The Villain's Wife

"Think about it." Lily added. "Who will marry the man? Is it you? Or your family?"

"Marrying me would mean that he is also married to my family and the country."

Lily responded with a low chuckle. At the end of the day, everything would boil down to her responsibility as a princess of a country and her internal emotions. The thought of this, made Lily smile.

Now that Lily thought about it, she felt extremely lucky that her grandfather left the royal family for her grandmother. While Lily's current life was chaotic, at least she did not have to think about other people aside from herself and her husband while making decisions.

Wouldn't it be difficult to constantly think about other people's opinion all the time? To be prim and proper in everyone's eyes? To become the model that the younger ones in your country would look up to.

She turned towards Eliza. To be honest, she pitied her. But could she do something about it? Maybe? Maybe not.

Lily shrugged inwardly. She was pregnant. As much as she would love to help someone related to her, she could not act like Mother Theresa while being pregnant. That and she would not want to involve herself in a rich family that was hiding themselves from the spotlight.

"Oh." She uttered as she recalled an email that she received not too long ago. "I remember receiving a meeting invitation from Mr. Harringfort. He wanted to 'personally' meet me. I think it was because he heard about the upcoming acquisition. At that time, I had to respectfully decline because of my pregnancy." She smiled. "But… it would be really nice to meet your fiance. You know for— wait— "

Lily made a deliberate pause as she lifted an eyebrow. "You have met him before the engagement, right?"

"Once." Eliza answered. "I haven't heard from him for almost a month now. I heard he was busy and even his family could not contact him."

"Strange." Lily uttered. "But considering the current events in the Oil Industry, he might really be busy." Lily was talking about the current increase in oil prices because of the pirates from Somalia hijacking oil tankers.

"So you were planning to branch out into the oil industry?"

"Petroleum, yes." Lily nodded. At this point, denying it was useless. As a businesswoman, Lily would always prioritize profits and the welfare of her company over all else. Despite her instincts telling her not to do this, to not to sign the acquisition, Lily's sense of responsibility still won over it.

After all, her company employs thousands of people. She could not ignore the fact that this project could increase their profits and therefore would also increase the salary of her employees. Of course, this does not mean that she had stopped being wary and cautious about this deal.

She had already asked Qin Yuanfeng to monitor not just the whole Corneel family but also the people that they associate themselves with. Aside from this, Lily had also set up some security protocols in case this company would try to do something that is against Facci Group's goals and objectives.

"Wouldn't that make you more stressed? I mean… giving birth and taking care of the baby, recovery and now… a multi million dollar deal? Wait— are you planning to make Yuanfeng replace you?"

"Replace? No." Shaking her head, Lily started combing her hair. It might sound too prideful and egoistic but she knew that no one would be able to replace her in her own company. "Representative, yes." She would make him a proxy, someone that would represent her. "But of course, that is still far away. My brother needs to train, learn the in's and out's of running the company." Learning to scheme against someone and win. Qin Yuanfeng needs to learn how to win.

"I think he is a very smart man." Eliza noted. "Obviously smarter than my brother."

"He is."

Silence blanketed inside the room for a few seconds before Eliza let out another sigh. "I envy Qin Yuanfeng." She uttered. "I wish, I could have someone like you to guide me too." Her lips morphed into a sad smile.

"Well, life is unfair." Lily said. She didn't really know how to react to Eliza's words. Was she supposed to comfort her and assured her that she would be here to Eliza? Wouldn't that sound weird?

A knock interrupted their stupor. "I'm coming in." Bei Tian's voice echoed before he walked inside Lily's room. "Levi and everyone else is already at the pool." He walked towards Eliza and Lily. "Why are you so serious?" He frowned. "Are you planning to murder someone?"

A grin immediately plastered itself on Eliza's face. Sadness disappeared from her eyes as she chuckled. "We are cultured women in the twenty-first century. We don't need to kill someone to prove that we are standing on top of the food-chain." She stood from the bed. "Lily, I will go ahead and join them." She smiled as she walked towards the door.

Interest immediately shone in Bei Tian's eyes as she stood in front of Lily. "What's with her?" he asked the moment Eliza left the room.

"No idea." Lily said. "Tell Jingren, I will go down in a bit. My feet are sore so I will rest for a few minutes."

"You should just sleep." Bei Tian's eyes turned gentle before he turned towards the door. "Sleep. Don't force yourself too much."

"Mr. Bei sounds so caring." Turning towards him, Lily gave a teasing smile. "I never thought Mr. Bei had a sweet side too."

For a few seconds, Bei Tian stared at Lily's face before he shrugged and left without saying anything. He knew that she knew. He knew that she knew how much he cared for her. He knew that she could feel it.

Lily was not dumb. She must have known. He thought as he left the room before smiling to himself. Of course, Lily knew. But to her, he was a brother.

Sadly, to him… she was never a sister. Of course, these thoughts did not matter now. Walking out of the mansion, the smiling Zhou Jingren caught his eyes. He nodded to himself as gentleness flashed in his eyes.

....

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