"Alright, alright." Hazel Bennett’s tears were still flowing, but she felt a lot better inside.

Her daughter, she really hadn’t raised her well.

She felt so ashamed.

Fortunately, these two kids didn’t get led astray by her poor parenting.

Jason Cole looked down at Hazel Bennett secretly wiping her tears and sighed lightly in his heart. Was Hayley Cole’s temperament inherited from her biological father?

Her biological father also blamed his life’s misfortunes on others. Outside, he didn’t dare do anything, yet at home, he would take it out on his wife and children.

Hayley Cole really seemed like a replica of that man.

Hayley couldn’t care less about what Jason Cole thought; she ran out in one breath.

Damn it, all they ever do is lecture her!

Sure, she wasn’t born into their status, nor did she know how to please them like her mom!

If they didn’t like her, so be it. She had endured it for so many years; it wasn’t like today was the first time they looked down on her!

"Hayley, why are you drinking here alone?" As the KTV box door opened and closed, Charlotte Hart came in, sitting beside Hayley with a smile. "Look at you, feeling down and didn’t even call me. If the manager hadn’t told me you came, I wouldn’t have known."

"Charlotte, tell me, why do they look down on me so much?" Upon seeing Charlotte Hart, Hayley felt she had found a relative and started complaining incessantly.

"Hmph, those Cole Family people, they just look down on others." Charlotte poured herself a drink, clinking glasses with Hayley with a laugh, and said, "Forget being a stepdaughter; even my dad, my dad who is Chairman Cole’s legitimate wife’s cousin, wasn’t helped when something happened to him."

"They are too much!" Hayley cursed in a drunken stupor. "So what if I like James? Do they have to control that too? I just want to do something for James, why can’t I?"

"They took my mom away, and now they don’t even let me seek my own happiness. What exactly do they want?" Hayley bellowed angrily.

"I just want to help James win a bid; is that not allowed?"

Hayley’s voice lowered as she mumbled into Charlotte’s ear, "They won’t leak even a single detail to me, it’s too much."

"Oh, my silly sister, you really are silly!" Charlotte couldn’t help but laugh, lightly patting her. "Do you need to make it so complicated? Just tell people about your relationship with James Reed, and see how many peers of James would dare compete with him?"

At these words, Hayley’s previously foggy mind instantly cleared up, her eyes shining as she gazed at Charlotte: "That would work?"

"Of course, it would!" Charlotte said with a laugh. "Back then, my dad was just an unwelcome brother-in-law, but you’re different. No matter how you put it, you’re Chairman Cole’s legitimate daughter now."

"Your status is James Reed’s greatest leverage; you can use it directly!"

The more Hayley listened, the more it made sense. She nodded repeatedly: "That’s right, why didn’t I think of that?"

"Sis, I won’t keep talking. I’m heading out." Hayley stood up excitedly, reached for her wallet, but was stopped by Charlotte, "Do you still take me as your sister? And you’re offering money? Just for some drinks? Are you trying to insult me?"

"Thanks, sis. I’ll head off then." Hayley laughed as she tucked her wallet away, running out happily.

Charlotte Hart’s face, obscured by heavy makeup, broke into a sinister, fake smile.

The Cole Family ruined her family back then, and she was going to ruin the Cole Family!