Hi Ex, Your Uncle Is My Hubby Now - Chapter 119: Chapter 119

The moment Irene and Lily stepped out, the hospital room was engulfed in a suffocating silence, thick with impending revelation.
Dorian pulled up a chair and set it beside the nightstand.
He sat down, poured a glass of warm water, and gently moistened his father's lips with a damp cotton swab.
"Dorian," Mike moistened his lips. "There's something I need to tell you."
Dorian maintained his grip on the glass, nodded slightly at his father, and said, "Go ahead. I'm listening."
"This concerns the truth behind your kidnapping ten years ago."
Dorian's expression hardened.
"Wait, there's more to it? I thought it was just a revenge kidnapping for ransom?"
Dorian had never doubted it, since both his father and Jeremy had jointly confirmed the story.
He didn't know what else really happened back then.
"You're a sharp one, Dorian. If it were just my word, I know you wouldn't believe me. But with Jeremy as a witness, you have no reason to doubt it."
He was right about that.
"You're very smart. Why don't you try guessing who else is involved in this, that would make both your uncle and me choose to keep the truth from you?"
Having left the hint hanging, Mike settled back against his pillows to rest.
Dorian's fingers tightened slightly around the glass, his eyes flickering with shock and grief. "Grandma?"
Mike closed his eyes and gave a slight, heavy nod.
"It was her."
Dorian fell silent for nearly two minutes.
"Why?" His voice turned hoarse with emotion, his face etched with unmistakable grief. All his usual confidence and poise had vanished.
Mike let out a long sigh before speaking. "You saw how Jeremy treated me that day, didn't you?"
Dorian remained silent.
Mike wasn't bothered by Dorian's attitude.
"The feud between the Barnes and Tucker family dates back to the wartime era before the founding of the nation. You should know about those old grudges."
Dorian knew the same version of events as Irene.
"From what I know, it was our Barnes family ancestor who took advantage of the Tucker patriarch's critical illness, using underhanded means to seize their entire business empire."
"After the founding of the nation, my great-grandfather returned to Eldraeth City, only to discover that the Barnes family had wiped out the Tuckers. His father didn't even have a burial place. From that moment on, he developed an unshakable hatred for the Barnes family."
Dorian recalled, "When my great-grandfather passed away, he left a dying wish strictly forbidding the Tuckers and the Barneses from intermarrying."
Mike listened to Dorian with a dark, unreadable expression until he finished speaking.
Instead of defending the actions of his ancestors, he turned to Dorian and asked, "Besides the Barnes family, there is the Sinclair and Clayton family among the three great families of Eldraeth City. Tell me, if all four Clayton family heirs were gone and their aging patriarch had no one left to take over the business, what do you think would happen to the Claytons?"
"In that situation, wouldn't everyone pounce on the Clayton family?"
Dorian was caught off guard by the question.
Mike caught Dorian's reaction and flashed a venomous smirk. "Businessmen are driven by profit. It's in their nature. So what exactly did the Barnes family do wrong?"
Dorian frowned deeply, clearly disagreeing with his father. "Dad, that's not even comparable."
"What's so wrong about that?" Mike shot back dismissively.
Dorian said firmly, "All the Tucker kids back then were patriotic youths and martyrs who gave their lives for our nation's future! While the Claytons heirs were merely ordinary businessmen."
A shadow flickered across Mike's face.
Mike refused to admit that the Barnes ancestors were in the wrong.
If he admitted it, the Barnes descendants would never stand tall again.
"Dorian, even if the Barnes family hadn't made a move against the Tuckers back then, other businessmen would've caught the scent and come to take a piece of the pie. Don't think people are that kind-hearted."
Without hesitation, Dorian retorted, "But back then, the only company that took over the Tucker family's business was the Barnes Group."
"You..." Mike choked out, too furious to speak.
He broke into a fit of ragged coughing.