Chapter 969: Joint Pressure

After Florence heard Derek’s self-righteous words, she immediately flew into a rage and sneered. “Mr. Piers, you’re so oblivious and ignorant, just like your father! I’m now the head of the Howards. How can I possibly marry into the Piers, let alone obey the rules you teach me?! Don’t mention those matters again. It’s impossible!”

Derek made it sound as if Florence was definitely going to marry him, making Florence furious.

Derek felt disgraced to be relentlessly rejected by Florence.

He narrowed his eyes and said in a gloomy voice, “Florence Howard, don’t take things too far! If your father hadn’t come to an agreement with my father when he was still alive, do you think I’d marry a woman like you who forced her own father to die in order to take over as the head of your family?”

Florence said angrily, “What agreement with my father? None of the Howards are aware of it, and now that my father is gone, it’s nothing but a one-sided claim from you and your father.

“Also, it’s not up to you outsiders to judge if I forced my father to death or not!

“As I said before, if you’re here today to pay your respects to my father, I will treat you as guests. But if you’re here with the intention of provoking us, please leave the Howard residence immediately!

“People, come!” Florence issued an order, and dozens of the Howards’ subordinates immediately charged forward to surround the Piers. The vast majority of them were the bodyguards in black who only obeyed Florence.

Seeing the scene in front of him, Derek sneered. “Florence, have you decided to make an enemy of the Piers?”

Florence said coldly, “It’s not that the Howards want to make an enemy of the Piers, but rather, your family is provoking us and making an enemy of us!”

The rest of the Howards didn’t say anything and merely looked coldly at the Piers.

Although they didn’t have much loyalty and respect for Florence, the new head of the family, she was still one of them, and this was their residence. Yet the Piers brazenly brought such a large group of people over and even said such unpleasant things to Florence. It was clear disrespect for the Howards.

Derek glanced coldly at the Howards and deliberately tried to make them feel repulsed. “The helmsman of the Howards was driven to his grave by this woman in front of you. Are you willing to watch her remain unharmed and continue being the family head after what she has done?

“Are you Howards so spineless that you’re willing to let a woman rule your family?

One of the Howards couldn’t take it any longer and stood forth to say coldly, “Enough! This is the Howards’ business. You people are in no place to meddle with our affairs! Florence is right. If you’re sincere about sending your condolences, we’ll welcome you!

“But if you’re deliberately here to create trouble and think you can bully us just because Felix has passed away, you can get lost immediately!”

“Exactly, hurry up and get lost! Don’t think we’re pushovers!”

“It’s Felix’s funeral today. You’re in no place to act unruly here! Get lost!”

“Scram!”

…

The Howards hollered together.

In fact, when Conrad started throwing his weight around just because he was old, the Howards had already been unable to tolerate it. Now that Florence was so domineering and they had someone to lead them, the rest of the Howards immediately united.

Regardless of how they usually fought in their family and whether or not they accepted Florence, they still had to be united at this moment and not let the Piers get away with their ulterior motives.

While the commotion was going on among the furious crowd, a high-pitched voice suddenly came from outside the funeral hall. “Haha, I didn’t expect there to be such a lively scene going on in the Howards’ today!”

With the sound of this voice, a middle-aged man walked into the Howards’ funeral hall with more than ten tall and strong bodyguards following behind him.

When Florence saw the middle-aged man’s face, she suddenly felt apprehensive again.

The person who just arrived was the helmsman of another family among the top eight families of DC, Rayson Williams!

Before Florence could greet Rayson, Derek looked at the latter and complained, “Hey Rayson, what took you so long? If you had come a little later, I would have been kicked out by the Howards!”

Rayson laughed loudly. “Derek, how is that possible? Even when the Howards’ former helmsman was alive, he wouldn’t have dared to treat you like that, not to mention that they’re now led by a woman. They obviously wouldn’t drive you away! Otherwise, we wouldn’t stand for it!”

“Haha, you’re right, Rayson! Now that both our families are here, will the Howards really try to chase us away? I doubt she has the courage!” Derek said with a smile on his face.

These two had obviously colluded and had agreed to come to the Howard residence together.

Moreover, maybe the Piers and the Williams had already decided to take advantage of the fact that the Howards had no leader after Felix’s death to provoke the Howards and gain some benefits from them!

Florence wasn’t a fool. She immediately understood the trick as her face turned pale.

If only the Piers had come to exert pressure, the Howards might not necessarily be afraid of them because they were of equal status and strength.

But the Piers had now colluded with the Williams. If these two families dealt with the Howards together, Florence would have no chance of winning!

The rest of the Howards also had indignant looks on their faces.

When Felix was still alive, the former helmsman of the Williams had always treated him as his brother. Derek, the current helmsman of the Piers, and Rayson, the current helmsman of the Williams, were both of a younger generation than Felix. Thus, they had always been polite to him.

But now that Felix had just passed away, and his corpse was still in the casket in the funeral hall, the Piers and the Williams were already eager to fall out with them. They ganged up with each other and came over to bully the Howards in a bid to reap benefits. It was absolutely hateful!

But now that the two families were ganging up to exert pressure on them, they couldn’t deal with it at all!

Florence gritted her teeth. “What exactly do you want?”