THIRTY-NINE

"Oh, thank you so much for having us tonight. It feels so great knowing Seth is being accepted here after all he has been through,” Bella commented, which made heads turn, especially mine. What has Seth especially been through?

There was awkwardness as Seth tried to side-eye Bella before glancing over at Michael at the table. The two once again communicated with their eyes as Michael jumped to get rid of the awkward situation.

“Thank you, Bella. Over here, we actually treat all our workers as family; isn’t that right, honey?” Michael said as he tried to pass the baton over to me to agree, but I was oblivious as I wasn’t used to him calling me honey; it was mostly my love, and besides, I wasn’t really paying much attention to them. "Scarlett..." He repeated it again.

Vanessa nudged me at the side to be brought back to reality. “Of course,” I answered.

“Is there something wrong?” Michael asked me in a rather low tone that only two of us could hear out of concern.

"Nothing, dear,” I repl