Ch. 481..485: The Adorable Twins and Their CEO Daddy Chapter 481-485
Chapter 481
The press conference that everyone had been waiting for finally started, and everything went well.
In an elegant tailor-made suit, Maurice took the stage.
In a low, imposing voice, he announced to the media that the Stone family and the Moran family were about to reach close cooperation.
After Maurice’s speech, the audience burst into applause.
Even Gerald, who had severed his relationship with Maurice, came on the stage and wanted to take some credits.
As the representative of the Stone family, Harriet stood next to Maurice.
Once Gerald took the stage, he walked over to Maurice with a fake smile and said, “My dear nephew, the two families are so close now. You should cherish Miss Stone.”
He then grabbed Harriet’s hand to place it on Maurice’s.
Of course, Maurice wouldn’t let him succeed. He took a step back and warned quietly, “I advise you to hold back. I’ve already taught you a lesson. Are you sure you want to go down that route again?”
Gerald ignored Maurice’s warning and sneered, “How dare you threaten me again? Do you think that your grandfather won’t get even with you after you stalled him? You’ll be dead meat when he comes!”
Maurice didn’t fear Gerald at all. He actually looked at his uncle with pity.
“Gerald, how can a fully grown man like you still be daddy’s boy? You are just a good-for-nothing. You can never have the upper hand against me in this life.”
It was kind of a sore spot for Gerald, so he was so ashamed that he became furious. However, he did not dare to quarrel with Maurice in front of so many people. He could only swallow the humiliation with a flushed face.
Gerald cursed Maurice in his heart. He looked forward to seeing Earle teach Maurice a lesson.
The press conference soon came to an end. They now had to take the group photo.
“Come on, it’s time for you to go on the stage and present the flowers!” Lilian said to Eliana dryly.
The two women had been standing by the stage all the time. Seeing that it was the appointed time, Lilian immediately pushed Eliana out.
Eliana was unaware she was walking right into a trap. Numbly holding a bouquet of bright roses that Lilian had given her, she took the stage and handed the flowers to Harriet as the crowd watched.
Seeing that, the reporters off the stage went wild. “Mr. Moran, did you prepare the roses for Miss Stone as a surprise?”
“Does this cooperation mean that the Stone family and the Moran family are going to unite by marriage? Mr. Moran, please give us some hints!”
However, Maurice didn’t say a word.
With a sweet smile, Harriet took the roses and said gently, “Thank you.”
She even leaned over to smell the roses. She seemed to be really happy.
No one noticed the sly smile flashing across her face.
It wasn’t until the press conference was over that Earle finally arrived.
He walked towards the stage aggressively. Despite his old age, he was really imposing.
Thinking she had finished what was expected of her, Eliana was about to leave the stage.
She didn’t want to stand here and watch how close Maurice and Harriet were. It would only make her feel worse.
However, just as she was about to leave, Maurice stopped her.
“Don’t leave now!”
Eliana turned around and looked at Maurice, who held her hand. She questioned coldly, “Mr. Moran, why should I stay? Your grandpa is here now, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be in the group photo.”
After saying that, she tried to shake off Maurice’s hand.
However, he wouldn’t let her go. He actually held her more tightly.
“Stay here,” he said again.
He pulled her closer to him.
“Maurice Moran!” Eliana blurted out in shock.
He had never been so aggressive before. She couldn’t help but feel deeply hurt. He asked her to present flowers to Harriet and now he forced her to be in their group photo. It was like stabbing a knife in her heart!
If there hadn’t been a lot of reporters, she would have punched him in the face.
Maurice looked at her with a smile and said, “Since you are here, why don’t you take a photo with us? The situation can’t get any worse.”
Eliana was furious. She was about to argue when she heard a loud noise from behind.
She quickly turned to look and found that Harriet had fallen to the floor. Before everyone could realize what was going on, her body began to tumble
Chapter 482
Under the bewildered gaze of the crowd, Harriet fainted and fallen off the stage. Everyone was shocked, wondering what had happened.
It was so unexpected that the journalists even forgot to film. Even those on stage were stunned.
Someone accidentally opened the champagne, and the loud noise rang out like a gunshot through the very quiet room. Champagne was sprayed around the room, followed by colorful ribbons flying everywhere. It looked like the grand finale of a funny play.
It wasn’t until a shrill scream rang out that the festive atmosphere in the room was broken.
“Help! Someone tried to murder Miss Stone!”
Looking genuinely scared, Lilian screamed with all her might, pointing at Harriet, who was still lying unconscious on the floor.
At this moment, the crowd burst into a roar.
“It’s Miss Stone! What happened to her?”
