Chapter 439: Chapter 436: It’s Easy to Talk Standing Up
Gillian Thompson sat in the driver’s seat, looking at Joshua Thompson, her eyes bright, excited and nervous.

She watched as Joshua sneered at her through the window, pointing at Nicholas Thompson and saying, “Come on, hit him.”

Gillian trembled, thinking she had misheard.

“What are you doing just standing there, hit him!” Joshua stared at her coldly, “Don’t you want me to forgive you? Don’t you want my shares? Hit him, and they’re yours.”

Nicholas Thompson’s heart tightened, he shouted, “Joshua, what do you mean by that?”

“What do I mean?” Joshua raised his eyebrows, crossed his arms and gave a lazy smirk, “You think we’re heartless, but it’s easy for you to say when you’re not the one being hit. We’re family, we can’t play favorites, she might as well hit you.”

“As long as she hits you, I will forgive her, and the shares are hers, how about it?”

Nicholas stood still, a wave of emotions crashing in his eyes, “I’m not just his brother, I’m also your brother.”

“Yes, we’re all brothers, so why does someone play favorites?” Joshua smirked, sarcasm evident in his words, “Where were you when Fourth Sister was suffering? Where were you when she needed someone to back her up?”

Nicholas’s face hardened, his lips pressed into a thin line.

“I know you think I play favorites, but Gillian and my relationship is too close. From the moment Fourth Sister disappeared, she became my support and my responsibility,” Nicholas said, his eyes downcast, “Even if I didn’t help Fourth Sister, she still had you all, but Gillian is now alone in the world, apart from me, who will protect her.”

“Oh my second brother, she’s already a university graduate, in her twenties, not a baby that still needs your protection. You’re so concerned, you might as well marry her,” Joshua scoffed.

“Joshua Thompson!” Nicholas’s face changed, “You’re not a child anymore, you know what you should and shouldn’t say, right?”

“Will you crash into him or not?” Joshua, ignoring Nicholas’s words, turned his sight to Gillian within the car, and coldly hummed one more time.

Gillian gripped the steering wheel tightly, her hands and feet trembling at his prompting.

Should she hit him?

Of course not.

That was Nicholas, her beloved second brother.

She could live without parents, without relatives, but not without her second brother.

Her second brother was her lifeline now.

If she were to hit him, wouldn’t that be the same as destroying the rest of her own life?

“No, I can’t… I can’t do it.” She turned to Nicholas, her eyes brimming with tears, “Nicholas, I just wanted Joshua to forgive me, I didn’t expect him to humiliate me like this. I should just go home, I won’t go to the family dinner.”

Gillian sobbed, tears and snot mixing together, this time she was genuinely crying.

She was scared by Joshua.

When Joshua was hit the first time, she had hired someone to do it, and Isabelle Richardson was also involved.

One could say she had only funded it, not participating in any other way.

But now Joshua was asking her to hit Nicholas. She couldn’t do such a crazy thing, she didn’t dare to.

“Can’t hit him?” Joshua raised his corner of the mouth arrogantly and squinted his eyes, the smile not reaching his eyes, like a sheathed sword. “Did you know I own a third of the shares… Fourth Sister doesn’t want hers, so all of it was given to me, aside from big brother, I am the second-largest shareholder. You know the value of Thompson’ family assets. It’s enough for your family and descendants for generations, are you sure you don’t want it?”

A third of the shares…

Gillian’s tears stopped flowing, and her heart pounded.

She hesitated, glancing at Nicholas.

That glance made Nicholas furrow his brow.

“Gillian, you…”

He almost thought Gillian was really going to hit him for a moment.

Gillian struggled, she had forgotten her foot was still on the brake.

In that instant, the car suddenly started moving.

Gillian trembled and quickly stepped on the brake.

But even in that short time, it was enough for Joshua to laugh and Nicholas to be shocked.

“Nicholas, I’m sorry, I…” Gillian panicked, “I didn’t have my foot on the brake, it wasn’t on purpose.”

Looking at the complicated expression on Nicholas’s face, Joshua’s lips curved upward slightly.

“Gillian, our deal is valid forever.”

Sometimes, advice doesn’t work, just planting a seed was enough.

Nicholas’s face turned deathly pale with anger, “Joshua, I’m your second brother, do you really want me to die?”

There was a hint of disbelief in his voice.

He knew that because he had helped Gillian repeatedly, the whole family was disappointed in him, but he never thought that Joshua would wish for his death.

“Whether I hope or not does not matter, it depends if she’s willing to.”

The moment Joshua’s words fell, Gillian immediately interjected, “I’m not willing, Joshua, please cancel this deal, I don’t want it.”

“I may be poor, but I have my pride. Even if I am poor all my life, I will not do this to Nicholas.”

Gillian’s words were sincere and aggrieved.

Joshua snorted coldly and dialed Molly Walker’s number.

“Fourth Sister, Nicholas and Gillian are outside. If you don’t want them to come in, I’ll call the security to get them out of here immediately.”

Hearing that, Nicholas’s face turned red with embarrassment.

He was Ivy Thompson’s second brother after all, but now he was being told by Joshua that he was less than an outsider.

Since Ivy mentioned the family dinner, he should be included.

But he didn’t dare to say it out loud.

Thinking of Ivy’s words, “You’re not my second brother.”, Nicholas’s heart clenched in discomfort.

Although he liked Gabriel a bit more, he was also Ivy’s brother. After all these years apart, she treated everyone else nicely but treated him like an enemy.

He watched Joshua hang up the phone, his heart immediately knew the answer.

Ivy must not want to see him.

“Let’s go.” He gave Gillian a weak smile, about to get into the car and leave, when Joshua stopped them.

“Fourth Sister said to let you in.”

Though he did not understand why Ivy changed her mind, since she said so, he would obey.

Hearing that they could go in, a spark of hope ignited in Nicholas’s heart.

Could it be that Ivy had a change of heart and was willing to treat him and Gabriel as family again?

A family dinner, only family members could participate, if Ivy agreed to let them in, that meant she recognized them as family.

Gillian originally thought they wouldn’t be able to get in this time, but she hadn’t expected Ivy to agree.

Joshua, seeing their astonished faces, rolled his eyes and walked into the villa first.

Gillian and Nicholas immediately followed him.

Once they reached the entrance of the villa, Nicholas reminded Gillian again, “Don’t argue with her once we get inside.”

Gillian, her eyes low, swallowed back the pain and quietly nodded.

Inside the villa.

Molly Walker sat on the sofa with a gentle-looking Michael Gallagher by her side.

James Leaford’s and his daughters’ eyes scanned back and forth between them.

“Ivy, you said you had something important to tell us, what is it?”

James Leaford was full of curiosity, eager to know the answer immediately.

At first, he thought his niece was about to discuss her identity, but to his surprise, she had brought Michael Gallagher here.

Was she not announcing her true identity, but declaring her remarriage with Michael Gallagher?