"This..."
William was surprised to see everyone from the O'Brien’s and Perry’s looking profusely apologetic. He had no idea what was going on.
Rebecca and Caroline were also kneeling on the ground in stupefaction; this outcome was the complete opposite from what they had imagined.
They wondered, “These guys were supposed to come and make trouble for us. Why are they apologizing now?"
But Leo was drinking coffee leisurely and looking at the scene with a calm smile.
Neil and Frank remained kneeling on the ground for a solid two minutes, then they said to William earnestly, "Mr. Ford, this is all a misunderstanding. We're sorry for what happened these days."
"I had a small disagreement with Mr. Cohen a few days ago. I censored myself after the incident and thought that this matter would go away just like that. I didn't know that my useless son would hold a grudge and contact his lawyer to issue a court order behind my back. It must have caused you a lot of trouble... You idiot, get your ass over here!"
As he spoke, Neil grabbed Dwayne's ear and pulled him over rudely.
He kicked his son's butt and pushed him over to William as he said with a gloomy face, "Hurry up, apologize to Mr. Ford!"
Despite his reluctance, Dwayne got down on his knees and said, "Mr. Ford, I'm sorry."
He then turned to Rebecca and Caroline and apologized again. "Caroline, Ms. Ford, I'm sorry."
Dwayne duly apologized to all the family members, one by one, to show his sincerity.
For their part, the Ford family were stunned and could not believe that Dwayne would apologize to them.
Neil cast another angry glare at his son, then said to William amiably, "Mr. Ford, we've withdrawn the compensation claim application from the court. We’ll also pay another 2 million dollars as a token of our goodwill. Please... forgive us."
Shortly, several people showed up, each carrying a suitcase. Once they opened the cases, stacks of green notes were revealed.
Caroline, Rebecca, Samuel, and Marla stood there dumbfounded like blockheads as they had never seen so much cash in their lives.
Neil's expression turned uncomfortable again. "And, I have a small favor to ask of you... What happened was a mistake. We can't allow it to sabotage both our friendship and the relationship between Caroline and Dwayne..."
Before William could respond, Rebecca immediately agreed. "Of course, of course! Caroline is still smitten with Dwayne, you know!"
"I will," Caroline said with a sweet smile.
Leo remained calm throughout the pantomime, but Nadine standing behind him bore a look of disgust.
She thought, "What a group of idiots! How could they behave like that over 2 million? If they knew how much money Mr. Cohen has, they’d pass out in shock from it."
As a matter of fact, Nadine also had no idea how wealthy Leo was, because he did not need to spend money on anything lately. With just single nod from him, big shots from all over would rush to pay his bills, merely to impress him.
Alan Russell was the wealthiest man in Emerdale, but his wealth ranked the lowest in the Kingston Chamber of Commerce. People a lot richer than Alan were ruled over by Commerce Maestro, who then took orders from Mr. Cohen in turn...
The O'Brien family left after making their apologies, shortly followed by the Perry family.
Frank stepped forward and apologized to William with a sincere look on his face, "Mr. Ford, I've been tossing and turning in bed yesterday. My head is full of stupid things that I've done lately. I'm embarrassed beyond words..."
All the people there looked weird and Leo almost choked due to the big laugh.
It was fine for a polite and cultured man to speak like a book, but Frank was totally different.
He was a street thug and gang boss. It felt so strange to hear him speak in this way, and it wasn’t hard to guess that he spent all night memorizing his lines for this moment.
It was evidently a tough task for him.
In a single week, they experienced intense despair and sudden joy. Their lives were like a depiction of The Divine Comedy.
While everyone was immersed in the joy of the sudden windfall, Leo yawned, stood up lazily, and said, "How about that? Didn't I say that they would come and apologize?"
Such words poured cold water on the crowd.
In particular, Caroline and Rebecca's faces turned sickly green, before going angry red.
They also noticed something out of the ordinary, thinking, "The O'Brien crew and the Perry thugs bullied and threatened us for days. They vandalized our home and even issued a court order. Why did they suddenly come to apologize now? Is it really because of something Leo did?"
Caroline asked him, "How did you do it?" She did not know the answer off the top of her head.
"They were stung by a bout of conscience?" Leo smiled and said casually.
Everyone was speechless, thinking, "Those two groups were both determined to destroy us. How could they suddenly develop a conscience? There must be some powerful bigwig mediating in the dispute. But who could it be?"
William cleared his throat and tried to smooth things over. "Well, no matter what, Leo has really made the two families forgive us. It's a happy ending, right? He doesn't need to leave the family either."
Caroline and Rebecca did not look happy though, because they had no reason to throw Leo out now that he had solved this family crisis.
"Now that this matter has been resolved, shall we begin the next round?" Leo swaggered back to the living room and sat on the sofa like a mafia boss.
"Begin what?" Everyone was stunned.
He said to Caroline, "Serving the drinks, of course. Didn't you say that as long as I could pull these three things off, you would serve me drinks like a maid?"
The atmosphere in the room changed instantly.
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