The poor Billionaire novel (Ethan) novel Chapter 25

Addy suddenly clapped his hands to capture everyone's attention. He then said, "Laila has set a good example for all of us. It's time to get down to business. We are all gathered here today to raise funds for Horace!"

The excitement of all the malicious students skyrocketed at this moment. They felt that it was showtime. They all sat up straight and eagerly waited for Addy's next move.

Contrary to what they expected, Addy dipped his hand into his pocket and took out a bundle of money. He put it on the table and announced, "I donate fifty thousand dollars to Horace to help him get through this tough time!"

A trace of doubt glimmered in Horace's eyes as he stared at the bundle of money. 'Shouldn't Addy's family be in debt now? How come he can afford to donate fifty thousand dollars? Does this mean his family is not fully bankrupt?' Some questions teemed in Horace's head. But on second thought, he decided to let it go. Addy had already received enough punishment. There was no point in investigating the source of this money.

Unbeknown to Horace, Addy's father had completely put his pride aside for this fifty thousand dollars. He had found out that the gathering was a fundraiser for Horace, so he immediately ran around and brazenly borrowed money from several good friends. This gesture was to appease Horace so that he wouldn't throw a monkey wrench in their works now that they were starting afresh.

"Jeez! Addy is awesome. He just donated such a whopping amount. He's just too generous. Wait, there's something strange about this. What's Addy's plan? And when is he going to strike?" The other students looked at the bundle of money on the table and they were amazed. Doubt also set in at this time.

"I donate ten thousand dollars!" Before the other students could get over the shock of Addy's donation, Amaia also brought out a bundle of money from her bag.

Amaia wasn't from a very rich home, but she had made a lot of money because she hooked up with Addy for a long time. She was a squanderer who spent too lavishly, but she had managed to save some money.

'What the hell is going on? Ten thousand dollars? Where did Amaia get that kind of money from? How is it even possible since she denied ever dating Addy? Is her donation part of Addy's plan? Are they in this together?' Some of the girls stared at the bundle of money in Amaia's hand with jealousy. In their hearts, they criticized her for having such money. Most of them concluded that she sold her body for it. These girls weren't as poor as Laila and Horace, but they were from average families. They only got a few hundred dollars for their monthly living expenses. They had never seen ten thousand dollars personally, let alone donate it without hesitation.

They all thought that Horace was going to leave here a rich man.

Afterward, they sighed with envy.

Laila felt that Amaia's donation was very fishy. An inexplicable feeling arose in her heart. 'Averi said yesterday that Amaia broke up with Horace. From his account, it seemed like they ended things on a bad note. Why is she now donating ten thousand dollars to him? More so, why are they sitting together? Does this mean that the rumor about their breakup was false? But Horace didn't refute yesterday. What's really going on?'

The first three donations opened up the floor for more donations. The other students began to donate money one after the other. However, their donations were in lower denominations like ten, twenty, and fifty dollars.

At the sight of the donations, Ansley's lips curled up in a smile subconsciously. She found it funny that they were donating ten or twenty dollars for a wealthy person like Horace.

She didn't dare to voice out her thought. Otherwise, they wouldn't let it slide.

In the end, all the donations summed up to sixty-two thousand dollars, of which one thousand came from Rhett. It was obvious that the money donated by the others was only a small percent of the total sum.

Rhett arranged the entire donation into one bundle and put it in front of Horace. He then said, "Horace, this is our contribution towards the expenses you have to sort out. Please make good use of it."

With a mischievous smirk, he added, "Horace, since everyone has helped you tonight, shouldn't you treat all of us to dinner?"

Rhett's original plan was to humiliate Horace here. Dinner at the Lake Hotel was very expensive. He thought that Horace wouldn't be able to afford to eat here even if their former classmates donated money to him. But to his surprise, Addy and Amaia had donated a total of sixty thousand dollars. This spoiled his plan. Rhett was a little resentful about it. If it had been someone else that donated such a huge amount, he would have scolded the person. However, he couldn't say anything because he was afraid of Addy.

Despite the unfavorable turnout of things, he still decided to ask Horace that question.

Rhett was taken aback by Addy's voice as soon as he finished speaking. "The reason why we gathered here is to raise money for Horace. If we tell him to use the donation to treat us to dinner, our efforts would be useless. I have decided to treat you all. Eat and be merry. The bill is on me tonight!"

'Hey, Addy. Are you here to mess with me? Are you out of your mind? I thought you had a good plan up your sleeve, but I was wrong. Now that I have taken things into my own hands, why are you disrupting my plan?' Rhett complained in his mind. He didn't expect that Addy of all people would be the one to ruin his plan.

Although Rhett was furious, he didn't dare to turn down Addy's offer. He nodded and said, "Addy, you are right. It's inappropriate for Horace to pay for dinner. However, I feel that it would be unfair if you foot the bill alone tonight. How about we split the bill?"

Since Rhett didn't dare to ask Addy to foot the bill in the first place, in order to feign concern, he suggested that they went Dutch. He knew him to be a proud young man. He believed that Addy would insist on footing the entire bill.

Surprisingly, Addy nodded and said, "Okay, let's all have dinner and then split the bill. It's fair that way."

This decision angered the other malicious students. They cursed Rhett and Addy in their hearts. This wasn't what they bargained for. They had only brought a few dollars with the hope that Horace would be forced to buy dinner and then get humiliated. The plan they drafted with Rhett was in ruins now and they had to split the bill. In this private dining room, there were over thirty people present.

Dinner for all of them would cost a minimum of five thousand dollars. This meant that each of them would have to pay one hundred and fifty dollars. The malicious students didn't have that kind of money.

They all began to think that Rhett had called this gathering to humiliate them, not Horace. It was even worse that he dared to offer Addy help when the latter had readily offered to foot the bill. 'Is this a trap? Rhett and Addy tricked us. If it's not a trap, why has Addy not dealt with Horace? Why is he helping him out instead?'

Several questions teemed in the minds of the malicious students at this moment. They didn't understand why a gathering that was specially organized to humiliate Horace ended up like this. It seemed like they had fallen into their own trap.

'Rhett is such a bastard! He just took us for a sleigh ride. We should have noticed this early enough!' Many of the students began to rain insults on Rhett in their minds.

All of them decided not to stress themselves over how the bill would be sorted. Since Rhett had been the one that suggested they organized the fundraiser, he should take responsibility for it. This was his punishment for deceiving them.

Rhett was on the hot seat at this moment. He was so desperate that a cold sweat broke out on his forehead even though the air conditioner was on. He greatly suspected that Addy intentionally came here to trick him.