“Ms. Vanderbilt.” Lucy seemed to be looking for her, and she caught up to Maisie. “A woman has come to our lobby. She claims that she’s here for Naomi.”After listening to what Lucy had to say, Maisie could not help but frown. “How old is the woman?”Lucy replied, “I think she’s in her late 30s to her late 40s, has a remarkable and elegant temperament, and everything that she wears is of all sorts of designer brands. In short, she’s definitely not a woman who comes from an ordinary family.”With that description, Maisie could more or less guess who it was.‘That’s Naomi’s biological mother.‘Nolan said that Mr. Topaz quit Royal Crown because of Patricia Emerson. He also mentioned that they had been in a relationship a while back, but it did not go public. Around that time, Patricia gave birth to Naomi for Anthony. However, their relationship ended when Patricia moved on and got married to Alexander Gosling.‘That’s why Mr. Topaz had to raise Naomi alone. He’s Naomi’s father, but
Maisie did not say anything.Patricia waited in the lobby until the late evening when Naomi passed by after getting off work and found out that she was still there. She was a little surprised to hear the staff in the lobby say that her mother had waited for her all afternoon.Seeing Naomi, Patricia got off the couch with a smile. Her legs and feet were probably stiff due to the lack of movement, so the way she walked up to Naomi looked unnatural. “Nelly.”Naomi took two steps back, refusing to let her mother take another step closer to her. “Why are you still here?”“I...” Patricia realized that Naomi was wary of herself, but the matter at hand could not be delayed any longer. Thus, even if she had to do something shameless to get close to her daughter, she had just to bite the bullet and do it.“Nelly, I know that you blame me for everything that’s happened to you.” Patricia took her hand. “I struggled a lot too back then before I decided to do what I did.”Naomi’s gaze landed o
Nicholas did not even bother to care about Nolan’s prestige as the father of the two rugrats present. “Your mother actually threatened to beat you up every single time. ould you have the guts not to do as told?”Nolan glanced at Nicholas.“Dad, Γrandma actually hit you when you were a kid?” Colton got the main point of the whole story.Nolan turned his head and glared at Colton. “Do you want to try it out?”Colton shut up immediately.Maisie leaned toward him. “Wow, you’ve learned to threaten your son now.”Nolan responded seriously, “We can’t spoil our son too much. We must beat him when he deserves it.”Colton refuted aggrievedly, “Why would you only beat your son? What about Daisie?”Daisie blinked. “I won’t get beaten because I’m a good girl!”Colton sighed as if he was an adult. “Being a son has so many cons. Mommy, why didn’t you make me a girl?”Maisie fetched herself a bowl of soup. “If you’re a girl, you’ll have to get married to someone else and give birth to babies
Daisie wondered again. “What are the things that would make me feel uncomfortable?”Colton, who was standing on the side, said helplessly, “Gosh, something like cuddling and kissing, you nitwit. Dad said that we boys can’t touch girls so casually as it’s very impolite for us to do so. After all, it’s rather improper for men and women to get into too much contact. Dad also claimed that I can’t hug you so casually in the future when we’ve grown up.”Maisie almost choked on her own words.‘Nolan has taught this boy well!’Daisie finally understood.‘It’s no wonder I could sleep with Colton and Waylon before this, but I have to sleep by myself now. And that’s why Colton doesn’t hug me anymore!’Daisie thought of something all of a sudden. “Mom, does it count when he rubs my head?”Maisie cleared her throat. “Rubbing your head is still acceptable.”“So is it fine as long as we don’t hug or kiss?” she asked again.Maisie nodded, then flicked her forehead. “You’re still young. It’ll
‘I would say that she’s not a good mother. She ruthlessly abandoned her daughter back then and never came back to visit her ever since, not even once. Yet, she’s now disregarding her dignity by kneeling in front of me for that son of hers.’“Dad.” Naomi’s voice interrupted the awkward silence in the courtyard, and Patricia stopped crying and stared at her in a daze.Anthony glanced at her. “Nelly, did you...”“I heard everything.” Naomi looked calm, and her eyes looked out of focus as she stared at Patricia, but it also seemed like she was actually staring at the background behind her. “I’ll do it.”Not only Anthony but even Patricia was surprised. “Nelly, you...”“Firstly, I’m helping you only because of my dad,” Naomi said softly. “Secondly, the child is innocent, so I’ll take this as a good deed that I can help with. And in return, I hope that you can leave both of us alone after the transplantation is completed.”Patricia froze on the spot and could only agree to Naomi’s term
Maisie laughed. “As a boy matures, he’ll become very determined and will fight for the things that he wants.”The two doors of the elevator opened slowly, and Maisie walked out of the elevator with Samantha. Both of them were laughing and chatting with each other while they just so happened to run into Kennedy, who was assigning some tasks to an employee.The staff member nodded and left, and he nodded and greeted Maisie when he walked past her. “Ms. Vanderbilt.”Kennedy looked in Maisie and Samantha’s direction and was astonished. He then walked toward them and smiled at Samantha. “Why have you come here on purpose?”Maisie raised her eyebrows. “Aunt Samantha is worried that you’d be hungry, so she especially brought you a loving lunch.”Samantha handed the lunchbox in her hand to him and pretended to complain. “I won’t send another one to you in the future.”Kennedy laughed. “Okay, I’ll bring a lunch box whenever I leave the house.”Maisie glanced at them and felt quite happy
“Yeah, my teachers told me that reading a lot of books will increase my knowledge,” Zephir explained with a smile.Naomi stared at him and felt a little sad for him.‘He’s an 11-year-old boy who’s still thinking about reading and studying even when he’s hospitalized.’Anthony pushed open the door of the ward but stood at the door and did not come in. Thus, Naomi put down the book, got up, and exited the ward. “Dad.”Anthony lowered his gaze. “What did the doctor say?”“The doctor asked me to try again, but they’ll be performing a bone marrow aspiration this time around,” Naomi replied.Anthony’s expression looked profound. “But this method will be very harsh on you. Nelly, you can always give up the idea if you don’t want to do it. I don’t want to see you suffer.”Naomi took a glance into the ward, and the boy in the ward exchanged gazes with her.Two days later…Daisie stood under a huge tree beside the school’s field. She wanted to return the toy to Zephir, but she did not s
“Nelly, I’m sorry…” Patricia could not help but feel sad.“You don’t have to say sorry. We’re even now.” She still had a smile hanging on her face, and it looked extremely calm.Naomi was discharged from the hospital two days later, and Anthony came to pick up his daughter. After returning home, Naomi initially wanted to go to work, but her father would not let her.Naomi only took a day off and went back to Soul the next day. She passed by a café while she was on her way to the company, so she went in to buy herself a cup of coffee to give herself a lift.When it was time to check out, she unexpectedly found that she did not have any cash on her, which made her feel a little embarrassed. “Sorry, I forgot to bring my purse with me. Please leave the coffee here first. I’ll go back and grab my purse now.”The cashier replied with a smile, “Our café accepts online payments too.”“Online payment?” Naomi was momentarily stunned, and she suddenly thought of her previous experience wh