Meanwhile.
The Wynn family scrambled out of the mob of reporters, looking completely
disheveled, and hid in a dark corner outside the side doors of the convention center.
Their clothes and accessories had been yanked and pulled until they were completely askew.
Their meticulously styled hair and makeup were utterly ruined.
Every single one of them looked like a complete mess.
Patrick had never been subjected to such a humiliating disgrace in his entire life!
Ever since the Wynn family had secured their foothold in Vaelion City.
Ever since they had locked down those massive contracts with NovaForge Capital and Titancrest Group.
The Wynns had been on a meteoric rise.
In Vaelion City, setting aside the absolute top-tier elites.
Within his own social circle, he had been the one everyone flocked to, the man everyone eagerly flattered.
But everything shifted the moment Hailey was welcomed back into the Wynn family and Serena was kicked out.
It all changed!
The Wynn family had plummeted into a freefall, teetering on the edge of total bankruptcy.
Every time they thought they had found a lifeline, it only pushed the family deeper into the abyss!
If it weren't for Hailey.
He would probably still be living a glamorous life, being respectfully called "Mr. Wynn" wherever he went!
Some lucky charm she turned out to be.
She was an absolute curse to the Wynn family!
The more Patrick thought about it, the more his fury boiled over.
He lashed out, slapping Marianne hard across the face. "It's all because of you, you idiot! If you hadn't been so shortsighted and urged me to kick Serena out, would the Wynns be in this pathetic state?"
"If Serena were still with us... with her resources, her connections, her identity as Queen! Any single one of those things would have been enough for us to stand as equals with the Blackwood family!"
Marianne's face was already so pale she looked ready to pass out.
That slap snapped her right back to reality.
She stumbled back several steps, only managing to stay upright because her eldest son caught her.
Her cheek rapidly swelled and turned bright red from the force of the blow. She sobbed through the pain, feeling overwhelmingly wronged and resentful. "You're blaming me? How was I supposed to know she was hiding all of that!"
"And your mother, too! Serena was that incredible, and yet she kept it a total secret from us. She never breathed a word about it before she died! had known Serena had that kind of power, why would I have ever chased her away?"
The more Marianne spoke, the more aggrieved and upset she felt, filled with a deep sense of injustice. "Why aren't you blaming your dead mother? Why aren't you blaming Serena? Why me? They kepto everything tightly under wraps just to guard against us! They were terrified we might actually benefit from her!"
"Besides, your mother and that ungrateful brat never even treated us like real family. Even if Serena had stayed, she never would have used her resources to help us out anyway!"
Otherwise, if she was truly so capable, why had she kept her mouth shut and shown absolutely nothing during the four years she lived with the Wynn family?
If she had bothered to help the Wynn family earlier.
They would have been filthy rich by now!
"You have the nerve to say that?!" Patrick's rage flared even hotter, and he raised his hand to strike her again. "Isn't that because you treated Serena like a plague you did nothing but beat and curse at
her how could she possibly open her heart to us?"
Thinking back on those four years Serena spent with the Wynn family, locked in that dim, damp storage room, treated worse than a maid, and never receiving a single kind look from them.
Patrick felt a wave of suffocating regret wash over him!
The sheer frustration made him want to slap Marianne all over again.
He raised his hand, ready to deliver another string of blows.
Marianne shrank back in terror.
Benedict stepped in front of her, catching his father's wrist. "Dad, hitting Mom isn't going to fix anything. Things have already spiraled out of control. We need to figure out a way to handle this."