Classic Novel
Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Chapter 23 Do You Think I’m Cracking a Joke? Leanna held an IOU in her hand as she knocked on the door to his study room gingerly. Subsequently, she insisted repeatedly that she would definitely find a way to repay the money she owed him. Throughout the entire process, Aidan stared at her coldly with a hint of mockery and disdain in his eyes. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.
During that period, she had been practically bedridden every day as he left marks all over her body revengefully. After he finally gave her the money, he did not mask his contempt at all as he said, “You don’t have to repay me. I thought that was the main purpose of you scheming so hard to marry me?” Of course, she did not respond to that. It’s all thanks to that entrepreneur who criticized me for not having any goals. It’s quite true that I don’t have the money to repay him right now. It was one thing for Aidan to state that she was exempted from repaying him the money, but she insisted on leaving the IOU with him. It does make sense for him to seek repayment from me after our divorce. Zoe was happily catching up on a TV series in her room when she suddenly heard clanging noises in the kitchen.
Zoe went over and asked, “Sweetie, what are you chopping up there?” “Aidan!” “Huh?” Leanna glanced at the piece of ginger in smithereens before her and finally, she regained her senses. “It’s no big deal. I’m heading out later, so don’t wait up for me. You should go to bed early.” Zoe knew without even taking a guess that it was Aidan causing trouble for Leanna. With a frown, she asked, “What does he intend to do again? You guys are divorced, so why can’t he just leave you alone?!” “Forget about it. I owe it to him in the first place.” “Well, it might be fine right now, but it won’t be when your baby bump shows up in two months. You wouldn’t be able to hide things by then.” Leanna held a knife in her hand and left it suspended in mid-air without any words coming out from her mouth. Yeah.
The two million debt hasn’t been paid off, so I would be indebted to him the entire time until I pay it off. I wouldn’t be able to get away from him. Judging by Aidan’s personality, if he realized that she was pregnant, there was a high chance that she might be escorted to the operation table by force just to avoid the same situation as before; he did not want the child to be used as a guilty weapon against him
in exchange for another marriage. After quite some time, Leanna finally responded, “I’ll sort everything out with him tonight.” One hour later, she arrived at Castor Villa. As soon as the doorbell sounded, the servant, who had been waiting perilously for her arrival, instantly rushed to open the door.
The relieved smile froze on her face as soon as she saw the person standing at the door. Aidan walked down the stairs to see the servant lead a young man holding a thermos flask into the room. Needless to say, Aidan’s expression had turned ashen. The man was clearly in shock by the tense atmosphere and he spoke with a stammer, “E-Excuse me… Are you Mr. Pearson? This is a delivery order from Miss McKinney. There should be a delivery code sent to your phone number. C-Could I have that code please?”
Aidan was silent as he pursed his thin lips, trying hard to suppress his anger while reaching for his phone. As soon as the young man obtained the code, he swiftly fled the scene subsequently. Less than two minutes after the young man left, the landline to Castor Villa went off. The servant heard the phone go off, but she did not dare to answer it. Instead, she came up with an excuse and left the scene. The phone went off repeatedly until it was nearly cut off and Aidan finally answered it then. Soon, Leanna’s voice rang out, “President Pearson, have you received the drink? I didn’t have enough ingredients, so I made one batch for you.
If you need more of it, then I’ll make another batch and send it over to you via delivery services.” She paused before continuing, “As for the two million I owe you, can we discuss this matter further?” He sneered coldly. “Discuss the matter? Is this how you show your sincerity?” Knowing his personality, she knew that he must be annoyed because she had sent the drink to him via delivery services, but Zoe was right. It was fine at the moment for her to deliver it to him, but after two to three months, what was she to do if he persisted in pestering her? As such, rather than coming up with an excuse further down the road, she might as well set the boundaries from the start. She replied, “I’m sorry, but it’s quite late at night.
I’m a pretty young woman after all, so it would be dangerous for me to be out and about at this time of the night. Anyway, you’ve received the drink and it will deliver the same effect.” He was speechless for a moment before he responded, “Leanna, since when have you become so shameless?” “Plenty of people seem to think so too. This is not news to me.” At that point, Aidan stopped talking. Realizing that he had yet to hang up the phone on her, Leanna took the chance and mentioned probingly, “I’ve got some money right now. I can pay you back a portion of the total amount first and the remainder by installment.
How does that sound?” “Do I look like a bank?” She knew that it was not going to be easy to convince him. “Then, what would you prefer?” “Pay me back the lump sum.” “I…” Before she could finish her sentence, Aidan spoke calmly, “Or perhaps, you can come over every day to cook for me and tidy the place up from now on until you clear the debt.” She paused for a moment before asking, “How much is a day’s work worth?” “That would be one hundred thousand per month.” “President Pearson, are you sure that you want to do this? This isn’t a fair deal for you.” He snorted in response and thought, She’s finally found her conscience. She continued, “All the chores that you mentioned were chores that I did every day since our marriage; so, if I get one hundred thousand per month, then I would be entitled to one point two million each year.
The total I would get for three years is three point six million, so you would still owe me one point six million.” At that point, he was at a loss for words. However, before he jumped to the wrong conclusion, she quickly added, “I’m not asking for one point six million from you by saying all this. I’m just tallying things up, that’s all. You don’t have to pay me anything. Let’s just consider that everything’s settled between the two of us.” She reckoned that she had sorted out everything logically and perfectly. However, he responded in a calm voice, “Leanna, do you think I’m cracking a joke?” “I’m sorry, but I thought you were being very serious about this here.” We’ve divorced and yet he wants me to go back and serve him every day?!
If this isn’t a joke, then he must be out of his mind. On the other end, he remained silent for several seconds before speaking up once again, “I expect payment within the next month and I don’t accept payment by installment.” She responded, “Okay.” He hung up the phone as soon as he heard her reply. Where can she get that amount of money within a month? By then, she would naturally have to come back to me, begging on her knees. … Lately, Gordon had gotten word somewhere that Aidan and Leanna had divorced. After phoning Aidan up several times to ask about it to no avail, Gordon redirected his sights on Mia. After further investigation, he realized that Mia was not pregnant at all.
Though slightly disappointed and ceased action for several days, he started to find an excuse to make Aidan come home in order to arrange another marriage for him. Due to that, Aidan was frustrated beyond words. Hence, he went on consecutive business trips to several cities just to be away from Highside for nearly half a month. After he disembarked from the flight, he pressed in between his brows and mentioned naturally, “Store the presents in my luggage into paper bags and find some time to send it over to Leanna.” As soon as he said that, Jonathan froze and replied awkwardly, “President Pearson, you’ve divorced Mrs. Pearson…”
Jonathan had held the position of Aidan’s personal assistant for many years now and he clearly knew that Aidan would always have the habit of buying presents for Leanna no matter where he went for the past three years. However, Aidan never handed it over to Leanna in person because he claimed that she was too schemeful to receive anything from him. If he was to treat her slightly better than usual, then she would think that she could take advantage of him and get ahead of herself. Pretending to believe Aidan’s ridiculous excuse, Jonathan brought home the expensive gifts and unwrapped the original packaging before rewrapping them with the usual store-bought packaging. The final step would be to hand them over to Leanna when he met her.