The CEO Gets What He Wants

Chapter 79

After his violent coughing subsided, Leonardo continued, “Take some time off these two days... and make a trip back to Livingsfill. Your grandfather is living in the old house. Henrietta might have gone over.”

“Grandpa?” Avery was promptly surprised.

Aunt Alina brought Grandpa to Jetroina ages ago. When did he come back?

Leonardo clutched his daughter's hand tightly, worried that she would go off the deep end. As he coughed, he weakly told her everything.

No sooner had he finished speaking than the doctor came in to perform the daily routine checkup.

“I'll be leaving first, Dad,” Avery murmured.

In response, Leonardo nodded.

Avery then left the hospital in a daze, digesting everything her father had told her about her grandfather.

In the hospital room, Leonardo stretched out an arm for the doctor to draw his blood even as he picked up his ringing phone with the other hand.

“Hello, this is Leonardo Rumpley speaking.” He was focused on the needle entering his arm, so he answered the call without glancing at the caller ID.

Allie evidently had a sore throat, for she sounded as though she hadn't drunk a drop of water in days. “Answer this. What's the name of our daughter?”

“Why are you asking?” Leonardo's tone changed.

Speaking of that, he saw red.

She's the epitome of heartlessness! Despite being Avery's mother, never once had she asked about Avery's name ever since she was young.

“Cut the crap! Tell me, quick!” Allie shrieked as though she had lost her mind.

“Avery! Her name is Avery Rumpley! I hoped my daughter would be pure and innocent when she grew up, unlike you, who are filthy and sordid! For that reason, I named her Avery, rhyming with ivory!” After tearing into her, Leonardo took a few breaths before demanding, “Well? Spit it out! What's your ploy this time?”

At the Moore residence, Allie's fingers abruptly went limp, and her phone slipped from her hand before clattering to the ground.

Avery. He said that his daughter is named Avery. Could this be her revenge against me, her mother? Was her visit deliberate as well?

In the next instant, she started cackling scornfully. Avery, you're only twenty-four years old. You look innocent and pure, but you actually hid your true colors well, playing me and Cayden for a fool!

When Cayden woke up in the morning, he received a call from Avery.

“I'm sorry. I promised to come over and prepare breakfast for you all this morning, but I now have some urgent business and can't make it anymore. Please speak to Zach and Rory on my behalf.” After saying that, Avery promptly hung up.

Yulissa hadn't come in for work yet, so Avery had no choice but to phone her to take time off.

At the thought of her grandfather, whom she hadn't seen in over five years, her hands shook, and tears inexorably streamed down her face. He was already in his seventies, old with poor health. Yet, he was living all alone in a small town.

It was him who raised her from young, and she was also closest to him, even more so than to her father.

On the ride back to her rented place, she made several calls. She took time off work and explained the reason, talking to Yulissa and her team leader, Cecelia. Then, she informed Nina that she wasn't coming back at night and would be away for a few days.

Cayden later phoned Avery, but her line was busy.

Avery bought a train ticket online, choosing the express train.

After packing a few changes of clothes and some daily necessities, she left in a hurry.

A few years back, Alina Rumpley had taken her father, Blake Rumpley, to Jetroina. The latter didn't want to live with his son as it wasn't easy to get along with his daughter-in-law, Henrietta. He was afraid that he would die prematurely if he lived with such a daughter-in-law.

Alas, Alina, who initially enjoyed a blissful marriage, was later forsaken by her husband. Consequently, she left Jetroina.

Blake, who had been taken excellent care of by his son-in-law, had nowhere to go overnight. For the sake of past affections, his son-in-law sent him back to Chanaea.

In that matter, Avery actually resented her father.

Why did he arrange for Grandpa to live in that old ramshackle house in town? Would it have affected Henrietta and Milana that much if he had brought him back to Ackleton to live together?

In a frenzy, she embarked the train heading to Livingsfill.

The environment at the train station was chaotic. That aside, there were many thieves, so Avery protected her small suitcase closely.

After taking her seat on the train, she took out her laptop and started working. With earbuds in her ears, she could distance herself from her surroundings.

Hunger pangs only hit her when she had labored for a long while. She then ate the bread in her bag, which she had prepared beforehand.

She boarded the train at nine-twenty and arrived in Livingsfill at eleven o'clock. Putting everything away, she exited the train station with her suitcase and laptop bag.

The train station hadn't changed much, and she could still remember it when she thought hard. The surroundings had her feeling nostalgic.

At the sight of the small town where she was born and raised, her eyes subconsciously turned red- rimmed.

“Taxi! Five per person!” a middle-aged man with tanned skin hollered at the crowd leaving the station.

Avery got into a taxi.

Four people shared the taxi, and each person paid five bucks.

A little over ten minutes later, Avery arrived at the gates of the old house.

The two-story building was horribly dilapidated.

Inhaling deeply, she stepped on the weeds growing out from cracks in the old bricks that layered the ground and walked in, wheeling her suitcase behind her.

When she pushed open the iron gate, a red brick yard was revealed. The weeds in the yard weren't tall, with signs of someone having cleared them. Going further in, she smelled a choking stench of smoke.

As she stepped in the door, her grandfather's hunched back entered her line of sight. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Blake coughed incessantly, his eyes all red from the heavy smoke wafting out of the fire pit. Tears poured down his face. There was a bowl of pasta and some leftover vegetables in the blackened pot.

The bowl of vegetables had been reheated umpteen times, for there wasn't any gravy left.

The branches in the fire pit sizzled and crackled as they burned. Avery swiftly went over and hugged her grandfather, sobbing, “Grandpa.”

Holding a poker in his bony hand, Blake lifted his head and looked at her.

“You are...?”

“Do you not recognize me anymore, Grandpa? I'm Ery.”

Avery haphazardly dashed her tears away before taking out a piece of tissue from her bag and wiping her grandfather's face, which was slightly dirty. Weeping, she lamented, “Why didn't you look for me when you came back? Although you couldn't go to my father's place, you still have me.”

“Ery? Is this really you? Your father told me that you're getting married. I didn't want to burden you and trouble your in-laws.” Blake had considered his granddaughter when he made that decision. Pinning his eyes on her, he reached out and stroked her hair. Ah, my granddaughter is still as kind as ever!

For a moment, he didn't dare believe that it was his granddaughter, for she had changed greatly.

“You're no burden or trouble.” Just then, a low and rich voice sounded at the door.

Avery thought that she was hearing things and turned with tears blurring her eyes.

At a single glance, she spotted the man who had seemingly appeared out of thin air. Against the light, she even glimpsed a black Land Rover parked outside.

So lost in her distress about her grandfather was she that she hadn't noticed any sounds of a vehicle.

Heavy cars traversed the town at night in the first place, so she was used to the noise.

The man in a suit and leather shoes bent slightly and stepped over the decrepit threshold. The door frames of the old buildings in town were built too low while he was too tall, so he was particularly eye- catching wherever he went.

As their eyes met, Cayden's ebony eyes radiated grimness, threaded with a hint of fury. It was as

though he was reprimanding her for coming alone, not telling him immediately when she encountered a problem.