52. She Is His Weakness

"I'm sorry, Mr. West. I cannot agree to your request from yesterday."

The next day at the same location, Tara gave her answer, speaking with a serious and earnest expression:

"Also, please do not come to harass Killian anymore in the future. He has no desire to return to your family."

She truly couldn't understand how Weston could still have the face to look for Killian now, even shamelessly asking her to persuade Killian to return to the family.

It was no exaggeration to say that their West family had taken the wealth left behind by Katherine’s parents but failed to treat her well, even ruining her, causing her death, and harming Killian.

How could such an unjust, unrighteous, and unkind person be qualified to demand these things?

"Sigh—"

Weston let out a small sigh. As if he had long expected it, he smiled and said, "It seems Killian has already told you the whole truth, hasn't he?"

Tara didn't want to say anything more to him. She stood up, intending to leave.

However, at that exact moment, the two tall bodyguards beside her suddenly grabbed her shoulders, forcing her back into her seat.

Tara’s expression turned cold instantly. She looked at Weston and said, "What is the meaning of this?"

Weston’s expression remained perfectly gentle and amiable: "Miss Tang, don't be in such a hurry. You might as well carefully reconsider the conditions I proposed yesterday—"

Tara interrupted him unceremoniously, "There is nothing to consider."

Let alone a lifetime of wealth and glory—even if it were ten lifetimes—just based on how their family had bullied Killian and his mother, it was impossible for her to agree to him.

"Is that so..."

Weston didn't get angry either. The sharp coldness and pressure in his cloudy, aged eyes were no longer concealed, displaying themselves fully.

He watched her quietly for a few seconds, then suddenly said, "Let her go."

Hearing this, the two bodyguards immediately released their grip and stepped aside.

Tara then stood up and left decisively.

The old butler on the side watched her retreating figure, bowing respectfully to Weston with a smile just as before: "She will return to beg you in person later."

Tara knew Weston wouldn't let her off easily.

She had envisioned many of the dirty methods he might use against her—both bloody and bloodless.

But from that day until now, nearly three weeks later, she hadn't encountered a single thing executed directly on her person. Instead, the people around her and things related to her had met with accidents one after another.

On the tenth, Chloe’s father was hospitalized after an accidental car crash.

On the twelfth, a fire accidentally broke out at Cassidy’s home, completely destroying the house, and her father was hospitalized with mild burns.

On the fourteenth, an employee at Starstream Studio made a scene threatening to jump off the building, claiming that the high-level management mistreated staff and plagiarized employee results, while reporting the existence of transactional sex within the company. Killian was taken to the station by officers to cooperate with the investigation.

On the sixteenth, Leo went on a business trip out of town and was beaten into hospitalization by a group of local thugs.

On the eighteenth, a student food poisoning incident occurred at the calligraphy training class run by Tara's godparents, and it was shut down for rectification.

On the twentieth, Chloe and Cassidy went out to eat and were each slashed by a passing drunkard.

On the twenty-second, Tara received an anonymous package containing two photographs of her parents that had been slashed to pieces with a knife.

On the twenty-fourth, Tara met Weston again.

"How about it, Miss Tang? Why don't you reconsider the conditions I proposed last time?"

Tara looked at him, her face devoid of color. Her usually soft and sweet voice carried an imperceptible, sickly hoarseness: "Despicable!"

"Despicable?"

Weston smiled, the expression on his aged face gentle and kind. "Why do you say that?"

"Your relatives and friends have only suffered some insignificant minor injuries and lost some insignificant wealth."

"While you and your parents remain safe and sound to this day, don't you?"

Facing this veiled threat, Tara bit her lower lip hard, remaining silent.

"Sigh—"

Weston coughed slightly and sighed, then drank a sip of tea with a calm and elegant posture.

"Miss Tang, I advise you to cooperate obediently and stop making futile struggles."

A faint smile appeared on his wrinkled face as he repeated the original condition once more: "If you become pregnant with Killian's child, I will send people to bring you back to the West family."

"Killian likes you so much; he will surely return to the West family and the West Corporation for your sake."

He put on a generous appearance of fulfilling someone's wishes: "When that time comes, I will hold a wedding for you, and your husband will become an extraordinary figure in this world!"

"And you and your family will also possess endless wealth, power, or anything else you want, as long as you wish for it."

His cloudy, aged gaze—like that of a hawk—stared intently at Tara: "Miss Tang, I believe you are a smart person."

"Of course."

He smiled and said, "Don't attempt to solve the matter by breaking up with Killian either. Otherwise, I cannot be certain what kind of things I might do."

"If things go too far then and harm you or the people you care about, that wouldn't be good."

The weather had already turned to autumn, and the air was filled with a faint, desolate aura.

The decoration in the restaurant was high-end and exquisite, and it wasn't cold, but the hairs on Tara’s arms still stood up uncontrollably, and her heart felt as if it had been doused with a layer of freezing ice water.

She knew she couldn't escape this no matter what.

He wouldn't let her off, and he certainly wouldn't let Killian or anyone related to her off either.

In front of a giant entity like the West family, she, Killian, and even her usually omnipotent brother were all so small.

Going head-to-head would only leave them more battered and bruised.

She had to think of another way.

Looking at his confident, calculated, and heavy gaze, Tara’s small Adam's apple rolled slightly. "Can I think about it a little longer?"

Hearing this, the smile in Weston’s eyes grew a bit more genuine. "Of course. I can give Miss Tang three days to consider."

"When you have made up your mind, you may reply to me at any time."

Night fell at Starry Cloud Manor.

With Starstream meeting with consecutive accidents, Killian had been as busy as a spinning top lately, returning later and later each day.

Because he was worried she would be lonely, he had specially programmed many new functions into X, mainly to keep Tara company, talk with her, and tell her about some interesting recent news or gossip.

It was intelligent almost beyond imagination; many times, Tara felt as if it possessed its own independent consciousness.

"Baby Tara, don't be unhappy anymore. What else do you want to hear? X can tell you anything."

Its large electronic eyes blinked as it looked at her. Although it had a mechanical appearance, it was exceptionally cute.

Tara gently extended her soft palm, stroking its cold mechanical head, and said softly, "Thank you, X."

After she spoke, she leaned down and placed a light kiss on its "face."

At that instant, a data blankness that had never occurred before appeared in X's intelligent mechanical brain.

After a moment, it blinked, a flush appearing on its mechanical cheeks.

Tara watched it quietly. She had already come to view this small non-living entity as family, speaking to it as if chatting with a close friend:

"X, tell me, if I have been used by someone with malicious intent as a bargaining chip to threaten Killian, forcing him to do what he doesn't want to do, how should I rescue him, and how should I rescue myself?"

X also watched her quietly. Its mechanical brain—created by its master, unrevealed to the world, yet far ahead of most intelligent robots on Earth—began to run at frantic speeds.