With regards to Clarissa’s ambition to become a director, it was a journey that would take some time. Given how new she was, she had made impressive progress by being able to start filming within a year.
The first thing she needed to do was to look for investors.
For the initial stage, she already had two major shareholders backing her.
For the subsequent investment, Tyson Corporation offered to invest however much she needed, causing her to feel undecided as to whether she should accept.
Actually, she wasn’t keen on Matthew investing in her movie. After all, it was her first time directing a movie, and she didn’t want to take advantage of her family in case she failed.
However, Matthew had a very good reason.
“The movie will be about our love story. No matter how good or bad it is, I must invest in it. If I don’t, wouldn’t I have benefited other men?”
Clarissa didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
What does he mean by benefiting other men? It’s not funny at all.
However, given how adamant Matthew was, there was no way she could bring herself to reject him. After all, it would be stupid to turn down money for her movie.
Having received the necessary funds, she got her team together and started building the movie sets. It was going to be another massive project.
Luckily, she had secured the help of Justin’s team, which saved her a lot of time and money.
With the preparation work underway, Clarissa began to focus on the cast which she had no experience in selecting.
By then, her novel had been released to great fanfare. In the promotional material, it was just described as a romantic novel. Nevertheless, everyone automatically assumed the story was about her relationship with Matthew.
Naturally, the marketing team took advantage of the situation by promoting it being a token of love from her to her husband.
With that statement alone, the novel was sold out at the pre-order stage.
Even though the publishing firm had prepared a huge number of books to satisfy the pre-orders, the demand greatly exceeded their expectations still.
Hence, they had no choice but to get the factory to work overtime and print more copies.
Moreover, there wasn’t an e-book version available. It was done on purpose so that the publishing firm could make significantly more profits.
When the novel was released, Clarissa stated in the postface that she was going to adapt the story into a movie. She hoped that her fans would stay tuned and look forward to it.
This time, Clarissa poured everything into scaling up her projects.
However, there were some who liked it and some who didn’t.
Those who didn’t were either jealous or felt that she was trying to milk her fans’ money. They had the impression that she was fooling around with her money by being both an author and a director at the same time.
To avoid letting such comments affect her mood, she avoided reading any of them and focused on her work instead.
She didn’t mind if she wasn’t understood by others. What really mattered was that she did whatever she wanted to.
Consequently, she became so popular that everyone saw her as the paragon of a successful woman.
After all, she had a loving husband, an adorable son, and a skyrocketing career.
In the process of becoming the center of envy of the masses, there would undoubtedly be haters too.
Margaret was furious at the recent developments.
The Tysons had been made to look like fools being manipulated by Clarissa.
Even though they seemed to have ruined her three years ago, she was now basking in glory with Matthew in the palm of her hands.
She owed her success to Matthew.
If not for him, she wouldn’t have been so famous, let alone possess the financial resources to produce a movie. Until then, Margaret felt that Clarissa’s success was solely due to Matthew’s support from behind the scenes. She didn’t believe that Clarissa had any talent at all.
Hence, she felt Clarissa was exacting revenge on them by flaunting her fame.
To the Tysons, she had not only cheated on Matthew, but leveraged Matthew’s support to gain fame for herself. Given that she was now a movie director, everyone praised her for her success and was envious of her life. In fact, they even wanted her son to take over the Tysons’ assets.
Margaret would be outraged every time she thought about it. This was definitely Clarissa’s sweetest revenge over them.
“George, will you just look at her. What do you think she wants? Is she doing all these just to rub it in our faces?”
Recently, George was also in a foul mood. It was bad enough that the adorable grandson wasn’t theirs. And then, Clarissa had to taunt them with such fanfare.
Most of his old friends were aware that they didn’t accept Clarissa. Given how successful she was now, he had become the laughing stock among them.
I’m really old now. So what if I’m upset? Matthew has always been headstrong, and no one has ever been able to stop him.
“What can you do about it then?”
“I…”
Margaret was stumped.
