A Graduation Gift

Chapter 221 The Altercation

Rufus's brows knitted together as a light smile played on his lips—he found this whole thing with Horace hilarious.

"While I respect your opinion, I'm going go with what I think is right. Facts are facts. Cassandra and I are in a relationship and you can't change that,"

Rufus said in a firm tone—he didn't care that Horace was fuming.

"Rufus, you have so many women to choose from, even better women, Amanda, for example..."

Horace tried to speak in a soft tone but Rufus interrupted him.

"Amanda doesn't stand a chance. The only woman I love is Cassandra!"

Rufus purposely sounded final and resolute but Horace was persistent.

"Rufus! You should know your place as she should! You're too good for Cassandra! She's not good enough and you know it! She's not good enough to be part of the Tang family!"

Horace bellowed.

"Didn't she suffer in the first place because of the Tang family? She was forced to marry into the family for money then she was shoved aside after the divorce. How dare you tell me she's not good enough! What do you know? I don't care what anyone else thinks because I know who she is. I know her better than anyone. The Tang family may have kicked her aside but she's way better than a certain group of people who act all high and mighty on the outside but are actually the dirtiest people I know!"

'No one in the entire Tang family can say that they're better than Cassandra.

Horace abandoned his wife and son—he deserved to be hated.

Jill is a bored housewife who does nothing but badmouth her so-called friends within her social circle.

Lionel is just waiting for the chance to rise to power in the Tang group so he can squander the family business.

And Ivy, well...' his thought trailed off.

Something flickered in his eyes when he thought of Ivy. 'I'll make her pay eventually for framing Cassandra. But as for now, I need her for my plan.'

The Tang family might seem perfect on the outside but in reality, it had been already rotting from the inside.

The Tang family's throne was atop a hill—just one push would make their kingdom come crashing down.

"You… Are you insulting me?"

Horace angrily pointed a finger at Rufus.

This was the last thing he expected of Rufus—he was never one to disrespect him like that.

"I didn't name names. You came up with that one all on your own," Rufus said simply.

It didn't take long before people started hearing Rufus and Horace going at it with one another. Jill tried to intervene but she looked frightened at the sight of her husband being angry.

"Horace, calm down. Getting angry isn't good for you. You're supposed to be recovering,"

she spoke as she glided towards Horace to assist him in his breathing.

Lionel and Ivy had heard the fighting as well and came out to check what was going on.

When Ivy heard, "...the dirtiest people I know", she flinched. Her face reddened and beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

'Could it be, Rufus knows anything? Does he know about what I did with Joel? Does he know everything?' Ivy wondered.

She hadn't talked to Joel in a while and she didn't know if he had confessed or something. The more she dwelled on it, the more worried she became.

Lionel kept to himself but he had secretly gone to pick on Cassandra several times and he was unsure of how much she had told Rufus.

He could more or less guess out what had Cloris done to Cassandra before, but he had no way of knowing whether Rufus had talked to Cassandra about it or not.

When he saw that it was his father that Rufus was having a spat with, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

Since they were both Horace's sons, Rufus was his number one rival in owning the Tang Group. ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Unfortunately, Lionel didn't have the instincts of a business man. Before Rufus came back, he had scraped by with a few accomplishments here and there but that was mostly because he was Horace's son. When everyone else saw how successful Rufus was, he'd just been shoved aside and even reprimanded by Horace himself.

Horace had generously thanked Rufus over the years—many even in front of Lionel. If his father decided to give everything to Rufus, Lionel would have nothing left.

However, now that Rufus was outright disrespecting Horace's wishes even after he'd been reprimanded, Lionel now still stood a chance. 'Maybe, he'd be disappointed enough in Rufus to write

him out, ' he thought to himself.

As Horace and Rufus continued to go at it, Lionel kept quiet but carefully listened in.

"Rufus! I allowed you to keep your surname even after you returned but now you won't even listen to me about Cassandra? How dare you disrespect the Tang family for her! We're only looking out for you best interests! This is for you too!"

