I Faked My Death—Now I Have to Tame the Crazy Men I Left Behind-Chapter 86 - 84: Forced Away His Lover
Yates Donovan had never been like other people.
Truth be told, he wasn’t particularly fond of dealing with smart people.
In his opinion, some things were better left unexamined. Life was most comfortable when you were a little muddled; why make things hard on yourself?
Knowing too much wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
That was precisely why he didn’t like hanging out with Kian Keller.
In comparison, while Silas Grant was also smart, he was good at hiding it and knew how to read people.
But there was always an exception to every rule.
Maybe there hadn’t been one before, but now that he’d met one... he could only resign himself to his fate and keep compromising for the rest of his life.
’What could he do? She was just that smart.’
’It’s not like he could give her a brain transplant, right?’
Getting back to the point, Yates was rarely this serious. Mia Grant noticed it too. Just a moment ago, he’d had that lazy, punchable look on his face, but now his expression was clearly much more solemn.
He was thinking.
Mia Grant gave him a starting point. "You want to fight for the family inheritance, so you must be fighting with your second uncle. In that case, the people who saved me this time must have been his, right?"
"His men showing up was most likely a coincidence. Their goal wasn’t to save me, nor was it to kill me..."
"For now, I’m not going to worry about who sent the driver to kill me. I’m just curious about one thing: what does your second uncle want with me?"
"He knows I’m not dead, but he didn’t tell the Grant Family. Instead, he had me brought here... What goal does he need to use me for?"
Mia Grant couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
She barely knew the Donovan Family.
And as for Yates... she wasn’t exactly close to him either. They had just been interacting a bit more frequently lately.
’Interacting more frequently lately?’ Mia Grant’s eyes widened slightly.
’Right, that makes it all make sense...’
’It’s because of Yates.’
"Figured it out?" Noticing the change in her eyes, Yates knew she must have an answer.
"Your second uncle is looking for me because of you?"
"Does he want me to convince you to go apologize?"
"Did he misunderstand our relationship? There’s no way I could convince you of anything."
Once she thought of it that way, everything clicked.
"What could he misunderstand?"
Mia thought he was questioning her, so she explained, "We’ve been seeing a lot of each other lately, so your uncle would definitely get suspicious. What if he misunderstands and thinks we’re dating, or... something else. It’s all possible."
Unfortunately, that wasn’t what Yates meant. He propped his head on his hand, turned to face her, and flashed a frank smile. "But isn’t that our relationship? What’s there to misunderstand?"
"..."
Mia was at a loss for words.
That helpless feeling of talking to a brick wall washed over her again.
’It’s been a few days. I’ve... almost missed this feeling.’
Once the joke was over, Yates got serious. "He most likely isn’t looking for you to persuade me. He wants you to draw a clear line between us."
"Draw a clear line?" Mia murmured the words, then it dawned on her. "He thinks your attention is on me? He’s worried it will affect your engagement to Serena Grant?"
"As much as I hate to admit that my fiancée is currently Serena Grant, for the time being, that is indeed the case."
"Not long ago, Kian Keller tried to arrange a marriage with the Grant Family. He didn’t publicly say with whom, but everyone surely assumed it was with Serena Grant."
"Mhm," Mia didn’t hide anything. "He said it was with me, but the Grant Family probably misunderstood and thought it was with Serena Grant. Because as far as they’re concerned, I’m dead."
"Besides, Serena Grant has always liked Kian Keller, so for both sides, it was basically a perfect match."
After she finished, Yates stared at her for a long moment. "I thought you would hide that."
Mia spread her hands. "What do I have to hide from you?"
’It’s not like he has some corruption meter I need to worry about. I don’t need to put on an act around him.’
Just like a moment ago, when she’d also spoken her true thoughts about Serena Grant.
In front of him, she had no reservations. She felt completely at ease.
’It was true, so why did he still feel a bit annoyed?’
His gaze was profound. "Did you know, your brother told me a while back that Kian Keller has someone he likes. And that he even poached her from someone else—stole his fiancée."
Mia listened patiently.
"I was wondering back then, who was this unlucky bastard who actually had his woman stolen by a monk like Kian Keller. I was even laughing about it on the phone... Guess what happened next?"
He said with a smile, "I discovered I was that unlucky bastard."
Mia didn’t want to remind him that their engagement had been called off long ago, because he already knew that perfectly well himself.
She looked at him and said nothing.
Yates, having failed to get a reaction, said, "I thought I told a pretty funny joke."
Mia said, "It is a joke. Just not a funny one."
"..."
The smile on Yates’s lips stiffened for a moment before returning to normal. "The Grant and Donovan families have an engagement. Now they want to rope in the Keller Family. They know they’re in the wrong on this, but my old man is still alive, so calling off the engagement is impossible."
"So they’ll definitely do everything they can to find some leverage on me to break the engagement."
Although he didn’t want to disparage himself, in the eyes of outsiders, he really couldn’t compare to Kian Keller.
Kian Keller is an only son, the sole heir to the Keller Family.
But him? He had three uncles above him and younger cousins below. The family fortune would most likely not fall into his hands. On top of that, his public reputation was mediocre at best, giving off the false impression that his private life was a mess.
Who wouldn’t want to marry their daughter to Kian Keller?
The unfortunate thing was, while the Grant family’s patriarch had passed away, his family’s patriarch was still around. As the younger generation, the Grant parents simply couldn’t bring themselves to be the ones to suggest breaking the engagement.
Mia understood. "So your second uncle still values your engagement to Serena Grant. He’s afraid the Grant Family will find out about you and me, so he wants to solve the problem by dealing with me."
"In that case, your second uncle... seems to treat you pretty well, then?" ’She had assumed the relationship between uncle and nephew was terrible.’
’He’s gone to such great lengths to protect the engagement for you.’
Yates said, "Because only then can I become a controllable pawn."
"He has to put on a show for the old man and for outsiders."
"Alright, I get it." Mia brushed off her pants and stood up.
"Where are you going?"
Yates sat up, his gaze following her.
"Back to your room, to wait for him to come talk to me."
"And then?" Yates felt she wasn’t the type to be led by the nose; she must have already thought of a plan.
"And then?" Mia looked back, her eyes clear. "Of course I’m going to take the opportunity to extort him."
"?"
"Since he thinks you and I have *that* kind of relationship and wants me to leave you, of course he has to offer some benefits."
"Isn’t that how it always plays out in TV shows? He slaps a check for twenty million on the table, and I guarantee I’ll stay far, far away from you for the rest of my life."
The corner of Yates’s mouth twitched. "He’s an old fox. Aren’t you afraid he’ll scheme against you?" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Mia pondered for two seconds, then agreed. "Ah, good point. In that case, no cash. Have him give me a house instead."
"Don’t worry, I’ll cash it out and give you your cut. We’ll split it eighty-twenty. You get the twenty."
"He’ll definitely come looking for you after this, so remember to get into character. From your perspective, he’s forced your beloved to leave you. You’d better cry for me."
"Make it heart-wrenching."
"Otherwise, I’m not paying your performance fee."
"..."
