Unexpected Marriage With Mr. Leighton: Rebirth of the Villain
Chapter 36: MEETING WITH LEIGHTON FAMILY

Chapter 36: MEETING WITH LEIGHTON FAMILY

"If he loves you, it will not be hard for you to look for him. You don’t even need to look for him; he will be the one who comes to you, just like how he was with River. I have never seen River coming here to look for Arlo; if anything, it will be the other way around."

Michael looked very smug when he said those things; he couldn’t care less how he made Aubrey feel about this. In his eyes, River was the only sister-in-law that he would accept. Not to mention, he didn’t really like Aubrey; she was too ’sophisticated’ for his taste.

Even now, Michael couldn’t understand why Arlo chose to be with Aubrey when it was very obvious that he still had not moved on from River; he was avoiding Aubrey now, and she was too stupid to realize it.

"Shut up!" Aubrey growled at him; she was seeing red. "If he really loved River, he would not choose to be with me! I am the one who is pregnant with his child."

"Yeah. Your child doesn’t prove anything." Michael shrugged his shoulders. "I am used to sleeping with an escort too, and I can get them pregnant if they fool me and I am not being careful."

"Watch your words!" Aubrey raised her hand; she was going to slap him, but Michael swatted it away with full force, which he was sure would bruise her hand.

"Be careful, Aubrey. I don’t mind hitting a woman, and you are not River. You will not be able to handle me." Michael’s expression turned grim. "Now, scram."

Michael lived with his brother; though he had his own apartment, he simply liked it to be here.

"Fuck you, Michael!" Aubrey cussed him out.

"No, thanks. I don’t fuck a woman that my brother has fucked, especially if the woman is you. I can do better."

That was a complete humiliation for Aubrey; she really wanted to scratch Michael’s face and kick him in the balls, but then he was right. She was not River; she wouldn’t be able to handle a scuffle with him, and she believed him when he said that he was going to hit her. Michael was insane.

And when Michael left her alone at the terrace, all she could do was scream at the closed door. She hated this so much.

She tried to call Arlo again, but it went straight to voicemail. They were supposed to talk about their upcoming wedding, but Arlo simply said that he would agree with her decisions, and she could do whatever with their wedding.

If the circumstance were different, Aubrey would be happy to be the sole decision maker. But Arlo didn’t want to get involved, not because he wanted to make her happy, but because he simply didn’t care.

Aubrey hated this situation. She remembered Arlo had never treated River like this, yet here he was, ignoring her like a plague.

Somehow, Aubrey was convinced that if River were still around, he would go crawling back to her, grovel for her forgiveness.

The thought of that alone made her blood boil with anger. It was a good thing she killed her.

***

Hazel dug up her memories about the Leighton family. She had never directly crossed paths with the Leighton family, so her information about them was not too deep. But she knew a few dark secrets within this family, and one shocking thing was the fact that the current wife of Ranon’s father was actually Ranon’s girlfriend seven years ago!

That was crazy. And yes, that family was that crazy.

Having a womanizer father like the one that Ranon had, granting you a lot of stepsiblings. River had only one, and that was enough to cost her her life, let alone five.

As far as she knew, the children that Denzel Leighton acknowledged were his three daughters and his three sons.

Ranon was the fifth child, the second son, while Denzel’s third son was born from Ema, Ranon’s ex-girlfriend. The child was only five years old now, if she was not mistaken.

If you thought the Rose family was crazy, then the Leighton family was on a whole different level. Denzel Leighton was not right in the head.

"Are you going to flaunt me in front of your stepmother?" Hazel asked as she turned the music on. The silence was killing her, and she was having a headache knowing that she was going to meet with his family.

She knew that it was inevitable, but Ranon told her all of a sudden; it almost felt like an ambush.

"What is this? A revenge?" Hazel looked at him openly to see his reaction when she said that, but whatever emotion he had, it didn’t betray his expression. Ranon looked very calm and collected. "I need to know what I will face there and what I have to do."

"You don’t need to do anything, just enjoy your meal."

"That doesn’t sound convincing."

"How do you know?" Ranon glanced at her, and Hazel could see that he was being cautious. Despite his cold façade, he was surprised that Hazel knew about this. "The media didn’t know about this. How do you know?"

Only people in the Leighton family knew about this dark secret, and also Ares and Lucian. Aside from them, not a single soul was supposed to know.

Seven years ago, he was not really a part of the Leighton family. Denzel knew about his existence, but he didn’t acknowledge him until something happened to his first son, and he needed his second son to be introduced to the business.

"I think I know it by coincidence," Hazel said nonchalantly, but Ranon swerved the car to the side and stopped. He turned around to look at her dead in the eyes.

"How do you know about that?"

Hazel swore this man looked scary right now, and with her line of work, it was not easy to scare her; yet she knew how to mask her feelings.

"How do you know about that?" he repeated his question. His hand stretched out to turn off the music, letting the silence stretch out, adding to the tension between them.

"It will be hard to get the information out of Leighton, but it will not be so hard if the information is dug out from Ema Reiner’s side. Yes, you have paid them to shut their mouth, but it doesn’t mean they will never talk among themselves."

Hazel knew that she was digging her own grave; she needed to think of a way to get away with this interrogation.

Ranon narrowed his eyes. By this time, he had turned his body so he could face her; he leaned over so close, Hazel could smell his scent.

"And how do you know about all of that?" His eyes looked very grim when he spoke.

She knew about it because seven years ago, she investigated Ema’s sister, Lena Reiner; she was a side chick for one of the politicians in Talbar City. That was how she knew about this, but she couldn’t tell Ranon the truth.

Hazel was only twenty-one years old; seven years ago, she was barely a teenager; there was no way she would know about that.

"You can say I have connections." Hazel tried to make her voice neutral as if she was saying the obvious. A lame reason to explain the situation. "I have done my homework, okay? I am going to marry into your family, so I need to know what kind of family I will go into."

Ranon stared at her for a long time, but she couldn’t tell what was in his mind. "And you dug into that particular information?"

Hazel raised her hands. She schooled her face to look innocent. "Look, I want to know everything about your family, and apparently, my informant was very detailed with the information that they gave me, and your background, obviously, was part of the information."

Another long silence. This was very uncomfortable for Hazel. She wanted to turn on the music again because right now, the only noise that she could hear was the muffled sound from the cars outside.

"Is this the same informant who informed you that the Lozen family is targeting one of the members of the Leighton family?"

"Yes." Hazel was glad that Ranon seemed to buy it.

However, he didn’t immediately drive again; instead, he kept staring at her. It seemed Ranon was the type of man who was so hard to please.

"I want to know your informant."

"Can’t. The informant is rather shy; they don’t want to talk to anyone but me."

Scrunching his eyebrows, Ranon started driving again. "How so?"

"I don’t know." Hazel shrugged her shoulder; that was the safest answer that she could muster right now.

It was clear that her answer didn’t satisfy Ranon at all, but he stopped prodding since he knew she wouldn’t say anything about this informant.

More so, they were going to be late for dinner.

"So, what should I expect?" Hazel turned on the song again. "Do you want me to make her jealous or what? Do we have to be so lovey-dovey?" She giggled when she suggested that.

Ranon stretched out his hand to the dashboard and took something out; it was a small box. He tossed it to Hazel’s lap.

"Wear that." Ranon glanced at Hazel. "You don’t need to do or expect anything; we are going to eat dinner. This is me introducing you to the family."

Hazel opened the small box and found the ring that Ranon got from the auction.