Chapter 869
How could Pike not know what his daughter-in-law was scheming? But he desperately wanted to snap back at her: Are you out of your damn mind?
She was his older brother’s biological granddaughter. Even if the girl were a complete fool, she would still hold far more weight in their hearts than Yolande, a mere great-niece.
It was only this delusional daughter-in-law who lacked the self-awareness to see reality. She constantly whined that since they were all one family, why should the main branch be so much wealthier than them?
Pike couldn’t even be bothered to explain it to her. He was merely the son of a second wife!
Back in those days, wealthy men still took multiple wives, and his mother was one of the lesser ones.
Although he had been brought into the Churchill estate, his status was fundamentally different from his older brother’s.
His brother was destined to inherit the entire Churchill empire, while he was only allowed a modest cut of the profits.
The only reason he could live as a multi-millionaire today was purely due to his brother’s benevolence in granting him company dividends.
Even if his brother had cut him off entirely, he wouldn’t have dared to utter a word of complaint.
His mother had once attempted to kidnap his older brother. It was only because the first wife saw him as an innocent child that she didn’t hold it against him and spared him from a life of misery.
And what about his daughter-in-law?
He believed that in the modern era of Solenia, the archaic divisions of birthright should be abolished. However, his father’s vast fortune was inherited from their ancestors, meaning the ancestral rules strictly applied.
Furthermore, he knew he lacked his brother’s brilliant business acumen. If he inherited too much, he would likely squander it all anyway. He never entertained such delusional ambitions.
Yet this daughter-in-law of his had her head in the clouds, her greed far exceeding her station.
Sometimes, he deeply resented the fact that his son took after him, completely defenseless against a pretty face.
Otherwise, he never would have dragged such an empty-headed wife into their family.
“Yolande is Yolande, and Claire is Claire. She is my brother’s biological granddaughter, and nothing can change that undeniable fact.”
“This isn’t a competition about who is more brilliant. Tiffany, you’re a grown woman. How can you still be this clueless?”
Pike was utterly exhausted from repeating himself.
He desperately wanted to urge his son to file for divorce, but his grandchildren had done nothing wrong. Tearing a family apart like that felt deeply immoral.
Plus, under his older brother’s strict supervision, Pike had never dared to sire any illegitimate children. He only had this one son.
His only grandchildren were the two that Tiffany had birthed.
If the children were as foolish as Tiffany, he could at least blame the mother’s toxic influence.
But ironically, Yolande was exceptionally bright, and his grandson was still too young to show his true colors.
Terrified that his daughter-in-law would corrupt his grandson, Pike had directly shipped the boy off to an elite boarding school, hiring top tier private tutors to handle tis education.
He deliberately isolated the boy from Tiffany as much as humanly possible.
Despite this, Tiffany relentlessly schemed for her precious son’s future, constantly plotting to bite off a chunk of wealth from the main branch.
“Dad!” Tiffany genuinely despised her father-in-law’s spineless cowardice.
It was bad enough that he was a useless failure, but how dare he forbid her from fighting for her children’s rightful resources?
If things continued like this, the wealth gap between the main branch and the Pearce branch would only widen. Didn’t he realize that?
Whenever anyone mentioned the Churchill family, who ever brought up the Pearce branch?
Wasn’t it all because the main branch maliciously suppressed them?
Tiffany desperately wanted to be a glorious, high-society Mrs. Churchill, not some pathetic, penniless relative clinging to Padgett’s coattails!
If Padgett ever discovered her ridiculous thoughts, he would simply scoff at her sheer delusion.
“Owen, keep your wife in line!”
Pike refused to waste his breath arguing with his daughter-in-law.
If Tiffany couldn’t control herself at an event like this, the only ones she’d end up
destroying were her own children!
In his youth, Owen truly had been
infatuated with Tiffany. She wasn’t an otherworldly breathtaking
beauty, but she perfectly aligned with his exact preferences.
Coupled with her manipulative charm, she had successfully pushed him to the point
where he swore he would marry no one else.
But after so many years, the
rose-tinted glasses had completely
shattered It wasn’t that Fiffany’ appearance had faded, it was that her rotten personality was nowhere near as appealing as her exterior.