However, she was infuriated by the chaos Clarissa brought to their family, to the extent she felt she couldn’t die in peace.
“But, we can’t just allow her to harm Matthew, can we?”
To them, Matthew was a gullible son who was willing to give up everything for Clarissa while she took advantage of him as best as she could.
“By choosing to love her, Matthew has willingly put himself in harm’s way. There’s nothing we can do. I’m afraid we will just have to accept her.”
“But… but, at the very least, don’t let our assets fall into her hands. George, you have to think of something.”
What can we do?
“George, since Matthew loves her so much, we can’t rule out accepting her. Besides, it’s not we like can break them up. But, we must have a condition. Damian cannot inherit the Tyson family’s assets. Unless she bears him another child. Or else, she won’t get a penny.”
To them, the inheritance had become the largest issue.
Despite resenting Clarissa still, they were resigned to accepting her given the circumstances.
The truth is, she is a vixen that has bewitched our son.
Even though we have accepted her, shouldn’t we at least have a limit?
George seemed to agree with Margaret’s suggestion.
However, Margaret added, “We can’t let Matthew decide as he might not agree. After all, he loves Clarissa a lot and treats Damian as his own. Hence, there’s no way we can stop him. Why don’t I contact her personally instead? If she really loves Matthew, she would agree to bear his child. We can then accept her unconditionally, and she would be grateful for being able to stay on as Mrs. Tyson. If she doesn’t agree, she has no right to blame us anymore. After all, we now know that her son isn’t Matthew’s.”
Margaret felt that they were in the right with regard to the matter.
Hence, by dealing with Clarissa directly, they could resolve this behind Matthew’s back.
Although they were old, they still had resources at their disposal. After all, they weren’t the kind that would become powerless just because they had reached old age.
.Therefore, they didn’t need to meet with Clarissa in person
All they needed was to convey their demands to her.
Consequently, Clarissa received their message in the midst of her busy schedule.
After staring at the DNA report in her hands, she gave the person in front of her a puzzled look.
“Ms. Quigley, George wants to let you know that he is willing to look past the child’s identity given how much Matthew loves you. However, the child can only carry the Tyson name but not inherit the Tyson fortune. As for you, you will need to bear him another heir. Or else, this son will not inherit anything. Also, George would like to remind you about how much Matthew loves you given that he treats your son as his own. Hence, he hopes that you will think on Matthew’s behalf and not let his feelings go in vain.”
Clarissa was still baffled.
“As long as you promise to be loyal to Matthew, the Tysons will let the past slide and acknowledge you.”
Initially, Clarissa thought that the DNA report was the Tysons’ ploy for humiliating and getting rid of her.
Hence, she didn’t understand the rationale behind their demands.
Does this mean that they think the DNA report is real and they were not the ones to fake it?
Did they change so much within three years that they can accept me cheating on Matthew?
Clarissa was extremely amused by it. What are they thinking?
“Ms. Quigley?”
Clarissa looked at the person and sneered, “So, do the two elders really think my son isn’t Matthew’s?”
“Ms. Quigley, the DNA test was conducted under extremely secretive circumstances. Hence, you don’t have to explain yourself as the facts are clear. All you need to do is to agree to their demands and you will be able to obtain more benefits. Or else, once the DNA report is made public, your reputation will be ruined.”
“Haha…”
Clarissa chuckled.
“Alright. Let me think about it. You can go now.”
The moment the person left, Clarissa called Matthew at once. She quipped, “Matthew, since when is my son not yours?”
Just as she spoke, she suddenly felt awkward doing so.
“No, I mean Damian. Why is he no longer your son? Did you know about the DNA report all this while? What’s going on? You owe me an explanation right now.”
Matthew could sense a storm brewing from her tone.
He replied at once, “Alright, don’t worry. I’ll come home and explain it to your right away.”
Still on the line, Matthew got up and left his office. Along the way, he continued to pacify her.
“Clare, don’t be mad. I was not bothered by the report and obviously didn’t believe it. The only reason I didn’t tell you was that I didn’t want to enrage you.”
