Chapter 446 - There"s A Big Shot
Facing the emotionless gazes of Cheyenne and Charlotte, as well as the austere-faced lawyer standing in front of her, Gretchen quickly weighed the pros and cons in her head.
Cheyenne had the IOU and the d.a.m.n bank transfer record, so there was no way she could deny it.
Instead of going to court and embarra.s.sing herself in LA, she thought that it would be better to swallow her pride now and appease Cheyenne and Charlotte first.
Gretchen raised her head, and a smile suddenly appeared on her face. Deliberately trying to be relaxed, she said, "Ah, Cheyenne and Charlotte, I was just joking with you. Look how anxious you"re getting. You even invited a lawyer here. We"re all relatives, and your mother is my close sister. Why make things go awry?
"I really forgot about the money I borrowed from your family and didn"t mean to delay repaying. I"m getting on in my years, and my memory sometimes fails me. Hahaha! Don"t worry. As soon as Dylan"s wedding is over, I"ll go home and find a way to raise the money to repay you immediately!"
Gretchen was all smiles and tried to reach out to hold Cheyenne"s and Charlotte"s hands to act as if nothing had happened.
But her true character had long been exposed through her words and actions just now. Cheyenne and Charlotte naturally avoided her hands like they were snakes and took two steps back to stay far, far away from her.
At this moment, the guests who witnessed the whole process began discussing it.
"What an entertaining show! Didn"t Gretchen say that she"s married into the Heron family and couldn"t have possibly borrowed money from Cheyenne and the Carters? Now she"s contradicting herself!"
"So it"s true that she borrowed money and refused to repay it. This woman is so thick-skinned! She was just denying it moments ago and claiming that that young lady is crazy about money. But as soon as she received the lawyer"s letter, her att.i.tude changed drastically. How shameless!"
"That"s right. And she even called her nieces b.i.t.c.hes and slandered them for giving s.e.xual favors in exchange for high positions in their companies. If I had such a relative who had the audacity to slander my daughters and made up such rumors, I"d definitely chop their head off!"
"Ah, poor girls. They were kind enough to lend so much money to Gretchen Turner, but not only did she refuse to repay the money, but she even insulted them in public. This is atrocious! She has the cheek to call herself their aunt. How shameless!"
...
In just a short while, Gretchen"s reputation was ruined, and everyone looked at her with condemnation and mockery.
Even though Gretchen was usually thick-skinned, she could no longer laugh in this situation.
Her face was particularly sullen, and she pursed her lips before scurrying away from the crowd with her head hung low.
She didn"t have the cheek to stay here any longer!
Just after Gretchen fled from the crowd, an extremely resentful gaze glared intently at Cheyenne"s body, as if it was about to bore a hole through her.
Lucas suddenly shot the owner of the resentful gaze an icy cold glance, making her so startled that she immediately lowered her head, not daring to glare at Cheyenne again.
Lucas then looked away. Nikki Heron, you"d better not do anything stupid again. Otherwise, I won"t let you off this time!
Eddie didn"t witness what just happened because he had gone to the bathroom.
But Alex, who was standing outside, had watched how matters unfolded.
He initially wanted to teach Cheyenne and Charlotte a lesson as their uncle so that they would learn to respect their elders. But when he saw that everyone was taking Cheyenne and Charlotte"s side, coupled with the fact that Gretchen"s actions were indeed unreasonable, he couldn"t bring himself to say anything.
Besides, he was actually a little scared. After all, the money used to build the Turners" villas had indeed been secretly transferred to him by Karen. Likewise, there were records of it.
Alex was also afraid that Cheyenne and Charlotte would also give him a legal letter to force him to repay the money he had borrowed to build the villas, as well as the other loans he had taken from them.
It was his son"s wedding day, and if it was exposed that he had been surviving on his nieces" money, he would be thoroughly disgraced.
Alex walked toward Cheyenne and Charlotte, and afraid that others might hear, he said softly, "Cheyenne, uh, I"ll have a good chat with you after Dylan"s wedding is over tonight! Don"t worry. After we calculate how much money was spent on the villa, we will definitely return every single cent to you!"
Cheyenne looked at her uncle, who was looking at her with a hypocritical smile on his face. Despite feeling repulsed, Cheyenne gave it some thought and said, "Okay."
After all, what Alex said today wasn"t as overboard and uncouth as what Gretchen had. Besides, no matter what, it was her cousin Dylan"s wedding today, and she was here to attend the wedding and congratulate him, not ruin things for him.
Seeing the look of relief on Alex"s face as he greeted the guests and asked them to enter the ballroom, Charlotte came up to Cheyenne"s ear and said with a smile, "Cheyenne, you were awesome! You"ve just subdued that detestable Gretchen and frightened her to the point that she doesn"t dare to say anything about us anymore! Hehe, you were so domineering!"
Cheyenne sighed. "If they hadn"t gone overboard, I wouldn"t have done that."
She had always been gentle, mild-mannered, and patient. She wouldn"t have fallen out with them in public if she hadn"t gotten bullied by them.
Charlotte hugged Cheyenne"s arm and said comfortingly, "Cheyenne, don"t dwell on it. I know you"ve always valued kins.h.i.+p, but look at what they"ve done. When have they ever treated us as relatives? I"d rather not have such relatives! It would be best to sever ties with them and never be in contact with them again. We"re not the ones who are going to suffer anyway!"
Cheyenne thought about it and smiled in relief.
In any case, even if they severed all ties with these relatives, it wouldn"t pose any disadvantages to them, and in fact, it would even be a relief to them. In that case, why should she feel uneasy?
The people who should feel guilty and regretful should be the ones who bullied them and drove them away!
At this moment, a luxury Mercedes-Benz pulled up at the entrance of the hotel.
Soon, a middle-aged man in his late forties stepped out of the car and raised his hand to straighten his tie with a look of displeasure on his face.
"Honey, you"re finally here!" A voice of surprise suddenly sounded. It was Gretchen, who had scurried out of the hotel ashamedly just now. When she saw the middle-aged man, she immediately scrambled toward him from a café beside the hotel gleefully.
She initially thought that her husband was going to stand her up again today and go have a rendezvous with his mistress instead. But she didn"t expect him to do her the favor of coming to attend her nephew"s wedding.
When she thought of how she had gotten bullied by Cheyenne and Charlotte, Gretchen wanted to complain to her husband.
The middle-aged man was none other than Gretchen"s husband, Justin Heron, who was Nikki"s father and Robert Heron"s son.
He pushed Gretchen, who was about to complain to him, away with disgust and said with a look of annoyance, "If my father hadn"t told me that a big shot was coming here today, I wouldn"t have bothered to attend the wedding at all."
It was just the wedding of a young descendant of the Turners, which he wouldn"t have bothered to waste time attending. He would rather spend time with his beloved mistress!
Gretchen was extremely displeased that Justin had pushed her away and was about to say something when she suddenly grasped Justin"s keyword.
"Which big shot is coming?" Gretchen asked with bewilderment, looking forward to hearing his answer.