The CEO’s Substitute Lover

The door slammed shut, and with that, the whole group drove off.

Tredan Davi was once again dumbfounded.

There was a screech as Woodrow steps hard on the brakes and jumped out of the car to run to Tredan Davi.

Following his gaze, he also looked at the trail of dust left in the wake of the black cars speeding away and asked curiously, “What’s that?”

Tredan Davi glanced at him and suddenly found himself incapable of recounting what had happened.

“Tredan, what’s going on?”

Tredan Davi shook his head, “Take your car, go to 68 Maplewood Road.”

“Grand Prince, Grand Prince, His Lordship calls you to the study.” The butler came running over, panting.

Tredan Davi glanced back at the drawing room. Turning back to Woodrow, he said, “Wait for me in the car.”

“Okay.” Woodrow, sensing that the mood was not right, said nothing more and turned to the car.

Floyd sat behind his desk, looking dazed, and sees Tredan Davi enter with a mixed expression.

Tredan Davi sat across from him and waited for him to speak.

“Tredan, your mother and I just got divorced.”

Tredan Davi shuddered.

“I didn’t do it by choice, and if I don’t sign today, I’m afraid Group Davi will be gone tomorrow,” Floyd explained, fearing that Tredan Davi might misunderstand and think that he had abandoned his mother.

“Didn’t you guys stop being together a long time ago? Divorce is just a formality.”

“No, it’s not the same, it’s not the same, without that formality, I, for one, would still be Althena’s husband and would not have disobeyed your grandfather’s wishes.”

“Grandfather’s will?” Tredan Davi frowned.

“Yes, I swore to your grandfather that I would never divorce your mother for the rest of my life.”

Tredan Davi snorted, “The way you’ve been going all these years, isn’t that worse than a divorce?”

“I??” Floyd couldn’t say any more.

“Who is Freeman Gellings?” Tredan Davi asked his father.

Floyd’s expression changed and there was fear and anger in his eyes, “He’s a demon, he and your grandfather are both demons, they’re the same, father and son.”

“Father and son, he?? he’s my uncle?” Tredan Davi was shocked.

“What father and son? Hmmm, he’s just a foundling orphan, just as arrogant and domineering as your grandfather, but he’s not your grandfather’s son, he’s just acting like him. He had been sent to America when your mother and I met, and he founded Group Gellings. However, for some reason, he doesn’t go home much and seems to have a rather cold relationship with your grandfather. I met him twice before your mother and I got married, but both times… were unpleasant.”

Tredan Davi glanced at Floyd, there was fear and resignation and humiliation in his eyes. Floyd thought, that man must have done him a great disservice?

“Shortly after your mother and I got married, your grandfather died and he came back from America to offer his condolences, and hasn’t been back in all these years since. I don’t know how why he just popped up this time.”

Floyd was still haunted by the thought of what he had just been through.

Tredan Davi was silent, only he and his mother knew why he had suddenly popped up.

“Tredan, I want to transfer all the equity in Group Davi Enterprises to your name, and I only ask you to promise one thing.” Floyd looked at his son almost pleadingly.

Tredan Davi raised an eyebrow.

“You are my son and it is only right that you continue my business. But we are to sign another agreement privately, leaving what is due to Eddison and you, Ottilie, in the normal proportions, with you nominally in charge of it all.”

Tredan Davi suddenly understood and sneered, “Dad, you didn’t marry Mum back then because you promised Grandpa some condition, did you? Now you’re giving me all the shares, aren’t you afraid I’ll turn my back on you and throw them out?”

Floyd stalled, “Tredan, you wouldn’t do that, would you? After all, I’m your dad, and for dad’s sake, just…” He suddenly found that he couldn’t go on. So what if it was for his sake?

Tredan Davi stood up and prepared to go, “You might as well pass it on to Eddison, for one thing, he’s your son anyway, and besides, you’re more comfortable with him than with me.”

“No, no, no, not to him, he’s not your mother’s son…”

Tredan Davi looked at his conflicted and frightened father with contempt.

As he ran in, he heard Freeman Gellings’ words, “Floyd, Althena Cockey has nothing to do with you ever again. But just because Althena doesn’t care about the past doesn’t mean I’m going to let you off the hook. The day I think of you and get upset, I’ll come back to you.”

Passing on his shareholding to Tredan would be the best thing for Floyd to do, allowing him to be free from Freeman Gellings’ revenge and continue to sit on his fortune.

That was his father.

Tredan Davi strides off and Floyd sighs in dismay.

Woodrow pulled up at 68 Maplewood Road.

“Is this the right place?” Woodrow asked uncertainly.

Tredan Davi nodded, but he doesn’t immediately get out of the car and rush in.

He didn’t know what kind of emotions he was feeling.

His father’s heartless, self-serving intentions hadn’t surprised him; after more than twenty years, he knew exactly what kind of man his father was, and being hopeless, he felt no disappointment.

He had never been afraid of him either and knew there was nothing his father could do to him at all, and that was the pattern the two had followed over the years.

He never cared for Group Davi, he could have built the same business himself, so why should he accept his father’s legacy, and it was a legacy of charity.

Over the years, his father had done everything to convey a purpose, “Look, I never treated you poorly, I gave you this, I gave you that, I even put your mother in a five-star mental hospital.”

Tredan Davi clenched his fists at the thought of his mother.

If anything, everything his father did and did not do was in his mind, and he always had insight into his every purpose.

But Mum, this time, had left him completely at a loss for words.

