BXBX NOVEL Chapter 155 Schemes
Chapter 155 Schemes
She was utterly astonished, her eyes filled with incredulity.
Her mouth opened and closed as if to say something, but she was unable to utter a word. Suddenly, she seemed to comprehend something, and her gaze fixed intently on the marriage certificate in Keira\'s hands.
Keira tightened her grip on it.
She took another step forward and handed the marriage certificate to Mrs. Olsen.
At the same time, others were also questioning Lewis\'s words.
Isla gasped in shock, "How is this possible? Uncle, Mrs. Horton is clearly here. How can you say you and Keira are husband and wife?"
She looked at Madeleine, only to see her face ashen and filled with disbelief!
Gripping her skirt tightly, Madeleine looked at Lewis in confusion. "Lewis, what did you just say? You\'re joking, right?"
Her reaction elicited sympathy from the crowd
"Look at Mrs. Horton. She obviously had no clue…"
"What\'s Mr. Horton up to? Could he really be dumping his wife for that vixen?"
"Oh my God, Mrs. Horton is so pitiful!"
"Does a woman with no family background deserve to be bullied? But what can Mrs. Horton do? With the Horton family\'s extensive wealth, changing wives must be like changing clothes, right?"
"Mrs. Horton looks absolutely stunned…"
Oliver frowned and immediately said, "Lewis, what do you mean by this? Do you want to divorce your wife and marry Keira? If so, you must follow the formal legal process. You cannot treat her like this while your marriage still stands! The Horton family values won\'t allow such actions!"
At his words, the Horton family patriarch, Nathan, also stepped forward.
The well-groomed gentleman was in his sixties and was brimming with vitality. He was dressed in a sharp suit and appeared more like a middle-aged man because of his good upkeep.
He frowned at Lewis. "You scoundrel! The Horton family has never engaged in infidelity. Are you now going to abandon your lawfully wedded wife for this married woman?"
But Lewis\'s lips curled with a hint of irony. He glanced at Oliver before retorting, "The Horton men never engage in infidelity?"
Outsiders may not know, but the Hortons were well aware that not only had Oliver had affairs, but he also had an illegitimate daughter he doted on. For her, Oliver had many quarrels with Melissa and even contemplated divorce so that the illegitimate daughter could enter the Horton family with dignity.
This was precisely the root of Jake\'s deep-seated hatred for illegitimate children.
Yet Oliver appeared unfazed. "Yes, Lewis, it\'s the Horton family\'s discipline. Men are not allowed to have affairs."
That self-righteous demeanor only intensified Lewis\'s sense of mockery.
This was his "dear" older brother.
Oliver bullied Lewis when the latter was too young to fight back and conspired with human traffickers to sell Lewis when he was nine. He had repeatedly tried to have Lewis killed with hired assassins over the years!
Nathan blindly trusted and defended him, always insisting that Lewis\'s suspicions were baseless and always siding with the first branch of the family against Lewis.
But Lewis had long since given up hope on these relatives, so he showed no emotion.
Lewis said slowly, "Who said I was unfaithful?"
This startled Oliver, who then sneered. "What do you mean by that? You just publicly acknowledged your romance with Miss Olsen, and now you\'re denying it?"
But Lewis looked directly at Madeleine, "Miss Davis, have you told everyone that we\'re married?"
People immediately turned their gaze toward Madeleine.
Keira also glanced over.
From the very beginning, this seemingly fragile and harmless woman had been acting like Mrs. Horton, subjecting her to public insults. Keira didn\'t know the relationship between Madeleine and Lewis, but she had always believed in Lewis.
Isla also raised her eyebrows, speaking in confusion. "Auntie, aren\'t you and Uncle married?"
Madeleine clasped her fingers tightly, "I... Lewis, what do you mean? For all these years, I\'ve been your wife in name... You promised me that you would marry me!"
In name only wife...
Before the crowd could react, Jake suddenly grasped the truth. "I get it! Uncle, you\'re not actually married, right? Grandpa said that being married was a condition for the CEO of Horton Group, but you have been fooling us all along!"
Oliver also understood something. "Lewis, the marital status of the CEO of Horton Group is tied to the entire group\'s reputation. How could you concoct such an outrageous lie for your own sake!"
Nathan said angrily, "I mandated that the CEO of Horton Group must be married to prevent family instability from tarnishing Horton Group\'s reputation and causing scandals! Lewis, are you married or not?!"
Lewis looked at them.
There was no legal requirement that the group\'s CEO had to be married. The old man had made this demand back then merely to stop him from taking the position.
So he had conjured up a wife in name only but had never acknowledged that it was Madeleine. It was just everyone else speculation.
He had always been too lazy to clarify.
But now it was different...
Through the crowd, Lewis\'s gaze found Keira, and he said, "Didn\'t I just say it? Miss Olsen and I are married. We\'re husband and wife!"
"..."
The room fell into another silence.
Isla was the first to scream in disbelief. "Impossible! Keira got her marriage certificate just last month! She had a shotgun marriage with some little punk. How could she be married to you?!"
Jake nodded. "Right, Uncle, you previously lied to us saying you were married two years ago, and now you\'re saying you\'re married to Keira... You wouldn\'t be stepping into Keira\'s marriage trying to cover up for yourself, would you? This must be another lie!" n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
His eyes blazed with fury, and he hated Lewis.
How could Keira become his aunt? How would she then be able to become his woman?
He refused to believe it!
Oliver sighed. "Lewis, with all these lies, we really don\'t know whether to believe you anymore. If the journalists here report this, won\'t others think the Horton Group is a company of charlatans?"
Seeing an opportunity, Nathan asserted. "Lewis, your marriage situation is so unstable and confusing. I suggest we call a board meeting to remove you from your CEO\'s position to explain things to Horton Group\'s employees and to everyone!"
Finally, the words were spoken.
Lewis stared at his aging father and chuckled coldly. "Who said my marriage situation is unstable?"
As those words were uttered, the picture on that curtain suddenly changed to a bright red marriage certificate!
The marriage certificate was his and Keira\'s, dated two years ago!