The voice was clear and pleasant but cold, shocking everyone present.
Everyone suddenly turned around to see Joel, who had returned home at some point, standing outside
the crowd.
The man, who usually had a smile on his face, had a frosty look at the moment.
Everyone who saw him subconsciously stepped aside and made way for him.
Just like that, Joel took step after step toward Tanya and went up to her .
As he stood beside her and held her hand, his attractive fox-like eyes glanced at Jill.
Jill's heart trembled at the sight of him.
But when she thought of how Joel had always shown her mercy in the past, she became bold again.
"The Joneses brought Tanya up.By virtue of our kindness in bringing her up, how are we unworthy of
it?"
The Joneses had brought Tanya up? The woman must have forgotten again how Tanya had survived!
At the Joneses, she survived by eating garbage that the others had left behind.
The money that she bought her school textbooks with were all earned by working as a babysitter for
the Joneses.
The nine-year compulsory education was free of charge.
Even the money for her tuition in high school had come from her distributing flyers during summer
vacations! What kind of financial support had they given her? Joel had decided not to hold it against the
Joneses all this time simply because Jill was Tanya's mother.
No matter how badly she treated Tanya, she was her biological mother.
This was a fact that would never change! He hadn't made any moves because he was afraid that
Tanya would come to regret it in the future.
After all, they were mother and daughter related by blood, and Tanya had indeed grown up under her
supervision.
Moreover, Tanya initially had Karl to stand up for her, so Joel was more than happy to hide at the back.
Firstly, this gave Karl an opportunity to do something, which would help with him repairing his
relationship with Tanya.
Secondly, as a junior, it ultimately wasn't appropriate for him to be too merciless with his elders.
But now that Karl had been imprisoned, if Joel still didn't step forward, wouldn't Tanya be bullied to
death? The previous night, when Jill took money from other people, demanded that Joel did what she
asked, and then left after saying that, Tanya had already thought it through.
On that night itself, she had already told Joel that she wanted to sever ties with Jill! Tanya had already
made up her mind.
Jill had no boundaries.
There was no way Tanya would allow such a shameless parasite to leech off the Smiths! It was
because she had finally made up her mind that Joel stepped forward today.
He didn't want outsiders to rebuke Tanya and say that she didn't have a conscience.
In that case, he would be the bad guy instead! He stared straight at Jill and sneered, "What does the
fact that you're Tanya's mother have to do with the Smiths?!"
The question stunned Jill, and she stood where she was in a daze.
She frowned and asked Joel perplexedly, "Tanya is your wife, so that makes me your mother-in-law!
How am I unrelated to the Smiths?"
Joel's eyes suddenly turned cold.
"Oh? Sorry, but I've always been a cold and heartless man, and I believe there are a lot of people who
have said that about me behind my back.They call me the smiley Hades, right?"
Joel and Justin were equally famous in New York, but he wasn't as fearsome as Justin because he
always looked like he was smiling.
However, everyone knew that he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
One could never figure out what he liked.
He might be smiling at you one second, and then taking your life the next! Many years ago, a real
estate company had been driven into a corner by the Smiths.
Desperate, the boss had approached Joel and gotten down on his knees in front of him to beg for
forgiveness.
The smiling Joel had told him to stand up.
Thinking that Joel had let him off, the boss had left gratefully.
However, the next day, he found out that the company had still gone bankrupt! In the end, the boss
threw himself off the top of a building.
This incident was also the first thing that Joel had done after he took over the Smiths.
It had intimidated all of New York, and no one had dared to underestimate him ever since.
At this moment, when Jill heard what he said, chills suddenly ran down her spine.
She stared at Joel and swallowed.
"W-what are you planning?"
Joel took out a stack of evidence proving the Joneses’ crimes of tax evasion and waved it back and
forth.
He replied, "I just thought I'd cooperate with the authorities and crack down on some tax evasion."
Jill swallowed at once, the look in her eyes going blank.
She stared at Joel incredulously.
"H-how dare you!"
The authorities had been very strict in cracking down on tax evasion recently.
Should the evidence about the Joneses’ tax evasion be submitted, the Joneses would definitely go
bankrupt! Not only would they lose all their money, but Mr.Jones would even have to go to jail! Joel cast
his eyes down.
"I have already dialed 911 just now.I'm sure the police will come and retrieve the evidence very soon:
His simple one-liner made Jill's knees go weak with fright.It was at this moment that Mr.Jones, who had
sent Jill here, finally couldn't hide anymore.He got out of the car at the side, stepped in front of Jill, and
said to Joel, "Mr.Smith, this is all a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! I will take her away now,
okay?"
Jill said angrily, "No!"
Smack! Mr.Jones slapped her across the cheek at once.
"Shut up!"
Then, he wanted to drag her away and leave.
Joel stared at Mr.Jones.
He had threatened them several times with their company previously and each time, Mr.Jones would
come forward and take Jill away.
But a short while later, Jill would always pop up again.
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