The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne)
Chapter 96

Vivienne's face was icy, but she still sneakily kicked Percival hard under the table.

Cordelia wasn't sure what was going on between them, but didn't Percival know himself?

She noticed that Percival seemed extra keen to hold her hand and stuck to her like glue whenever he had the chance.

Suddenly, a news alert popped up on Vivienne's phone. "Chairman of Hawthorn Group falls ill suddenly and is rushed to the hospital."

She tried to wriggle her hand out from Percival's tight grasp but failed. She shot him a cold glance, wondering if her blowing up now would scare Cordelia.

Percival, however, held onto her hand still, put down his cutlery, and showed Vivienne the news on his phone.

Vivienne glanced at the phone. The image in the news was of doctors lifting someone from the Hawthorn Mansion onto an ambulance.

Though the face was blurred out, she could tell from the clothing that it was Beatrice.

Vivienne, amused by the picture, decided to let Percival off the hook for now.

Cordelia was watching their interaction when her phone screen lit up.

"Hey, Dorian, what's up?"

Her face grew darker as she listened to Dorian on the other end of the phone.

"Vivienne." She sighed after hanging up, "Your dad called. Beatrice is seriously ill and in the hospital. He wants us to go see her."

"Haven't we cut ties with them already?" Vivienne's tone was also icy.

"Well, yes." Cordelia sighed again. "But Beatrice is still your dad's mother. It's our duty to show filial respect. Your dad should go see her." Vivienne silently ate her pasta. Percival, noticing her displeasure, lightly tickled her palm, but she just glared at him coldly in response.

"But don't worry." Cordelia paused. "Your dad knows his limits. Let him go by himself; we'll stay out of this for now."

As she said this, she glanced at Percival. If the Ellington family was behind what happened to the Hawthorn family, Beatrice must already know by now.

Cordelia guessed right. That was exactly what Beatrice thought.

In the VIP ward of the hospital.

Beatrice, who had just woken up, looked gloomy and sickly.

She looked at her two sons by the bedside and asked coldly, "Was it really the work of the Ellington family?"

"The situation at the bank is unclear." Michael's face was also grim. "But several suppliers indeed claimed that the Ellington family were the ones who applied the pressure."

"And Dorian? I'm on my deathbed, and he can't even bother to see me once?" Beatrice's voice was full of resentment.

Just as she finished speaking, hurried footsteps came from outside the ward. Dorian came in.

"Mom!"

As soon as Dorian called out, Beatrice frowned when she saw that he was alone. "Where's Vivienne?"

"Vivienne didn't come."

Beatrice immediately grabbed the coffee cup from the bedside table and threw it at Dorian.

BANG!

With a loud noise, the coffee cup hit the white wall of the ward. Dust fell from the wall, and the coffee cup fell to the floor. The lid bounced off and hit Dorian's shin, and the coffee inside splashed all over the floor and onto Dorian.

Luckily, the coffee wasn't very hot; otherwise, Dorian might have been scalded.

Dorian stood awkwardly at the door. There was a hint of hurt on his face, but he still insisted on looking at Beatrice. "Mom!"

Beatrice didn't care if Dorian was hurt. She just stared at him coldly with hostile eyes. "Get Vivienne back. Do you think I've lived too long? I went all out to help her become the daughter-in-law of the Ellington family, and this is how she repays me? By letting the Ellington family ruin the Hawthorn family?"

Dorian was stunned for a moment. He thought of Arabella's Twitter and the negative news about the Hawthorn family and immediately understood what was going on.

His tone also became very heavy. "Mom, Vivienne's engagement to Percival was arranged by Evelyn. Our family's status is not good enough for the Ellington family. And initially, you didn't want Arabella to marry Percival because of his disability. Later, you wanted to use Vivienne's marriage to make some money. So, let's not talk about doing it for Vivienne's sake anymore." "You!" Beatrice's face showed an awkward expression. She was outraged. "Sure enough, now that you have the support of the Ellington family, you talk differently."

"And today's incident, even if it was really done by the Ellington family. It's Percival who is helping Vivienne." Dorian continued.

"Don't tell me you don't know that Arabella slandered Vivienne. She first said that Vivienne stole her fiancé and then claimed that Vivienne took credit for curing Faye's illness."

He showed Arabella's Twitter on his phone. "But I already checked with the Baker family before I came here. It was clear that Arabella took the wrong medication and almost killed Faye. Luckily, they found Vivienne in time. If anything happened to Faye, Arabella would be in jail now!"

Knowing the truth made Dorian absolutely livid. He had never regretted adopting Arabella so much.

His adopted daughter was selfish, greedy, and had almost cost a life, yet turned around and blamed others.

"Arabella is still your daughter! She's Vivienne's sister!" Michael butted in. "Even if there are conflicts between sisters, can't they be solved privately? There's no need to bring it to the point of bankrupting the Hawthorn family."

"Yeah, Dorian, don't forget that you're part of the Hawthorn family too." Joseph chimed in.

Michael and Joseph went from dissatisfaction with Vivienne to hoping she would never come back.

Ever since she returned, the Hawthorn family had gained nothing from her but constant trouble. Now they were going bankrupt.

Dorian felt like they were joking. He was part of the Hawthorn family? Yet he had never felt any warmth from this family, only pressure.

"Settle it privately? If Arabella really wanted to settle it privately, why did she slander Vivienne on Twitter and instigate netizens to attack Vivienne?"

He turned to look at Beatrice. "Today people blocked my doorstep, and others went to Thaddeus' kindergarten to stir up trouble. Our entire corridor was splashed with red paint and filled with curses against Vivienne."

He sneered and suddenly felt an overwhelming fatigue. "Netizens are not stupid. Posting attacking comments on the internet and sending intimidating parcels is one thing, but how many people would be so foolish as to rally for an irrelevant Arabella and publicly cause such big trouble? What's the deal with these people? Are they really netizens?"

"What... what do you mean?" Beatrice's eyes flickered as she avoided Dorian's sharp gaze.