Claire still couldn’t get through to Charlie’s phone when she tried again at ten o’clock, which made her starting to feel very anxious.The first thought she had in mind was Charlie’s Feng Shui gig. He had been in close contact with many VIPs recently because of his Feng Shui job, and in return, he had obtained a large amount of cash, presents, and even this Thompson First villa. It made her more worried than ever.Ever since she learned about his Feng Shui job, she had always been afraid that one day, just like the collapse of fraudulent Ponzi schemes, Charlie’s dishonesty would be exposed and it would bring discredit to his reputation.When the day came, these VIPs would definitely not spare him lightly.Just when Claire was worried sick, Charlie called.Claire said anxiously as soon as she answered the call, “Hey, Charlie, where have you been?”Charlie had just disembarked the plane and was about to take the helicopter. He said, “Dear, I helped a friend to check out the Feng S
Charlie watched Elaine limp into the yard with crutches and a huge shoulder bag on her back, which was obviously stuffed with a lot of things that made the bag look bulky. He instantly knew that his mother-in-law was up to no good.Claire asked in surprise, “Mom, where have you been? I couldn’t find you anywhere in the house the whole morning.”Elaine answered with a laugh, “Oh, I went to the wholesale market this morning and bought something!”Claire chided, “Mom, your legs need some time to heal. You should be resting at home, why did you go around?”“Nah, it’s nothing,” Elaine waved her hand indifferently and said, “You would’ve thought that I can’t go around with these crutches, right? I’m used to it now and besides, my legs don’t hurt anymore. I only get a little tired with the crutches, that’s all. I’m fine.”Claire asked again, “Mom, what did you buy anyway? You must be tired of carrying the large bag, let me help you!”Elaine giggled and said, “I’m fine, it’s all hats ins
Hannah did not mind the arrangement, though. She was quite upset with Christopher’s ruthlessness, but she was a little guilty from the bottom of her heart.After all, she had cheated on him and that was the fact, regardless of her reasons. He must be very agitated to see her since she hadn’t aborted the baby yet.At this moment, Christopher had just woken up from his sleep.There were some side effects after he was discharged from the hospital, and one of them was weakness and lethargy.He had not really gotten enough sleep, but while he was sleeping, he always felt a sharp itching in his crotch area that he woke up while scratching it.The itching was very peculiar and odd. At first, it was rather itchy, but when he couldn’t help it and scratched the area, it became itchier, and when he scratched it a little harder, it became extremely itchy! So, he had literally scratched to the point where his skin almost broke.He couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with him.He had al
Lady Wilson was a little fuzzy. She didn’t understand why the first thing her son did after waking up was to confront Elaine, so she hurriedly asked, “Christopher, what’s your business with Elaine?”Christopher growled angrily, “That b*tch Elaine has hung dozens of green hats on her balcony! Tell me, she did it intentionally, didn’t she?!”Lady Wilson gawked in shock and blurted out, “What? Are you serious?”Christopher gritted his teeth in dismay. “Follow me and you’ll see.”Both of them went out of the door immediately.Sure enough, as soon as Lady Wilson went out, she saw twenty green hats fluttering in the wind on the balcony of Elaine’s room.She blew a fuse upon seeing it and screamed blue murder, “Elaine! That b*tch! She must have watched the hospital video and is deliberately mocking us!”Christopher nodded indignantly and said, “Yes, Mom, that’s why I can’t let her off the hook! D*mn it, she’s such a bully!”Lady Wilson and Christopher stomped to Charlie’s gate in grea
However, Hannah was backed by Donald. He didn’t dare to disobey Donald, so he couldn’t divorce her even after she cheated on him.It could be described as the most tragic thing that could happen to a man if he couldn’t divorce his wife after he caught her cheating. Truth be told, he felt the disaster hitting him first-hand!Now, Elaine’s remark was an insult added directly to his injury. He felt as if he had been slapped a thousand times on his face.Lady Wilson was extremely agitated by her remark too. She had been a proud and arrogant woman all her life, so she couldn’t accept that the Wilson family’s reputation was being tarnished or ruined.Although a scandal erupted in their social circle when Wendy and Kenneth were a thing, Lady Wilson couldn’t help it as she got the short end of the stick. Besides, it wasn’t uncommon for young girls to be with rich men, so the jokes and gossip didn’t stick too long.Hannah was different though. Her problem had completely tarnished the Wilso
Christopher was pissed off with her mocking. He jumped and cursed furiously, “Hey, Elaine, you b*tch, do you want to die?”Elaine laughed happily and said, “Chris, don’t be mad. I spent hundreds of dollars on these hats and I want to give them all to you.”Then, Elaine took a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle doll out of nowhere and said loudly, “Look, Chris, don’t you think this doll looks very much like you? Not only is his head green, but he’s also very patient since he’s a ninja! Oh my goodness, it’s the best portrayal of you! Hahaha…”Christopher was so angry, his whole body was shaking profusely, including his voice as he shouted, “B*tch, why don’t you die? An immoral person like you deserves to go to hell!”Elaine laughed and said, “Oh, Chris, I’ve kindly given you these hats, but you cursed me to go to hell. Is this really how you want to repay my favor? But I am a bigger person, so I’ll forgive your rudeness. All these hats are for you and I’ve bought two dozen of them, so
