The Billionaire Can't Escape His Shameless Heiress Wife!-Chapter 5: Setting the Stage

The next morning after the banquet, the Harrington family gathered at the dining table for breakfast.

What was supposed to be a meal spent in silence and merriment had turned unpleasant as the sharp sound of something hard banging against the table made of high-quality oak made the rest of the people in the place shiver in fear.

Bang!

The maids who came out of the kitchen, holding a tray of food, jumped.

"You foolish girl!"

The bellowing sound of an old man spread across the entire mansion.

Glaring at his daughter, Bard Harrington’s nostrils flared in his anger. He couldn’t understand where he had gone wrong with his daughter.

Who would have thought that the plan he had painstakingly thought of would be torn apart by her?

Bard glanced at the clock on the wall before he focused on the staircase. However, the figure he had wanted to appear hadn’t arrived just yet. So, he held back his tongue, swallowing down the rest of his words.

It should be around now. Bard thought eagerly.

In a timely manner, Isabella’s figure finally appeared. She stepped lightly on the steps, descending with ease on the winding staircase.

From her vantage point, she could see that everyone had already gathered and was only waiting for her to arrive. But she showed no desire to rush to their side. She remained graceful and unconcerned, even at the obvious impatience that flashed across her uncle’s eyes.

When she finally reached the dining room, she looked at her uncle and greeted him.

"Good morning, Uncle." Isabella rounded the table and took her spot beside the head of the table, where her uncle was sitting. "Today’s meal looks sumptuous."

As she said this, she started picking a freshly baked pain au chocolat, smoked salmon and caviar, and some exotic fruits. Then, lastly, she waved for the maid to serve her a cold and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

"Hmph! You really have a good appetite!" Vanessa, who sat next to her mother, glared across her.

Isabella sliced the salmon on her plate, stabbed a small portion before delivering it into her mouth. While chewing, she finally raised her eyes and looked around her.

At this moment, she saw that nobody took a bite from their meal except herself. But Isabella didn’t stop eating, shoving a few more bites inside her mouth with the proper etiquette belonging to a wealthy heiress.

Anyone would’ve felt uncomfortable in that suffocating place. The atmosphere in the dining room was unbearable and would’ve left anyone without any appetite to eat.

Only Isabella refused to let the mood ruin her meal.

Seeing that she was unaffected and almost clueless about the situation, the faces of the people sitting at the table only turned gloomier.

Bard turned to Isabella, who silently sat on her seat, and said, "Isabella, dear. I heard you returned to the mansion earlier than we did. What happened? You didn’t even tell me before you left."

He started testing the waters first, seeing as how calmly Isabella was acting this morning.

Isabella dabbed her mouth with a towel, then turned to him. She said, "I had a splitting headache last night. It must have been the wine I drank at the banquet and didn’t get to tell you, Uncle."

Vanessa frowned at this, wondering what Isabella was trying to do. Perhaps she was really going to turn a blind eye to what she saw? Could it be that Isabella still wanted to be engaged with Edward despite knowing he and Vanessa were having an affair?

Thinking about this made Vanessa hear a heavy thud in her chest.

Bard didn’t know what was inside his daughter’s head. He observed Isabella for a while, but even after looking, he couldn’t see through her.

"Why are you asking, Uncle?"

Isabella resumed her attention on her plate. However, she no longer fed herself and instead started playing and cutting up her food, imagining she was stabbing something else.

Being questioned by her, Bard didn’t know where to begin. He had planned to admonish his own daughter in front of Isabella, displaying a passionate uncle who would scold his daughter for the sake of appeasing his niece’s anger. Then, he would later search for a new man to match with Isabella and marry her off this year.

Bard wouldn’t have gone this far. He would still play his part as her uncle and fully support her in life.

If only that one condition hadn’t been revealed to him in the inheritance rights.

The Harrington family had a long history among the wealthy families. However, in the last hundred years, they’ve regressed greatly due to the change of heads who led the family into turmoil and almost to the stage of bankruptcy.

It was his brother, Lorenzo Harrington, who changed all of that.

Within just a couple of years of being the head of the family, he became the biggest shareholder and even developed the family business internationally. No one could deny his capabilities in the business world, and people grew to respect him.

In just a few years, the Harrington family rose prominently to the ranks of the true elites. They even rivaled the bigshots that were once unattainable and looked down on them.

With the rise of the family, the Harringtons’ future was unpredictable.

After Lorenzo died with his wife in an accident ten years ago, however, things slowly stagnated. The companies that were being handled by them slowly broke down and lost profit. Some of their shares were even sold because of their incapacity. The members of the Harrington family scrambled to find refuge, and eventually, they turned to the huge inheritance Lorenzo left behind.

They claimed to have rights to the wealth he left.

But to their surprise, Lorenzo had long written his will. Perhaps he had long expected their greed to reach over his wealth. Thus, he named only one person as his heir.

It was his daughter, Isabella Harrington.

At that time, Isabella had just turned twelve years old. With her being a child, barely a teenager, she couldn’t fully exercise her rights to her inheritance. She needed ten more years before she could do it as the will had ordered.

The Harrington family, however, couldn’t wait ten years for her to grow. And so, they found Bard, a close blood relative of Lorenzo and Isabella. He was the only brother of Lorenzo. He had the right to raise Isabella under his wing.

In order to bypass the will, they even thought of letting Bard adopt Isabella as his daughter. But this failed when the inheritance remained unchanged. He was only allowed to take a small portion to raise her properly. As for the company shares and position as CEO, Bard had to take her place as the chair couldn’t remain empty.

Until a condition was later revealed.

If Isabella got married, she would have to relinquish her rights to the inheritance to the entire Harrington family.

At that time, he thought his brother was ruthless and unreasonable. He couldn’t understand why he would put such a condition on his daughter.

But looking at where he was now, Bard couldn’t just give up all the luxury and wealth. He even blamed his deceased brother for being so cruel to his daughter. If he had only shared his wealth with all of them when he died, would the Harrington family have treated his daughter so unfairly? 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Would he take advantage of that one condition to steal away what was supposed to be his daughter’s?