Chapter 362 Arthur had never seen such a shameless man.
Before Arthur and Maria could curse Joel in their minds, a screech of brakes echoed from behind them.
Then, a cold, harsh voice broke through. "Dream on! "It's already generous of us to offer you a relocation house for free. You dare to ask for more, hoping we'll give you a big house? You must be dreaming!" Arthur and Maria couldn't help but feel a surge of relief.
Brandon had arrived.
With Brandon on their side, victory was assured.
Otherwise, they stood no chance against the shameless Stevens family with their limited experience.
Upon seeing Brandon, the Stevens family looked pale. Their arrogance waned, and they instinctively huddled together for support.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Brandon, there you are." Quentin forced a cautious smile. "We haven't met for long! I heard you started a big company and beca big boss. Congratulations!" "Oh? Now that you hear my family is making money, you all suddenly want to recognize us as relatives?" Brandon jumped out of the car, brandishing a gleaming kitchen knife as he strode toward them, his sharp gaze sweeping over their faces as if picking his first target.
Brandon shouted, "Want to stay in my villa? Over my dead body!" The Stevens family, meeting his murderous glare and the knife in his hand, swallowed nervously and instinctively took a few steps back, too intimidated to confront him.
"Brandon, you really misunderstand us." Ronan quickly tried to smooth things over. "After your family fell into hardship, we didn't want to burden you, which is why we returned to the county." "Yeah, you know how things are here, too many people and not enough money or skills," Violet added. "When your family was going through that rough patch, we really couldn't do much to help. We thought it'd be better to just quietly leave, so you wouldn't have to worry about us. We'd feel bad if we made things harder for you." Athena, sitting in the car with Brandon, couldn't help but find their excuses amusing When the Donovan family was doing well back in the day, the Stevens family members were constantly visiting them, asking for loans, favors, and even staying over for days. They often relied on the Donovan family to help them find jobs and provide support.
After Zilvia went missing, with the two elders and Claire falling ill, the restaurant closed down, and the Donovan family spent a fortune searching for Zilvia, leading to their decline and forcing them to seek help from friends and family.
Not only did the Stevens family refuse to help, but they also quickly cut ties with the Donovan family, changed their phone numbers, and never paid back the several thousand dollars they owed. Worse yet, they went around telling people that the Donovan family looked down on them for being poor, so the Stevens family didn't want to deal with the Donovan family anymore.
Feeling betrayed, the Donovan family stopped reaching out to the Stevens family, and Claire hadn't returned hin over a decade.
Now that the Donovan family was back on their feet, the Stevens family returned to seek them out again, claiming their past debts.
They were just shameless and selfish.
Athena decided she would definitely include the Stevens family's audacity in her new book, exposing how disgusting such relatives could truly be. "Sparethe nonsense." Brandon never played nice in front of the Stevens family. He waved his knife threateningly as if preparing for a fight.
"Letbe clear. Apart from this relocation house, you wont get anything else.
"I'd rather spend my life in prison than let you stay in our villa." As he spoke, Hamza, hiding behind his parents, secretly opened his phone's camera, hoping to capture Brandon bullying the Stevens family.
This tactic was taught to them by Shane.
Shane said, "The Donovan family is wealthy and powerful, and ordinary folks can't afford to offend them. If they refuse to recognize you, secretly record them with your phone and send it to a famous entertainment reporter or media outlet on Twitter, exposing the true face of the Donovan family." Since the elders didn't use Twitter, this task fell to Hamza.
However, no matter what Hamza tried, his phone wouldn't turn on.
He quietly took his parents' phones, but they wouldn't turn on either, leaving him anxious and frustrated.
Hamza thought, 'Could it be that everyone's phones are broken at the stime?' Athena, sitting in the car, had noticed Hamzas attempts and smiled faintly.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe Stevens family's tricks were utterly useless against her hacking skills.
At that moment, Violet, who had always disliked her grandson, couldn't hold back any longer and scolded Brandon, "Brandon, how can you speak to us like that? Without us, could there be your mother? Without your mother, could there be you?" The moral coercion began.
Maria interrupted, "Grandma, Brandon didn't mean it like that. He just speaks a bit bluntly, which might have led to misunderstandings.
"Honestly, our family owes a lot of money. All our earnings go toward interest, leaving us with no savings. The only thing we can present is this relocation house." Gavin shouted, "The car you're driving is more expensive than the house we live in. Who do you think you're fooling?" "I'm not fooling you," María replied sincerely with an innocent expression. "I brought our loan contracts. You can look for yourselves." As she spoke, she pulled out a large stack of documents from her bag, showing them one by one to the Stevens family.
Maria said, "This is the loan agreement for our villa, and we owe over 40 million dollars. Just look at the parties involved, the loan amounts, signatures, and seals.
"This is the lease agreement and equity agreement for Donovan's Restaurant. Mom and Dad rented someone else's property to start the m restaurant for 20 years, paying a whopping 8 million dollars in rent. The restaurant's funding was also from someone else, who invested over 20 million dollars in total, and most of the restaurant's profits must go to them, with the principal needing to be repaid later. "Jaden's farm is leased, and the money to develop the barren mountain was borrowed from the bank.
"Brandon borrowed even more money, all high-interest loans, m totaling 160 million dollars, with monthly interest alone reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars, so Brandon feels a lot of pressure..." After displaying all the documents, Maria sighed, "You'd know if you've ever borrowed money from a bank. The interest is high.
Don't let the appearance of wealth fool you. If we can't pay our interest on time, we could go bankrupt in an instant.
"To put it simply, we're just borrowing money to live well. It's not stable, so you really don't need to envy us." While the Donovan family had many loans, they didn't need to reveal these debts to the Stevens family. So, all these documents were fabricated by Athena.
She planned to burn them after fooling the Stevens family.