Ch 252 - Family History

"Good, you wait for me in Washington, D.C. I'll come back to you soon!" Alex realized that, even though he was overjoyed that Debbie had finally remembered him, he was still at his grandfather's birthday party about to accept the family's punishment. He needed to stop talking on the phone and face the situation at hand.

"I'll wait for you," Debbie said, and Alex hung up.

**

"Lindsey, he wants me! He doesn't hate me. We can go back to the way how things used to be," Debbie said happily as she took Lindsey's hand. Her heart was filled with joy, and her eyes were teary.

Lindsey responded with a smile, even as she tried to push away her own envious, bitter thoughts.

**

After seeing the ecstatic look on Alex's face during the phone call, Lincoln asked, "Who were you talking to? How dare you answer your phone when you're being punished by the family?"

Lincoln was very angry. He felt as though Alex had forgotten the family rules after being away for seven years.

"Yes, I understand. My apologies," Alex said. After looking at his grandfather, he felt mixed up with emotion. He knelt on the ground and said, "Grandfather, I… I can't give up Debbie. Please punish me."

Alex's voice was quiet, but the people in the hall could still hear him and were shocked. The family ban had been lifted when Alex had given up Debbie, but it appeared that he had changed his mind and didn't want to give her up after all.

Is he trying to make Lincoln angry? The punishment will probably be worse now! they thought.

Lincoln smashed his fist onto the table beside him.

He looked at Alex and said angrily, "How can that girl be a part of the Ambrose family? You are an Ambrose descendant. Choosing a girlfriend is no casual matter! Your choice will affect the future of our family!"

Lincoln was very angry. Marriage had never been a rash decision within the Ambrose family. He was very fond of Alex and had intended to train him to be the future family leader. But Lincoln felt Alex's obsession with Debbie, who as far as he could tell was no one important, was dangerous.

Even if Debbie were the daughter of the Marvel family in Washington, D.C., she still did nor rank highly enough to be considered a serious candidate for Alex to date, and possibly even one day marry.

Gideon and Flora advised their son in a low voice, "Alexi, are you confused again? We're the Ambrose family. It's impossible for us to let in a girl from an ordinary family. Just admit your mistake to your grandfather and listen to our words."

Their family was in a very unfavorable situation. Bringing up Debbie again just added fuel to the fire.

Alex shook his head slowly. He understood his parent's pain, but, without Debbie in his life, he knew he would never be happy. To him, it was worth the risk of not becoming the head of the family.

"Sorry grandfather, I can't give her up. Please allow us to be together," Alex said firmly.

Nathan was secretly pleased. He realized that this might be his opportunity to defeat Alex once and for all.

He went to Alex and said, "You are really too small minded. You may not know that just two months ago, George Ambrose, the owner of Harmony Island, betrayed our family and ran off to the Mitchells with a large amount of our information. They've used it to rob us for the past two months. They've gained a lot of ground, and now their rank is becoming close to ours. If anything like this happens again, that family will surpass us!"

The Mitchells were another family with immense hidden wealth and influence across the world. Although both families were extremely powerful, the Ambrose family was still the more powerful of the two. But if there was more family betrayal, the Mitchell family would have a chance to beat them.

Alex was surprised to hear that George had betrayed his family. But this did not change his mind. He knew what he wanted to do.

Seeing Alex's indifference, Lincoln was even more angry. He was disappointed that Alex's priorities had become so misaligned with the rest of the family.

"We will follow the Ambrose tradition!" Lincoln glared at Alex and exclaimed, "This is the most difficult period for the Ambrose family. I think we need to create a new precedent for situations like this. Those who openly oppose the head of the family's orders like this will be punished for sixty minutes. We'll start today. Dexter, did you hear me?"

"Yes, I wrote it down," Dexter said as he quickly nodded.

As soon as Lincoln had finished speaking, everyone in the hall gasped in shock.

The longest punishment in the family tradition had only been thirty minutes of attack.

"Alex, let me ask you for the last time… will you give up Debbie?" Lincoln glared at Alex. He felt that Alex had forced him into a desperate situation. He hoped that his grandson would give up the girl.

Alex shook his head slowly and said, "Grandfather, I'm sorry. I've let you down."

Lincoln's eyelids trembled, and his fists tightly clenched together. He angrily said, "Dexter, get ready!"

Dexter hesitated a little as Alex prepared to face the attack by the group of strong men. Alex had once been considered so promising. Did Lincoln really want to be so cruel to him?

But Dexter saw that Lincoln wasn't showing any sign of changing his mind, so he had to say, "Let's get ready!"

Since Alex had violated the Ambrose family tradition, he couldn't escape his punishment. He prepared to take his place on the floor to await the fighters' attack, but Flora held him back.

Flora looked at Lincoln with tears in her eyes and begged, "Dad, Alexi is your grandson. Sixty minutes of fighting might nearly kill him. Please let him go."

Lincoln slightly clenched his hand on the table. He still looked at Dexter and said, "What are you waiting for? Do you not want to do it anymore?"

The strong men prepared themselves and began to circle around Alex.