“Murder? Hurry up and shoot!”
“That’s some huge news! It will be on the headlines tomorrow!”
Journalists rushed forward. Fortunately, the bodyguards were quick to react and immediately stopped the crazed journalists.
The conference room suddenly became very chaotic.
Maurice finally came to his senses. He immediately rushed down the stage and picked up the unconscious Harriet.
“Corbin! Call an ambulance! I’ll take her out of here. You stay here and handle this chaos,” Maurice ordered to Corbin who was standing behind him.
Then surrounded by his bodyguards, he left directly, with Harriet in his arms.
Corbin forced himself to calm down and immediately pulled out his phone to call an ambulance. Once done, he proceeded to shout orders to the bodyguards to control the excited journalists. He had to restore order in the room.
However, the crowd was in complete panic and could not calm down for a while.
The bouquet of roses Eliana had given Harriet had been trampled on by the anxious crowd, and the beautiful petals were scattered on the floor.
While everyone was restless, Eliana stood there, motionless.
She was suddenly jostled by the crazy crowd and fell to the floor.
It was only when she felt a sharp pain in her arm that Eliana came to her senses. Enduring the pain, she tried to stand up. The moment she looked up, she saw Maurice walking away anxiously with Harriet in his arms.
At that moment, she seemed to have lost all her strength and fell back on the floor. She sat there, staring at Maurice’s receding figure and feeling a sharp pain in her heart.
It turned out that whenever he had to choose someone, it would never be her.
“Eliana!” Lucia called out when she saw Eliana on the floor. She immediately walked over and helped her up. “How are you? Are you hurt?” Lucia inquired worriedly.
“I’m fine…”
However, Eliana’s face was deathly pale. She didn’t look fine at all.
Lucia walked her to the lounge.
Eliana sat down on the couch in the lounge. She was still in shock and her hands and feet were cold. In addition, she was shaking all over.
Lucia quickly poured a glass of water and gave it to Eliana. After taking a few sips, Eliana gradually relaxed.
“Thank you,” she said sincerely to Lucia.
She felt that she had come back to life.
“Eliana, weren’t you supposed to be sorting out the documents in the office? Why were you at the press conference?”
Lucia was confused. Corbin had given Eliana a random task in order to keep her away from the press conference. He did that to protect her. What went wrong?
Eliana smiled bitterly. If it weren’t for Lilian, she wouldn’t have come to the press conference.
She was about to say something when the lounge door was violently pushed opened.
Eliana was so frightened that the glass in her hand almost fell to the floor.
Earle walked over aggressively, accompanied by a group of bodyguards.
Chapter 483
The cold look on Earle’s face was very ominous. As soon as he walked into the room, he pointed at Eliana and ordered the bodyguards behind him, “Get her!”
“What do you want?”
Lucia stood in front of Eliana to protect her.
“Lucia, get out of my way. This woman tried to murder Harriet. Just now, Harriet was unconscious!” Earle roared.
He seemed to be convinced that Eliana was the one who tried to harm Harriet.
Eliana was shocked by Earle’s accusation. “I didn’t do anything! I didn’t hurt Harriet!” she protested.
Lilian suddenly walked in from behind Earle and pointed angrily at Eliana. “It’s you who tried to murder Miss Stone! Miss Stone was fine but after you gave her flowers, she fainted. If you are innocent as you claim, then who did it?”
“Flowers?” Eliana asked confusedly. “How could roses make someone faint?”
“You still want to deny? We found the bouquet of roses you gave to Miss Stone and also compared them with the roses sent by the florist. The color of the roses’ petals had changed. You must have poisoned them! What a vicious woman you are!”
Lilian’s words strengthened Earl’s conviction that Eliana was guilty. He looked at her with disgust.
Eliana was confused and wondered how the roses could have been poisoned.
She quickly thought the matter over.
It was Lilian who had forced her to come to the press conference and it was also her who had asked her to give the roses to Harriet. Moreover, Lilian had personally handed her the roses.
Lilian had always colluded with Harriet. She would never have done such a thing if Harriet hadn’t ordered her to.
Eliana suddenly realized that she had fallen into a trap.
Harriet wanted to set her up and she succeeded!
Eliana had figured out the truth, but it was too late.
Seeing that Eliana didn’t speak, Earle sneered, “Now you can’t deny it anymore, can you? I advise you to tell me what you did, or I’ll take you to the police station to be severely punished.”
“I didn’t do it!” Eliana said firmly.
“You are still so stubborn and unrepentant! I can’t understand why Maurice is so obsessed about you.”
Earle was extremely disgusted with Eliana.
