The top of fame and fortune [Comprehensive British and American]

On the dining table of Parker's house, Erica, who had to go on a diet for many days in order to maintain the most photogenic state during the Hollywood awards season, was tasting her cheese pizza with rare indulgence.

The two boys on the side, after discussing their studies, have already started talking about Harry Osborn, who is about to gradually take over the arrangement of the family business.

"About Osborne Industries, I will officially join the board of directors." Harry intentionally mentioned this matter to Erica, showing that he already has enough talent, and he is unwilling to continue to be treated by Erica as an underage boy .

However, he will obviously not reveal to Erica how many opponents with malicious intentions he has dealt with mercilessly in these power struggles. It is a typical Osborn approach that all obstacles must be removed.

As for the topic Harry raised, it seems that only Peter Parker cooperated with him to discuss it.As for Erica, in the past year, her attitude towards Harry has always been intentionally alienated.

For example, at this time, after she withdrew her attention from the record player, she continued to act as if she had nothing to do, fiddling with a row of family photos on the sideboard.

Most of these warm family photos are photos of Erika and Peter with Aunt May. In addition, there are photos of Peter’s parents, and a photo of Erika and her mother Aurora Cohen when she was young .

In fact, she and her mother can be considered similar in appearance, they are both 'blonde', the so-called blond woman, but Aurora has very beautiful blue eyes, while Erica's eyes are gray green.

For this reason, Erika even speculated that her father, who had never appeared before, might be an Englishman.Because this gray-green iris is also known as English green, the eyes of many British people are this color.

Reminiscent of Aurora's identity as a CIA agent who often travels around the world to perform missions, Erica thinks that she is probably an accidental 'trouble' rather than the so-called 'love crystallization'.

Erica was only five years old when she lost her mother, so her ability to remember things was naturally limited, but even so, she had a good understanding of her mother.

For example, although Aurora has always cherished and protected Erika, when facing others, her true temperament is actually a bit indifferent, even ruthless.

In a way, Erica and Aurora both lost their mothers at infancy, and their father never came.

But the difference is that Erica met the Parker family who treated her as her own; but Aurora was not so lucky. She lived in a foster family since she was a child. Although she would not suffer abuse, her emotions were indifferent and alienated. .

Based on Erica's childhood memory, Aurora didn't care about the men around her, Erica didn't think that she had to raise her daughter alone because she was abandoned by her boyfriend.

The biological father who provided half of Erica's genes probably didn't know that he had a daughter.

"Rika?" Peter's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Erica looked away from the group photo, looked at Peter, and chose a new topic, "I'm thinking, I'm afraid we should choose a new house as soon as possible."

Although Peter didn't want Erica to pay a lot of savings to buy real estate, she insisted on this matter.And as Erica's reputation increased, the single-family house in a high-end community was indeed better than this old apartment, which could avoid reporters' besieging and sneaking pictures.

Erica's favorite home for sale at the moment is a brick and stone detached house in the affluent area of ​​Forest Hills. , with a beautiful and refined exterior, following the style of architecture replicated in English country towns in Georgia."

Although the asking price of $50 is well above the average in Forest Hills, this is a solid brick and stone home, which is usually much more expensive than the most common wooden houses in the United States.

Peter and Erica have visited this single-family house before. Except for the high price, it has no shortcomings. The English rural appearance is like a fairytale building. The environment is quiet and the woods are lush, with maple trees, pine forests and cherry blossoms. The tree is even more beautiful.

But if Erica had not paid for the English country house but Peter himself, he would have been happier with the house.

Our young Mr. Parker always wished he could afford all the life of the Parker family.Especially recently, Peter seems to want to learn from his 'vanguard idol' Mr. Stark and become a genius inventor.

But compared to becoming a billionaire, Peter's current goal is just to make money to support his family.

"I decided to join Horizon Labs, and they offered me a part-time job," Peter Parker told Erica.

After graduating from high school six months ago, Peter, like Erica, entered Columbia University.

And his scientific and technological talent quickly attracted the attention of the high-end scientific institution "Horizon Lab", which not only offered Peter a part-time job offer, but also was willing to pay a high commission.

Erica looked at Peter in surprise, "This is definitely the best thing I've heard recently."

