Book 2 : She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement

Chapter 30

Chapter 700: Iris’s Changing Face

Then, a middle-aged man strode in.

Herman was almost fifty years old this year. He looked elegant and his hair was half white, making him look a little old. On his face, which was 40% similar to Justin’s, his long and narrow eyes had the wisdom of many years.

Iris looked at him.

She hadn’t seen him for more than twenty years. He was still wearing the suit he loved the most back then. The years had left traces on his face, making her momentarily dazed.

Then, a gentle smiling woman followed him in. If one looked carefully, one would notice that the woman and Iris’s style was a little similar. They were both gentle and elegant.

Unfortunately, the same clothes had all kinds of charm on Iris, but on her, it seemed a little too heavy.

Iris’s pupils constricted.

When Herman saw her, he frowned and asked sternly, “Heh, I was wondering who wanted to chase me out? So it’s you…”

His gaze fell on Justin before he looked at Iris. “You two seem to have a good mother-son relationship!”

Justin looked at the two of them in silence. He did not speak or deny this sentence because he did not want to say anything that would make Iris lose face.

When Iris heard this, her expression instantly turned cold.

She turned back to look at Nora and said calmly, “From now on, you have to take good care of the three children. I’ll be leaving now.”

With that, she prepared to go leave.

Nora glanced at Cherry. Cherry immediately walked to Iris’s side and held her arm. “Grandma, be careful~”

Iris froze when she heard her.

She immediately retracted her arm from Cherry’s hand. She lowered her eyes and said calmly, “There’s no need. I can walk myself.”

Cherry looked at Iris in confusion.

Why did her grandmother suddenly change her attitude when she was still so good to her and her brother just a moment ago?

She must be angry that she and her brother had not gone to see her for too long!

Therefore, Cherry looked up and whined, “Grandma, Pete and I will visit you often in the future!”

Iris’s grip on her bag tightened slightly, but she still lowered her head and said slowly, “No.”

She turned around and said coldly, “My flowers are all very expensive. You touched them so casually the last time you came to visit me. You’re very rude…”

Cherry bit her lip.

Since she was young, she did not care if others criticized her or scolded her. This was the first time that someone she cared about had said something bad about her!

She widened her eyes sadly and looked at Iris in confusion.

Justin, who was a slave to his daughter, could no longer stand Cherry’s aggrieved look. He stepped forward and said in a very cold tone, “She’s still young. How is she being rude? Six-year-old children would naturally be curious about things. Did she harm your flowers?”

Iris said, “Orchids are the most precious. They’re not for children to play with. Besides, I hate children the most. They’re too noisy…”

Justin sneered. “So you hated me this much when I was young?”

Iris was stunned.

Justin ignored her and picked up Cherry. “If you like orchids, I’ll buy you a hundred pots. You can smash them anywhere in the back garden.”

The hostility in his words was very strong.

Nora narrowed her eyes and saw Iris’ face instantly turn as pale as paper. However, following that, she continued coldly, “You’re rich. You can spoil the child however you want, but don’t bother me!”

Justin was about to flare up when Herman suddenly said, “Iris, why are you still so selfish? This is your granddaughter! How can you treat her like this? You’re really too much!”

Iris suddenly looked at Herman with anger in her eyes. Everyone else had the right to criticize her, but what right did he have to criticize her? Did he not know why she had become like this?!

Herman narrowed his eyes and smiled. He walked forward as if he did not understand her. Step by step, he arrived in front of Justin and sighed deeply. Like an old father, he said, “Justin, it was Dad and Mom who let you down back then. For so many years, I’ve always wanted to come back to see you, but your mother always refused… Sigh! I came back this time because I heard that you held a birthday party for the triplets. I specially came to give gifts to my grandchildren!”

With that, he looked at the woman behind him. “Lauren, hurry up and get the gifts!”

The mistress named Lauren stepped forward and placed the three presents in her hand on the ground. Then, she took one out and handed it to Cherry. “Is your name Cherry? Your name is really cute. The little guy is also so cute. Come, let your grandmother hug you!”

A hug from a grandmother…

Iris had already reached the door, but when she heard this, she suddenly stopped.

