The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne)

The next day, Dorian took another sick day from work, knowing full well Beatrice's character and anticipating that things wouldn't go smoothly. So, he planned to spend the entire day dealing with this issue. Vivienne didn't have classes that day, so she came along.

As Dorian's wife, Cordelia naturally tagged along as well.

After dropping Thaddeus off at school, they headed straight to Hawthorn Mansion.

Just as Michael was about to ring Dorian, they showed up.

He took a glance at Dorian, asking, "Got the stuff?"

"Yeah." Dorian responded calmly, "When's the lawyer coming?"

"He's on his way, about fifteen minutes," Michael said.

Dorian nodded without further comment.

The Hawthorn family kept quiet, the mansion was eerily silent.

Beatrice sat at the head of the table, shooting a murky glance at Dorian before closing her eyes. Nobody offered to pour water for Dorian's family.

Dorian didn't mind, the three of them sat quietly.

The lawyer arrived earlier than expected, taking only ten minutes.

When the lawyer arrived, Dorian stood up first, "Let's get started."

Beatrice opened her eyes and calmly said, "First, show me the goods!"

Without hesitation, Dorian presented the newly rewritten formula to Beatrice.

She skimmed through the formula, frowning, "Just one formula? Are you so stingy?"

Dorian's expression didn't change, "Evelyn only left me this one formula."

"That won't do!" Beatrice barked, "You think one formula can settle the score for birthing and raising you? You must be daydreaming!"

Dorian looked up into Beatrice's eyes, speaking sternly, "Mom, this formula is worth at least ten million. You're my mother, but you haven't raised me properly. To you, I'm just a tool. You favored my two brothers, I have nothing to say about that. I didn't come here today to discuss this. But Evelyn's formulas, there's only this one left. If you don't want it, I'll sell it to someone else. I'm not afraid of you bothering us anymore. If worst comes to worst, we'll move somewhere else after selling the formula."

"You bastard!" Beatrice cursed, "You're a Hawthorn and you want to sell the formula to outsiders? Don't you have any regard for the Hawthorn family, for me as your mother?"

Dorian sneered, "I came here today to sever ties with you all. I'm not associated with the Hawthorn family anymore."

Beatrice, clutching her chest, was left gasping for air.

Michael rushed to support Beatrice and asked Dorian coldly, "Dorian, are you sure about this? Leaving the Hawthorn family for good, no regrets?"

"The best decision I ever made was leaving the Hawthorn family," Dorian said seriously.

"Good for you!" Michael was equally pissed off.

Truth be told, they didn't want Dorian to completely sever ties with the Hawthorn family.

Not because they had any affection for Dorian, but because they knew he had more perfume formulas up his sleeve.

Also, Beatrice had told them she'd convinced Arabella to win over Percival's heart. However, this would inevitably involve Vivienne, since she was Percival's fiancée.

With Vivienne around, Arabella's chances of success were higher.

But Dorian's stubbornness was really unbearable.

"You think you can just walk away from the Hawthorn family? Dream on!" Beatrice stuffed the formula into her pocket, saying coldly, "I've got the formula now, and I won't give it back. Unless you bring out a new one, you won't be able to cut ties with the Hawthorn family today."

She knew how important this formula was.

Years ago, Evelyn had used a few formulas to elevate the Hawthorn family to the ranks of Havenwood's elite.

Now, just one formula would restore the Hawthorn family to its former glory. But what she sought wasn't the Hawthorn family's prominence in Havenwood, but their status in Rivenwood.

If possible, she even wanted to oust the Ellington family.

Her ambitions had always been big, and she would stop at nothing to achieve her goals.

What was one son to her?

If necessary, she was even willing to sacrifice all three sons.

Dorian knew she would react this way, he scoffed, "Mom, I'm your flesh and blood, how could I not know what you're thinking? I guessed you'd keep the formula. Do you really think I'm a clueless kid?" Beatrice had a bad feeling, "What do you mean?"

"This formula is incomplete, it's missing two crucial ingredients. Without them, this formula is worthless," Dorian said with a poker face.

Vivienne had reminded him of this on their way there.

He thought this was the safest way, so he altered the formula on the spot.

Truthfully, he had been a bit hopeful that Beatrice would keep her word for once, but it seemed he really shouldn't have expected anything from her. She was a woman who would do anything to achieve her goals.

"You ungrateful son!" Beatrice was livid, she picked up a cup from the table and hurled it at Dorian.

Dorian dodged, the cup smashed on the floor. He turned to look at Beatrice, his face grim. "If you're gonna play games, then we're done here. Let's go."

With that, he called Cordelia and Vivienne intending to leave.

When Beatrice saw he was really going to leave, she freaked out. "Wait a minute!" she called Dorian.

Dorian stopped, silent, looking at her.

Beatrice was pissed off by his attitude, but she knew she couldn't turn back the clock. So she told the lawyer, "Mr. Dylan, can you whip up a contract? I want to cut ties with this ungrateful child."

Mr. Dylan had known yesterday that he was coming here today to deal with the relationship between Beatrice and Dorian, so he nodded and started drafting the contract.

Mr. Dylan quickly prepared the contract and gave one copy each to Beatrice and Dorian. "Check this out carefully. If there's no issue, sign it and we'll get it notarized," he said.

Beatrice skimmed the contract quickly and said, "I'm good."

Dorian, however, read slowly, word by word, to make sure he didn't miss out on anything.

After reading the contract, Dorian said, "I have a problem."

"What's the problem?" asked Mr. Dylan.

Ignoring Mr. Dylan, Dorian turned to Arabella, who had been standing quietly next to Beatrice. "Arabella, I know I adopted you, but you've been living with your grandma all these years. Now that I'm cutting ties with her, I wanna know if you want to come back with me, or stay with your grandma?"

He continued, "If you choose your grandma, we should add that to the contract too."