Chapter 3: The Relentless Woman

Wayne's anger, which he had just suppressed, flared up again instantly. "Can you say something serious for once! You don't even know what your own wife's background is?"

Seeing Wayne was about to lose his temper, William finally sat up straight and tried to placate him. "Dad, never mind who she is, at least I brought you back a real woman, right?"

That actually made sense. Marrying a woman with an unclear background was still better than bringing home a man.

Wayne snorted coldly. "When you have time, bring her back for dinner. What kind of father-in-law has never even seen what his daughter-in-law looks like?"

William smiled cunningly. "No problem. But you'd better prepare a decent gift for the first meeting. If it's too shabby, I won't be able to show my face."

Looking at William's carefree attitude, Wayne shook his head helplessly.

Seven o'clock in the evening.

After packing up her personal belongings from Ethan's apartment, Victoria drove back to the Hughes Villa.

As soon as she entered, the household staff nodded in greeting, their eyes undisguised with contempt.

Victoria used to not bother making trouble, but today she wasn't in such a good mood. She stopped in her tracks and shot them an icy, sharp glare. The servants froze in fear and immediately lowered their heads guiltily.

Victoria sneered coldly.

Walking into the living room, Charles was sitting on the sofa smoking.

Victoria skipped the small talk and got straight to the point. "Dad, are the hotel transfer documents ready? I'm free tomorrow, have your lawyer go with me to handle the paperwork."

Charles frowned and pushed a stack of documents across the table. "You're always in such a rush. It's just a hotel, is it really necessary to push so hard? I care about you the most, and since I promised, I'll definitely give it to you."

His words were full of pretense, acting as if he treated her so well.

Victoria ignored it, picked up the documents to look through them, her voice cold. "Dad, I need to remind you, this hotel is the inheritance my mother left me, not something you're giving me out of charity. And this hotel has been losing money in your hands for almost ten years. You're trading a money-losing mess for a huge investment from the Nelson family—you're making out like a bandit on this deal."

"Don't talk to me about father-daughter affection. If you want to back out, you can always have Sarah go through with the arranged marriage instead."

Charles was hit where it hurt, his face turning iron-blue.

Of course he wouldn't let Sarah go through with the arranged marriage. Sarah had now latched onto someone from the Ashford family, and the Ashford family was much more powerful than the Nelson family. Weighing the pros and cons, he could only reluctantly let go.

After successfully getting the documents, Victoria was in a great mood. As soon as she walked out of the villa, she called Aria.

"Aria, are you off work?"

It was a bit noisy on the other end. Aria lowered her voice. "Just finished working overtime, rushing to deliver some urgent documents to my boss at a hotel. I can leave after I drop them off."

"Send me your location, I'll pick you up. Let's have a drink tonight."

Victoria drove to the hotel location.

As soon as she parked and walked into the lobby, she saw Aria from a distance, standing there with her head down getting chewed out.

And the people pointing at her nose and cursing were Ethan and Sarah!

Three months ago, Aria had been transferred to a venture capital company under the Ashford Group to work as a clerk, and the general manager happened to be Ethan.

At first, Victoria thought that with this connection, Ethan would at least look after Aria a bit. But reality was that Aria's workload had multiplied several times over, and no matter what she did, it was easy to find fault with it, get criticized, and get punished at the drop of a hat.

At the time, Ethan's explanation was "to help her grow quickly," and Victoria believed it.

But now, seeing with her own eyes Aria being publicly insulted by those two bastards, Victoria finally realized—because of her relationship with Aria, Aria had long become a tool for Ethan and Sarah to vent their anger!

Sarah's sharp, mean voice echoed through the hotel lobby.

"Aria, did you bring your brain to work? Not only is the wording a complete mess, but all the core data is wrong!"

Aria bit her lip and tried to defend herself. "Ms. Mitchell, I entered the data exactly according to the original materials you gave me. There's no way it could be wrong."

"You made a mistake and you dare talk back?" Sarah raised her voice, arrogant to the extreme. "A waste like you doesn't deserve to stay at the Ashford Group!"

Aria wanted to argue more, but Ethan on the side shot her a cold warning look.

"When Sarah criticizes you, just take it. Since there's a problem with the report, take it back and redo it now, until Sarah is satisfied."

With that, Ethan put his arm around Sarah, ready to leave. Before leaving, Sarah actually threw the thick stack of documents directly in Aria's face!

Papers scattered all over the floor, passersby turned to look, and Aria's eyes reddened with anger, but because they were her superiors, she could only clench her fists and endure it.

"Sarah!"

A crisp, cold shout rang out.

Victoria strode forward, grabbed Sarah's arm, her eyes cold as ice. "Apologize to Aria."

Seeing Victoria appear, a flash of disgust crossed Ethan's eyes.

Sarah rolled her eyes and immediately put on a pitiful, affected expression. "Victoria, what are you doing? As a department manager, I'm reprimanding a subordinate who made a mistake. What's wrong with that?"

Aria was afraid Victoria would suffer, so she quickly tugged at her sleeve. But Victoria instead pulled Aria behind her protectively, staring hard at Sarah. "I'll say it one more time, apologize to her!"

Seeing Victoria's firm attitude, Sarah immediately hid behind Ethan, complaining in a sweet voice. "Ethan, look at Victoria, why is she acting like she's gone crazy? I criticized an employee for the company's benefit, and she comes here making a scene. I'm so scared."

Ethan fell for this act completely. His tall figure immediately blocked Sarah, looking at Victoria with eyes full of condescending pressure.

If it were before, Victoria would have backed down long ago, but today, she didn't retreat even half a step.

"Does criticizing an employee require throwing documents in someone's face? That's insulting someone's dignity!" Victoria's words were forceful and logical. "Also, Aria is an office clerk, not your personal assistant! Data reports are your responsibility as manager. You're overstepping to exploit a lower-level employee to do your work, and now that there's a problem, you're making her the scapegoat?"

"It's after work hours now. You two have eaten and drunk your fill, and you still make an employee run errands to deliver documents. Is this how the Ashford Group treats its employees?"

Victoria suddenly stepped closer, her presence overwhelming. "If you don't apologize today, I will absolutely slap you across the face!"

Sarah's expression changed. She had only recently joined the Ashford Group and her position wasn't stable yet. If Victoria really made a big scene, she would definitely become a laughingstock at the company. Most importantly, she didn't dare actually fight with Victoria.

She could only continue clutching Ethan's clothes and playing pitiful. "Ethan, I'm clearly Victoria's family, but she wants to hit me for an outsider. She's not just humiliating me, she's also disrespecting the Ashford Group."

Ethan's brow furrowed deeply, his face darkening to the extreme.

He shouted sternly, "Victoria, haven't you made enough of a scene! I never realized before that you were such an unreasonable, relentless woman!"