Florence Stone, the housekeeper in charge of internal affairs at the Smiths’, was Ian’s diehard fan. She was absolutely loyal to the Smiths and had great respect and admiration for Ian.
She had witnessed with her own eyes how Ian had gone from someone shrewd and capable, lively and active, and someone who loved talking and smiling—to the zombie he currently was, all because of Yvette.
She hated Yvette with every fiber of her being.
Therefore, she always looked at things from Ian’s perspective. She reprimanded, “Even if Ms. Nora becomes Mrs. Hunt in the future, she’s still just Ms. Smith now! Mr. Ian’s daughter is the noblest of all! Although Ms. Yvonne is adopted, she’s Mr. Ian’s adopted daughter. Can’t you tell which of the two matters more?”
The nannies hung their heads upon being reprimanded, none of them daring to speak anymore.
—
When Nora went to Mia’s room, the two girls were already fast asleep.
This wasn’t the first time Cherry was sleeping together with a friend. The little fellow was carefree and slept very soundly. Mia, on the other hand, was relatively restrained. Her arms were placed on both sides properly. Even though she was asleep, her little face nevertheless made one want to dote on her.
Nora pulled up the covers for the children and went out.
As soon as she did, she ran into Joel who had just returned home from work.
Nora raised her eyebrows when the two ran into each other.
Joel was also a little surprised, though he quickly reacted. He said, “I’m here to take a look at Mia.”
Nora nodded.
When she stepped aside and got ready to leave, Joel suddenly said, “By the way, please tell Mr. Hunt that he can just ask us directly if there’s something he wants to know. Isn’t it a little too impolite to hack into the Smiths’ computer system without permission?”
Nora: “???”
She was stunned for a moment before she realized that Joel had misunderstood. As she had been too anxious to know Ian’s itinerary back then, she hadn’t covered her tracks in the afternoon. This was equivalent to blatantly breaking into the Smiths’ computer system.
She coughed but didn’t explain. Instead, she replied calmly, “I will let him know.”
Joel stared at her. He couldn’t help feeling like something wasn’t quite right with the woman after he had said that, yet he couldn’t pinpoint the reason why. Thus, he nodded and entered Mia’s bedroom instead.
Nora walked back to her room with a guilty conscience. She had only just taken two steps when her phone rang.
She held it up and took a look in the silent corridor—it was actually from Justin.
Perhaps because she was feeling too guilty, she actually picked up the call right away. She asked, “What’s up?”
Justin said dispassionately, “Let’s switch the children back tomorrow.”
Nora’s voice was low as she asked, “Is Pete missing me?”
“… Yeah, I guess you could say that.” Justin said, “Let’s have lunch at noon with the children and then switch them back?”
Nora answered very sincerely, “I can’t wake up in time.”
“How about at night, then?”
Nora nodded without much care. “Okay.”
After the two agreed on the time, Nora was about to hang up when Justin asked, “Was the supper good?”
“It was alright.” After Nora answered, she thought of the lineup when the fellow sent food over earlier in the day and said, “You don’t have to go to so much trouble.”
“It’s your first day there,” Justin explained, “I was afraid that you would be looked down upon. After all, there are too many people in this world too blind to tell good and bad people apart.”
Looked down upon…
Nora subconsciously thought of Florence, and the corners of her lips curled into a smile. “What’s the big deal?”
Since she relied on the Smiths for neither food nor living expenses, it meant that she had a lot of freedom here. At the worst, she could just move out. She didn’t need anything from the Smiths.
Apart from speaking a little sarcastically, the housekeeper didn’t really do anything, so she couldn’t be bothered to hold it against her, either.
Nora yawned and went back to her room to sleep.
She was awakened by the alarm clock the next day. She had to send Cherry to the kindergarten. When she yawned and went downstairs, she found that Mia and Cherry were already awake and sitting at the dining table.
Florence instructed the servants to bring the food out. Cherry’s eyes lit up when she saw that they were having pancakes for breakfast. She said, “I want pancakes!”
She stretched out her little hand after she spoke, intending to take the plate of pancakes from the nanny.
Florence, however, took the plate of pancakes and gave it to Mia instead. She said to Cherry, “Ms. Cherry, this is Ms. Mia’s. If you want some, I’ll get them to bring you another plate of it.”
Cherry’s expression turned cold at once. She was about to say something when Mia pushed the plate of pancakes to Cherry. “You can have them first. They can just give me another plate of pancakes when they are done. I can eat the scrambled eggs first, yeah!”
Cherry was distracted, plus she also had her pancakes now, so she ignored Florence and asked, “Do you eat the eggs first? I always eat the pancakes first, otherwise, I’ll choke!”
Mia replied, “… I like eating the side dishes first and the main dish later.”
The two children matched each other very well, and both started eating their breakfasts happily.
Florence’s expression turned cold at the sight. She cast her eyes down and said, “Well, that’s good, too. It’s very polite of Ms. Mia to give in to a guest.”
It was just a shame that both children were very innocent, so they didn’t think about anything else at all, despite her sarcasm.
In fact, Cherry even nodded and said, “Yes, Mia is the most polite, unlike Brandon. He doesn’t have any manners at all!”
Mia blushed. She lowered her head and said softly, “Thank you for the compliment, Cherry.”
“You’re welcome! We have to praise each other a little more every day, okay? This way, we’ll be happy every day, yeah!”
“Okie-Dokie!”
The two girls started munching away on their respective plates of food again after they finished talking.
Florence: “…”
She could only return to the kitchen.
Seeing that Cherry didn’t get bullied, Nora’s lips curled into a smile in amusement. The girl took everything except the short end of the stick. On top of that, she was quirky and eccentric. Not many in the house were her match.
When she was about to go downstairs, she heard the door beside her open. Joel, who had likely stayed up late the night before, came out. He had some shadows under his eyes, and he was frowning, which toned down his usually smiling face and made him look a little more serious.
But when he saw Nora, his frown gradually softened, and the gentle look returned to his countenance, making him look perfect and flawless. He said, “You don’t have to get up so early, Ms. Smith. I can take Cherry with me when I send Mia to school.”
Nora didn’t stand on ceremony at all. She turned, started walking upstairs, and said, “I’m counting on you, then.”
Joel: “…”
—
By the time Nora woke up once more, she had finally made up for her lack of sleep.
The groggy feeling in her head finally disappeared, and her entire self seemed reborn.
She loosened her muscles and went out, intending to see if Cherry was back yet so that she could take her out for dinner with Justin.
However, the moment she came out of her bedroom, someone suddenly rushed right over to her.. He looked old and aged, but because he had burns on his face, his original looks couldn’t be made out anymore. He stared at Nora for very long before he finally said, “You are Ian’s daughter!”