Chapter 577: Love Betrayed

Some people, once they turn away, it’s for a lifetime.

This truth was something Adrian Law understood from a young age.

Adrian Law raised his head, his gaze fixed firmly on his father, who still maintained his well-kept appearance, and spoke coldly.

"Don’t you think it’s already too late to say this now?"

Frank Law’s throat tightened.

His face, still in its prime, suddenly lost its brilliance.

"Adrian, it’s never too late to start, you’re being too stubborn, you’re still young, there’s a long road ahead, and dad can use his latter years to compensate you."

"Compensate me for what?"

Adrian Law smiled indifferently, the curve of his lips suffocating Frank Law.

He had a premonition of what Adrian would say next, but his lips quivered twice, and a vague sense of shame surged in his heart, turning his confident words weak.

"Adrian... one can’t live in the past forever, I can compensate you with many things, such as the position of Family Head, or the shares in the Law Group, you shouldn’t be too single-minded."

"Life is still long, though you’re triumphant now, no one can guarantee you won’t fall in the future. Dad has been through it all and can teach you a lot. Your temperament is too aloof, have you not considered that people are only afraid of your current authority? But once you lose your current glory, who will be there to help you?"

Adrian Law looked at Frank Law mockingly.

"After all this talk of compensation, can you bring my mother and Aiden back to life?"

"This..."

Frank Law was suddenly speechless.

"Moreover, you always blame my personality for my lack of friends in business, but back when I first started college and the Law Family was in an economic crisis, which of your friends truly came to help?"

...

If not for Adrian Law stepping in, using a technology patent he developed to win the favor of a foreign corporate giant and secure venture capital, the Law Family might have collapsed.

Adrian Law was just over twenty then, yet he rose to the occasion, fearless and unafraid, not only saving the Law Family from peril but also establishing a new generation of artificial intelligence slogans.

Frank Law, though resentful of his eldest son for being too single-minded and not listening to him enough, never respected him like other children did their parents. However, Adrian’s decisive actions a few years ago were enough to make Frank Law wary of Adrian Law.

Such wariness stemmed from a keen commercial intuition.

As long as his son is in power, his voice in the Law Family might diminish.

...

Indeed, it was just as Frank Law anticipated. Since Adrian Law took charge in the Law Group, his influence grew stronger daily, even if he wasn’t as conciliatory and smooth as other leaders, but with his integrity and sharp business insight, he attracted followers after followers.

Frank Law wasn’t without pride; after all, this was his son.

Blood is thicker than water.

But for a father and son in business, it’s like living in The Crimson Citadel, fraught with peril, compounded by Adrian’s apparent deep-seated resentment towards Frank Law’s betrayal of his mother, Susan Roswell.

So, ever since then, Frank Law increasingly supported Tyson Law.

Tyson Law wasn’t one who couldn’t measure up; at least, he was excellent, with great prospects in studying entrepreneurship at business school.

But compared to his eldest son’s talent, he was far behind.

...

Frank Law knew in his heart, Adrian Law was the best future Family Head for the Law Family, but for his retirement plans, Frank Law had to use Tyson Law to constrain Adrian Law’s development.

What’s more, Tyson Law and his mother, Mabel Keaton, were both obedient and compliant, unlike Adrian Law, who was like a spiky hedgehog.

Yet, Tyson Law was completely overwhelmed by Adrian Law, and now, he’s even in a slump because of Fiona Vaughn’s infidelity, deeply frustrating Frank Law, leading him to think about reconciling with his eldest son.

Unfortunately, Adrian Law was an immovable person, tougher than any stone.

...

Frank Law looked deeply at his handsome and unmatched son in front of him, sighed.

"Adrian, why do you need to argue like this with your father? I’m already half buried in the ground, why would I still want to create trouble for you?"

"In old age, the words and considerations are necessarily more comprehensive than yours."

"You look so glorious now, but you haven’t considered the bigger picture, you shouldn’t have married Cecilia Vaughn, she was once engaged to your brother, and there were rumors about her impurity, along with having been imprisoned, even if wrongfully so, how does that reflect on the Law Family?"

Adrian Law was naturally protective, disliking when others tarnished those he cared about.

"Father, isn’t that the most ridiculous thing you’ve said?"

"If you cared about the family’s reputation, how could you openly bring a mistress and her illegitimate child into the Law Family?"

...

Frank Law was silenced.

After a long pause, he murmured his defense.

"That shouldn’t be equated, your mother had already passed away then."

Heaven knows, if Susan Roswell hadn’t died in that accident, he wouldn’t have thought of marrying another woman.

"Huh..."

Adrian Law laughed coldly.

"Even without those ill-intentioned people, my mother would have been sooner or later angered to death by you and Mabel Keaton."

"..."

Frank Law was silenced again.

"Things that haven’t happened..." The middle-aged man coughed lightly: "Can’t be used to concoct nonsense."

"You might not know, mother was already suffering from severe depression then."

"You’re lying!"

Frank Law thought of Susan Roswell treating him coldly back then, and how diligently she managed the Law Family, also guiding her two children skillfully, not resembling someone in deep depression.

He immediately refuted.

"Before your mother died she seemed spirited, still having myriad ways to irritate me, how could she have severe depression?"

"You never understood her... Father, can you insist you loved my mother without feeling shame?"

Adrian Law’s eyes seemed burdened with unending storms, but recalling how he found sleeping pills and hospital diagnostic papers in his mother’s drawer after her death, he bitterly smiled.

His mother, in the end, misplaced her trust.