She subconsciously turned around and saw the four of them standing together like a family. She felt like an outsider.

Iris felt a pain in her heart.

However, she still turned around forcefully and prepared to leave.

At this moment, a pair of hands held hers tightly. She was stunned for a moment. When she raised her head again, she saw Nora.

Chapter 701: Can You Accompany Me Tonight?

Iris was stunned.

Nora asked, “Why?”

Iris’s jaw tensed up.

She clearly knew that Nora was asking why her attitude suddenly changed so much, but she still pretended to not understand. “What why?”

As the two of them were in a stalemate, Cherry’s childish voice was heard. “Grandma? But isn’t Grandma Daddy’s mother? Why does Daddy have two mothers?”

The mistress, Lauren, was stunned for a moment and stood there awkwardly.

Herman said, “Cherry, this is my current wife. You should call her Grandma.”

Cherry tilted her head and stared at him, feeling a little unhappy. “Who are you?”

Herman’s expression froze. He coughed and suppressed the frustration in his heart.

Before returning home, Lauren had already asked around and found out that Justin was a slave to his daughter, so as long as she pleased Cherry, she could obtain Justin’s favor.

Therefore, Herman pretended to explain patiently, “I’m your father’s father.”

“Daddy’s father is my grandpa, and Daddy’s mother is my grandma-” Cherry pretended to be stupid and sang a children’s song. After she finished, she even smiled at Justin. “Daddy, did I sing well?”

“Very well.”

Justin touched her head, but his gaze swept across the area in front of him. Iris and Nora’s figures tugged at each other in the corner before the two of them went out.

Justin lowered his eyes.

Outside.

“What on earth is wrong?” Nora blocked Iris’s way and asked, “Is there something you can’t

say?”

“No!” Iris looked as cheerful as before. She even smiled gently. “I just don’t like the Hunt's.”

Nora frowned. “But when we first met that afternoon, you told me a lot about you and your son. You clearly care about him. I thought that you had thought things through when you came to give birthday presents to the three children.”

Iris frowned and suddenly looked up. “I just want to maintain a good relationship with you.”

Nora: “?”

Iris revealed her purpose casually. “You know orchids so well. You’ll definitely be able to help me. Therefore, for your sake, I pretended to give my grandchildren some gifts. I don’t like them.”

Nora frowned. Her almond-shaped eyes shone with confusion. “Why?”

“Because…” Iris said word by word, “Herman’s blood flows in their veins! He betrayed me back then, so I hate everything related to him!”

Nora clenched her jaw.

Iris continued to smile as she said, “I used Justin to force Grandpa Hunt to chase him away and successfully stayed at home. It was not because I was noble, but because I wanted to fight with him for the assets! Didn’t he want Hunt Corporation? I snatched it from him! As for Justin… I really can’t get close to him. He looks too similar to Herman. As soon as I get close to him, I remember Herman’s disgusting face. I just want to stay in the villa alone. No one can disturb me.”

Iris turned around and left.

This time, Nora could not stop her.

However, Iris must have her reasons.

The woman who had confided in her for an entire afternoon was not lying. But why?

Nora thought about it and turned back to enter the room. However, the moment she turned her head, she saw Justin standing not far behind her.

The man’s eyes were dark and unclear. Half of his face was in the light under the street lamp, and the other half was in the dark. Under the night sky, the mole at the corner of his eye became colder.

Obviously, he had heard Iris’ words.

When Nora thought about how she and Iris were talking earlier, Iris must have clearly seen Justin’s eyes, but she still said those words. She was clearly doing this on purpose!

She was even more certain that Iris had her reasons.

But what difficulties did she have?

As she was thinking, she saw a hint of loneliness flash across the man’s face. Justin suddenly said, “Nora, even my birth mother doesn’t like me. Do you really like me?”

At this moment, he was like a pitiful worm in the corner forgotten by everyone.

Nora looked at him and her heart softened. She walked to Justin and looked at him seriously. “I really like you.”

Justin seemed to be extremely touched. He reached out and hugged her tightly as he murmured in her ear, “How could that be? Even Mother hates me… What can you like about me?”

This side of Justin was really heartbreaking.

Nora thought about it and hesitated for a long time. In the end, she replied, “You’re good-looking!”

