The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne) novel Chapter 96

Vivienne's face was icy, but she still sneakily kicked Percival hard under the table.

Cordelia wasn't sure what was going on between them, but didn't Percival know himself?

She noticed that Percival seemed extra keen to hold her hand and stuck to her like glue whenever he had the chance.

Suddenly, a news alert popped up on Vivienne's phone. "Chairman of Hawthorn Group falls ill suddenly and is rushed to the hospital."

She tried to wriggle her hand out from Percival's tight grasp but failed. She shot him a cold glance, wondering if her blowing up now would scare Cordelia.

Percival, however, held onto her hand still, put down his cutlery, and showed Vivienne the news on his phone.

Vivienne glanced at the phone. The image in the news was of doctors lifting someone from the Hawthorn Mansion onto an ambulance.

Though the face was blurred out, she could tell from the clothing that it was Beatrice.

Vivienne, amused by the picture, decided to let Percival off the hook for now.

Cordelia was watching their interaction when her phone screen lit up.

"Hey, Dorian, what's up?"

Her face grew darker as she listened to Dorian on the other end of the phone.

"Vivienne." She sighed after hanging up, "Your dad called. Beatrice is seriously ill and in the hospital. He wants us to go see her."

"Haven't we cut ties with them already?" Vivienne's tone was also icy.

"Well, yes." Cordelia sighed again. "But Beatrice is still your dad's mother. It's our duty to show filial respect. Your dad should go see her."

Vivienne silently ate her pasta. Percival, noticing her displeasure, lightly tickled her palm, but she just glared at him coldly in response.

"But don't worry." Cordelia paused. "Your dad knows his limits. Let him go by himself; we'll stay out of this for now."

As she said this, she glanced at Percival. If the Ellington family was behind what happened to the Hawthorn family, Beatrice must already know by now.

Cordelia guessed right. That was exactly what Beatrice thought.

In the VIP ward of the hospital.

Beatrice, who had just woken up, looked gloomy and sickly.

She looked at her two sons by the bedside and asked coldly, "Was it really the work of the Ellington family?"

"The situation at the bank is unclear." Michael's face was also grim. "But several suppliers indeed claimed that the Ellington family were the ones who applied the pressure."

"And Dorian? I'm on my deathbed, and he can't even bother to see me once?" Beatrice's voice was full of resentment.

Just as she finished speaking, hurried footsteps came from outside the ward. Dorian came in.

He showed Arabella's Twitter on his phone. "But I already checked with the Baker family before I came here. It was clear that Arabella took the wrong medication and almost killed Faye. Luckily, they found Vivienne in time. If anything happened to Faye, Arabella would be in jail now!"

Knowing the truth made Dorian absolutely livid. He had never regretted adopting Arabella so much.

His adopted daughter was selfish, greedy, and had almost cost a life, yet turned around and blamed others.

"Arabella is still your daughter! She's Vivienne's sister!" Michael butted in. "Even if there are conflicts between sisters, can't they be solved privately? There's no need to bring it to the point of bankrupting the Hawthorn family."

"Yeah, Dorian, don't forget that you're part of the Hawthorn family too." Joseph chimed in.

Michael and Joseph went from dissatisfaction with Vivienne to hoping she would never come back.

Ever since she returned, the Hawthorn family had gained nothing from her but constant trouble. Now they were going bankrupt.

Dorian felt like they were joking. He was part of the Hawthorn family? Yet he had never felt any warmth from this family, only pressure.

"Settle it privately? If Arabella really wanted to settle it privately, why did she slander Vivienne on Twitter and instigate netizens to attack Vivienne?"

He turned to look at Beatrice. "Today people blocked my doorstep, and others went to Thaddeus' kindergarten to stir up trouble. Our entire corridor was splashed with red paint and filled with curses against Vivienne."

He sneered and suddenly felt an overwhelming fatigue. "Netizens are not stupid. Posting attacking comments on the internet and sending intimidating parcels is one thing, but how many people would be so foolish as to rally for an irrelevant Arabella and publicly cause such big trouble? What's the deal with these people? Are they really netizens?"

"What... what do you mean?" Beatrice's eyes flickered as she avoided Dorian's sharp gaze.