“In my opinion, Mom’s action is simply giving them a taste of their own medicine. I think they deserve what comes at them.”Lady Wilson and Christopher wanted to bite Elaine’s head off, but since they couldn’t do anything about it, they turned around and left indignantly.Christopher cursed as he walked, “D*mn it, if I have a chance, I’ll kill her!”Lady Wilson said angrily, “Don’t mind her first, you’d better take Hannah to the hospital tomorrow and get rid of that b*stard child in her belly! This is really a great shame to our Wilson family!”Christopher’s face twisted in a scornful grimace and said, “Don’t worry, Mother, I’ll take her to the hospital first thing in the morning!”When they went back home, Harold and Wendy had just gotten up and they were in the living room, waiting for Hannah to finish cooking.Hannah had some money left from selling off the coffee machine the other day, so she spent lavishly today on a big bag of fresh abalones and prepared an abalone feast fo
Hannah was extremely embarrassed and angry when she was insulted by Christopher, but she didn’t dare to talk back to him.She hoped for a happy and harmonious family, so she was willing to be humble and prayed that Christopher could accept her, but Christopher hated her to the core right now.He hated Hannah, but not abalone, so he chided coldly while stuffing the abalone into his mouth, “You should be thankful that we are still willing to keep an unfaithful and disobedient woman like you in this house! Remember, from now on, be a good servant in this house!”Hannah sighed dejectedly and ate her noodles in silence.In fact, Hannah didn’t know that her husband had been infected with STDs from her. If she knew, she would definitely not make the abalone feast for him.She knew Christopher’s favorite food was abalone, so she had prepared an abalone banquet to please him, but on the contrary, all she received were scolding and insults.On the other hand, Christopher shifted his grief
Charlie was driving Jacob to Thompson First when the latter received the text from Matilda.Seeing that they were reaching the front gates, Jacob promptly snapped at Charlie, "Charlie, stop the car now!"Charlie did so and asked in curiosity, "What's wrong?""Matilda just texted me," Jacob replied, showing the chat log between him and Matilda.Charlie was just glancing at it nonchalantly when he saw that Matilda's contact name was 'AAA July Florist'."Wait, why is that Aunt Matilda's contact name?" He exclaimed in surprise."I changed it."Jacob explained gingerly while reading through the text Matilda sent. "Her profile picture is an iris, so I changed her contact name to a florist since I'm mostly worried Elaine would peek into my phone.""Anyway, she's asking if I'm attending her wedding with Yolden. They would send us an invitation if I accept, extended to our whole family… what do you think I should say?"Charlie asked in return. "You're planning to skip it, aren't you? T
Then, Matilda suggested, "How about this—I'll ask him before deciding." "I'll pass on inviting the rest of my former classmates too. They're too vain and love comparing, so I'd rather not have anything to do with that. Also, there are our Korean friends who have it together, and they were telling us to invite them if we were going to get married. We have to keep our promise, right?""Yeah—then, it's basically decided. Aside from Charlie, we shall invite our colleagues and Korean friends while we wait for an answer from Jacob."Yolden nodded and said, "Now, I'll talk about the honeymoon—cut me short if you have a different opinion."Matilda nodded, resting her chin on her hands and smiling. "Shoot. I'm all ears."Feeling a little embarrassed by Matilda's glowing stare, Yolden took a sip of his ice water before continuing, "My idea is to head to the States for our honeymoon after the wedding…"He trailed off, staring at Matilda and waiting for a response.However, she was merely
"Oh, Jacob…?"Matilda chuckled awkwardly. "Just today, he offered to buy me dinner, but I said I didn't have the time, and I also told him about our wedding… So, we should invite him since he's aware of it.""Jacob offered to buy you dinner?" Yolden exclaimed in surprise. "Did he say why?""Nope," Matilda shrugged, smiling. "Probably just dinner between old classmates."However, she was actually smart enough to guess Jacob's intention even though Jacob was inviting her somewhere near campus. That was why she had also mentioned she was marrying Yolden while turning down Jacob, all so that he would give up on her.After she had managed to get over their past fling completely, she didn't want to give Jacob false hopes before she walked down the aisle.In the same regard, she didn't want to worry Yolden, and therefore, had deliberately discouraged Jacob.Be that as it may, Yolden was smart too.He knew about Matilda and Jacob's past and that her son, Paul's full name was Paul Jam
