An uneasy expression appeared on Zac's face. "Alice comes from a complicated family. I don't want you to get involved in their complex lives. I'd be more at ease if you kept some distance from them," he explained.
"Don't all you rich folks come from a complicated family? Are you saying that your family is any better? It seems like you think they live simply and in harmony." Essie believed that Zac's family only appeared to live in harmony and peace. She knew there was a darkness that hid deep in their family's blood. A violent struggle and a thirst for power and wealth.
Zac sighed, "I never implied that. What I mean is, Alice is not an ordinary woman. I'm just worried that you'll get involved in unnecessary problems."
Essie sneered at his words as she had already been involved in trouble for some time now, and the culprit was none other than Zac himself.
"If Alice is so strange, do you mean to say that Elizabeth and Valery aren't? For me the enemy of our enemy is a friend!"
she said rather firmly. It was obvious to Zac that she wanted to work together with Alice and Holy to strategize against Elizabeth and her daughter.
It also seemed to be the exact same thing Alice was expecting from Essie.
"Do you know why Alice had sworn not to marry a man for the rest of her life?" he asked in a low voice.
"Why?" Essie's dark eyes twinkled with curiosity. When Jim had brought up this topic in the party the last time, he wasn't able to finish his words because Alice suddenly arrived. Essie had always been curious from that moment and wanted to know why.
"It is because she wants to be the head of their family in the future." Zac said each word slowly and clearly. Although Essie was normally oblivious and confused, she had always been clever with important matters. He believed that she was capable of making her own judgments properly. However, what Zac didn't know was that Essie was in fact one of the members of Alice's family. She had no interest in other people's affairs, but quite frankly, she wanted to stay by her sister's side.
"There's nothing wrong with that. It's natural for her to strive for that as the daughter of Baron. Of course she should have the right to fight for her place in the family business," she said lightly, but in reality, her heart was beating fast from the turbulence of emotions she was feeling. When they had to part ways, Alice told her that she was going to take back what was rightfully theirs and drive Elizabeth away. After all these years, she had not broken her promise and continued to work hard for it.
Essie figured that she must have been exhausted fighting for this by herself, and now was the time for her to give her a hand.
The main reason why Elizabeth had spent all this time fighting for her daughter's marriage to Zac, was because she hoped Zac would be able to help her son, Vinton, defeat Alice and hold the power in the family. With Essie's arrival in the picture, this evil plan was torn into shreds. Essie waited a long time to find a chance to seek revenge, and now that she had it, she needed to make good use of it.
Zac resigned helplessly when he heard her words. He wondered if she was just pretending to be stupid.
"The struggle for power is cruel and could be very vicious. Innocent people always end up being taken advantage of. I just don't want you to end up as their pawn." Since Zac figured that he couldn't change her mind, all he could do was tell her straight to the point.
She smiled lightly and said, "You think way too much. If every relationship had to be meticulously calculated, then what is the point of friendships? You'd end up having no friends, don't you think so?" She continued to play dumb, despite knowing very well that he just didn't want her to be involved. It was impossible to keep herself clean when being thrown in the muddy waters. Zac always worried for her whenever she was acting stupid and oblivious. As of that time, he couldn't keep his mind away from the issues within Alice's family, but there was no way he could just put his foot forward Essie this time.
His face started showing signs of worry and apprehension when he heard such careless words from her. He thought this wasn't a good time for Essie to be so silly and simple-minded. However, all he could say at that time was, "Honey, we don't know what's yet to come, but we have to be careful."
An innocent smile appeared on her face and she said, "I know. I would like to be Alice's friend, but I won't get too close. As for Holy, he's just a young child, there's no reason to be too careful. Right?"
Zac was stupefied. He proceeded to touch her nose and thought, 'You seem like you're a bit slow today. Why are you acting so foolish and innocent?'
A strange look appeared in Essie's eyes, and within it hid a secret. She took the unfinished juice on the table and leaned back on the sofa to take a sip. A self-satisfied expression was seen from her face.
The next day.
Mary called to say that the cook made chicken soup for her son, so she asked Zac to visit home for a while. Clearly, it was just another one of her excuses to get Essie to come and teach her a lesson.
Since Valery wasn't there that day, the house was much more peaceful.
The servant started to bring out the chicken soup for everyone. On the table, Zac served food for his wife like a gentleman. He separated the meat from the bone with his chopsticks one by one and placed it on her bowl. "Your chin is getting sharp. You've been losing weight so you should eat more," he said.
"That's a bit ironic..." Essie touched her chin and felt otherwise. These days, she had been well fed in their household, in fact, her face was getting rather round. She had no idea why he said the opposite.
Zac touched her head gently with affection and said, "You lose weight so easily, but it takes you a long time to gain it back. Make sure to eat well."
Essie gave him a frisky look and playfully said, "Stop worrying about me, I can eat by myself. I'm not a child, I can spit out chicken bones." She tried not to be too much, because it would be rude to show off too much affection in public. If Mary saw what happened, she would probably think badly of Essie and assume that she was taking advantage of Zac.
They didn't notice however, that Mary was watching the whole time and witnessed the whole exchange.
She watched them and worried that his son was spiraling into madness. All their years together, he had never seen Zac so considerate towards women, not even his own mother. He didn't pay much attention to the women around him, in fact, not even Leila.
He always had been like an arrogant cheetah who would conquer and plunder. Mary couldn't understand how this woman seemingly tamed him.
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