She did not see the corners of Justin’s mouth twitch.

“…”

Did he not have any other merits in Nora’s heart?!

As he was thinking, he felt Nora pushing him away. Justin quickly sorted out his emotions and regained his lonely expression.

He seemed to have been hurt by Iris’s words.

He finally grabbed the opportunity to push Nora further. He could not let go so easily. He sighed silently. “Nora, can you stay with me tonight?”

Nora: “???”

Justin looked into the distance, his deep eyes filled with sadness. “I have some things I want to tell you.”

Nora was about to reject him when she heard him say, “It’s about me and my mother.”

Nora twitched her lips and finally sighed. “Alright.”

At this moment.

Iris sat in the car and left the Hunt's.

When the Hunts’ iron gate was closed, Mrs. Landis couldn’t help but say, “Ms. Iris, why must you do this… It has been so many years. Now that Mr. Hunt has grown up, he’s clearly very powerful. Tell him your difficulties!”

Iris lowered her head. “It’ll be troublesome if I tell him. Forget it. It has been so many years. He didn’t grow up with me. Why should I ask him to grow old with me?”

Mrs. Landis stared at her. “What do you mean by trouble? You’re his mother! You’ve suppressed the longing in your heart for so many years and you didn’t even look at him. You hug your phone every night and repeatedly watch videos of him growing up that the servants at home had sent your husband… You can’t bear to delete those videos, even if your phone is full.”

Iris didn’t say anything.

Mrs. Landis suddenly leaned in front of her. “Miss, if you don’t want to tell Mr. Hunt, then tell me! What happened back then? Why?”

Chapter 702: Reasons

What had happened back then…

Even Mrs. Landis didn’t know the full story. All she knew was that after Herman left, Iris had suddenly packed up her things one day, moved out of the Hunt Manor, and moved into the small villa here.

From then on, it was as if she had suddenly become cold-hearted, and no longer cared about Justin.

But Mrs. Landis still remembered that one day when the five-year-old Justin, who didn’t understand anything at all, suddenly ran all the way to the villa, crying and shouting for his mother.

But Iris had refused to open the door. She had stayed in the house and merely said, “Go back. I don’t want to see you.”

“Mom, open the door!”

Outside the door, the five-year-old Justin tried his best to knock on the door, but as though she had hardened her heart, she never opened it.

Justin was just as stubborn. He shouted, “If you don’t open the door, I won’t leave!”

Later, it started to rain.

It was storming, and the winds were howling in the heavy rain. The bodyguard gave him an umbrella, but he pushed him away. The stubborn little boy kept standing on that rainy night.

Justin had a very determined look in his eyes. He didn’t believe that his mother would really ignore him.

Neither did he believe that his gentle mother would suddenly become so cruel and hard-hearted.

But later, cold and hungry, he finally fainted from exhaustion. Even when he had collapsed onto the ground, he kept his eyes open with the last vestiges of his strength and stared at the door.

What disappointed him was that from beginning to end, the door never opened once.

From then on, Justin understood that Iris didn’t love him anymore. After visiting a few more times, he rarely came again.

But he didn’t know that Mrs. Landis had seen with her own eyes that the entire time he was in the rain, Iris had also stood in the rain in the courtyard inside the villa.

When the bodyguards outside exclaimed in shock after he fainted, Iris had rushed to the door. Both her hands had been on the gates, but she never opened the door.

Her tears had mixed together with the rainwater on her face, and she wept silently with her mouth open. That was the most painful night of Iris’ life that Mrs. Landis had ever seen.

She was a hundred times sadder than when Herman had betrayed her.

In her opinion, Iris didn’t actually love Herman at all-or rather, she didn’t love him that deeply. After all, theirs had been a political marriage.

She had given all her love to Justin.

But for some reason, mother and son had to be separated. They had clearly been so close once upon a time, yet they were like complete strangers now.

Mrs. Landis simply didn’t understand what had happened. She stared at Iris, only to see tears all over her face.

Mrs. Landis panicked. “Ma’am, what’s wrong? What’s the matter?”

Iris covered her face with her hands.

Before coming, she’d thought that since so many years had gone by, everything must be okay by now, right?

