"What are you doing here?" Zachary Thorne asked as he stood up. "Who's looking after Madam Sterling and the old man?"
"You don't need to worry, Mr. Thorne. After all, I'm a married man. I can entrust matters at home to my wife." Carson Holden walked up to Ivy Holden. He said nothing, simply staring at her with a frown. The melancholic air radiating from him was suffocating.
Ivy Holden suddenly felt like a criminal for having thrown her whole family into turmoil.
"Dad, if you have something to say, just say it. Don't look at me like that." 'Ivy finally understood why her mother had been so hopelessly devoted to the man before her. It was doubtful that the average person could withstand the kind of scholarly air he exuded.'
"Ivy, first, I need to apologize to you," Carson Holden said calmly. "I'm sorry. Ever since you were little, you were always by your mother's side. I neither took care of you nor educated you myself. I am partly responsible for your willfulness."
