Chapter 444 - Nothing But Slander
Cheyenne and Charlotte had already saved Alex and Gretchen from enough embarra.s.sment yesterday. But when Gretchen scolded them just now, Alex didn"t come forward to stop her.
Now that she had merely clapped back at Gretchen once, Alex intervened and asked her to settle the matter in private. Why should she agree to it?
Cheyenne said coldly, "Uncle Alex, the two villas belonging to the Turners were built with the money you guys took from my mother. We"ll put aside the villa that Grandpa and Grandma are staying in and just consider it as Mom"s act of filial piety toward them. But shouldn"t you return us the money for the villa you and your son are living in? You"re a man after all, Uncle Alex. It doesn"t seem reasonable for you to be taking money from your sister to build a house for yourself, right?
"Besides, you don"t seem to be cash-strapped. You drive expensive cars that cost more than a hundred thousand, and I also heard that you often gamble with stakes that start from at least a few thousand dollars. I reckon you"d definitely be able to return the two hundred thousand you borrowed from us, right?"
The surrounding guests were once again stunned.
After exposing Gretchen"s refusal to return the tens of thousands of dollars she had borrowed from them, Cheyenne went on to reveal that her uncle had also borrowed a huge sum of money from them. The fact that even the money that the Turners had used to build their villas was from Karen was indeed very appalling.
It was especially surprising because this was said by Cheyenne, who had always been gentle and mild-mannered.
Alex"s face immediately turned gloomy, and he denied straightaway, "What nonsense are you spouting?! Of course we paid for our villa with our own money. What does it have to do with the Carters?!"
Then he hollered at Karen, who was standing near them, "Karen Turner! Your daughter is spouting nonsense. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and come here to give everyone an explanation."
He had always been the most precious and favored child of the Turners. Now that he was enraged, he didn"t even bother to speak to Karen respectfully and even called her by her full name.
He was incredibly furious.
Yesterday at the Turners, they had already been embarra.s.sed in front of their closest relatives because of this matter. And afterward, Eddie even deliberately gathered them in a room to force Karen to deny that they had ever taken money from her.
But now that Karen was allowing her daughter to expose these matters in front of all the guests again, he felt extremely embarra.s.sed!
After being yelled at by her brother, Karen immediately scurried over to order Cheyenne to apologize to Alex. But as soon as she met Cheyenne"s icy cold gaze, which was very different from usual, she fell silent and couldn"t bring herself to rebuke her.
At the same time, she remembered the accusations her daughters had made against her yesterday, making her feel rather afraid and ashamed.
"Um… Cheyenne, he"s your uncle. Watch your tone with him," Karen said, greatly lacking in confidence.
Cheyenne sneered. "Mom, you know clearly whether I"m spouting nonsense or not. Why are you trying to stop me from talking even at this point?"
Karen"s face stiffened. "It"s Dylan"s big day today. Let"s talk about these matters in private as a family after the wedding. By mentioning this now, others are just going to laugh at us!"
She was half pleading and half threatening Cheyenne.
Moreover, Cheyenne"s sudden cold and harsh att.i.tude made her lack confidence.
"There are some things that we can"t pretend like they don"t exist just because we choose not to talk about it. Besides, even if we end up making fools of ourselves, it"s because of some people"s mistakes, isn"t it?" Charlotte said furiously, no longer able to stand it.
As their mother, she simply stood at the side without saying anything to defend her daughters even after seeing Gretchen rebuke them. Now that Alex had merely hollered at her, she immediately stepped forward and stopped Cheyenne and Charlotte from continuing to speak to fulfill his wishes. What a "good" mother she was.
Karen gritted her teeth and said softly with a trace of annoyance, "Take it that I"m begging you, okay? After all, it"s your cousin"s wedding today, and it won"t be nice to cause a commotion here, right? Let"s talk after it ends, okay?"
Cheyenne looked around and realized that many people were indeed looking at them like they were fools.
She didn"t want to ruin her cousin"s wedding either. If not for Gretchen and Alex"s overbearing att.i.tude, she wouldn"t have washed their dirty linen in public.
Seeing that Karen seemed to be put in a spot, Cheyenne finally gave in. "Okay, then let"s wait until the wedding is over to talk about this, but that"s on the condition that Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Alex don"t go overboard with their words again."
"Okay, okay, that"s certainly fine. Your aunt and uncle are your closest relatives, and they didn"t mean to say what they said just now, so don"t take it to heart." Karen immediately promised on their behalf.
"Trust you to say that they didn"t mean to…" Charlotte was indignant and wanted to say something, but Lucas immediately interrupted.
"Charlotte, forget it."
Hearing this, Charlotte could only keep quiet in a disgruntled manner. "Fine, I"ll listen to you."
Seeing that Cheyenne and Charlotte had compromised, Gretchen gibed with a triumphant expression on her face. "Hah, he"s just a good-for-nothing, yet you"re treating his words like a royal edict. I merely criticized him, and you started las.h.i.+ng out at me. How amusing!"
Charlotte was already planning to ignore them, but she didn"t expect Gretchen to be so overbearing. She immediately retorted, "Haha, it"s even more amusing that some people actually have the cheek to mock others when they refuse to pay back the money they owe!"
Gretchen immediately flew into a rage and pointed at Charlotte while shouting at her, "Little b.i.t.c.h, how dare you say that about me? Do you have any manners at all?"
Charlotte"s face turned gloomy, and she refused to show any weakness. "Who are you calling a b.i.t.c.h? This is the first time I"ve seen anyone call their niece a b.i.t.c.h. Your upbringing is indeed excellent. No one can compare to you. Besides, you indeed refuse to pay us back the money you owe. Is there anything wrong with what I said?"
Gretchen could no longer hide the resentment in her eyes. Since they had already fallen out, she immediately rebuked, "We naturally have a better upbringing than you, you little b.i.t.c.h! Hah, do you think you"re that great? Do you think you could have made it to the top without sleeping with a man and selling your body? Do you think you could have become the general manager of the Stardust Corporation otherwise? I"m being nice enough by calling you a b.i.t.c.h because that"s an understatement!"
Her face red from fury, Charlotte widened her eyes and snapped, "Gretchen Turner, stop slandering me! I didn"t do such a thing!"
She didn"t expect that Gretchen would slander her to such a terrible extent or even hurl such nasty insults at her. Charlotte was enraged, and she couldn"t bring herself to call Gretchen her aunt at all, so she called her by her full name.
Gretchen said with a contemptuous expression, "Who would believe you? You"re just a young girl in your early twenties who joined the Stardust Corporation for a few months. How could you have been promoted straight to the position of general manager from a junior employee? You have no experience and no connections, and the Carters couldn"t even come to a cooperation agreement with the Stardust Corporation. If you hadn"t sold your body, how else could you become the general manager?"
Many people around them seemed to come to a sudden realization.