Chapter 295: My Daughter Is Not for Others to Discipline
As soon as Willow finished speaking, Muff and Jasper came downstairs. Jasper’s face was stern as he glanced at Willow and Lily Ward in the living room. “The Reed family’s children are not for you to discipline!”
“Mr. Reed, Jasper…” Willow stood up in a panic when she saw them appear. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just wanted to remind Tina.”
“After all, Tina has been away for a long time without anyone to guide her. She might not be like a proper lady…”
“Nonsense!” Muff was so angry that his beard trembled. “What do you mean no one guided her? Our Tina is well-behaved and outstanding. She doesn’t need an outsider like you telling her what to do!”Content is property of NôvelDrama.Org.
Muff’s attitude was forceful, and Jasper’s expression was cold. “Ms. Ward, my daughter doesn’t need your guidance.”
“Jasper!” Willow hurriedly tried to explain herself. “I didn’t mean it that way. I had good intentions…”
“Mr. Reed, my mother is just concerned about Miss Reed,” Lily Ward interjected to support her mother. “We want to resolve past misunderstandings and hope to become friends with Miss Reed.”
“I don’t need friends,” Tina said as she threw the magazine she was holding onto the table and stood up. “Nor do I need your concern.”
Could she not see through Willow and Lily Ward’s intentions? Did Willow want to take the position of the mistress of the Reed family? As long as she hadn’t figured out whether Jasper had anything to do with her mother’s death, she would remain the eldest daughter of the Reed family, and Willow could forget about becoming her stepmother!
“Miss Reed,” Lily Ward adjusted her attitude in front of Muff and Jasper. “No matter what you think, you should respect Tina.”
“We are visiting out of respect for Mr. Reed. You should know how to treat guests properly.”
Tina lifted her chin and looked down at her. “You consider yourself a guest?”
With that, Tina turned and went upstairs, leaving Willow and Lily Ward standing there in frustration.
“Tina doesn’t want to see just anyone,” Muff added with a glare at them. “If you don’t respect Tina, then the Reed family doesn’t welcome you.”
“Jasper, I…” Willow tried to explain further, but Jasper didn’t even look at her. “I don’t want to hear anything more from you. Go back.”
Willow and Lily Ward’s visit did not affect Tina’s mood.
As soon as she returned to her room, her phone rang.
When Tina answered, a respectful voice came from the other end of the line. “Miss Reed, this is William Johnson. Sorry to bother you for a few minutes. Do you have time at the end of the month?”
William Johnson was a highly authoritative figure in medicine who had provided her with medication assistance when she needed it.
“What is it?” Tina asked as she sat on the edge of her bed, playing with a tool she had recently acquired from Philip’s brothers.
“There will be a medical conference at the end of the month,” William Johnson said respectfully despite his high status and age over sixty. “I would like to invite you on behalf of the institute.”
Tina wasn’t particularly interested in such conferences, but since William Johnson had helped her before and remembering that Lily Ward had mentioned it earlier, she felt a bit intrigued.
Seeing her silence, William Johnson hurriedly added, “Miss Reed, your contributions to medicine are unmatched. For my sake, could you come even for just half an hour? I’ll fulfill any request you have if you agree!”
This wasn’t his first time inviting her; previous attempts had been declined. This time he was determined to get Tina’s agreement.
After a brief consideration, Tina nodded. “Alright! Send me the location.”
Hearing her finally agree, William Johnson was overjoyed. “Great! I’ll inform everyone right away!”
After hanging up the phone, Tina turned her attention back to the tools on the table.
She needed another opportunity to go into Jasper’s study and open that safe to see what was inside.
Half an hour later.
Tina decided to go downstairs to the kitchen for a jar to study an antidote.
Just as she opened her door, she heard mumbling sounds from a nearby room.
She walked quietly towards it and saw Griffin squatting inside, breaking apart a bun while feeding a dirty little kitten.
“Don’t blame me for not giving you cat treats,” Griffin mumbled as he fed the kitten, seemingly unaware of anyone outside the door. “Blame that Tina! If it weren’t for her tricking me out of $12 million, I wouldn’t be in this mess!”
Talking about it made him angry.
Back when they were bidding on raw stones at the market, if Tina hadn’t deliberately raised bids against him, he wouldn’t have impulsively spent over $12 million on an average piece of jade.
Thinking about that jade made Griffin grit his teeth.
He initially thought Tina was just a naive girl from the countryside pretending to understand stone gambling like them.
To teach her a lesson, he kept raising his bid against hers but ended up falling into her trap instead.
Griffin angrily broke apart another bun piece and almost shoved it into his own mouth. “Now I can only let you suffer temporarily. Once I win some money from competitions, I’ll buy you good food.”
The little kitten sniffed at the bun piece on the ground but turned its head away in disdain.
Who would want such hard bread? Even though it had been wandering outside for a long time, it found it hard to swallow.
“You little picky eater!” Griffin couldn’t help but stroke its head; the kitten immediately rubbed against his pants affectionately.
He had found this kitten near some bushes by the Reed family’s house; seeing how skinny and dirty it was had softened his heart enough to bring it home.
But now he was broke because that worthless jade had drained three years’ worth of his allowance plus some debts.
He could only freeload at the Reed family mansion without daring to go out or splurge-let alone buy food for the kitten. “Why don’t you sneak into Tina’s room? She must have something good after opening Imperial Green jade-maybe even some tasty treats.”
Tina standing at the door: “…”
Do you think I’m deaf?
“Meow…” The kitten meowed twice in agreement with Griffin’s suggestion while he sighed deeply again: “Forget it! We may be poor but we still have principles-no stealing! It’s unethical! I’ll check if there’s anything edible in our kitchen.”
With that said he turned around only then noticing Tina standing outside which made him fume instantly rushing towards her angrily: “What are YOU doing here? Haven’t caused enough trouble already?”
“You jinx! Ever since bringing you back nothing good has happened!”
Tina glanced at him indifferently: “You brought this upon yourself.”
“How can I not blame you!” Griffin’s temper flared almost grabbing Tina by collar: “If not for your trap how could I lose all my money!”
“Anyone with half-a-brain could tell that jade wasn’t worth much-you deliberately opposed me making me waste over $12 million!”
In his mind everything wrong stemmed from Tina; he saw himself purely as victim deceived by her tricks.