Chapter-82
"Don't get ahead of yourself yet, you bastard!" Mr. Wangley shouted in anger.
"You have to remember that Mr. Harmon isn't the only one who's poisoned here. Without my antidote, you won't be able to live past tomorrow with my poison in your system!"
"Is that so? Wanna bet on who kicks the bucket first?" Dustin chuckled.
"Why you-!" Mr. Wangley had been rendered speechless. Looking at the current state of affairs, it was obvious that Quentin was the one who would lose first.
And it was exactly for this reason that Mr. Wangley proposed to call it a draw. Unfortunately, the other party was having none of it.
"Hurry up and give me the antidote already, Dustin! We'll count this as a loss on our side!" Quentin yielded grudgingly.
If it weren't for the fact that he really couldn't bear the pain anymore, he would never concede to a puny ant like him.
"You can't just 'say' that you've lost. Where's the sincerity in that, Mr. Harmon?" Dustin teased while shaking his head.
"Don't you test me, Rhys!" Quentin roared.
"When you make mistakes, it's only logical that you admit your wrongdoings, no? Are you telling me that you can't even do that much?" Dustin urged on, devoid of the slightest bit of fear.
"Oh, so you want me to get down on my knees and admit my mistakes to you? What makes you think you're fucking worthy of that?" Quentin sneered as his expression turned cold.
"Of course, I'm not worthy. I guess you'll just have to get rid of the poison by yourselves then," Dustin replied with a shrug.
"Are you threatening me right now?" Quentin scowled.
"Goodness, no. I'm just returning the favor," Dustin replied, unperturbed.
"Enough, everyone stops this farce at once!" Jessica suddenly screamed.
"You'd better hurry and pass the antidote to Quentin right now, Dustin. Otherwise, you won't be able to take responsibility if anything happens to him after this!"
"With all due respect, ma'am, every man considers his promises like gold. So since I made a promise just now, naturally I would need to fulfill that promise," Dustin replied plainly.
"What are you on about? And why do you insist on making yourself an enemy of the Harmons today?" Jessica snapped, her pretty face now stone cold.
She initially thought that Dustin would back down and be the bigger man in this situation, but didn't expect him to be so insensitive instead.
"Can you cut the act already? You didn't say anything when Quentin was bullying Dustin before, so why are you jumping to Quentin's aid when he's in a difficult situation now? Do you even have a shred of dignity left?" Natasha suddenly voiced out.
"Why are you speaking for an outsider when Quentin is your own cousin?" Jessica frowned.
"I only speak for the truth, not blood relations!" Natasha proclaimed, righteously.
"Quentin was the one who started this whole thing in the first place, so now he's getting what he deserves. Since we're outsiders in their competition, we should just sit and watch and not interfere!"
"Why you-!" Jessica growled, obviously angry at her daughter's outburst.
Although she let Natasha have her way outside, she really could not do anything about her in private.
All of her nagging and lectures failed to get to her. She was such a thorn in her side!
"This is the last time I'm going to ask, Rhys! Are you giving me the antidote or not?" Quentin demanded while gritting his teeth.
"And I'll reply with the same answer. Kneel down and apologize first," Dustin stated flatly.
"Fine! Fine!" Quentin finally gave in with a sinister look on his face.
"I can kneel down, for sure, but are you sure you want to take responsibility for the consequences that ensue?" Quentin growled, his expression was murderous now.
"I'll need to see it for myself first." Dustin smiled mockingly.
"Fine! I hope you don't regret this!" Quentin shouted through clenched teeth. After hesitating for two seconds,
he finally dropped down to the floor on his knees with a heavy "thud".
But as he knelt, his death glare was firmly planted on Dustin, and his expression extremely fierce. Humiliating him in public like this was equal to asking for death!
"The man has already knelt before you. Are you satisfied now, Dustin? Hurry up and hand him the antidote then!" Jessica snapped.
Humiliating Quentin Harmon was equal to humiliating the entirety of the Harmon family. How dare a measly doctor humiliate a Harmon like that. He was really asking to be killed!
"Here. Bottoms up." Dustin said as he fished out a small, white vial and poured the powdery contents into a cup of tea.
"Is that Hexanavir? Mr. Wangley thought to himself.
