A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 399

Seeing Horace gasping for breath, Jill felt anxiety course through her body. Immediately, she stood up and started to stagger towards him. She intended to comfort him in the manner she had often done in the past.

Watching her proceed closer, Horace croaked, "Stay there! Don't come close to me. Stay where you are if you do not want to get kicked out!"

Even in this condition, he wanted to berate her. His face turned livid with anger.

Once she heard his words, Jill started to feel dejected. Her eyes blurred with tears. She couldn't stand to watch such pure hatred coming from her husband.

"I don't want to talk to you nor do I want to see your face. I am tired of listening to your lame excuses. Feed your nonsense to someone else because it won't work here anymore. Lastly, I am willing to take you back only if Rufus forgives you. Otherwise, just sign the divorce statements and get the hell out of my house!"

As he spat out these heart-wrenching words, Horace meant each and every word of it. He was genuinely angry now. He felt like he was going insane every time he thought about Rufus and the TY Group he had.

Horace had never regretted a decision this much. 'Why did I trust Lionel and Jill? Why did I make Lionel the president of Tang Group? I must've been crazy when I did that!' Horace cursed himself, internally.

He turned his rage-filled eyes to a different direction and staggered into the study. With quivering hands, he took his pills and then lay on the chaise lounge. He knew he had to calm himself down.

Thoughts of the man who had promised to invest in Tang Group entered his mind.

The man had assured Horace that as long as Amanda and Rufus were engaged, he would invest a large amount of money in Tang Group. But now Horace couldn't do anything. This business had no chance of happening.

If it wasn't for Lionel then Rufus would never have left the Tang Group. Now he couldn't even turn to Rufus for help. And he was certain that nothing he said would bring Rufus back.

Horace got chagrined by the current situation. On the other hand, the mother and the son were drowning in misery.

"Lionel, sooner or later, your father is going to kill us!"

Jill spat out anxiously. Not once had she thought her marriage would come down to this. They had lived together for more than twenty years. Yet he didn't hesitate before asking for a divorce. She couldn't be more heartbroken.

"Calm down, Mother. Take it easy and don't fret. I'll see what I can do about this. I'll try to talk to Rufus. I am sure he will be of some help," Lionel reasoned calmly.

At the moment, he had to maintain his composure. He wasn't crying like he had done earlier in his father's presence. In this dire situation, he knew he had the responsibility to comfort his mother. However, in truth, he felt as clueless as his mother.

"What can he do for us? When he lived here, we weren't on good terms with him. We made no attempts to be nice to him nor did he make an effort to be nice to us. I'm afraid he won't do anything for us. We can beg all we want, but he is not going to care. We are doomed. It's too late!"

Jill said and began to sob.

Watching his grieving mother, sadness crept onto Lionel's heart. He knew his father wouldn't hesitate before kicking them out. Suddenly, his mind went back to Ivy. He held her responsible for all that happened today. With determination, he made up his mind to go after her. 'She is the root cause of all the trouble, ' he thought furiously.

"Take some rest, Mother. Don't talk to Father and worsen the situation. Just stay away from him until he calms down. Right now, I am going out to deal with something important!"

With this, he stood up and left the house. His earlier emotions had subsided. Now there was a target in his mind to focus.

Ivy was relaxing and enjoying her time in the villa. She relished the place which Lionel had given to her. In her large living room, she was swaying to the music while sipping wine from her glass. Suddenly, Lionel stormed into the house, interrupting her peaceful moment.

"Ivy! You bitch!"

Lionel sprinted towards her with a face that was distorted in anger. Before Ivy could comprehend what was happening, he extended his hands and seized her by her neck.

The glass in Ivy's hand dropped leaving a shattering noise. The wine spilled on the floor leaving scarlet stains on the expensive carpet.

Lionel was like a demon. His fierce eyes dug into Ivy's face.

"Bitch! I got your brother out of jail. Is this how you repay me? You broke our agreement. Now my father is mad at me! Why don't you burn in hell!?"

By now, Lionel had completely lost it. The sight of this woman repelled him. She had been with him for many years. She had always taken advantage of him. His money was lavished by her. Besides, she smartly extorted a villa and a large amount of money from him as the so-called break-up fee. And after everything, she had the audacity to ruin his family. His father threatened to divorce his mother, thanks to what this woman had done. She was the sole reason for his downfall.

Blind with fury, Lionel tightened his grip on her neck. Ivy struggled and stretched her hands forward to push Lionel away. Her long nails dug into his neck and it nearly bled. But Lionel was numb to all the pain. He wasn't willing to let go of her at any cost.

His eyes had turned red and were brimming with indignation. He continued on squeezing her throat.

By now, Ivy had given up on her fight. Her feeble hands couldn't do much anymore.

Ivy gave Lionel a puzzled look.

"Pretending, huh? Go ahead and continue your drama. You are a really excellent actress. But you can't fool me! I have realized how wrong I was about you. As soon as I got your brother out of the jail, you went on and leaked the information which you promised you would never tell anybody. How can you be so vicious? You won't be happy until I suffer, right?"

Once again, the thought of his father's furor entered his mind. Lionel couldn't hold back his displeasure. In the past, he had been scolded several times by his father. Yet he had never raised his hand. But today, Horace had hit him. Even thinking about this filled him with shame.

"I didn't do it!"

Ivy denied at once. She staggered to her feet with the help of Joel and stood in front of Lionel, face to face.

"Don't accuse me without a solid proof. I never informed anyone else about Rufus's true identity!"

Ivy coughed while stroking her neck. The red remark had now turned to black. It hurt her to speak.

"Huh! Proof? It spread from mouth to mouth. How can I gather evidence? I don't have any proof but I am certain you have done it!"

Lionel firmly believed that Ivy was the one to blame. He would not trust her, no matter what she said to defend herself.

"You are being absurd, Lionel! What benefit would I get from leaking this information? Even now when you heard about it, the first person that came to your mind was me. Under the circumstance, why would I do it? It would bring me nothing but trouble!"

Ivy glared at Lionel with her raging eyes. She realized why Lionel wasn't successful in anything. He was merely an impulsive man who didn't have the ability to reason. 'Without knowing the culprit, he had the audacity to attack me!' she thought with repulsion.

Ivy had stayed in a relationship with him only because she thought he was the sole son in the Tang family. Had she known that there was another son, Rufus, who was difficult to deal with, she would have never picked this stupid man for herself.

Now Lionel contemplated over her words for a few seconds. Slowly, he realized Ivy had a point. She had nothing to gain from this, hence she wouldn't risk it.

"If not you, then who could have done it?" he asked awkwardly.

At the moment, he was ashamed of acting so impulsively. He felt like an idiot when he understood Ivy had better reasoning skills than him.