She had gone to the university that day, so she wasn’t free to pick up Pete from kindergarten. It was Melissa who picked him up.
Melissa entered the room nervously. After glancing outside the room, she came up to Nora, neatened her dress, and sat down gracefully in front of her. Then, she said unhurriedly, “I have something to talk to you about, Nora.”
“… What is it?”
Melissa frowned and asked, “Do you find Cherry’s behavior a little strange lately?”
Nora, “?”
Melissa sighed and said, “Cherry used to be very lively and a sweet talker. She played with me all day and also loved eating. Lately, though, she’s become a lot quieter. When I picked her up from school and asked her what she wanted to do just now, she actually said that she wants to do gardening and play chess with Great-Grandma. The two of them have been in the garden for an hour and a half!”
Nora, “…”
Melissa said sincerely and earnestly, “I know you’re a good girl and that you treat your child very well, Nora, but you have to spend more time with your child when you have the time. Otherwise, she’ll easily develop psychological issues.”
Nora’s lip corners spasmed a little at the kind reminder from her aunt, and she replied, “… Okay.”
Melissa breathed a sigh of relief. She stood up and got ready to leave. When she was about to step out, Nora suddenly asked, “By the way, is everything fine with Logan?”
The boy’s words just now had made her a little suspicious.
Had he encountered some kind of difficulty?
Melissa sighed when she heard her question. “That boy doesn’t tell me anything. I don’t know what he’s doing outside at all, sigh. But even though he seems a little stubborn and belligerent, he’s actually a very kind boy.
“Never mind. Let’s just leave him be.”
Melissa waved and went downstairs.
Beep, beep.
Nora’s cell phone beeped twice. When she picked it up, she saw a text message from Cherry: ‘Mommy, Princess Lucy sent me a picture of her new car. Isn’t this pink Ferrari adorable?!”
Little Lucy was a friend that Cherry had made when her aunt living abroad brought her to the UK.
The UK had a queen and a princess in the royal family.
Lucy, the second princess, had hit it off with Cherry right away. The two girls then added each other on Facebook so that they could chat with each other.
It should be noted that when Lucy asked for Cherry’s contact information, Cherry had told her that she only used Facebook Messenger. The girl had then specially registered a new private Facebook account for her sake.
Princess Lucy only had one friend in the account, and that was Cherry.
Nora ignored the text message.
Perhaps because she saw that her mother hadn’t replied, Cherry sent another message after a while: ‘Mommy, Cherry also wants a sports car like that, yeah~’
She even added an emoji with a pitiful expression at the end.
Nora scoffed at the message.
She picked up the phone lazily and sent her a voice message: “If you want something, then buy it yourself.”
That sports car was the same model as Logan’s poop-yellow one. It was a limited edition that was already discontinued. Only a few dozen units had been produced in the country that year, and most of them had become part of someone wealthy’s collection.
One could say that it was priceless.
… even though she did have ways to get one if she really wanted to.
—
In the hospital.
Justin, who was about to take Cherry back to the family home, overheard the lazy-sounding ‘If you want something, then buy it yourself’ voice message the moment he entered the ward.
He raised his eyebrows a little. Was the chance to please his daughter finally here?
Justin coughed and asked, “What do you want to buy, Pete?”
Little Cherry was pouting as she sat on the hospital bed. She was secretly complaining inwardly that it must be because Mommy was just too lazy to buy it for her. Upon Justin’s question, her big round eyes lit up and she replied, “Daddy, I want a Ferrari sports car like this! In pink, yeah!”
Justin took a look and immediately said, “Okay, we’ll buy it!”
Sure enough, the little fellow immediately broke into a grin and said, “Daddy, you’re so awesome, yeah!”
“…”
Upon hearing his daughter’s praises, Justin was as pleased as punch.
The corners of his lips curled upward. He sent the model of the sports car to Lawrence and instructed him to buy one, no matter the cost. Then, he scooped his daughter up with one arm and said, “Let’s go to the family home and visit your Grandma and Great-Grandma today!”
Her Grandma and Great-Grandma?
Cherry became excited at once. “Okie-Dokie!”
—
At the Andersons.
After dinner, Nora stood up and got ready to go upstairs to work.
That’s right, work.
Prior to an operation, in order to prevent accidents from happening, she had to make a list of every possible situation she might encounter during the operation. This was her professionalism.
However, a pair of uninvited guests arrived at the door at this moment —it was Miranda and Rachel Wood.
As soon as she walked in, Rachel, who resembled Melissa somewhat, frowned and looked at her. Her jaw tensed up, and a look of displeasure filled her face.
A hesitant Melissa asked, “What’s the matter?”
Miranda’s eyes were all red. She was in tears as she said, “I was blind to pick on you all the time in the past, Melissa. I was wrong, okay? Forgive me!”
Ever since the real estate investment failed, the Sonnets hadn’t been able to get their money back. With housing prices controlled now, people were all adopting a wait-and-see approach, and no one dared to buy any property.
They suddenly ran into trouble with recouping their capital.
The Lowes could barely even keep themselves afloat at the moment, so why would they possibly care about the small shareholders who had invested a bit and were waiting to make money?
The Sonnets became resentful toward Miranda as a result and drove her out.
She then went home in embarrassment, but the Woods refused to let her in and even told her that she had to apologize to Melissa first.
Miranda had no choice but to come over.
Melissa cast her eyes down.
When she thought of how Miranda had humiliated her over the years, she said, “To be honest, does it really matter whether I forgive you or not, Miranda? Let’s just lessen contact with each other in the future.”
There were some things that couldn’t be made up for with just an apology.
Miranda’s apology was too insincere.
Melissa didn’t want to forgive her.
Miranda, who understood what she meant, tugged on Rachel’s sleeve. Rachel immediately frowned and said, “Why don’t you forgive my mother, Aunt Melissa? Otherwise, we’ll lose our mother if Dad doesn’t let her go home! If you’re still not agreeable to it, then shall I get down on my knees in front of you?”
She started to get down on her knees as she spoke.
Melissa hastily grabbed her and said, “What are you doing, Rachel?”
Rachel said, “Why don’t you call Dad and tell him that you aren’t angry anymore? Otherwise, he’ll never let Mom in.”
So, that was what they were up to.
Melissa looked at the mother and daughter putting on a show in front of her.
One was pretending to be weak while the other was pretending to be pitiful.
They were just forcing her to do what they wanted!
She lowered her gaze and said, “Okay, I’ll call him.”
The way Farrell did things was just so unreliable. Why ask them to beg her for forgiveness? He obviously couldn’t bear to part with his children, so he had to bring Miranda back home even if he didn’t want to.
Miranda brightened. “Call him now.”
Melissa had no choice but to call Farrell.
Miranda watched her from the side with her fists tightly clenched. She would remember how Melissa had humiliated her today!
The mother and daughter pair left after Melissa made the call.
However, as soon as they reached the door, they suddenly heard violent knocking at the door.
Knock! Knock!
In the middle of the night, the sound was rather ear-piercing in the high-end residential complex.