At first, Dorian was unsure about his inner doubts, but after seeing Beatrice's response, his icy heart was now covered in even more frost.
"Mom, since you know what's really going on, why pretend to be clueless? Does Arabella really have the cash to hire all these people to cause trouble? Can you really assure me you had nothing to do with all this?"
"I couldn't care less!" Beatrice brusquely interrupted Dorian. "The bottom line is that this mess was cooked up by Vivienne and the Ellington family. Vivienne has to clean it up. She's a Hawthorn too!"
"Oh, Mom, remember how you stopped me from acknowledging Vivienne? Now suddenly she's a Hawthorn again?" Disappointment filled Dorian's eyes as he looked at Beatrice. "I won't interfere with Vivienne's decisions."
Dorian felt nothing but pain after recalling how Evelyn and Vivienne had been humiliated and driven out of the Hawthorn family. He coldly spoke to Beatrice. "Mom, we've cut ties, okay? I came to see you today because we're still family. You're my mother, even if it's just in name. And frankly, I'm not enjoying this visit, so I'm out of here."
With that, he turned around and left without hesitation.
"That ungrateful brat!" Beatrice was so mad that she pounded the bed. "I should've strangled him when he was born!"
"Mom, did you really send people to make trouble at Dorian's place?" Michael Hawthorn asked.
In the past, no matter how Beatrice bullied Dorian, he would never intervene. He even enjoyed it. But with the Hawthorn family in such a bad state, his voice was now tinged with resentment.
Beatrice kept quiet.
"What do we do now?" Joseph Hawthorn asked urgently. "Vivienne won't see Mom; the Ellingtons show us no respect, and let's not even think about begging Percival. We went through so much trouble to get that formula from Dorian. We were almost back on top, and now this happens!"
Just as Beatrice was about to speak, footsteps were heard outside the room. She immediately sneered. "Finally decided to come back…"
The door opened, and she was stunned. In came a beautiful middle-aged woman in a white suit.
Beatrice was thrilled. "Iris! You're back!"
"Mom." Iris Hawthorn walked in with a bag of fruit and glanced at the spilled coffee and coffee cup on the floor. "What happened? I just got back and heard that something happened at home. How come you're in the hospital?"
Iris was Beatrice's only daughter. She rarely returned home since moving to Ozoria with her husband ten years ago.
Beatrice had always doted on her only daughter. Seeing Iris made tears fill her eyes.
"It's all because of Vivienne and Dorian!"
"Is Vivienne really back?"
Iris was slightly surprised. When she'd heard Evelyn and Vivienne had been thrown out of the Hawthorn family, she always felt pained whenever she thought about it. She had come back this time because she'd heard about this and wanted to see her niece, Vivienne, whom she'd always been concerned about.
"Dorian should've never brought that troublemaker back!" Beatrice said bitterly.
Iris frowned slightly and asked for a detailed account of what happened.
Although Beatrice and the two brothers exaggerated and were biased, Iris managed to discern the truth.
Her originally gentle voice became somewhat heavy. "Clearly, Arabella was in the wrong. She should clarify and apologize. Where is she? You spoil her too much. You're sick, so why isn't she here taking care of you?"
...
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