Chapter 2: A Glorious Task
In the spacious and bright living room, Holly has been crying with fake tears for almost half an hour.
"Alicia, you know that the financial manager in your father's company has absconded, which caused the company to fall into a huge crisis. Now the banks are pushing us for loan payments. If we don't pay our debts, not only will the company go bankrupt, your father will also go to prison..."
"What do I need to do?"
She asked succinctly and didn't want to waste a small part of her life listening to false lines like these.
Holly winked at her husband, and Colton immediately showed a painful expression and said, "Now the only way to save your father is for you to marry Carlos Noel-Baker, the only son of the richest family in the city, it's just that..."
He paused for a moment.
"It's just that are rumors about him, but those are just rumors. We have business dealings with him occasionally. He's a very good man. He is responsible and loving, and the most important part is that, he is very handsome."
Although already used to it, her heart was slightly stung. That man behind closed doors was cold-blooded and heartless. In front of her, he is said to be a kind-hearted man. Although Alicia had the same blood as Colton Joliot-Curie, she never thought that he could be called a father.
"Divorced six times, right?"
Looking up calmly, years of bitterness of being under someone else's roof has forced her to conceal her anger and delight.
"Yes."
Holly sucked her nose and grabbed Alicia's hand, "This is why I am blaming myself so much. Being a stepmom is so hard. If my Mia was any older I really would not ask you to do this."
Oh right, Alicia smiled sarcastically in her heart, but Mia was only three days younger than her. At the time, Holly was pregnant at the same time as her mother. One of them was due in March and one in April. But she had a premature birth and was born before March. She should have been the second daughter, but she was now the eldest daughter.
She was said to be the eldest daughter, but never one day did she enjoy the treatment of an eldest daughter.
"Well, okay."
"You said yes?"
Mr. and Mrs. Joliot-Curie looked at each other. They didn't expect her to say yes so readily. They thought that if she wouldn't budge, then they would split the reward money and give Alicia a portion. Of course, they would get 70% and she would get 30%.
"Yes, you raised me so that I could do something for my family."
"Look at this, you are really an excellent teacher. You can see the big picture and understand how things should be. If Mia was half as sensible as you, I would laugh in my dreams."
Don't wait to laugh in your dreams, you can laugh now.
Early in the morning, outside the Joliot-Curie house, a row of people stood to see Alicia off.
Today was the last day for the Noel-Baker family to choose their daughter-in-law. With Holly's fine-tuned makeup and elaborate dress, Alicia looked just like a peony flower in bud, beautiful but not demon, gorgeous but not vulgar, charming and unparalleled.
"You didn't forget what I just told you in the house?"
"No."
"That's good. We will be waiting for your good news."
Holly said nothing more than, that no matter what Alicia did, she needed to be selected and marry into the Noel-Baker family. But she had her own idea.
Holly still felt that she had not repeated herself enough when the car slowly departed. She was afraid that Alicia could not finish this 'glorious' task. She was up on her feet and was not embarrassed to run after the car, while kept yelling, "Alicia, remember these three points - you should bring out all your mother's tricks of seducing men in those years! Remember that this is a great event related to the rise and fall of the Joliot-Curie family's, and have the mentality of to conquer or to die! You should never give up until you achieve your goal!"
She almost shouted out The last sentence.
Alicia was digging her nails into her flesh, but she appeared to be very calm, the same kind of calm that she's had for all these years.