“I did not do it. I’m ready to swear in the name of the Pierce family that I had nothing to do with Harriet suddenly fainting!”
Eliana was willing to swear in the name of her family to prove her innocence.
“We have proof of your guilt. It’s no need for you to swear,” Earle said curtly.
He didn’t want to believe anything Eliana said.
It seemed that no matter what Eliana said, he had already decided that she was guilty.
Hearing Earle’s words, Eliana scoffed, “What is the proof? Do you only rely on the bouquet of roses to say that I am guilty? If that is the case, then you are so stupid that you don’t realize that you are fooled by Harriet.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?” Earle snapped. He was furious.
“Nonsense? Why would I try to harm Harriet during the press conference when there were so many people around? If anything happened to Harriet, people would quickly noticed it and I would definitely be held responsible. Do you think I am stupid enough to do such a thing?”
Earle was stunned and didn’t know what to say to that.
“You said I poisoned Harriet. Why did I put the poison on the roses? I could have put it somewhere more discreet, so that it wouldn’t be easily discovered. Besides, if I did poison the roses, why would I give the flowers to Harriet in person in front of so many people? It would be stupid to do such a thing!”
Despite his anger, Earle couldn’t help but admit that what Eliana was saying made sense.
For a while, he was speechless and thought the matter over.
Earle was not stupid. He actually wasn’t very sure that Eliana was the one who harmed Harriet. He just wanted to intimidate her and figured out if she was the culprit.
But he didn’t expect that Eliana wasn’t someone who could be easily bullied. Moreover, what she said made sense. At this moment, Earle was uncertain about his accusation.
Was Eliana really innocent?
Earle was confused. For a while, everyone in the room was silent.
Seeing the hesitating look on Earle’s face, Lilian panicked.
“Mr. Moran, why are you still hesitating? Get Eliana!” Lilian said anxiously.
“Who dares to touch Eliana?”
Maurice’s voice suddenly sounded and the next moment, he walked into the room.
Chapter 484
Maurice’s sudden appearance caused an audible gasp from everyone.
What was he doing here?
Wasn’t he supposed to take Harriet to the hospital?
As Eliana gazed at Maurice, she felt conflicted.
“Grandpa, I can’t let you take her away today.”
Maurice walked towards Eliana and stood before her to protect her.
His grandson had just come, but he was so concerned for Eliana. Earle’s earlier hesitation dissipated, and his dissatisfaction with Eliana grew.
“You’ve lost your mind! Are you obsessed with her?”
Earle was so angry that he didn’t even raise his cane. Instead, he lifted a hand and slapped Maurice hard across the face.
A red fingerprint marked the side of Maurice’s face where he was struck.
Maurice chose to stay silent. He would rather bear his grandfather’s wrath than watch Eliana get taken away.
Eliana’s heart ached when she saw Maurice get hit.
Again, he was hit by his grandfather because of her.
“Are you done taking your anger out on me? I have to take Eliana away.”
Maurice stood in front of Eliana like a knight in shining armor.
“No! You cannot take her away!” Earle trembled with fury as he said, “This woman is a plague! I need to take her to the police station, so she can get the punishment that she deserves!”
Earle then ordered his men to seize her.
“Wait a minute!” Maurice immediately put a hand up to stop them. He looked over at Earle and said, “Grandpa, are you sure you want to hand Eliana over to the police?”
“Of course! Are you still insisting on protecting her?” Earle hissed.
Maurice shook his head and replied, “My intention wasn’t to protect her. Think about it, Grandpa. If we handed her over to the police, our rivals would use this scandal to damage the reputation of the Moran family. And the cooperation between the Stone family and our family will also be affected. There’s nothing we could do to stop them if that happened.”
Maurice’s words found their mark.
Earle wasn’t concerned for Eliana, but he was worried about the Moran family.
Although it angered him to admit, Maurice had a point.
He couldn’t bring Eliana to the police, but he couldn’t let her go either.
If he allowed Maurice to take Eliana away, that woman would continue brainwashing him.
As the matter was reaching a stalemate, Gerald suddenly appeared.
“Dad, I overheard the conversation. Since you’re unsure what to do next, why don’t we take Eliana to my place for now? You wouldn’t have to worry about the Moran family’s reputation or Maurice running off with her. What do you think?”
“I can’t let that happen!”
As soon as Gerard finished speaking, Maurice immediately refused his offer.
Gerald had always been unkind to Eliana. If he took Eliana away, she would be in danger!
Earle considered Gerald’s offer for a moment before he said, “That seems like a reasonable idea.”
“What if I refuse to hand her over to him?” Maurice countered.