Before Charlie had arrived, Jacob was still furious that Matilda would soon marry Yolden.After Charlie came, however, he was instead worried that Matilda would send him a wedding invitation.Meanwhile, Matilda and Yolden were discussing their list of guests.They had different social circles, but most of their friends were Stateside, and they only had some distant relatives in this country.Still, they had colleagues in Aurous Hill. Matilda had classmates too, but she was out of touch with them aside from Jacob, whom she often met.Still, as they discussed who should be invited, Matilda first suggested, "Let's go through everyone. First, our Stateside friends… I don't think we should tell them at all since it's a long journey, and inviting them would seem tactless. What do you think?"Yolden nodded, smiling, "I was just thinking the same thing. We're close with our Stateside friends and always keep in touch, but inviting them to our wedding might be a stretch. We'd just hit a wa
With that being said, once Matilda was thrown in the mix, Elaine would suddenly become an African honey badger, with every bit of black air force energy that was implied.As such, if Jacob had managed to be brave and take that one step back then, Charlie would have tried to help, stopping Elaine from harassing Jacob or Matilda.However, the reality was that Jacob had to bungle the chance when Matilda offered it to him.That was why the best option was for Jacob to understand that he couldn't get together with Matilda now so that he would feel much better.And since he had always been a coward, Charlie's slight intimidation cleared his head considerably.He then sighed, "Well, that's just life—you don't always get what you want, and you should never try to claim what you couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to choose Matilda over thirty years ago, so not being together now only makes sense.""Now, I can only pray that Elaine never finds out… or at least that things don't get out of h
Then, Jacob quickly pressed, "Dear boy, maybe you could stay a few days instead of taking more jobs. At least you could be there to stop my wife if she snaps.""Sure," Charlie chuckled, cheerfully agreeing to it. "Don't worry—Claire's returning in a couple of days too, and you'll be fine with us around. You're cheating in your mind, anyway…"Pausing, he then added a reminder, "But if she's really furious, just bear with her beatings and clawings. Live and let live, as they say."That left Jacob sulking, however. "What the hell! If I knew this would happen, I should have just taken her to court and divorced her openly! That way, I'd definitely make things work with Matilda. Yolden wouldn't even stand a chance!"Charlie had to keep a straight face. "Now, you're not quite right there—don't you know what would happen to your wife if you took this to court?"Jacob snorted coolly. "Elaine would just snap at me, hit me, and make sure I don't get a cent in the divorce. That's no big deal—
"Fuck!" When Jacob heard what Charlie said, he was horrified. He nervously asked, "Matilda isn't going to come to our house to deliver the invitation, is she? If Elaine finds out that I've been hiding Matilda's return from her all this time, I'll be so dead!" Charlie, having long seen through Jacob, knew he would never escape the shadow and claws of Elaine. He shook his head and said, "Whether they'll invite you, I have no way of knowing. If you're worried, you can tell Matilda that you don't want to be invited to her wedding and that you don't want to go." Jacob sighed. "That's just a temporary solution. Even if she doesn't know now, she'll probably find out sooner or later. A lot of our mutual friends already know about Matilda's return. You went to the gathering too. But those friends are not really in contact with Elaine, so she hasn't found out yet." Charlie smiled and said, "Matilda's return to the country was at a pretty sensitive time. If I'm not mistaken, she came b
Jacob then realized that Charlie was also driving a Rolls-Royce, and it was a more expensive Phantom. Surprised, he asked, "Charlie, where did you get this car?" Marilyn had prepared the car for Charlie when he left Scarlet Pinnacle Manor. He had driven it to Thompson First, so he had decided to use it today. Charlie replied, "A client lent it to me. You sounded urgent, so I drove it over." Then, he added, "You're something else. You're crying like a baby yet you're still in the mood to ask about the car. What's going on? Your friend said you'd cried twice already?" "That bloody Simon!" Hearing this, Jacob became furious and cursed, "He still doesn't have the slightest clue! He's such a damned fool! The more I try to avoid him, the more he keeps blabbering on and on. Argh, he's so stupid!" Charlie asked, "What exactly is bothering you?" Jacob's face instantly turned dejected, and with a long sigh, he choked up and said, "Charlie— Matilda— She's getting married—" "Gettin
Things were a little different and unique in the United States, though. Westerners tended to approach marriage with greater caution. Many couples stayed together for years, had several children, and yet remained as boyfriend and girlfriend. Being together, having children, and raising them jointly didn't necessarily mean they would get married. In fact, it was not uncommon for some to walk down the aisle only after having multiple kids. Because of this environment, elderly couples in the West often limited their relationships to dating, and at most, cohabitation. Very few progressed to the stage of marriage. However, Yolden, like a young man in the throes of passionate love, had invited her on a trip, secretly prepared a proposal ceremony by the seaside, and gotten down on one knee with a ring to propose. These actions deeply moved Matilda and, at the same time, gave her an unprecedented sense of security. Now, Yolden had moved their wedding up a big step and set the date just on