A Graduation Gift

As if he wasn't angry enough, Jill's crying managed to make Horace lose his composure. Instead of placating him, it just fanned
the flame even more, to the point that he couldn't take it anymore.
Watching his parents as they were having an argument was nothing new to Lionel, but for the very first time, Horace mentioned
the word 'divorce.' Never in his life had he expected his father to say something so cruel to his mother, it made him feel like
everything was falling apart.
Down on his knees in front of Horace, Lionel's eyes welled up with tears.
"Dad! I'm so sorry, Dad! It's all my fault. Yes, I did it! Mom had nothing to do with it. Please don't say something like that. Please
take it back!"
Lionel felt a chill running down his spine. If Horace were to really get divorced to Jill, there would be nothing left for him, and he
wouldn't have a place in the Tang family anymore.
Indeed, Rufus being the head of the TY Group might be a bad thing for him, but that wasn't necessarily the case for Horace.
In the past, Horace had brought up something to Lionel about how he wished to find a capable businessman to invest in the
Tang Group in order to help the company acquire enough shares in the market in just a short period of time. Unfortunately, they
had seen no progress in regards to that.
Given that Rufus was the chairman of the TY Group, he could've shelled out some funds to invest in the Tang Group with ease.
But if that happened, Lionel would end up losing whatever meager power he had left in the Tang family.
At the thought of that, Lionel was forced to take desperate measures and own up to his oversights and somehow beg Horace for
forgiveness.
"You bloody idiot! How could you do such a thing? He's your own brother, for goodness' sake!"
Horace blew a fuse the moment Lionel confessed to his lapse in judgment.
"Dad, I was backed into a corner. I was forced to do it even if I didn't really want to. Ivy kept on threatening me that if I didn't find
a way to come up with the fifty million she was asking for when we called it quits, she would spill the dirty secrets about our
family. You haven't forgotten that a lot of our dealings are illegal, right? When I did that, I was only thinking of our family's
interests. Believe me, I didn't have a choice!"

Lionel abruptly broke into tears, hanging onto Horace's thighs and crying like a child who was about to be abandoned on the
streets.
"And you gave her fifty million just like that?! Have you lost your mind? Just let her sue, for all I care! She would've had her legs
broken before she could even think of getting to the courthouse!"
Horace had been driven up the wall. What could he have done to deserve such a useless and incompetent son who couldn't
even deal with a stupid break-up, and to add insult to injury, he even got blackmailed into giving her fifty million!
"Dad, I'm the one to blame! I panicked when she said that, but I didn't want to trouble you with it because you were sick. I knew
that you've had several asthma attacks this year already. I couldn't think of any other way to come up with the money all at once,
so I thought it would be a good idea to tamper with the papers bearing Rufus's signature. Things had gotten so out of hand that I
got in over my head. I hope you can forgive me, dad!"
Lionel was in a state of frenzy, crying out of his wits, with snot even spurting out of his nose. It was such a horrible and nasty
sight to see. Could it be that he was truly regretting the actions he had taken?
"Not only did you get in over your head, you were out of your mind too! You're insane!"
Horace pried his leg out of Lionel's grasp, accidentally kicking him on his shoulder in the process.
Lionel lost his balance and tumbled to the ground like a pitiful dog.
As she watched in horror, Jill's heart was aching from what was happening before her. She rushed to Lionel's aid as he fell, tears
dripping all over her face.
"Horace, Lionel only had good intentions! It was all for the sake of our family! Please find it in your heart to forgive him! He's your
son! When he was growing up, he had never struggled with anything. It was only after that wretched woman came into his life
that things started going wrong. Ivy's the scheming bitch who extorted our son!"
Jill whined, regretting how she had always been so good to Ivy before. To think, she had even trusted her!
All those times she thought they were getting along so well, and all of those pleasantries, every bit of it was just an act! No
wonder Lionel couldn't handle such a manipulative woman!
"Dim-witted brainless idiots, the two of you!"

Raging with anger, Horace kept shaking his head. He gritted his teeth and glared at Jill and Lionel intensely, who both were
weeping on the ground, thinking about busting their heads open to check if they were indeed empty.
"Because of that stupid fifty million you stole, Rufus had been forced to leave the Tang Group. And now it doesn't make any
difference even if we found out that he is the head of the TY Group, because we have already caused him so much disgrace that
there's no way he'd ever come to our aid again! The only thing you've ever really been good at is wasting my money and my
valuable time! Haven't you realized by now how the Tang Group has been thrown into disarray and squeezed out of the market
because of its competition with the Dawn Star Group?!"
With his face flushed entirely red, Horace was burning with intense rage to the extent that he had trouble catching his breath.