21 Diane's Suspicions

Now, it was Phillip's turn to be stared at by his parents. It was obvious that they were not aware of this embarrassing act from him.

His father was wondering if he actually did what Celine just accused him of but seeing how quiet he was, he didn't need to doubt anymore.

"Phillip, why would you do something like that?" Mrs. Sanders asked with her brows shooting to the top of her head.

Their family was already so wealthy, so why would her son do something as demeaning as that? That was so shameful!

Seeing the tables turn against her brother, Vivian went into the defensive mode as her younger sister who hadn't said a word since their arrival, continued to play around on social media with her phone.

"It's not Phillip's fault that he had to do something like that. He guessed that one day Diane would wake up and ask for a divorce, so he did that to save himself."

"Can you hear yourself?" Celine quickly interrupted. Although she was livid with anger, there was not a single strand of her hair that stood out of place from her chignon hairstyle. She was doing perfectly well with maintaining her cool.

"If your brother didn't trust my daughter and their intended union, he could have simply called off the wedding but no, he decided to store away his assets in your possession and then stand ready to fight for what belongs to my daughter as if he has been waiting for this day to come!"

As Celine spoke, her eyes glared daggers at Phillip and Vivian before her gaze moved to their parents.

"I am not in a good mood today, and my husband and I wouldn't like to escalate this matter, so we stand to ask Phillip to give up his rights to Diane's assets which he is to get because of the prenup in place."

As soon as Celine made her demands, she poured some tea for herself and faced the Sanders.

This was supposed to be such an easy settlement with the Sanders quickly agreeing to resolve this issue and drop what did not belong to them, but to Dr. Smith and Celine's amazement, there was absolute silence from them.

Their audacity and attitude made Dr. Smith speak up. "Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Sanders, I believe that as a wealthy reputable family that you are known to be, you will do the right thing so we can go our separate ways peacefully."

Hearing that, Phillip's parents exchanged glances before fixing their gazes on him.

"As your divorce process is ongoing, you should speak to your lawyer and give up your rights to Diane's assets. We don't want…"

"I'm not doing that!" Phillip declared without letting his father finish. Shifting his gaze to the Smiths with a stubborn frown etched on his forehead, he said to them, "I would have easily let this matter go if Diane was a good wife to me but given the hell I experienced in marriage with her, I am not going to let her walk away so freely. So, her assets are her debts owed to me."

Phillip's bold declarations didn't sit well with Diane's parents. To think that he had the guts to be so disrespectful to them and outrightly refusing to return what belongs to them.

That was a lot of courage.

"Phillip, I once had high hopes for you, and that was the reason your parents and my wife and I arranged a marriage with you and our daughter, but I am so disappointed with your attitude. This is a criminal act; sneakily going against the agreement. This is a bold print of the kind of family you come from."

Almost immediately, Mr. Sanders debunked it. "Dr. Smith, we are sorry about everything. My family is not shady. We are transparent people and I know that was one of the reasons you trusted us enough to hand your precious daughter over. It is not our intention to deceive you."

Celine held back from rolling her eyes. "How are we not sure that your son purposely chose to cheat on my daughter and let her catch him so she could file for divorce and lose half of her assets to him in the process?"

For a long while, the Sanders were rendered speechless. Even Phillip has never thought towards this angle before so he was dumbfounded and eventually confused.

The Smith family and the Sanders family kept going back and forth and with Phillip's strong refusal to reject Diane's assets that would be going to him, Celine called the security on his family and walked them out.

"This is not going to end well, I promise!" she said to their faces.

With the drama that had played out today, there was no need for Diane to reveal that Phillip had locked her out of their home. Her mother would most definitely kill her for that.

Although Celine tried to fight for Diane behind her back, she went back to her usual stoic attitude soon.

Before Diane left that night, her mother gave her a good lashing for her shortcomings and for not speaking out if she had a problem with her body before cutting her off financially.

"Maybe, by the time you can no longer afford a comfortable and lavish lifestyle for yourself, you will be able to think out a solution to stop Phillip from getting even a bit of your assets."

---

Just as Diane made another loss, Christian was busy enjoying a fine dinner at the founder of Heirs Group of Companies and Chairman of Heirs Holdings' $157 million mansion in LA, with private chefs dropping new mouth-watering dishes on their table and taking away the old dishes they were done with.

Christian literally flew 5 hours in his private jet just to have dinner with him, and it was a good thing that Robert Heirs was going to make him spend the night over for that effort.

"There will be an inauguration party for you next week Sunday, and on Friday, I will arrange a meeting with the entire board of directors to formally introduce you to them. I apologize for taking so long to set up these little meetings," Robert spoke to him with a warm smile.

"There is no need to apologize. It is understandable for the delay. Your health is more important and if I may add, the party is not necessary." Christian said to him.

Immediately, Ashley chipped in while giving him a side glance. "You are the CEO of one of Heirs Group's biggest subsidiaries and you don't want an inauguration party? You must be joking. We are partying on Sunday, so get ready."

The chatting and cackles got more interesting and engaging over time regardless, Christian was still able to think about Diane and what her reaction would be to not seeing him return to his penthouse that night.

---

Later that night on her bed after she decided to retire early, Diane opened the mailbox in her phone and scrolled to the mail she got earlier in the day from 'Mr. R' while at her family villa.

The mail contained one short sentence and was followed by four different contacts. The sentence read, 'Stop your façade and tell yourself the truth. The help you need is a call away.'

All those phone numbers sent to her belonged to doctors she wasn't familiar with, and there was no thinking too much about it to know what that meant.

From that night, Diane's suspicion of Christian being 'Mr. R' started to grow.

Christian was no longer the same man he used to be in the past.

What if he had purposely given her all those hints just to bring her back to his side in the end?