"What's wrong with Alex's pursuit of the woman he likes?" A voice came from below. The speaker was Lincoln's ninth son, Tristan Ambrose!

He stood up, walked to Alex's side, and said, "Alex, you've done nothing wrong. You don't need to be punished."

"Tristan! Are you really sticking your nose into this?" Lincoln was furious.

After hearing Tristan speak, Nelly trembled all over and looked at him in surprise.

Lincoln glared at Tristan and exuded fierce anger. He said, "Twenty years ago, you fooled around with some woman, and now you want Alex to learn from you? I didn't give you my blessing twenty years ago, and I'm not giving it to Alex now! I'm putting a stop to this. I do it for the sake of the Ambrose family!"

"Was it really that important to split us up? You said it was for my own good, but how did it help me? Sixteen years ago, she came from Brunei to Baltimore to look for me, but you made him lock me up." Tristan pointed toward Gideon.

"You let the mother and daughter stay in their house and wait for ten days until they finally left. You didn't let me see them once. Am I supposed to thank you?" Tristan looked at Alex and said, "Alex, don't listen to him, or you'll regret it for a lifetime like me."

"Conan!" Lincoln commanded as he clapped his hand on the table.

Conan, who was standing behind him, rushed out toward Tristan. He grabbed his shoulder, stretched out his legs, and slapped him to the ground.

Tristan cried out in pain as he fell to the ground. He roared, "It was you who broke us up. Now I'm dying inside, and it's all because of you!"

Alex took the initiative to roll up his sleeves. He felt the situation had dragged on for too long. He was confident he could deal with the punishment. Even if he had to let Lincoln's men hit him a few times in order to satisfy his grandfather's anger, he knew he was strong enough to survive. He called out, "I'm ready! Let's fight!"

Two of the strong men began to approach Alex. They would reach him in the next second.

"Stop it!" Another charming voice shouted, and a figure quickly rushed toward Alex. It was Nelly.

Tristan's heart moved as he saw Nelly, and he stood up. Something about her seemed very familiar.

"Get her!" Conan pushed Tristan toward the two men and ran to Nelly. He knew she wasn't an Ambrose, so he used a move to hit her right shoulder.

Nelly's martial arts skills were very weak. Conan's palm hit her right shoulder. She snorted and fell to the ground, with a trace of blood flowing out of her mouth.

Conan rushed to Nelly and held her down.

"Who are you?" Lincoln looked at Nelly. He didn't know how the girl got into the family estate.

"Who am I! My mother and I came to the US to find this heartless man, and it turns out that you were the cause of it all!" Nelly shouted as she looked at Lincoln fearlessly.

"What! You're Nelly?" Tristan wanted to hear Nelly's voice and take a look at her. When his lover and their daughter had come to Baltimore to look for him, they had not met. But someone from the family had taken pictures of the pair to show him. Tristan recognized that she was his daughter.

Twenty years ago, when Tristan was a younger, less responsible man, he had visited Brunei. While there, he had gotten drunk and had a relationship with a cleaning girl in a hotel. He had only found out a few months later when he had visited her hometown that she had gotten pregnant.

Although Tristan had not been pleased to learn that she was a cleaning girl, he had felt a sense of responsibility to her and decided to stay with her. After several months together, he had fallen in love with her.

The family had learned the news before the woman, Tallulah, had given birth. Lincoln had sent someone to take Tristan away and had left her a million dollars in compensation.

After she had given birth to Nelly, Tallulah had not forgotten about Tristan, and she had not understood why he had left. When Nelly was nearly four years old, she had taken Nelly to the US in search of him.

Tristan had once told her that he was from the Ambrose family in Baltimore.

As soon as Tallulah had arrived in the US, she had found the family's house. But they had said that there was no Ambrose family there. She had not believed them, so she had sat in front of the gate and waited, but nothing happened.

Later, a man had taken them in to stay at his home. That man was Gideon. Alex's family had its own independent villa in Baltimore. Tallulah had continued to wait in front of the gate all day for ten days, but she had still not seen any sign of Tristan. Discouraged and frustrated, she had taken Nelly back to Brunei.

Tallulah had soon been cheated out of all her money. She had become very ill over the following year, and, sadly, Nelly had been orphaned. She had wandered the streets alone until Zora had found her. She had brought Nelly to the palace in Brunei to serve as a maid.

After recognizing Tristan, Nelly felt like crying, but she couldn't look at him. She couldn't believe that she had finally found her father.

The Ambrose family was surprised. Over the years, Lincoln had sometimes thought about the mother and daughter who had visited from Brunei. After all, they were also the blood of the Ambrose family. It seemed a little cruel to have let them stay in Brunei.

After seeing Nelly's eyes full of malice, Lincoln's anger dissipated, and he felt sorry for the poor girl. He saw from her appearance and eyes that she had suffered a lot over the years.

"Come here, young lady," Lincoln called. He wanted to have a closer look at his granddaughter.

"Don't you 'young lady' me! I hate you!" yelled Nelly. She realized that it was Lincoln who had caused this tragedy. If it weren't for him, her mother probably wouldn't have died.

Nelly exclaimed, "If you want to punish Alex, you'll have to get through me first."