She has always believed that Peter's talent is not inferior to those well-known geniuses.However, due to the burden of the family, while other geniuses from the upper class enjoy the top educational resources, Peter can only attend ordinary public schools, and even has to be busy with part-time jobs, just to solve the economic pressure of the Parker family as much as possible.

At this time, Peter's talent was recognized, which naturally made Erica overjoyed.

But when the two genius boys, Peter and Harry, began to discuss the details of the work of this high-tech scientific institution, Erica couldn't help but start to have a little headache. She really didn't have much talent in science and engineering.

But this dinner was a very pleasant one after all, and she didn't need to clean up the table——

Erika sat on the cloth sofa, watching the two boys idly tidying up. She suspected that it was the first time for Harry Osborn to do housework.

But Erica didn't intend to help him. She turned to think about the next schedule in her spare time after dinner.

In addition to the Oscars a month later, she will continue to start the new year's "Phantom of the Opera" musical performance in mid-to-late February.

But before that, that is, two weeks later, she needs to go to London to attend the British Academy Film Awards, but the chances of winning are almost negligible, and [-]% of them will continue to accompany her.

Thinking of her bad luck, Erica couldn't help feeling a little irritable and stressed. She walked to the living room window, opened a little gap, and lit a cigarette.

Erika is not considered a smoker, and only lights up a cigarette when she is tired or stressed.

The slender pipe was caught between her fingers, touched her red lips, and then the white smoke was lingering. Erica was thinking about how to avoid all risks as much as possible in "Basic Instinct", when she heard footsteps behind her Voice.

Harry Osborn was staring at the young woman by the window. Her smoking posture was unbelievably sexy. At this moment, with a cigarette in her hand, she looked back at him. The deep green eyes with punctured eyes looked seductive and confused.

"I hope you didn't break my teacup when you were clearing the table." Erica raised her eyebrows and looked at the handsome over-the-top boy, her voice was as charming as velvet.

At the same time, she pushed the window sash wider and waved the smoke a few times with the palm of her hand to prevent Harry from inhaling the second-hand smoke.

Erica was about to extinguish the cigarette in her hand, but Harry Osborn took the cigarette from her fingers, and he sent it to his mouth naturally and gracefully, and then spit the smoke out of the window.

His smoking posture looks more adept than his housework.

Although the smoking rate of American teenagers has always been high, Erica felt that Peter was much more well-behaved than Master Osborne in front of him.

So she quickly took back the pipe in Harry's hand, pressed it in the ashtray to extinguish it, and said with a frown, "You haven't reached the legal smoking age yet."

"It's only a few months away," Harry said with a pun. "A lot of things will be allowed when I'm an adult, won't they?"

Erica didn't want to make any promises, she said perfunctorily, "Then wait until you're an official adult."

A trace of dissatisfaction appeared in the boy's clear blue eyes, and he stepped closer to her again. At this moment, Erica clearly felt that he seemed to have grown taller again, and his slender and tall figure actually had a faint aura of strength.

Erika could smell the mysterious and elegant woody masculine fragrance on Harry Os itself, and then she heard the boy's voice pretending to be depressed, "Rika, I just hope that at least you can stop alienating me again and again."

After Harry finished speaking, he took out an exquisite velvet box from his suit and handed it to her, "It's a belated birthday present."

Erica's birthday is in late December, but she has been busy working in Los Angeles some time ago, so she didn't celebrate her 20th birthday.

To be honest, she herself has completely forgotten about this matter.

At this time, Erica looked at the gift box in Harry's hand, which was obviously the size of a ring box, "If it's too expensive, I'm afraid—"

Harry Osborn knew her well enough. He unfolded the gift box to reveal the gift inside. It was indeed a ring, but it was not inlaid with expensive gemstones. Instead, there was only a simple platinum ring around it, but it was very beautiful and delicate.

Harry took out the platinum ring he made by himself from the gift box, held Erica's left hand a bit willfully, and put it between her fingers, even the ring finger.

During this process, Erika noticed that there seemed to be a string of words engraved on the inner circle of the ring.

But her finger was still tightly held by Harry at this time, so she couldn't take off the ring to look at it. She asked Harry, "What is written on the inner circle of the ring?"

Harry Osborn held her fingers, lowered his eyes and kissed the ring finger where the platinum ring was, and replied in a low voice, "To Erica, with loyalty and love."