"Can you please not touch my brother?" Anna stands in between her brother and Marietta. She is not letting that woman touch a single part of her brother"s body. "I"m sorry, but no matter what you say, there is nothing my brother can do. It"s already been decided.""N-No! If you and your brother talk to your grandfather, I"m sure he will reconsider his choice." Since the family is so important to Marcus, Marietta thinks that she can use that fact to her advantage. No matter what kind of crimes she and her husband did, they will be forgiven because they are family.
"Marietta, stop being delusional. Yes, the Coleman family is important to Marcus, however, what you did is unforgivable. James is an exemption because he is Marcus" son." Although James is not going to be kicked out of the family, that does not mean that he will not receive his punishment.
Everyone has agreed and it has been decided. There is nothing more Marietta can do to change everyone"s opinion.
Losing all the hope she has left, Marietta is now on her knees. She doesn"t have enough strength to stand up. All her hard work, every risk that she took was all for naught.
"Hey," Leon who noticed that the father and daughter pair are trying to escape the place he called them out. "Just because n.o.body is talking about the two of you that doesn"t mean that some of us have forgotten about you." Truthfully said, Leon almost did forgot about them. They have low importance for today"s event that he did not even bother to pay too much attention to them.
"Ilana, you and your father shouldn"t go anywhere. The police are on their way to capture your father, and you should take this time to find a way on how you should pay off your father"s debts." Anna said with a smile.
Anna is clearly trying to provoke Ilana, and it is working. However, Ilana can"t harm Anna the way she wanted to because if she does, it will only cause her more trouble.
All she wanted is to have a position higher than everyone else. How did everything she achieved so far backfired on her? At this point, she doesn"t even know where should she point all the blame for misfortune at.
"Anna, Aaron, come with me." A voice from behind called out the twins" name, and it was their grandfather. He has a serious look on his face that the twins don"t even know if he is angry at them or not.
The twins only nodded and followed their grandfather, but before they could leave the room, Anna stopped and turned around to where Leon is. "Leon take care of them." She said referring to Ilana and Isaiah.
As a reply, Leon gave her a thumbs up.
~~~
As the twins were following their grandfather, they noticed that the place they are heading to is to the room where the history of their family is stored at.
"I think we"re in big trouble, brother," Anna whispered to her brother. The only reason Anna could think of what they are doing here in this secret room is because of the necklace that they hid for quite some time.
"Of course, we are. I mean, look, Elder Martha is coming along with us too. I have a huge hunch that we"re dead meat." Aaron whispered back. Now, he is thinking about how should he act in front of his grandfather once they"ve reached their destination.
Should he act cool? Or should he act brave? Which image should he present to them later? Aaron doesn"t want the two elders to see that he is slightly afraid of the punishment they might give to him.
"I have to act tough!" He inwardly said.
"Stop whispering, you two." Martha"s tone of voice is neither angry or friendly. The twins have no idea what kind of treatment they should be expecting from her.
From what the twins observed earlier, the elders seem to acknowledge Martha"s suggestion. In addition to that, they also decided not to go along with Martha"s decision on retiring from her position. Martha is going to take responsibility for what she did in another way.
"Yes, ma"am!" The twins said at the same time.
"Martha, with that strict att.i.tude of yours, I don"t think you can win the twins" heart. Most likely, they might run away from you." Marcus said in a teasing tone. Since their youth, Martha is the type of person who dislikes children, but despite that, she gave birth to a son, Jay, and he grew up to be a wonderful man.
Still, Martha is socially awkward to young teenagers like the twins. That is why Martha treats teenagers coldly and scold them when she sees them doing something wrong. Martha is a good person, she just doesn"t know how to communicate with teenagers whose thinking is way different from hers back in their younger days.
"Capture their hearts? My purpose is not to capture their hearts, Marcus. My purpose is to have the twins be ready for the future." Instead of giving up her position as one of the elders in the Coleman family, the other elders decided to have Martha train the twins for future purposes.
Seeing that twins" performance earlier, the elders didn"t have any doubts that their family"s future is already taken care of. But since the twins are still young, they need more experiences. The only person who can teach them everything that they need to learn is from Martha.
"For the future?" Anna asked in a confused tone. She has no idea where this conversation is going at, and for some reason, she felt like she doesn"t want to take part in it.
"Yes. Since announcing the heir of this family to the public is coming near, I think it"s only right to have Martha teach you both what you need to know." While saying this, Marcus and the rest finally reached their destination. It has been a while since Marcus stepped foot in this room.
He still remembers the first time he stepped foot in this room. His whole being was filled with excitement, and because of that, he read every book that is in this room. He wonders what kind of feeling did the twins felt when they first stepped into this secret room.
"Wait. My dear brother is the one you have in mind to become the heir of our family, am I right? So what am I doing here? I mean, none of this has anything to do with me." From the very beginning, Anna showed no interest in wanting to compete with her brother to become an heir, so she sees no point of being summoned to come along into this room.
"Such nonsense, young lady. Of course, it has something to do with you." Martha spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. Her first opinion of Anna is that the only thing Anna wants is to support her brother all the way, and Martha took a liking to that part of Anna.
Competing to become an heir is quite common in the main branch of the family, and this is quite a surprise for her to know that Anna has no intention of competing with her brother. She already has a goal for her future and that doesn"t involve working in the family business.
"How?" From the way Anna sound, she is clearly rejecting the decision the elders has made for her and her brother.
"First of all, it"s clear that you don"t have any intention of competing with your brother, and worry not, we will not force you to compete. And secondly, the only reason why I"m going to teach you too is for you to be able to support your brother in the future." Martha explained, then she looks at Anna with a serious look on her face, "You do want to support your brother in the future, am I right?"
"Yes. I do want to, but do I really have to go through this?" Anna is now feeling sulky of the fact she has to go under training with Martha.
Anna"s main reason why she doesn"t to be part of it is that she will have less time to spend with Kyle. Kyle is already busy his schedule, but if she becomes busy too, then there is no time for them to see each other at all.
Thinking that it will take a very long time to see each other again is really making Anna sad.
"Please tell me the reason why you don"t want to?" From the beginning, Martha can tell that the twins have a plan to get her support, but why is Anna rejecting this opportunity to get into her good side?
"I"ll have less time with Kyle if I agree to this." Although Anna said it in a low volume, all of them in the room heard her clearly, and they don"t even know how to respond to that.