Prosperous Marriage: Married to My Brother-in-law-Chapter 546 Sudden Departure (3)_1

"Miss hasn’t woken up yet," Mrs. Mei hurriedly replied.

"Have someone go upstairs and call her," Glades Horne suddenly instructed in a low tone.

As soon as he said this, all eyes turned toward him.

Julia blinked. He seems a bit unusual today.

"Yes, Young Master," they acknowledged.

No one dared to contradict the orders Glades Horne had given.

A servant quickly went upstairs.

"Uncle Ying."

Glades Horne called out again, and when Uncle Ying came to him, he instructed in a low voice, "Starting today, the Young Mistress and the Young Miss must eat breakfast between seven and eight in the morning, and lunch at twelve noon. They may eat earlier but must not delay. Dinner is at six. They can also have it earlier but not later. As for drinking milk, they can arrange that themselves."

"Yes, Young Master."

Glades Horne turned his head, glanced at Julia who was pouting silently, and asked her tenderly, "Julia, you don’t have any objections, do you?" To ensure she had her meals on time, he could only issue this command.

"Considering it’s for my stomach, what objections could I possibly have?" Julia smiled playfully.

It’s truly wonderful to have him looking after me.

When Adele Horne was woken up and came downstairs to hear her elder brother’s instructions, she wanted to say something but ultimately kept silent.

「An hour later.」

In the Study Room on the second floor, Glades Horne stood before the open window, watching the spring rain outside. James Horne stood behind him, looking at his back.

"Big Brother."

James called out quietly and with difficulty.

Glades Horne pressed his lips together and remained silent, waiting for James to continue.

"I’m sorry."

After a long silence and an intense internal battle, James finally managed to apologize quietly to Glades Horne’s back.

Glades Horne’s dark eyes flashed with a cold light. His pursed lips tightened further, forming a thin line like a clam. His tall frame suddenly felt as though it were submerged at the bottom of an iceberg, emanating a stern chill.

Beneath his suit, his large hand clenched tightly, almost imperceptibly, into a fist before relaxing again in less than a minute.

"My mom..." Feeling the icy chill emanating from his elder brother, James trembled from deep within. As soon as he uttered the words ’I’m sorry,’ he knew his brother already understood everything.

For his mother’s life, he had to endure his older brother’s coldness now, even if this coldness felt like his heart was being torn apart.

He resented his mother, yet he couldn’t just let her die.

"I’ve already warned Mom, Big Brother. I promise you, she won’t cause trouble again. Big Brother, considering she is my mother after all, I beg you not to take her life," James pleaded bitterly and with great difficulty. He hadn’t kept his discovery to himself but had chosen to confess to his older brother. Only by doing so could he temporarily save their mother.

Glades Horne remained silent, his lips pressed even tighter.

Receiving no answer, James could only continue his pleas.

He didn’t dare ask to preserve his mother’s current comfortable and affluent life; he only dared to beg for her life. Perhaps Big Brother wouldn’t kill their mother, but he had countless ways to make her life a living hell, or even ensure she died without a burial place.

He was heartbroken, but he couldn’t choose his mother.

Who told his mother to be so reckless as to provoke Big Brother’s ire—which was, in fact, his own sore point as well? If it were him, he wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt Julia either.

Even if he couldn’t be with her, even if she didn’t love him at all, even if they had never been deeply connected, he still wished for her happiness.

Let her have all the joy and happiness; all the pain, humiliation, and various torments could stay with him.

Isn’t this true love?

Truly loving someone isn’t about scheming to possess her, but about making her happy, ensuring her well-being.

"Big Brother..."

In the Study Room, James’s pleas were so heavy, so repressed, casting an oppressive mood.

Glades Horne had been standing by the window all this time, his deep, dark eyes fixed on the scene outside. The steady spring rain fell, pattering against the leaves and the ground, splashing droplets everywhere. Occasionally, raindrops splashed through the open window onto Glades Horne’s face. They felt cool, but he paid them no mind.

His brother’s pleas continued to echo in his ears.

His brother was in agony, but wasn’t he suffering just as much?

He had been plotting for so many years, waiting for so many years. Now, he was slowly beginning to counter-attack. He planned to use Pheobe Rogers’s attempt to drive a wedge between him and Julia as a pretext to make Pheobe Rogers vanish completely from their world. He wanted to strip Pheobe Rogers of everything, to make her lose her father’s love and James’s love, leaving her utterly alone and abandoned by all. That was why he was biding his time for now.

But he hadn’t expected James to find out. He didn’t want to ask how James knew. He only knew that with James now pleading for Pheobe Rogers, his original plan could not proceed. The person he had hated for decades was about to be sent to the chopping block, yet an imperial sword—a symbol of clemency or justice—had appeared out of nowhere. How could he not feel conflicted?

Of course, he could completely ignore James’s pleas and proceed with his revenge as planned. But the result would be the severing of their bond as brothers. Pheobe Rogers’s recent little tricks hadn’t yet made James completely lose faith in her. If his relationship with James fractured because of this, decades of his hard work would be half-ruined. James was capable. In a fight between brothers, Glades was certain he wouldn’t lose, but Valence Group would inevitably be affected. That would play right into Pheobe Rogers’s scheme.

Furthermore, Julia had told him more than once that no matter how he wanted to retaliate against Pheobe Rogers, he shouldn’t harm James. James was innocent. No one in this world would want their mother to be a homewrecker, the ’other woman’ who interfered in someone else’s family. But that wasn’t an innocent child’s fault.

He didn’t want Julia to be distressed over matters between him and James.

He wanted her to be happy and carefree.

RING, RING, RING...

Glades Horne’s phone rang, and James’s pleas paused.

He took out his cellphone. Seeing the caller ID was unexpectedly Hansen Ruiz, he raised an eyebrow. Hansen Ruiz rarely called him unless something major had occurred. He pressed the answer button.

Hansen Ruiz’s usually calm and deep voice came through, tinged with urgency, "CEO, conflicts erupted yesterday between employees and management at several of our subsidiaries in S City, B City, W City, L City, and other locations. It has escalated into riots with casualties on both sides, alerting the local Police Stations. The situation is extremely serious; all major media outlets are watching. The senior management of those subsidiaries were just notified and immediately informed me. CEO, we must intervene in this matter, or it will directly impact our group headquarters."