?Chapter 334:


    This was a conversation that needed to happen.


    It was half-past eight when Hugh finally ced his fork down, signaling the end of the meal.


    Freya had eaten, but she hadn’t done much else. With the cook off for the day, it seemed only right that she help clean up.


    But before she could move, Hugh rose, taking the dishes from the table. “You and She go watch TV. I’ll take care of this,” Hugh insisted.


    Freya didn’t argue. He was determined, and she let him have his way. On the sofa, Ethel nibbled on fruit, her eyes narrowing with curiosity as she nced at Freya. “Mina, what’s the secret between you and Dad that I don’t know? Don’t just brush me off with ‘you’re still young’; I’m almost twenty, you know.”


    “I’ll tell youter,” Freya responded, a faint smile curving her lips. The two of them sat together on the sofa—one engrossed in the TV, the other quietly contemting the conversation yet toe.


    Fifteen minutester, Hugh returned, having finished cleaning up. He settled onto a single sofa and turned to Freya, his voice gentle. “What did you want to talk about?”


    “I’m going to send Edwin Newman to prison,” Freya said bluntly, her wordsing out like a calm deration. “If everything goes as nned, he’ll be sentenced to ten to twenty years.”


    Hugh and Ethel exchanged looks of surprise, then both blurted out in unison, “That’s it?”


    Freya frowned. Wasn’t this something Hugh cared about?


    “Handle him however you need to,” Hugh reassured her, his voice steady. “Don’t let it weigh on you.”


    Freya felt a weight lift from her chest. “Alright.”


    g???????ν??????.??0?? – Next part


    “Anything else?”


    “No.”


    “Oh, okay,” Hugh replied simply.


    The conversation meandered on, brief and intermittent.


    Ethel sighed, observing the exchange.


    Her father, a master of smooth talk in the business world, seemed at a loss for words with her sister.


    “Dad, didn’t you say you’d deal with Kristian at Lionel’s birthday party in Jeucwell on the 15th?” Ethel probed, trying to find another topic.


    “Have you figured out how to handle it?”


    Hugh hesitated, his gaze flicking toward Freya.


    Ethel caught the shift. “Why are you looking at Mina when I asked the question?”


    Hugh froze, flustered. Ethel was being deliberately provocative.


    “I bet you can’t handle him,” Ethel said, her tone suddenly serious.


    “Impossible!” Hugh retorted, instinctively defensive.


    Ethel’s grin was mischievous.


    Freya nced over, and Hugh felt a brief pang of panic.


    He had failed to intimidate Kristian enough before. Her daughter wouldn’t think hecked authority as a father, would she?


    The thought unsettled him, and he found himself wishing he could rewrite history, assert himself more effectively in that moment.


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