Sorry, posted the wrong chapters yesterday.
"Ahem, am I the only one who doesn't know what the Wellden Group is?" Raymond coughed awkwardly.
His usually quiet father, Edward, also honestly raised his hand to show he had no idea what they were talking about either.
But Juggernaut clearly knew about this Wellden Group. He wasn't surprised by the reaction from the Aden father and son—he just took another sip of his drink without saying anything.
Uncle Mitchell then stepped in to explain: "The Wellden Group is one of the top ten publicly listed companies in Virginia. Its subsidiaries cover industries like clothing, food, and tourism."
"Brands like the local 'Bock Menswear' and the 'Sanders Fried Chicken' chain are both owned by the Wellden Group…"
Even as he spoke, Mitchell still felt like it wasn't real.
If the Carl in front of them really was the chairman of the Wellden Group, then even with a modest shareholding, he'd still be worth at least a few billion dollars.
The clothing company Grandpa Aden founded wouldn't even be one percent of that wealth, even if you added everything together.
For people on that level, even if the Adens occasionally saw them at public events or banquets, they would almost never talk to each other, let alone have one show up at their home as a guest.
They simply lived in different worlds.
Just like how Grandpa Aden's friends were mostly retired small business owners, and rarely included salaried workers.
So it was only natural that Mitchell found it hard to believe when a big boss from a public company suddenly appeared in their house—as a friend of their nephew—and treated everyone politely and warmly.
From Mitchell's sharp observation, it was clear this supposed Wellden Group boss, Mr. Carl, was showing a lot of respect toward Raymond and that big guy named Cain.
Even though he wasn't overly flattering, he clearly lowered himself when talking to them.
That wasn't something you could explain away as "humble."
A billionaire CEO acting ? It didn't add up.
Raymond might be a respected name in academia and a well-known psychology expert, but was that enough to make someone like Carl treat him ?
Mitchell just couldn't make sense of it.
Grandpa Aden, with even sharper instincts than his son, had already noticed Carl's very respectful attitude toward Raymond.
At first, he thought Carl might be one of Raymond's subordinates or some clingy friend trying to get close to him.
He never would've guessed Carl was the head of the Wellden Group.
Honestly, both father and son started wondering if Carl was a scammer.
Because from Raymond's reaction, it was obvious he had no idea Carl was the boss of Wellden Group. They didn't seem that close.
Under those circumstances, if Carl really was the boss, they couldn't figure out why he would act so humble.
But what they didn't know was Carl's other identity—core member of the Hellfire Club: the Black Knight!
Raymond, who knew Carl's background, had no reason to doubt him.
Still, learning that Carl was also the boss of a major public company did surprise Raymond a bit.
After hearing Mitchell's explanation, Raymond turned to Carl with a stunned look and said, "You're actually that rich? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"You never asked," Carl shrugged, looking innocent as he smiled and said, "Besides, compared to Miss Betsy, I wouldn't dare call myself rich. If you're looking to hate on rich people, you've picked the wrong guy."
"Betsy is even richer than you?" Raymond glanced toward the backyard in surprise.
"There's no comparison at all," Carl shook his head.
Hearing this, Raymond finally understood why the Hellfire Club was often nicknamed the elite club of mutants.
Just one of the lower-ranking core members like Carl already had a net worth in the billions and owned a fairly large publicly listed company.
And from the way Carl spoke, his wealth was nothing compared to Psylocke's.
If she were only two or three times richer than Carl, he wouldn't have said there was no comparison.
That meant Betsy must be a truly hidden super-rich person.
If that's what most of the Hellfire Club core members were like—each of them insanely rich—then it made perfect sense why the club had such huge influence.
In a gold-standard society like the Western world, wealth often comes hand-in-hand with political power—especially outside of new tech industries.
With this much money, of course the Hellfire Club had strong political influence. No wonder they'd survived for so long without falling.
Raymond had thought he was doing pretty well financially now—definitely much better than in his past life.
But now? He was still poor...
While Raymond was silently sighing over how broke he still was, Grandpa Aden and Mitchell exchanged another glance, seeing the same doubt in each other's eyes.
Carl claiming to be the chairman of the Wellden Group had already made them suspicious, and now it turned out the woman Raymond brought might be even richer than him—by many times.
Richer than someone worth billions? How much money would that even be?
This was starting to sound more and more ridiculous...
If Carl wasn't Raymond's friend, they probably would've started questioning him already.
With a subtle cue from Grandpa Aden, Mitchell patted Raymond on the shoulder and said, "Raymond, come upstairs with me for a minute. I've got some questions about the company's staffing I want to ask you."
"Sure," Raymond agreed without hesitation.
In fact, he had already noticed the subtle change in expression from both his grandfather and uncle.
He was sure Juggernaut and Carl noticed it too, but they simply didn't care.
Once the two of them were upstairs, Mitchell immediately lowered his voice and asked, "Who exactly are your friends? Are you sure they're trustworthy? From the way they talk, I…"
Mitchell didn't finish the sentence, but it was obvious he was this close to saying, "They sound like con artists."
Raymond smiled and said, "You're overthinking it. Did you forget what I do for a living? Lying to me isn't something just anyone can pull off."
Right—he had forgotten Raymond was a psychology expert.
Even professional liars would have a hard time fooling him, let alone regular people.
"But still…" Mitchell was clearly still uneasy.
Raymond kept smiling and said, "I didn't know Carl was the chairman of the Wellden Group before, but his other identity is at least just as impressive. He doesn't need to lie to me about this. You can relax, Uncle…"
"And if you're still not sure whether he's telling the truth, just check it yourself. With your connections, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to get a photo of Wellden Group's chairman, right?"
Being the impatient type, Mitchell immediately went into the inner room to make a phone call.