Not once did Horace put down his shaking finger that was still pointed at Rufus angrily.

"You're only thinking of yourself. All you care about is money. That's all you care about,"

Rufus said remorselessly. No one had ever disrespected Horace to his face like that before. Horace would never admit it but Rufus was right—all he really did care about was money.

Everything that he did was for money. He didn't marry Hellen because Jill's family was extremely wealthy and generous.

Ever since Rufus returned, Jill hadn't so much as batted an eye to him. She kept pretending that he wasn't there.

Lionel saw Rufus as his greatest rival. Rufus was the only person who stood in his way of position and power in the Tang family and the Tang Group.

Ivy was undoubtedly angry with him for having Joel jailed. To make matters worse for Ivy, she couldn't even visit Joel for fear that people might judge her for being related to a criminal.

All these people cared about were themselves.

Meanwhile, Cassandra was used to being abandoned and she could even marry someone she didn't love just to save her family.

Vernon spoiled Cloris and never gave much thought to Cassandra but nonetheless Cassandra did what she could to save her father from going to jail.

When the Tang Group was about to acquire Qin Group, Cassandra was the one who made sure it wouldn't happen.

She wasn't interested in the Tang's money at all. She didn't take a penny from her divorce and she worked herself to the bone for her father's company.

It was such a shame that Cassandra was being compared with the Tang family when she didn't deserve that kind of disrespect.

"Rufus, don't be so arrogant. How can you talk to your own father like that? Do you really think you're so indispensable that we wouldn't be able to survive without you?"

When Jill saw that Rufus was unfazed, she couldn't hold back at all when she directed these words towards Rufus.

When Rufus wasn't around, Lionel was the one who helped keep the company running and it was doing fine. 'Rufus just thinks too much of himself. Does he really think that he's the lifeline of the Tang Group?' Jill thought.

"Well, if you don't need me then that's fine, I don't have to be here anyway. But I suggest you think twice before letting me go. Arthur of the Dawn Star Group has targeted Tang Group as his number one enemy and numbers show they've been doing really well. If anyone else can take him down then be my guest,"

Rufus spat back as he glared at Jill.

'Who can they depend on for this? Jill? Lionel? Are they joking? They don't know the first thing about all of this!' Rufus thought to himself.

There were several reasons why the Dawn Star Group was doing well lately. First, Arthur was very talented so there was no surprise about that. Second, they received some large investments from the TY Group. And lastly, it was the Tang family's own doing—they gave Arthur an opening in the market.

Arthur was not only the CEO of his company but also their best architect. His work could actually compete with Cassandra's in bidding wars.

When Cassandra was still around, Arthur would never be able to beat her. One could say that Cassandra held Arthur back simply by being better than him.

However, part of the divorce agreement was that Cassandra quit designing. She was legally forbidden to sign her name under any design. Since then, the Tang Group hadn't churned designs as good as before. Bidding war after bidding war, they kept losing to the Dawn Star Group. With their rise came the Tang Group's subsequent fall.

A person's heart could be likened to a kite—when a kite's string broke, it flew higher. The same was true for the heart.

This was also true for Arthur's career—he'd become so successful that he didn't even bother hiding the fact that he blatantly stole clients from the Tang Group. The string that was holding Arthur's career back was none other than Cassandra.

Meanwhile, the Tang family was still disillusioned that they were still number one. Rufus thought they were all naive and foolish.

"Give the position to me. I'll be the CEO. I'll manage the company,"

Lionel piped in out of nowhere—he'd been watching the whole thing from upstairs. When he heard Rufus mention the CEO position, his eyes lit up. 'This is my chance!' he thought to himself. 'I can't believe Rufus is quitting! I've got to take this chance!'

"I'm confident that I can make things better," he promised.

Rufus sneered at Lionel's unwarranted confidence. He raised his head to look at Lionel and his eyes were sharp as knives.