Besides, Nora had once tried to persuade her and had told her that her son had already grown up. Perhaps her troubles were nothing more than trivial matters to him.

That was why she had, after a long internal struggle the day before, come to the Hunt Manor today with the clothes she had carefully selected for the three children.

Deep down, she wanted to repair her relationship with her son. She could also see that, although her son was surprised to see her, he was not hostile towards her. But little did she expect that… that man would come back!

As expected, those thoughts of hers were all just wishful thinking.

She should just stay in that small villa her whole life like someone’s trapped canary and live out her life all by herself.

This was the price she had to pay for that incident back then.

Without any hope, there would be no disappointment.

The little spark of hope that had finally ignited after much difficulty had suddenly been extinguished that evening.

Iris lowered her head. “Don’t ask anymore, Mrs. Landis.”

Seeing how sad she looked, Mrs. Landis sighed.

At the Hunts’.

When Justin and Nora entered the living room, they found that Cherry had gone to the bedroom upstairs. Herman and Lauren were sitting on the sofa, drinking the tea that the butler had just handed them.

Justin seemed utterly heartbroken by Iris. There was sadness on his face. He took Nora’s hand and sat opposite Herman and Lauren.

Herman said, “You saw that, didn’t you? Your mother is a cold-hearted person. Justin, she has always been so selfish. You should have already become accustomed to it a long time ago, right?”

Justin raised his head suddenly, piercing light shooting out of his eyes. “Why are you here?”

Herman narrowed his eyes. “This is my home. Of course I was going to come back someday! Besides, my agreement with your mother back then was for me to leave the Hunt's for twenty years! Don’t worry, I know that the entire Hunt Corporation is now in your hands. Even if I’m back, I won’t be able to take anything back from you. I’ve been doing my own business abroad all these years, and have my own assets, so I won’t covet your money. I came back just to visit you, as well as your grandmother along the way.” After saying this, he stood up and started walking out. “I will go and say hi to your grandmother first. I will stay at her place tonight.”

The fake Lauren said pretentiously, “Justin, this is our gift for the children. Cherry is afraid of strangers, so she didn’t accept the gift. You can give it to her later.”

After the two left, Justin looked at Nora. “Why don’t you go upstairs first? I will deal with these gifts.”

Nora had been worried that he would misunderstand Iris, and end up being moved by Herman’s few words. It was only then that she realized that he actually disliked Herman that much. She was relieved.

She nodded and went upstairs.

After she went upstairs, Justin picked up his cell phone and answered a call. Sean’s voice came from the other side: “Boss.”

Justin’s gaze was very cold. He lowered his eyes slightly and asked, “Have you looked into it? What did she say in the car after she left?”

Sean then recounted the conversation between Mrs. Landis and Iris in the car and told him how Iris had reacted.

Justin lowered his eyes and listened quietly.

Sean said tentatively, “Ma’am seems to be having some difficulties, and she is not indifferent to you. Although she speaks disdainfully about the videos sent to her in the past, she has actually kept them all…”

Justin knew all this, of course—because he was the one who had gotten them to send those videos!

All he wanted to know right now was—why?!

Sean was still reporting his discoveries. “The gifts that Ma’am brought for the children were all carefully selected and prepared a month in advance. After hearing that you have another child, she even prepared an additional gift overnight to make up. She was actually planning to tell you some kind of truth when she took the initiative to visit today… but it seems like she has regretted it. It seems that the change in her emotions only took place after your father returned.”

“Okay.”

Justin understood what Sean was saying. He raised his eyes and looked ahead of him dispassionately. Then, he slowly said, “If you can’t get anything out of my mother, then try the other side.”

“Yes, sir.”

Author's Note

hey everyone I'm back for now but power and internet are still pretty tuff to get now a days since it's still being repaired in all the villages but it's slowly coming back. also I just got out of my second job and only have one now I got out before the typhoon which was a good call cause my new job was so crazy we were packed with customers for days and only now did it start to calm down a bit now. the hours there have been so crazy from early in the morning to late at night the only bonus is the pay. but the work been hectic. I'll keep you guys posted when I can update more frequently. make sure to like share and follow along for more updates.