Chapter 344: This Is the Last Time
Quentin Blackwood picked up his phone and dialed a number. "I have someone here. Take him away. Make sure he never appears in this world again."
The man’s face went pale, and he panicked completely.
He had been lying on the floor, but now he struggled to flip over and get on his knees.
"Mmmph! Mmmph!" The tape was still over his mouth, so he couldn’t speak a single word, but tears welled up in his eyes.
He had been so bewitched by Joy Sheridan that he’d grown bold enough to forget just what kind of man Quentin Blackwood was.
Quentin’s reputation was far from pleasant; he was known for being ruthless and cruel.
Quentin, however, ignored him with cold indifference. The man then turned to Ivy Sherwood, his muffled cries sounding like pleas.
Ivy walked over and ripped the tape off the man’s mouth. "Speak. Who sent you to follow me and attack me?"
"No one. I... I wasn’t going to do anything to you. I was just coming to the restroom. You’re the one who tied me up like this." The man still refused to rat out Joy Sheridan.
Ivy nodded, not pressing him. "Is that so? In that case, you can just disappear from this world."
Soon, two burly bodyguards arrived. Seeing that they were about to drag him away, the man realized Quentin was serious. He didn’t want to die, especially since he hadn’t even succeeded.
He looked at Joy Sheridan. "Save me!"
Joy was now desperate to distance herself from him. "What are you doing? I don’t know this person at all."
Seeing that Joy had no intention of helping him, he thought about how he hadn’t ratted her out just moments before, yet she had turned on him without a second thought.
He couldn’t care about the consequences anymore and blurted out, "It was Joy Sheridan! Joy Sheridan arranged for us to do this! She told us to tie up Ivy Sherwood when she was alone, take naked pictures of her, and then she would lead everyone else over to see. She wanted to completely ruin Ivy’s reputation!"
The onlookers gasped. Joy Sheridan had gone way too far tonight.
It was one thing to have Jenna Kent target Ivy Sherwood, but to hire a man to destroy her...
"I’m not lying! She originally arranged for several of my buddies to come, but I overestimated my own abilities and thought I could handle it alone, so I came by myself..."
"You’re lying!" Joy Sheridan rushed forward and kicked him. "He did this on his own! I had no idea! Now that he’s been caught, he’s just trying to drag me down with him! Quentin, believe me, I really didn’t do it."
Quentin looked at her coldly. "Joy Sheridan, what did you say earlier? Don’t you find yourself contradicting what you said?"
Joy faltered for a moment. When she had gone to find Quentin, she had indeed said something would happen to Ivy.
’She thought her plan was foolproof, which was a tacit admission of her involvement. Who could have guessed that Ivy would be perfectly fine?’
’So she had already exposed herself. Nothing she said now would matter.’
"Joy Sheridan, for Elder Sheridan’s sake, this is the last time!"
After his warning, Quentin took Ivy Sherwood’s hand and led her away.
Joy nearly lost her footing and collapsed. ’Is heaven being unfair to me, or is Ivy Sherwood just on another level?’
’I used so many tricks tonight, but that bitch Ivy managed to dodge every single one. Why does fate favor Ivy so much?!’
’Now, I’ve made Quentin utterly despise me.’
’Everything I did, I did because I love him! If I can’t have him, I won’t be able to rest in peace even in death!’
Joy saw the others pointing and whispering about her. She had been utterly humiliated tonight. She, Joy Sheridan, had never been so disgraced.
Joy practically fled in tears. She went straight to the hospital and began to wail outside Old Master Sheridan’s room.
Old Master Sheridan had already been resting, but upon hearing the noise, he ignored his own condition and quickly sat up.
He patted Joy’s back, his face a mixture of heartache and affection. "Joy, what happened? Why are you crying like this? My little treasure, let Grandpa see."
"Grandpa!" Joy threw her arms around the old man. "Why doesn’t he like me? He humiliated me for that woman! That woman hit me, and he still protected her! I have no one to protect me when I’m bullied! Grandpa, if my mom and dad were still alive, would things be different?"
Joy’s words struck a nerve in the old master’s heart. The memory of Joy’s parents was a thorn in his side. If he failed to take care of Joy, and one day he went to the next world and saw his late wife, his son, and his daughter-in-law, wouldn’t they all blame him?
He doted on Joy the most. He couldn’t even bear for a single strand of her hair to fall, let alone see her suffer any grievance.
"Grandpa, you know I’ve loved him for so many years."
The old master patted Joy’s back, letting out a deep sigh.
Matters of the heart couldn’t be forced, but she was his only granddaughter. Of course he wanted Joy to live a happy life.
If being with Quentin Blackwood would make her happy...
"Joy, do you just want to be with him, or..."
Joy said, "I want to marry him, Grandpa. I want to be Quentin Blackwood’s wife! Grandpa, can you make Quentin marry me? Please?"
This was indeed difficult. Although he had helped Quentin in the past, using that as leverage to make him marry Joy was simply impossible.
Old Master Sheridan said, "Let me think about it."
Joy soon finished crying, her eyes swollen. "Grandpa, if you leave me one day, the other shareholders will devour me like wolves. Only Quentin Blackwood can protect me."
"Otherwise, I don’t know what will become of me. If I don’t have Quentin, I might as well go with you, Grandpa. If you ever don’t want your Joy anymore, then Joy will just go with you!"
Joy was putting a double-layered pressure on the old master, making him understand that she had to have Quentin and no one else.
"Joy, don’t say such things!" the old master chided, his heart aching. "Grandpa’s health isn’t good right now. I don’t know how much time I have left. Even if I’m gone, you have to live on."
"Grandpa, you’re still by my side, and I’m already being bullied so terribly. If you weren’t here, wouldn’t those people be even more ruthless in tormenting me? Without Quentin to protect me, I’d rather go with you, Grandpa," Joy said deliberately.
However, the old master’s words suddenly gave Joy an idea.
’Grandpa’s health is already poor. Maybe he doesn’t have much time left. If it’s only a year or two, what’s the point of him living?’
’If Grandpa’s death could be exchanged for Quentin marrying me...’
Another thought sprouted in Joy’s mind, but she quickly dismissed it. ’No, no, that’s my own grandfather, my only relative in this world.’
’But Grandpa will leave me one day. Only Quentin will be with me for the rest of my life.’
’If Grandpa dies one day and I still haven’t gotten Quentin, wouldn’t that be an even greater loss?’