Growing up, because of the particular circumstances of his upbringing, he had been particularly in control. Being used to it, he used to panic if there was an accident, but as he grew older, that panic became less and less as he was able to control more and more things.

However, he seemed to be panicky again this time.

He took out a cigarette and lit it, not noticing that his hand was shaking slightly.

68 Maplewood Road was, by all appearances, quiet.

“This place doesn’t usually have any lights on,” Woodrow said hesitantly, he had passed by it often and hadn’t paid much attention, but still, with lights like this, it immediately struck him as different.

Tredan Davi smiled bitterly.

Finishing his cigarette, Tredan Davi takes a deep breath.

What was to come would always come.

“Get out of the car and come in with me, you’re only wearing your ears and not your mouth today, remember!”

Tredan Davi instructed Woodrow as he pushed the door to get out of the car.

Woodrow, too, sensing the unusual nature of the day and more worried about his brother’s safety, nodded solemnly in agreement.

Woodrow knocked on the door and had just put his hand on the knob when the door opened.

It was the same old man with the same expressionless face as last time.

Seeing him, he opened the door and gestured with his eyes for him to enter.

Tredan Davi and Woodrow walked into the living room, one after the other.

Freeman Gellings was sitting alone on the living room sofa, having changed out of his black suit and into a silver and white silk shirt, and his aura was not as compelling as it had been before, but still had the air of a king.

Woodrow looked around. The old and stately-looking house on the outside had an interior that was also quaintly decorated, just a glance showed the kind of understated luxury that was truly opulent.

“Bryce said you were at the door, why didn’t you come in right away?”

Tredan Davi and Woodrow sat across Freeman Gellings.

Freeman Gellings surveyed the two men and said to Woodrow, “Who is Kenway Cruise to you?”

Woodrow flinched, “He’s my great-uncle.”

Freeman Gellings had a look of recognition, “Well, you do look a lot like him.”

“Mr. Freeman, where is my mother?” Tredan Davi hesitated to address Freeman Gellings.

Freeman Gellings laughed, “Didn’t Floyd ask you to call me uncle? Or did you not intend to listen to him at all?”

Tredan Davi didn’t know what to say to that, and Freeman Gellings wasn’t prepared to hear his answer.

“I sent her to rest, I’m afraid she’ll be tired after all this hullaballoo in the middle of the night.” The doting nature of Freeman Gellings’ tone was still calm, and Tredan Davi and Woodrow looked at each other in dark alarm.

“I think you two have a company that’s going public, don’t you?”

The duo looked at each other again and nodded in unison.

Freeman Gellings smiles and asks, “Any difficulties?”

“No.” They both say the same thing.

Freeman Gellings laughed aloud.

“Well done, young man!”

“Hey, don’t you dare bully my son,” a soft, scolding voice suddenly came from the stairs.

“Mum!”

“Auntie!”

Tredan Davi felt relieved, seeing his mother for the second time this evening.

Woodrow, however, was unaware of this and having chased her to this place, his heart suddenly dropped to finally see her, and was about to greet her when he saw that Freeman Gellings had already taken Althena Cockey’s arm.

Freeman Gellings helped her sit on the sofa, and Althea looked at her son first, then she looked at Woodrow and asked with a sideways glance, “Did you bully them?”

Freeman Gellings lost his compelling presence the moment Althena Cockey appeared, at the moment he looked scared as a little husband would be of his wife, all smiles and denials, “No, no, how dare I, ask them, ask them if you don’t believe me.”

After saying that, he looked at both of them with a smile.

Both of them were a bit dumbfounded.

“Tredan, did your dad give you a hard time?” Althena Cockey asked her son.

No, Tredan Davi told them what Floyd had thought.

“Hey, the old boy, even now, he’s still trying to play games with me, what do you mean he transferred it to you, those were yours in the first place, even the place he lives in, tell him to take his woman and his wild seed and get out! He’s just a pain in the ass!” Freeman Gellings stormed.

Althena Cockey looked over at him with a smile as he was about to stand up,

He was immediately quiet and shut up.

Tredan Davi and Woodrow looked at each other with the saying, “One thing leads to another.” running through their heads.

“Tredan, I didn’t tell you beforehand because I didn’t know if this solution would bring him back, and I wasn’t sure.” Althena Cockey said apologetically to her son.

“Althena, how could you think this of me that way? What did I do wrong to make you misunderstand me like this, why did you have to suffer for so many years before you told me, you will make me spend the rest of my life regretting it don’t you?” Freeman Gellings said accusingly as he tugged on Althena Cockey’s sleeve.

“Shut up and be honest or go to bed in your room.”

“I’ll be honest.” Freeman Gellings immediately assured.

Tredan Davi and Woodrow looked at each other with one question on their minds, “Is this man really Freeman Gellings of Group Gellings, with this singing, writing, reading, and playing… ”

Althena Cockey placed her hand on Freeman Gellings’ and his expression softened instantly and Tredan Davi felt as if there were tears in his eyes.

Althena Cockey calmly recounted a story from over forty years ago.

Jeffrey Cockey, the owner of Group Cockey, had by chance picked up a young boy, an orphan who had run away because he didn’t like the orphanage. As they got to know each other, Jeffrey Cockey fell in love with the smelly, bad-tempered six-year-old boy named Freeman Gellings and took him back to the orphanage and adopted him.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Jeffrey Cockey only has a six-year-old daughter, Althena Cockey, loved like her a pearl, his wife died early, he was busy with business, never remarried, when everything was quiet, he also often regretted not having a son, he only had his beloved daughter, and did not want her to get involved in the business world and suffer.