When Mr. Wangley laid his eyes on the small, white–colored vial, his expression immediately turned into shock, but a look of greed replaced it soon after.
That was legendary Dr. Rowan Cross' Miracle Cure! Why does a punk like him have such a treasure on him in the first place? Anyone could see that this antidote was incredibly precious and worth a lot of money!
Even the tiniest amount of powder could already fetch sky–high prices. It was no wonder that the punk could act so cocky, and that was all because he was in possession of Hexanavir. Today shall be the day of his downfall!
"Hmph!" Quentin snorted and said nothing before downing the whole cup of tea in one gulp.
Almost immediately after he gulped down the tea, the ongoing sharp pains in his stomach gradually started to disappear.
The pain completely disappeared a few minutes later. This caused Quentin to feel like he'd just survived a huge ordeal.
"I won't forget the shame you inflicted on me today, Rhys! You had better not fall into my clutches anymore in the future!" Quentin barked before turning to Natasha Harmon. "And as for you, Natasha, you'd better solve the crisis surrounding Eternumax soon. Else, don't blame me if I report you to the board!"
The moment he finished barking, Quentin left the room in a haggard state.
"You'll definitely regret everything you did today, young man!" Mr. Wangley grunted before turning to chase after Quentin.
Did he know who Quentin was? How could a puny doctor like him humiliate him like that?
If ever he decided to seek revenge eventually, he bet that his bones wouldn't be spared even after he was brutally murdered!
"So you came prepared, Dustin. You really scared me just now." Ruth heaved a sigh of relief.
"It was all thanks to the Hexanavir your sister sent me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have won so easily," Dustin let out a small chuckle.
But of course, the antidote merely made things slightly easier for him.
"Hmph! It was all a trick then!" Jessica snorted and looked at Dustin in disdain.
She initially thought that he'd used his skills for this, but who knew that he had just utilized Hexanavir which was made by the legendary Dr. Rowan Cross.
"You can stay unconvinced as long as you like, but the fact remains that Dustin won" Natasha argued with a hard glare.
"So what if he won by a fluke? What makes you think this kid can research Eternumax without Mr. Wangley here?" Jessica questioned.
Eternumax has been the heart and soul of Harmon Pharmaceuticals for many years now and was an equally important part of the family's development plans.
This was why she refused to believe that such an unknown figure like Dustin would have any ability to save the day.
"Who says? To me, Dustin is way more knowledgeable than whoever this Wangley guy is." Natasha stood her ground firmly.
"Fine, since you keep insisting that he's the superior choice, then why don't we make a bet? If he can develop Eternumax from scratch, I'll take it as he's passed the test. Otherwise, I'll have him resign from his post immediately to make way for the others!" Jessica roared, clearly enraged.
"I have no qualms with that," Natasha said, refusing to give way.
Whether he would be able to do it or not was a separate matter. She couldn't back down now.
"Rhys, you punk! You'd better not let my daughter down!" Jessica spat after getting a clearer look at Dustin. She then folded up her sleeves and up and left.
"What did mom mean by 'test' just now?" Ruth asked, out of curiosity.
"Kids shouldn't butt into adult matters." Natasha rolled her eyes at her in response.
"Hmph! Well, I'm sorry for asking. Who died and made you queen?" Ruth pouted.
"You all keep mentioning Eternumax, but what is it exactly? Ms. Harmon?" Dustin asked while feigning ignorance.
Natasha Harmon forced a smile and started explaining. "Although the Harmons have a firm grip over many industries, the main focus is still medicine. This was why the decision behind the selection of business partners and benefit–sharing were all made in hopes of dominating the pharmaceutical market of the entirety of Swinton. Thus, that was how we began researching and developing a new kind of drug, which we plan to use to capture all of that market share,
"Everything was going to plan in the beginning, but no one had expected that there would be a traitor who had been planted among us. Thus, Tilda Snider's assassination presented an opportunity to us, while serving as a warning to all traitors. But the moment they realized that they were about to be exposed, they employed methods of coercion and enticing benefits to lure our employees to other companies instead, which was how they took away a big chunk of our workforce. Not only that, they even stole our research findings! And the research findings in question were for the new drug we're developing, Eternumax!