Arrogant Man VS Unyielding Woman

Avery was pissed at Hanley's words. Her face flushed and her eyes stared at him with fury.

"Now, now, Avery. Don't argue with him, it won't help. Let's listen to what Moore has to say," Jean said as she approached Avery and touched her arm, trying to soothe her. "Fine," Avery said reluctantly and nodded in agreement.

All eyes turned to Moore at that moment.

Moore smiled bitterly. He sighed deeply after meeting the eyes of everyone present. He began with a serious tone, "Hanley, the family property you keep mentioning has been turned to nothing but a shell. It's empty inside." Everyone's face changed after hearing the words that came out of Moore's mouth.

The most shocked one, unsurprisingly, was Hanley. He glared at Moore fiercely and mockingly said, "Do you honestly expect me to believe that nonsense? Do you think that I would accept you as a member of the Bai family after what you just said?"

"I don't need your acceptance or approval to be a member of the Bai Family," Moore quipped with an indiffierent expression. Instead of being offended, he looked at Hanley and felt only pity when he spoke, "I know you wouldn't just believe me. It's actually pretty easy to tell that I'm telling the truth. It's so easy that you can just ask Edna, your mother."

"Cut the bullshit, Moore. What the hell does this have to do with my mother?" Hanley asked, reeling from the mention of his mother.

"Whether it does or doesn't have something to do with your mother, you'd know if you ask her," Moore said passively as he stared at Hanley.

"Why, you..." Hanley's expression softened and turned to confusion. He looked at Moore, thinking deeply, then asked, "What the hell is going on?"

"Now you start believing him? Aren't you supposed to be smart? You honestly thought Moore was fooling you?" Avery interjected in a mocking tone.

"You shut your mouth. You! Spit it out. What the hell is it?" Hanley's eyes turned from Avery to Moore as he ordered him to explain. His face was flushed, and was deeply bothered by what Moore was implying.

"I don't know the specifics. All I know is you have been gambling this year. A lot. Plus there was the financial crisis last year. The property Edna worked so hard to maintain is now gone. The Bai family looks so glorious to the outside world, but in fact it's empty inside. A facade it is now struggling to maintain. I don't know why you were left out of this knowledge, nor do I know why you have no idea about this at all,"

said Moore slowly and matter-of-factly.

"No! I refuse to believe you. It's all a lie!" Hanley's face was drained of all color by now. All he could do was denying and shaking his head fiercely.

"Father told me that you kept losing at gambling because somebody was playing tricks on you everytime," Moore continued with a serious expression.

"What are you talking about?" Hanley was startled that Moore knew this and he didn't. He took a heavy step towards Moore and grabbed his shoulders, "Dad told you this? Who? Who is it then? Who is that devil? I knew I couldn't have lost every, single time. I have good instincts at gambling. I always knew something was up..."

"Father doesn't have any evidence right now, but he strongly suspects that that person is your mother," Moore said with a look of sympathy.

Hanley's face contorted in disbelief. He released his grip on Moore, and said, voice shaking, "No, it can't be. You're kidding, aren't you? You must be lying to me." Hanley glanced at Moore and his eyes turned downcast. He kept repeating the words over and over.

"I am not lying to you," Moore sighed and said. "I didn't want to tell you at first, but I was afraid you would do something stupid that would affect others and yourself. So I chose to tell you the truth. I am coming back to the Bai family to assist my father and get to the bottom of this. He started to suspect your mother who has been secretly using underhanded methods to slowly transfer the Bai family fortune to her for as long as five years.

Hanley, you're old enough. You have the right to know the truth. Of course, all of this is circumstantial. We need hard evidence. I'm telling you this because I want you to explore the truth with me. No matter how much the Bai family's property is worth, I never aimed at fighting for it with you."

"So you must feel high and mighty after telling me this," Hanley quipped, while he flared up and stormed towards Moore. "Is it because that you grew up without a mother that you're blaming this on my mother? So that I'd end up a loser with no mother like you?" Jean's and Avery's faces turned grim after seeing Hanley spit such venomous words at Moore.

Moore, however, felt nothing at Hanley's attack and just sighed deeply. He said, "Believe it or not, I just want to get this load off my chest. I feel really good after telling you my thoughts and the truth."

"He's right. Not everyone's like you, Hanley, a person who only cares about money and the Bai family's inheritance. Moore isn't that kind of person. If he was, he would have joined the Bai family and fought you for the property from the moment his father found him," Avery couldn't help interjecting.

Hanley just stared at Moore fiercely, his expression gloomy.

"Hanley, I know it's hard for you to

accept the fact now. We feel sorry for your situation too. However, Moore is your halfbrother, and he has suffered a lot too. Now he stands before you and tells you the truth everybody else refuses to let you know. No matter how harsh that truth is, you have to respect him for doing that. Without this man, you would still be blind, and wandering in the dark. It's a heads-up at least, isn't it?"

Jean said.

"You guys... You all believe what he's saying?" Hanley asked, furious.

"Absolutely. We all know what kind of person Moore is. We'll believe whatever he says," Avery said while nodding in agreement.

"Right. I also believe in him." Jean nodded in agreement as well, turned to Zed and asked, "How about you, Zed?"

Zed who had been silent all through out the exchange, looked at Hanley straight in the eyes and frowned. He said, "I really don't want to get involved in your family matters, but there is one thing that I think you should know." "What is it?" Hanley asked. His tone was nervous as he fixed his eyes on Zed.

"Last year, after the financial crisis, I procured a certain cosmetics company under the Bai family. I was planning to launch a cosmetic brand at that time and I happened to have a friend who referred me to that company. So we had specialists assess the risk of procurement. You could never know that the procuring price was far lower than market value. It was your mother who offered it at an extremely low price.

I am a businessman. The lower the price is, the easier it is for me to turn a profit. It made no sense for me not to accept it. So no questions asked, I bought it. I only cared that I don't lose money. Now, I think you know what that means. Based on this, you should see clearly why your mother did that," said Zed.

"Impossible! Why would she do that?" Hanley was in pure shock.

If this came from Moore's mouth, he wouldn't have believed it.

But this came from Zed. Zed's words carried weight. He didn't have any reason to lie.

'But then again, why on earth had Mom done that?' thought Hanley.

"Now that I think about it. There are two possible reasons," Zed continued. "First, it's because you lost a lot in gambling, and she needed to pay your debts fast."