Earle was running out of patience. He threatened, “If you refuse one more time, I’ll hand her over to the Stone family. I’m sure she will be miserable there!”
“Maurice, please hand her over to me. This is the best solution for everyone. You wouldn’t want Miss Pierce to fall into the hands of the Stone family, would you?”
A smug smile appeared on Gerald’s face.
Maurice’s eyes narrowed at him, and his expression became cold.
When the two men locked eyes, the atmosphere in the room suddenly felt tense.
All of a sudden, Eliana spoke up. She hadn’t said a word before that moment.
“I agree!” She stepped out from behind Maurice and said, “I’ll go with you!”
Chapter 485
“Eliana, come back! Do you have any idea what you are doing?” Maurice shouted, trying to pull her back.
However, Eliana avoided his hand and looked at him in the eye. She said firmly, “Maurice, I know exactly what I’m doing.”
In the past, there had always been a man who came to protect her, whether it was Maurice or Preston.
But this time, Eliana was determined to protect him!
“Gerald, I’ll go with you;” she said firmly, taking another step forward.
Seeing that she was serious, Maurice panicked. He shouted again, “Eliana!”
“Maurice, I’m not a child anymore. What happened today all began with me. I have to take the responsibility. Don’t worry. I will be fine.”
Eliana turned her head to look at Maurice gently. She was determined to face the difficult head-on this time. She was no longer going to hide behind Maurice.
Maurice was stunned. At this moment, he couldn’t say anything to protest.
This was a side of Eliana that he had never seen before.
Every time she refused his help before, it was to accept someone else’s help. But this time, she refused his help because she wanted to protect him.
Eliana slowly walked up to Gerald and said in a low voice, “Gerald, I am willing to go with you. However, we have to go out together. I want everyone in the company to know that you take me away.”
Upon hearing that, Gerald’s face froze.
Eliana then looked at Earle and said, “I place my safety in the hands of the Moran family. You are a witness, Mr. Moran. If anything happens to me in Gerald’s place, it will destroy the reputation of the Moran family!”
Everyone present was shocked upon hearing what Eliana said.
“Well, do you agree?” Eliana asked calmly.
Eliana had already made up her mind to follow Gerald, on the condition that everyone knew he took her away. In that case, he wouldn’t dare to do anything to hurt her. She had to whatever it took to protect herself.
“No way!”
“Sure!”
Gerald and Earle answered at the same time.
Gerald refused Eliana’s request while Earle unexpectedly agreed.
“Dad…”
Gerald wanted to say something more, but Earle quickly interrupted him.
“I can give you my word on the condition that you leave with Gerald now. And you must stay away from Maurice in the future!”
Earle was actually a little surprised at the conditions proposed by Eliana.
But he understood that she was just trying her best to protect herself. After all, she was at a disadvantage here.
Earle couldn’t help admiring Eliana. Although she looked weak, she was very smart.
No wonder Maurice was so obsessed with her.
Seeing that Earle agreed to her conditions, Eliana breathed a sigh of relief.
Actually, she was worried just now, although she didn’t let it show. She was afraid that they wouldn’t agree to her terms.
It was therefore a great relief for her that they agreed.
“Mr. Moran, could you please let me have a few words with Maurice? I’ll leave right away after that,” Eliana said after a few seconds.
Judging from the look on Earle’s face, he did not like this additional request. However, he just snorted and did not object.
Eliana walked over to Maurice and suddenly hugged him. She leaned her head against Maurice’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. After a few seconds, she said in a strangled voice, “Thank you for believing me…”
Although Maurice had never said so, she knew that he believed in her simply from what he had done for her just now.
He wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t trusted her.
It was because he trusted her that she had the courage to face the situation.
Maurice let Eliana hug him without saying anything. His cold heart melted.
He was both moved and worried by what Eliana had just done.
The woman he loved was about to be taken away by his unscrupulous uncle, and there was nothing he could do about it. How could he not be worried?
Maurice lowered his head and whispered in Eliana’s ear, “Remember to take the new phone I bought you. I saved my contact as emergency contact. If you are in danger, don’t hesitate to use it.”
The sad atmosphere suddenly dissipated. With a slight smile on her face, Eliana said, “I wish I would never need to use it.”
At last, it was time for Eliana to go. With a sullen face, Maurice handed her to Gerald.
He stared at Gerald and warned seriously, “Gerald, I warn you. If anything happens to Eliana, I will make you pay.”
Gerald sneered, “Are you threatening me?”
“Yes, and I am a man of my word…”
There was a cold aura that emanated from Maurice at this moment, which made Gerald shiver.
He could tell that Maurice was serious.