My Possessive CEO: Trembling in His Arms-Chapter 173: May I Come In?

The New Year’s Eve dinner planned a day early inevitably lacked something, feeling less complete.

However, Renee had no choice; whether they celebrated New Year’s today or tomorrow was beyond her control, as she had no right to choose.

In the spacious house spanning several hundred square meters, on this early-arrival New Year’s Eve, it felt even lonelier than before, with a chill akin to the bleak autumn wind sweeping across the wilderness.

Despite the many red lanterns hanging inside, on the white spiral staircase, in the foyer, under the window sills, wherever they could be hung, all the large and small red lanterns were lit, supposedly enhancing the villa’s festive atmosphere.

Yet it didn’t. The large villa lacked any sense of lively celebration, instead, it accentuated the chill, bitterly cold.

Renee forced down the melancholy in her heart, raising her lips in a smile so wide that her mouth nearly stiffened.

"Happy New Year." She raised a glass of red wine, smiling as she looked at Jack.

Jack gazed into her glistening eyes, eyes that seemed to hold an entire southern riverland mist.

His throat tightened, raising his wine glass to gently clink with hers.

"Happy New Yea..."

Before finishing the sentence, Jack’s phone rang.

Jack didn’t immediately answer, insisting on finishing "Happy New Year" before taking the call.

Renee retracted her wine glass, smiling as she said to him, "Go ahead and answer the phone."

Jack answered and hung up the call in less than a minute, his facial expression unchanged.

After hanging up, he looked at Renee, his Adam’s apple rapidly bobbing, his voice a bit hoarse: "Renee, I have something to do, I can’t accompany you tonight."

Renee smiled softly at him, understandingly saying, "Oh, it’s okay. Don’t worry about me, go ahead, you have things to do. Big boss, always like this."

As she spoke on, she spoke faster and faster, her tone urgent, trembling.

If she didn’t hurry, she feared she wouldn’t be able to utter a complete sentence.

Jack leaned down, kissed her at the corner of her mouth, grabbed the cashmere coat off the hat stand, and turned to leave.

The door was closed, leaving the room entirely cold.

Renee picked up the chopsticks, placed a piece of braised short ribs Jack made into her mouth, tears streaming down as she said, "Hm, so delicious, I didn’t expect your cooking skills to be so good. Truly, when a person is smart, anything can be done easily, everything can be done well."

Then she picked up the wine glass again, shook it towards the void, her voice choked, "Jack, Happy New Year, wishing you peace and safety, good health, success in your career."

The door wasn’t fully closed, Jack stood outside, heard Renee’s self-talk inside.

Since leaving, he didn’t immediately walk away, fearing Renee would cry, so he stood outside for a while.

However, hearing Renee’s self-talk pained him more than hearing her cry.

Yesterday, he promised she would celebrate the New Year a day early, yet he couldn’t even fulfill this simple request.

Old Mr. Yates fell ill again; he had to go back.

If he didn’t go back, The Yateses would only hate Renee more.

Maybe he was truly wrong, he shouldn’t have dragged her into this abyss.

-

On New Year’s Eve, Renee slept until ten in the morning before waking up.

After waking up, she didn’t immediately get up but reached for her phone and unlocked the screen.

The group chat was abuzz with a flurry of blessing messages.

Renee replied to each one, after replying to the group messages, she replied to individual blessings, after replying to them all, she opened the chat with Jack.

Jack hadn’t sent her a message, not even a "Happy New Year’s Eve."

What she didn’t know was that after Jack went back yesterday, Old Mr. Yates, citing serious illness, demanded Jack get engaged after New Year’s and hold the wedding during the national holiday, even selecting a partner for him, the second young lady from The Thorne Family of Northcity, just returned from studying in Galian, Sydney Thorne, two years younger than Jack, age-appropriate and background-compatible.

Old Mr. Yates feigned weakness and coughed a few times, "Cough, guest hosting on the second day, The Thorne Family will come then too, you are forbidden from going anywhere, stay home with Sydney."

Jack gritted his molars and asked, suppressing his anger, "Didn’t Grandpa say to give me two years?"

Indeed, Old Mr. Yates had said such words, but the persuasion from daughters and granddaughters could not be resisted.

"Grandpa, seeing as it’s almost New Year, please talk to Old Mr. Three about releasing Hector."

"Alas, Sean is already gone, and Hector is his only bloodline. If anything happens to Hector again..."

Hank said halfway through, burst into tears, crying sorrowfully and sincerely.

