Chapter 26

Sarina's POV:

"I wish you had told me first, Mom, before deciding to come," I said as I picked them up in Coreville.

"I just visited, and you already missed me?" I teased.

"Oh, dear, if we'd told you, you would've just told us not to come. It's better as a surprise—no excuses. I've been wanting to come for a while now to see how you're living here in Ventalis. It's hard not knowing, especially since you're living alone," my mom replied.

"And I want to personally thank your boss for lending us the money to pay off my debt," my dad added as we got into the taxi I had booked.

"We've already thanked him enough, Dad. I thanked him, and now you want to thank him again?"

"Don't be like that. You know it was a huge help for us," my mom scolded.

Maximus was at the office, and I had spent all last night convincing him not to tell my parents about us just yet. We agreed that he would act as though, after his successful surgery, he asked me to live with him to help care for him as he recove