush, you said this was the fee for ANY news on your daughter... and we just told you that she is not dead. This is news, so what seems to be the problem?"

"I-" Abram opened his mouth and closed it, not finding anything to refute this on.

"If nothing else, see them off, Currey."

"Your bargaining chip is only good enough for the confirmation of life. You’ll have to have more leverage to get any other info but since the Chairman is feeling extra generous, I’ll tell you this: ’Try looking into your abode!’"

Currey stopped any other comments from them as Ian strode off back to join the dinner.

Abi and Abram watched with pale faces as Ian disappeared from their view.

"What just happened?"

"Did we just lose our only-"

Though the statement was left hanging, the two felt a level of despair they had never felt before.

Back on the Dinner grounds, the guests had already lost interest in the Mush couple, but that did not mean that the gossip stopped; it just took a back seat as two elegant-looking old women walked in, followed by many people.

The few who had been stretching their necks hoping for a glimpse of Ian all turned to this new guest. The flurry of whispers that had died down, woke up again as excitement bubbled around. This was the ticket to Ian!

The information that a new bride was going to be chosen had come from this very source so most of the eligible young ladies started checking on their appearances readying themselves for a greeting to put them in good standing.

The main viable rival had already been eliminated so in their minds; it was fair game for everyone.

The crowd dispersed to allow them to come in.

People gave them a gap as the guests walked up to Alex and Geneva who were at the centre of everything. All of a sudden, heads turned around to where the Thonstton core family had gathered.

"Did you hear that?" someone whispered but before the answer came, Alex’s voice was heard again, even louder this time,

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