The Billionaire's True Heiress: From Fake Jewel to Real Crown novel Chapter 637

“Why shouldn’t she make that kind of demand? What is that supposed to mean?” Octavia rolled her eyes, exasperated.

“How would I know why she wants this? Are you suggesting I was the one stirring things up?”

Latham could hear the edge in Octavia's voice and quickly tried to explain himself. “Octavia, that’s not what I meant. It just… it’s a strange request, that’s all.”

“She knows perfectly well that Claire is no longer part of the James family. How are we supposed to make decisions for her?”

Besides, Latham had met Mr. Clark’s son before—he was thoroughly unimpressive, certainly no match for Claire.

“I already told her as much, but Mrs. Clark wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Octavia said, frustration creeping into her tone. “She’s made her conditions perfectly clear.”

And unless they agreed to Mrs. Clark's terms, there’d be no chance of securing that bank loan.

Latham bristled in silence. He knew the James family was in a weak position—right now, they didn’t have much room to negotiate.

“I really don’t know how we’re supposed to ask Claire about this,” he said after a moment.

It might have been a bit easier if Mr. Clark’s son had at least been decent-looking, but the truth was he was overweight and bore an uncanny resemblance to Mrs. Clark.

Latham couldn’t help but wonder what on earth had possessed Mr. Clark to marry her in the first place.

“I agree—it’s an impossible thing to bring up.” Octavia nodded. “Yes, we did raise Claire, but if we try to use that as leverage now, people will talk.”

“Claire’s already drawn her distance from us because of everything involving Cindy.”

“If we try to push her into an engagement with the Clark boy, she’ll only grow even more distant.”

“To be honest, I’d much rather see Lance and Mabel get married. At least that way, our families would join forces and we wouldn’t have to grovel for a bank loan.”

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