Chapter 5

Ethan Grant POV

By the time my father arrived at the hotel, Claire Hayes had already left.

After he watched the surveillance footage, his expression became extremely ugly.

In the footage, Lily Carter used Claire Hayes’s main visual to film, and during the dispute, she took a step back on her own and knocked over the red wine.

Claire Hayes did not push her, but I stood in front of Lily Carter at the first moment.

“You fool!”

My father slammed his palm on the table.

“I told you to host Claire Hayes, not offend her so badly that she calls off the engagement!”

My face turned livid from being scolded.

“Dad, it was just one image.”

“Just?”

My father laughed in anger.

“That main visual was personally commissioned by Vivian Hayes.”

“You letting Lily Carter use it to film engagement materials was the same as grinding the Hayes family’s dignity into the floor.”

I fell silent.

Lily Carter stood to the side, tears falling nonstop.

“It’s all my fault.”

“Please don’t scold Ethan.”

“I saw that the main visual was beautiful, so I begged him to let me test it out.”

My father looked at her coldly.

“Miss Carter, you are not part of the Grant family, so in the future, stop making decisions in Grant family matters.”

Those words were too heavy.

All the color drained from Lily Carter’s face at once.

After all, she had used my favoritism since childhood to freely enter and leave the Grant family, and everyone gave her some respect.

This was the first time my father had publicly placed her on the outside, and grievance and resentment surged up together.

I frowned.

“Dad, Lily isn’t in good health, so don’t scare her.”

My father pointed at me.

“You’re still protecting her?”

“If the Hayes marriage is canceled, do you know how much support Grant Group will lose?”

“Grant Group doesn’t depend on women to make money.”

My tone hardened.

“And I don’t want to marry a woman who makes such a huge scene the first time we meet.”

When my father heard this, he calmed down instead.

“Do you think Vivian Hayes values you?” he asked.

I raised my head.

My father’s voice sank.

“Back then, when Grant Group’s capital chain nearly broke, Vivian Hayes brought in the first lifesaving investment for us.”

“Later, during several overseas mergers and acquisitions, the Hayes family trust also guaranteed them from behind the scenes.”

“Half the position you sit in now is dignity that they left for the Grant family.”

My expression finally changed.

I knew the Grant family and the Hayes family had an old connection, but I did not know it went that deep.

My father picked up his phone.

“I’m going to the Hayes family to apologize in person.”

“You’re going too.”

I was just about to speak when Lily Carter suddenly grabbed my sleeve.

“Ethan, my stomach hurts a little.”

My father looked at me.

I hesitated for only one second before supporting Lily Carter.

“Dad, I’ll take her to the hospital first.”

“We can apologize tomorrow.”

My father closed his eyes in anger.

Before my father went to the Hayes family, he first had someone bring me back to the study.

“Do you know why Lily Carter has been able to do whatever she wants in the Grant family all these years?” my father asked.

I said nothing.

My father said coldly, “Because you backed her up.”

“The maids didn’t dare stop her, your assistants didn’t dare refuse her, and business partners gave her resources because of your face.”

“Now you say she was just ignorant, but who would believe that?”

Those words made me very uncomfortable.

I had always thought I was only taking care of Lily Carter.

Her parents had died early, and she had lived with the Grant family for a while as a child, so it was normal for me to protect her a little more.

But when my father laid out those acts of “care,” they suddenly became a long account of favoritism.

Lily Carter had not become what she was today in a single day.

She had been spoiled by me little by little until she no longer knew where the line was.

Before my father went to the Hayes family, he specifically had someone send Lily Carter back to her own apartment.

Lily Carter stood at the hotel entrance, and I stood beside her.

She was wrapped in a coat temporarily brought over by the staff, and her expression was ugly.

“I should go apologize too.”

My father glanced at her.

“If you go now, you will only make things look worse.”

“But Ethan...”

“Ethan shouldn’t go either,” my father said coldly.

“But he is a Grant, so he must go bear responsibility for the trouble caused by the Grant family.”

“You are not a Grant, so stop appearing on behalf of the Grant family.”