Chapter 216: Alice Cole Changes Her Mind

That evening, when Miles York returned home, Alice Cole told him about her plan to transfer her shares to Brooke York.

“Honey, I want to give half of my shares to Brooke.”

“You want to give Brooke York shares?” Miles was shocked. He never expected Alice to want to transfer her equity to Brooke York right now.

Even though Brooke York was his biological daughter, he still felt that Alice’s approach was far too dangerous.

“Yeah. Why do you look so surprised? Brooke is our daughter; isn’t it perfectly normal for me to give her my shares?” Alice couldn’t understand why Miles was reacting so strongly.

She wondered if he had never even considered giving Brooke any shares. But Brooke was their daughter! How could he have never thought about it?

If that was the case, she really needed to keep her guard up. Generally speaking, in situations like this, an unwillingness to give shares to one’s own flesh and blood meant there was someone else even more important to him.

He wanted to give the shares to someone more important than their daughter. Did he have an illegitimate child?

Sensing this possibility, the more Alice thought about it, the more convinced she became that Miles definitely had an illegitimate child on the outside.

“Tell me, Miles, do you have an illegitimate child out there? You want to give your shares to your bastard, don’t you? You might even want to hand this entire company over to them, right?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t know what goes through that head of yours all day. I’m either at the company or at home every single day. Where would I even find the time to have an illegitimate child? Tell me that.”

“Who knows? Maybe when you say you’re going to the company for business, you’re actually sneaking off to some love nest to see your wild woman and your bastard child.”

“You’re just making things up out of thin air. Your imagination runs completely wild, and you just spew whatever nonsense comes to mind.”

“Then tell me, why have you never thought about giving Brooke any shares? Plus, you were so shocked when I mentioned it. That look on your face proves you never even considered it.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t give her shares. I just think it’s too early for that right now. Besides, I’ve already given half of my shares to Chloe York, you knew that, right?”

“I know. That’s why I said I’ll give mine. You don’t have to give any; you don’t have much left after giving them to Chloe York anyway.”

With that last sentence, Alice almost sounded as if she were being incredibly considerate.

“Alice, like I just said, it’s way too early to give them to her now! She’s only a freshman in college. My health is fine, and I can still manage the company. If you give them to her now…”

Miles didn’t finish his sentence, but his overall point was clear: he didn’t think it was appropriate.

“Hey, no, Miles, that’s enough. Aren’t Chloe York and Brooke the same? Why is it okay to give shares to Chloe York, but you think it’s not appropriate for Brooke? If you ask me, you’re still playing favorites with Chloe York.”

In her eyes, this was no longer an issue of an illegitimate child. At the very least, an illegitimate child would share half of Miles’s DNA. They would be Brooke’s half-sibling. But Chloe York was a complete outsider who meant nothing, with absolutely no blood relation to them whatsoever. Giving her shares was a massive loss.

“How did you manage to drag the conversation back to this again? Of course Brooke and Chloe are different. One is my biological daughter, and the other is an outsider. Don’t you think I can tell the difference?”

“You can tell the difference? I think you’re completely clueless. If you were clear on it, you wouldn’t be saying things like this—giving shares to an outsider while holding out on your own daughter.” Alice was practically a powder keg at this point, ready to explode at any moment.

Over the slightest thing, she felt that Miles wasn’t on her and Brooke’s side, but rather on Chloe’s.

Miles let out a heavy sigh and resorted to reasoning with Alice. “We need to groom Brooke, while we don’t have to bother with Chloe York. If we give the shares to Brooke now, and the other shareholders and employees find out, will the board respect her? Will the employees listen to her?

“What we need to do is let Brooke make some contributions to the company first and earn everyone’s respect. That way, when you give her the shares and place her in the CEO’s seat, people will actually support her,” Miles spelled it out for Alice, piece by piece.

After all, Alice was his first love, and he was hers. They had been together since they were twenty. They had weathered so many storms together and built the company from the ground up. So, even though Alice’s thought processes were hard to follow at times, and even though she sometimes doted on Brooke York so much that she made mistakes—aside from getting angry in the moment, he would always go back and help clean up her messes time and time again. He would always reconcile with Alice, going back to getting along as if they had never fought in the first place.

“You say let Brooke make contributions, but how is it that easy? You know how the people at the company are. The moment Brooke steps foot inside, they’ll know she got in through nepotism. Isn’t giving her shares first the best thing we can do? Once she’s the largest shareholder, what else can anyone say? If she goes in without any shares, the whole company might gang up and bully her.”

“But aren’t I still at the company? With me there, who would dare bully Brooke?”

It was as if Alice had just realized Miles was indeed still at the company. “Oh, right, you’re still there. You can keep an eye on things and stop them from bullying Brooke.”

“Exactly. I’ll be watching over the company; I won’t let them bully her. So you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Let’s have Brooke gain some experience first. Once she’s well-trained and has earned everyone’s respect, we’ll give her the shares. Then she can smoothly take over as the CEO, right?”

“Alright, we’ll do as you say. I’ll hold off on giving Brooke the shares for now. But you have to promise me—you cannot give any more of your shares to Chloe York. You barely have any left. If you give her more, she’ll be on equal footing with Brooke.”

“Okay, I promise. I absolutely will not give any more of my shares to Chloe York.” 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

“And not to anyone else either. Nobody. Save your remaining shares for Brooke. I’ll do the same with mine. That way, Brooke will have sixty percent of the shares, and she won’t have to worry about a thing.”

“Sure, no problem,” Miles agreed without hesitation.

He could feel how deeply Alice loved Brooke York. He knew that love was part of it, but the biggest part was guilt.

Even though Alice always pushed the blame for the baby mix-up onto Chloe York, she knew perfectly well in her heart that it was because she had found her own baby ugly back then. Convinced that an ugly child couldn’t possibly be hers, she had taken the pretty baby instead.

But ever since Brooke York returned, Alice’s guilt had only deepened, fueling her desire to make amends. Driven by this guilt and her need to compensate, she would endlessly indulge Brooke York’s mistakes and constantly follow behind her, cleaning up her messes.

Therefore, he didn’t blame her. He also blamed himself for only focusing on the company back then and not being by her side.