Cynthia stuck her tongue out at Jackson before turning to take a sip of the wine, letting its sweetness pervade her tongue. She fell in love with it at first taste. “Mm, it’s good!”Aristotle’s lips curled slightly. “Don’t drink too much.”Tiffany considered him and mulled her question over for a while, before finally asking, “So… You tied down to a girl yet?”That came out of nowhere. Aristotle had to reel back a little after his initial bewilderment. “Wha? No. Of course not. Why did you ask?” he replied. “I’m afraid my busy life has provided me no luxury of time to look for one.”Cynthia’s tongue moved on its own. “But you brought a girl back home already,” she blurted out. “How’s that a no?”Aristotle seemed a little helpless. “No, you misunderstand. She’s just a schoolmate. A bit more than an acquaintance, but not much. Her stay is temporary.”Tiffany let out a long sigh of relief. “Ohhhhh! Well, that’s good news! I really thought you were taken.”Sitting next to her, Jackso
Cynthia cowered beside Papa Jackson, shivering like a kitten. “But Mom! Ares just came back after so many years! We haven’t hung out with each other for so long, it’s only normal if things get a lil’, you know, awkward? Weird? Not used to each other? But I’m sure that given time, we’ll just be back to normal again!” she protested. “Besides, what happens if he doesn’t like me that way? What am I supposed to do, then? This isn’t the kind of thing I should control, right? Like… what if he’s always seen me as his little sister growing up?”Jackson, contrasting his wife, turned out to be a lot more zen about these things. “C’mon. Rest your heart, Tiffie. Let the kids explore and develop their love life at their own pace, okay? We parents have no business sticking our hands into their business. Besides, Aristotle said it already—Rey is just a schoolmate who’s taken up a temporary lodge at his place. She’s just not his girlfriend.”The longer Tiffany stared, the more this father-daughter du
Bringing up that subject was deliberate. Raven needed to rouse the guilt inside Aristotle, after all.The man sighed helplessly and slid his hand out of hers quietly. “I’ve never once thought of you that way, all right? I know it wasn’t for money—never mind. Perhaps we shouldn’t discuss something so far off into the future,” he said. “I’m going to bed. Need to rise early tomorrow.”Raven knew that the most important matter to him at hand was the company he was about to inherit. “Let me join you tomorrow! I know there will be some things I can help you with. You’ve just come back, so it’s only logical that you might be lacking in manpower. I can help with that!” she volunteered. “Bonus point? You don’t even have to pay me a single cent.”Admittedly, she hit the nail on the head—Aristotle was in need of human resources. But of course, Raven’s sickly constitution made him balk at considering her for the job. “I think you should sooner focus on your health for now. When you’re finally w
Raven greeted the assembly with a smile. “Thank you for taking me in.”Melissa was charmed by canned courtesies. She chewed her gum with a new air of contempt and blew a large bubble. “Puh-lease. The only people who could join this company are the real deal with skills to back ‘em up, man, they deserve to be here. No one’s ‘taken in’,” she stated sharply. “Read the room, new gal. Can’t you see we’re trying to host an internal meeting here? Outsiders who are not part of the group, here’s the door.”Raven, sensing Melissa’s acute hostility, tried to contain the unfurling self-consciousness inside of her as she walked out of the office.Melanie poked her daughter on the back of her head. “What was that? That was your cousin’s classmate you’ve just chagrined. Please, at least show some decent reception.”Melissa felt not even the slightest tinge of guilt. “Hey, I was only spitting facts. This is a family meeting. Why is she standing there gawking at us like a dumba**?”That immensely
Raven’s heart skipped a beat. Outwardly, however, she affected indifference. “Oh yeah? And who’s that supposed to be? You?”Melissa was just about to drop an F-bomb when the door to the elevator suddenly opened. Employees from other floors swarmed in and filled up the space around them.The two women tacitly decided not to continue their previous exchange. It was only after the two of them walked out of the lift that Melissa broke their feigned truce by pointing in a direction with a scowl. “There’s your canteen. Go there yourself; I’m not gonna waste my time taking you there—it’s a place even a pig would know.”“Huh. Turns out that a high-class socialite representative like yourself is just as uncouth and jerkish as the rest of us ‘plebs’, too,” Raven riposted acridly. “You think everyone who goes to the canteen for lunch is a pig, huh? Well, I’m gonna skip the canteen and order a takeout instead; at least I wouldn’t be derided as a mere pig by some high and mighty aristocrat. Than
He was slightly annoyed due to work. “She wasn’t completely joking either. I do have a fiance, but it’s not her. Do whatever you should; I’ve still got work to attend to.”Instantly, the delight Raven felt a moment ago vanished. She felt as though she had suddenly been splashed with a bucket full of cold water. Despite the hot summer’s day, she felt an immense cold piercing her.‘I’ve been living under the same roof as him for half a year now, yet I never knew that he has a fiance!‘He claims that Cynthia is his sister and Melissa isn’t his fiance, so who could his fiance possibly be?!’While Raven was filled with doubts, she unwillingly left the office because she knew that Aristotle did not like to be disturbed while he was working. In fact, she had “overstepped” her boundaries a little a moment ago. ‘I definitely can’t make him feel irked by me, he’s the very last straw I have left!’Since both of them were living in Tremont Estate together, it was only natural that the both of
As she watched Cynthia head upstairs, Melissa came up with a plan. “Agnes, you should hurry up and prepare dinner. Raven’s around, isn’t she? I’ll go look for her.”Agnes nodded her head and replied, “She’s around. I’ll get on with my work then, while you youngsters go on and have fun.”Hence, Melissa walked towards Raven’s room and knocked on the door. Raven had already heard the commotion earlier, but she deliberately holed herself up in her room. “Is something the matter?”Melissa helped herself as she directly pushed open the door and entered. “Of course something’s the matter. Come on, we’re going shopping together. I’ll buy you dinner, you can eat whatever you want.”Obviously, Raven knew that Melissa would not offer her something so nice unconditionally. The relationship they had had not reached to the point where they could go shopping and eat together. “Cough, cough… I’m not feeling so good, so I can’t accompany you today. You’d be better off going with someone else.”Mel
Aristotle suddenly turned serious as he said, “I’m not afraid. I like how you used to be. If I really end up not being able to find a girlfriend, you’ll just have to pay by giving yourself to me then. That’s what Aunt Tiffany has always expected anyway.”Although he may seem to be joking, he still managed to make Cynthia’s heart skip a beat. As she panicked, her tongue seemed to have twisted together and was unable to utter a word for a while.Aristotle squinted his eyes and suddenly inched close to her face. “I see that you’re still the same as you were in the past. You’d begin to stutter the moment you got nervous and wouldn’t be able to say a word for a while…”Aristotle’s voice had a hint of seductiveness in it, which caused Cynthia to be stunned again.Ever since they were kids, Cynthia’s biological brother, Plato, was the most unreliable one. On the other hand, Aristotle was quiet but gentle towards her and had always been very orthodox. However, at that very moment, Aristotl