Dylan barely ate during breakfast as he slept poorly last night. He put all the food in a resealable bag before following Grandma May out. “Have a drumstick, Nana.”Dylan passed a drumstick to her. He turned toward Dolly, who sat before the table and had a greasy mouth from eating, and said, “Who’s that girl, Nana? She’s definitely enjoying her food.”“She’s Dolly. Her parents take care of the garden. I like her a lot.”Dylan ate the fish Grandma May cooked. He said, “You like every little girl you meet. You even tried to steal Chloe back the last time you visited the Johnsons.”Grandma May regretfully said, “Our family is just as good as the Johnsons. Even if Clo-clo were to live with us, it’d be a similar environment. Unfortunately, the Johnsons weren’t willing to let her go. I guess Ben was scared that I’d kidnap his daughter. He was at home every day when I visited and kept staring at me.”“Of course, they wouldn’t be willing. Chloe is their only great-granddaughter. If I
Dylan still wiped the chair for Grandma May. As for his own, he could not be bothered. “You’re a genius. You know everything without even stepping out of the house.”Grandma May side-eyed Dylan and said, “Stop flattering me. Tell me. What don’t you like about Imogen?”“She’s great. I never said she had a problem. I tried falling in love with her. Even now I’m trying to develop some feelings for her, but she’s the one who ended up falling in love with me. She even traveled here just to demand an explanation from me.“She said I’m toying with her. I feel wronged. I did try my best to love her, but I couldn’t,” said Dylan innocently. Even when he was speaking, he did not stop chewing his barbecue.“You chose Imogen. I admit that she’s outstanding and suits me in various aspects. I don’t hate her, but I think there isn’t enough excitement whenever I’m with her. It has been like that for some time. I can tell you for sure that I can never fall in love with her.“However, if I can
“You’re more important to me than Mom and Dad, Nana. You can definitely live a long life. Don’t you want a great-granddaughter? With the nine of us, you’ll have nine granddaughters-in-law in the future. Surely, there’ll be one from us nine.“You have to hold your great-granddaughter, raise her, and choose good in-laws for her.”Grandma May laughed. “I want to ask for an extra five hundred years of life as well, but let’s be realistic.“I’ll be content with seeing my great-granddaughter born. How can I possibly wish to live until the day she gets married?”No matter how healthy, she was already eighty years old. Meanwhile, her great-granddaughter was still nowhere in sight. She probably would not even be alive to see Rowan get married.Grandma May said, “I was just teasing you. Didn’t I say that I’d accept another girl aside from the one I chose as long as she had good character and values? The problem is whether you know her identity.“It’s been some time, yet you don’t even
Grandma May stared at Dylan in silence. Since the truth was out, he simply spoke his mind and revealed everything. The reason he returned to the manor was to tell her everything. He could not marry the woman she picked for him like his brothers did. He had someone else he wanted to pursue. After Dylan spoke, Grandma May sighed. She said, “You have a point. It’s better to end things earlier. Ms. Doyle’s feelings for you shouldn’t be that deep yet. You should talk to her and make her give up. It’s better that way. “Don’t hold her back.”After a pause, she continued, “Are you really not going to consider Ms. Doyle anymore? You don’t believe in my choice?”Dylan said, “I trust your eye for people, Nana. Ms. Doyle is great, but I don’t have romantic feelings for her. Even if I do marry her, we’ll only be husband and wife who respect one another without any love between us.“She's smart. She definitely doesn’t want a future like that either.“Love can’t be forced, Nana. There’s
Imogen would not even know that Dylan was the one who bought the souvenirs. After thinking about it, Dylan decided to go with Grandma May’s suggestion. If he were to tell Imogen that he bought the gifts, she probably would think that he had some lingering feelings for her and feel hopeful. It would be troublesome if she refused to give up. “Aren’t you heading home to eat, Nana?”Dylan looked at his watch. It was almost mealtime. Grandma May said, “I’m full from eating so much barbecue. I’ll have a simple lunch at their quarters later. She would go for a light lunch after having too much chicken and fish. “You should dine with your parents back home.”“Okay.”Since Grandma May did not want to go home yet, Dylan did not insist. The old lady enjoyed spending time with the ladies. She would not go hungry anyway. He did not have to worry about her not having anything to eat. “I’ll call the ladies over to admire the flowers here.”Grandma May took out her phone. Dylan o
Rosella also came from wealth. She had never lacked jewelry her entire life. When she married into the York family, the amount of jewelry she had received from her family was enough to stock up a jewelry store. They were kept in her safe. After Callum married Camryn, Rosella had given quite a few of her prized jewelry to her daughter-in-law. Dylan answered, “I don’t have a wife yet anyway. I just bought them for you because I saw some new designs.”“Did you buy any for your nana?”Dylan handed the velvet box to his mom and replied, “Nana doesn’t want jewelry from us, so I bought her a bouquet. Even so, she said I was wasting my money and that there’s plenty of flowers in the garden.”Rosella accepted the box. She smiled. “She may look like she doesn’t like it, but she’ll be secretly happy. If she didn’t tell you to bring the flowers back, it meant she liked them a lot. She won’t come home before showing off the flowers to everyone there.”Rosella knew Grandma May well enough
Rosella put the velvet box down. “I didn’t know he was coming back by himself. Mom told me he would be back for lunch. Since Ms. Doyle is in Wiltspoon, I thought he’d let us meet her after eating and drinking with her last night.”She no longer felt happy about the jewelry Dylan gave her.She preferred having a daughter-in-law. Dylan said, “I’ll just go back to work now.”After speaking, he got up and was about to leave. Martin said, “Your mom told the kitchen to prepare extra food. We can’t finish it even if we feed it to the dogs. You should eat before leaving.”Dylan was rendered speechless. His father just implied that they would not have asked him to stay for lunch if their dog could finish the extra food. Just because he did not bring his girlfriend home, he now stood lower than the family dog.“Okay. Let’s go and eat,” Rosella said.Dylan stood and followed his mother. He said, “I thought you really wouldn’t let me eat. I guess I’m less important than our dog now.”
“Nana said she would respect my decision and just told me not to regret it,” Dylan said as he ladled some soup for his mother before ladling another bowl for his father when he saw him enter. “I’ve never done anything I regret.”Although he was conflicted before and did not know if he should choose Imogen or Chameleon Fox, he knew he felt particularly happy with the latter. He also looked forward to their meetings despite arguing every single time they met, which was noticeably absent when it came to Imogen.He had forced himself to approach Imogen because she was Grandma May’s choice, but reality proved that feelings could not be forced.Rosella hummed in acknowledgment. “Just make sure you don’t regret it in the future, then.”She knew it—there was no way Grandma May would have ceded to Dylan so easily. So he was still in the dark about the truth! He had even said he never did anything he would regret. Grandma May never did anything she was unsure of.Even Rosella understood h