"No matter how inadequate Sean was in life, he was Dad’s eldest son and Grandpa’s eldest grandson. Hector is his only son. Grandpa, can you really bear to see Hector suffer or get hurt?"

Mandy quickly chimed in, "Yes, Dad, Hector is your first great-grandson. If he marries early, you could see five generations under one roof!"

His daughter and granddaughter kept talking non-stop in Old Mr. Yates’s ear.

"Enough!" Old Mr. Yates, now impatient, slapped the redwood high table next to the sofa, "Just say directly, what do you want me to do? Do you want me, an old man close to the grave, to be the villain?"

Thus, Old Mr. Yates took on the role of the apparent villain, calling Jack back to the Yates Family’s old residence the day before New Year’s Eve, and told Jack to get engaged after the New Year.

Jack refused to agree, so Old Mr. Yates decided to be the villain all the way, forcefully tapping his dragon-headed cane on the ground, showing the vigorous spirit from the days of fighting the Japanese invaders.

"You can refuse, but as for your company, and that female student’s education, if you’re willing to gamble, then gamble with this old man and see if Grandpa can win against you?"

This was no longer a negotiation, but a threat, a strong, decisive, undeniable threat.

Jack clenched his molars tightly, his face sullen without a word.

Old Mr. Yates continued: "Felix, Grandpa is not stubbornly feudal and unreasonable. As long as the person you liked wasn’t this female student, even if it was another female student, Grandpa wouldn’t oppose it. But this female student, she was with Hector, and then with you, and you and your nephew are fighting to death over her."

After all, Old Mr. Yates was elderly, eighty-eight years old, almost ninety, and after speaking a long paragraph, he inevitably panted a bit, paused, and continued.

"As long as I’m alive, I firmly will not allow you to be with her. Whether you reunite with her after I’m gone, that’s your business."

"But now, you must break it off with her immediately and get engaged to Sydney Thorne. With the lesson from the Hawthorne Family, you should wake up this time!" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Sydney Thorne’s father, Terrence Thorne, is now the second-in-command in the Organization Department, and he has some say in personnel changes. If you marry Sydney, even if the Hawthorne Family and Shaw Family want to deal with you, they would have to consider if they’re capable of dealing with both the Yates Family and the Thorne Family at the same time."

Old Mr. Yates patted Jack’s arm: "Felix, Grandpa is looking out for you too. In the future, once I’m gone, if those who dislike you unite, you’ll suffer. This time is a lesson."

After leaving Old Mr. Yates’s study, Jack went to the back courtyard veranda, sitting at the breezy spot under the veranda, one hand holding a cigarette, the other carrying a bottle.

First it was beer, two bottles of beer down his stomach, yet still without a hint of drunkenness, Jack had someone open a bottle of vodka for him.

The third son of the Yates Family, always rebellious and unconventional, stood bewildered in the ink-like black night at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Should he compromise or stick to his principles?

His principle is unhindered by worldly constraints, nasty as it may sound, it’s "doing as he pleases," doing whatever he wants.

All along, he thought he relied on himself, yet only at this moment did he wake up and realize, without the surname "Yates," he was just a powerless, ordinary man.

Despite his success being inseparable from his own efforts, without the Yates Family lifting him, without the Yates Family as a springboard, how could he reach such heights?

Born into the Yates Family, benefiting from it, now wanting to abandon it and chase freedom, how could the Yates Family allow it?

Even if he wants to give up the upward path, throw away fame and wealth, all of it, they wouldn’t allow it.

Moreover, if he really did that, not even waiting for others to make a move on Renee Winslow, the old man would be the first not to let her go.

Currently, no one at home dares to touch Renee Winslow, precisely for fear of angering him.

So now he can only promise the old man first, delaying as long as possible.

This approach is not Jack’s style, terribly stifling, unbearably cowardly.

Jack felt miserable, drank throughout the night until he vomited and was hospitalized.

When he woke up in the hospital, it was already two o’clock in the afternoon.

He hurriedly picked up his phone to check messages, but there were no missed calls from Renee Winslow, not even a single message.

Ha, Jack scoffed at himself.

For all his night drinking for her, this girl’s heart was truly hard, not a single word of concern.

Putting down his phone, Jack was about to sit up and get dressed when two knocks sounded on the door frame.

"May I come in?"

Jack looked up and saw a woman with long black hair standing outside the door.

The woman smiled and said: "Let me introduce myself, Sydney Thorne."