Chapter 221: Three Demands

The phone rang for some time before it suddenly stopped along with a beeping sound as Tristan moved forward to pick up the phone.

“Hello cousin.” Came Ryan’s confidently infuriating voice.

“Where are my kids?” Tristan asked angrily.

“Oh calm down man, calm down, you don’t expect me to harm my own blood now do you? They are perfectly fine.”

The sound of Ryan’s voice echoed throughout the hall since the phone was on speaker, a few of them let out relieved breaths hearing Ryan’s words, but those that really knew him already had suspicions building up in them at his feigned kind words.

However, his next words returned the panic to everyone’s hearts,

“But not for long Tristan, you are well aware, of how impatient I am as a person, they could suddenly start to annoy me or I may find them just useless eyesores, who knows what I might end up doing to them then.”

“Ryan, don’t you dare harm my children or I swear…” Tristan’s voice was deeply threatening which could make one shudder, but at the moment, Ryan wasn’t at all frightened since he had the upper hand in this situation.

“Oh, you can threaten me all you want, but, that won’t help you get your kids back now would it?” His voice conveying intense disdain and mockery, he seemed to enjoy having something on Tristan considering Tristan had always been the boss of him in the past.

Celine quickly came forward, “What the hell do you want Ryan? Let my kids go!”

“Oh look at that, she finally remembers me, I thought you’ve forgotten about me, it turns out I’m still fresh in your memories.” He said in a mock sweet voice immediately he heard Celine’s voice,

“Here’s something, why don’t you tell me how much you’ve missed me, if I hear you say such sweet words, I might just… Have a little bit of mercy on your little brats!”

“You’re insane Ryan, you’ve lost your mind! If you dare hurt my kids then I swear you won’t live to see the next day!” Celine yelled infuriated by his wanton ways of threatening her children’s safety.

“Oh great, you’re threatening me now huh?”

Tristan cut him off sharply while slightly patting Celine’s shoulder to calm her down and reassure her,

“Cut the crap Ryan and tell us where you took the kids.”

“Now why would I tell you that?” Ryan laughed, the sound full of mockery and amusement as if he was having the time of his life.

“Don’t make me hunt you down myself Ryan!”

“Oh, I’d like to see you try then, dear cousin. C’mon, knock yourself out, in fact let me give you a little tip, it’s no use searching this whole city, because no matter what you do, you won’t find me, and… Neither will you find your kids. If you don’t believe me, you can try searching as much as you want… And oh! Call the cops, the military, whatever force of the law you can think of, and you might ruin my mood so much that, I won’t think twice to end your adorable little darlings.”

Ryan’s voice sounded confident and full of himself, one could tell whatever he did now was well planned.

Though Celine seemed calm, internally her heart had already melted in fear for her children’s safety, she looked up at Tristan, her eyes showing him the amount of fear she was currently feeling.

“What do you want?” Tristan finally asked, because it was quite evident Ryan was doing this in order to achieve something, his well thought out strategy and efforts could not just have been for nothing or just to get revenge, it was evident he had a bigger motive.

“Wow, now there’s the killer question, did you have to go through so many circles when you could have asked this right from the start? Of course I will make my demands, I have a few of them, three demands to be exact.” Ryan said pausing as if to be in thought before he continued,

“First… And the most important of all, you will call for a press conference, and then, in front of the general public and the whole country, the people who look up to you, respect you and idolize you, you will openly concede and resign from your position as the owner and CEO of Grayson Corp.”

Gasps of shock rippled through the hall. Ryan was insane to make such an outrageous demand, his intentions soon became clear to everyone present.

Celine felt a jolt in her heart as she glanced up at Tristan, his face unsettlingly calm.

“What the hell are you talking about Ryan? Have you lost your mind?! First you kidnap those innocent little children, they are related to you as well, and now you’re making crazy demands? Is this how you were raised as a son of the Blakewood family?!” The old man could no longer hold in his anger as he bellowed in rage.

“Oh save me your lectures grandfather, they are a little old don’t you think? You even forgot to add your favourite phrases like you’re a disappointment, a failure to the Blakewood family and all that, you should go check your dictionary for giving lectures to your grandchildren. Stay out of this old man, I haven’t gotten to you yet for throwing me out of the family, so be patient for your turn.”

“Ryan.” Eve moved closer to the phone to speak, “Ryan how could you do this, they are just children.”

“Oh, is that who I think it is? My lovely cousin Genevieve, no one told me you came back. Ah, I just remembered, no one cares about me in the Blakewood family anymore. My parents turned their noses up at me because I couldn’t secure a stable position in the family company, thus, painting me a loser in their eyes and now they’re placing all their hopes on my sister instead, while my grandparents chose their favorite.”

“Ryan, that’s not true, you’re important to this family and…” Eve began but he cut her off.

“If you know what’s best for you, better stay out of this Genevieve, before I lose the little good impression I have of you.” Ryan warned, his voice turning stern as he spoke to her, though he didn’t like many of them in the Blakewood family, Eve wasn’t one of them, however he wouldn’t turn soft when he was right about to achieve his goal.

He then continued to speak, “And now for my second demand, well… This is mostly for you, Celine, my second demand is… Of course because I’ve missed you, I’d like just a few hours of your time.”

Hearing that, Celine exchanged a gaze with Tristan before Ryan’s voice came over again,

“Yup, you guessed that right, I’d like to meet you for a few hours, after that, you can leave I won’t keep you, but by then, my second demand would have been fulfilled, I just want to get to share a few moments to chat and have merry times, you can call it a date or just an outing if you want. it’ll be just the two of us, you and me.”

“Don’t you dare even think about coming anywhere near my…” Tristan’s voice was a sharp, intense growl. Ryan was pleased to hear such an enraged tone in his voice, he instantly cut him off.

“Whoa, little brother, what are you getting so worked up for? You’re not even married to her yet, she’s just your fiancée, your engagement is still warm, just a few weeks old, so don’t act like she’s all yours already, she has a right to decide if she wants to meet with me or not, right Celine?”

Celine was silent and didn’t reply to his question, instead she asked, “And what’s your third demand?”

Celine knew that this was a big issue they would have to sit and talk about to find a solution, she wouldn’t arbitrarily make a decision, though she was worried sick for her children, she still knew that being calm was the best thing to do at this point, she couldn’t just panic and make rash decisions that might possibly endanger her children’s lives, besides, she was confident Leo and Leah were smart kids, they would be calm and patient until they were rescued, she just hoped Ryan wouldn’t lose his mind more than he already had and try to harm her kids.

“Oh, Celine my sweet lady, the third demand is not for you so don’t worry about it, I’ll naturally address it to the person it concerns, you just sit back, make yourself pretty, and anticipate the moment we’ll meet again hmm.” He said in a faint gentle coaxing voice before suddenly bursting out in laughter as if he found his own words funny to himself, then he spoke again,

“Now, for my third and final demand…” He drawled, making the whole place fall silent momentarily as they waited to hear another terribly outrageous and unreasonable demand from him, “This is the last one, but I assure you, it’s a big one, I want to get back everything that I’ve lost, and take it all back for the humiliation you’ve all caused me!” His voice turned darker for a moment, as if he was trying to hold back deep anger he felt for all of them, but a second later he regained his bright and mock playful tone,

“…For my last demand, I want, the whole Blakewood family itself! The family name, the respect, recognition, and the whole darned family company, Blakewood Groups in my name!”

Everyone was rendered absolutely speechless.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep