Book 2 : She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement

Chapter 27

Chapter 691: Birthday Present pt.7

The tall and thin John was a little surprised by his question. He replied politely, “Mr. Smith, milady’s name is Jessica.”

Jessica?

Ian broke into a frown. “Is she American?”

John answered, “Yes, she is.”

She was American!

Ian’s heart thumped wildly again. He then asked, “Does she go by any other name?”

“Yes,” John paused and then said, “She also goes by Queenie Schmidt.”

Ian lowered his eyes in disappointment when he heard the unfamiliar name. He stared at the two gems in his hand. Suddenly, he pointed at them and asked, “How did she get this?”

John smiled. “Ma’am said that a friend who has already passed away had given it to her. Since it’s that friend’s granddaughter’s birthday today, she shall return it to its original owner.”

A friend who had already passed away had given it to her.

That friend must be Yvette.

Ian’s disappointment grew even stronger.

He shook his head, feeling like he must have lost his mind.

Although he knew very well that Yvette had already died twenty years ago, the moment he heard a bit of news about her, he could not help but wonder if she was still alive.

He lowered his gaze and put the other gem into the box.

Then, he sighed.

As he had only just recovered, he couldn’t stand for too long. Thus, Ian turned, went up the stairs and toward the VIP lounge to rest.

Justin didn’t understand why his father-in-law had suddenly become depressed. He followed after him and asked, “Uncle Ian, what’s wrong?”

Ian waved him off. “It’s nothing. You get back to the party.”

Justin held his arm and said, “I’ll take you upstairs, and also check in on Nora along the way.”

Nora hated crowds the most. Besides, she wasn’t the star today, so she had been hiding upstairs the whole time.

Ian nodded.

But after Justin helped Ian upstairs, he found that Nora, who should have been resting in the VIP lounge, was not in there?

Where had she gone?

It was extraordinarily lively downstairs.

Cherry and Princess Lucy hadn’t met for a very long time, so they had a lot to talk to each other about.

The way they couldn’t stop talking to each other was as though the two of them had become conjoined twins.

As for Pete, he was surrounded by the children of the Hunt's. He was the future heir to the clan. Moreover, he had grown up with them and also gone to school with them. Thus, even though he was introverted, the group of children still played with him.

Pete didn’t want to talk to them, so he turned and joined the children from the kindergarten instead.

The Hunt's were celebrating the children’s birthday today, so most of the guests had also brought children of similar age with them.

The children, led by Mia, didn’t dare to disturb Cherry and Princess Lucy, so they could only circle around Pete instead.

“Wow! You really look just like Cherry!”

Someone stretched out their little hand to pinch Pete’s cheek.

Mia smiled shyly and gave Pete a birthday present. “I drew this for you, Pete. Have a look and see if it looks good?”

When Pete opened it, he found that it was a drawing of three children.

Two of the children looked the same. One of them was wearing a white organza dress-it was Cherry.

The other was wearing a small suit-it was Pete.

The timid little girl in the middle was none other than Mia.

Mia looked at him and said timidly, “Pete, shall the three of us stay together forever?”

When Pete and Cherry were staying with the Smith's, they hadn’t played with Brandon but only with Mia instead. The three of them got along very well.

Pete nodded. “Sure!” “Cherry!”

Brandon, who had been in a state of shock and silence ever since he saw Pete, suddenly yelled, “So you guys are two different people! It’s not because you can cut off your little willy, turn into a little girl, and then have it grow back!”

Everyone: “??!”

Pete: “???”

Brandon wailed, “To think I trusted you so much and started studying how to cut off my little willy without any pain! I’m lucky that I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet! Sob!”

After a moment of silence, they suddenly burst out laughing.

Children’s laughter was contagious.

The whole party livened up because of their laughter.

In a corner no one was paying any attention to, Xander stood all by himself and looked around blankly.

He didn’t have a single friend here. Apart from the three gifts from his relatives, there was no one else here who would bring gifts for him.

“Wow! Did you see? Princess Lucy gave Cherry a diamond hairpin that she made! She’s so good with her hands! That hairpin is really pretty!”

“Mia also drew a picture for Pete! And Brandon gave Pete his favorite plane!”

“When is my birthday? I want gifts too!”

In the children’s world, how expensive a gift was didn’t matter. What mattered was the amount of sincerity in the little gifts that the classmates gave one another.

Xander clenched his jaw.

He balled up his little fists tightly.

He suddenly wanted very much to go back, return to the basement, and lock himself up.

Just as his imagination was running wild, a big warm hand suddenly stroked his hair.

Xander was taken aback.

He looked behind abruptly and saw Nora standing behind him.

The woman was very tall and slim. Her almond-shaped eyes were slightly downcast. When he raised his head, the woman tugged her trousers up a little with her long and slender bandaged hands, and then she slowly squatted down. She rested her chin on her hands, looked at him at eye-level, and said, “Happy birthday, precious.”

Xander’s cheeks slowly started to burn.

The woman’s voice was low and sounded pampering.

This made his expression turn somewhat embarrassed.

He coughed and said, “Don’t call me that, it’s so mushy!”

Nora laughed. “Then what do you want me to call you? Babe? Darling? Or baby? Or perhaps… Xander?”

Xander rolled his eyes. “You can just call me Xander! Why are you so frivolous?! Be serious!”

Nora retracted her smile. Suddenly, she stretched out her uninjured hand to him and said, “Hello, Xander. Let me introduce myself. My name is Nora Smith, and I am your mommy. Mm, although I have been Cherry’s mother for five years, and have also been Pete’s mother for three months, I am still too incompetent a mother. I hope we can get along in the future. Oh, by the way, my hobby is sleeping.”

Xander: “?”

The woman was speaking to him so seriously that it instead made him a little embarrassed.

He paused. Then, he suddenly grinned and said, “Hello, Nora Smith, my name is Xander. Although I have a father, it’s as if I don’t. This is my first time being someone’s son. Please take care of me!”

One of the little guy’s canine teeth was visible when he smiled, making him look very adorable.

Nora stroked his hair. “Yup, let’s both try our best, okay~?”

_

Xander pursed his lips.

The way she spoke as if she was coaxing little kids sure was dumb!

But he didn’t realize that even though he was pursing his lips, there was also a smile there.

During their conversation, Pete suddenly walked over and handed Xander a gift.

Taken aback, Xander stared at the box in front of him.

Pete said, “Although you haven’t acknowledged us yet, Mommy has already told us that you are our brother. So, happy birthday.”

Xander felt his eyes stinging again.

He took the gift and said in a stuck-up manner, “I didn’t prepare birthday presents for you guys though-“

“It’s okay, yeah!”

Cherry also walked over hand-in-hand with Princess Lucy. She handed him the little gift that she had prepared a long time ago and said, “We are older than you, so we won’t mind. Since you are the youngest, we will give in to you!” Xander: “??”

He frowned and got mad at once. “I’m your elder brother!”

Cherry tilted her head. “You are my younger brother! We should be particular about who comes first! Besides, isn’t it great being a younger brother? This way, I’ll give in to you!”

Pete also nodded and cooperated with Cherry.

Xander: !!

Chapter 692 Birthday Present pt.8

Nora had never thought that Trueman would actually send a gift.

The butler in front of her also had a grave look on his face. He said, “It was delivered by a mailman. We have investigated him—he is indeed an ordinary mailman, he has been delivering the mail here for many years. Also, the parcel was sent from within New York.”

From within New York…

Had Trueman returned to America?

She was alarmed.

To be honest, because Xander had grown up under Trueman’s care, his personality had long since developed to be like Trueman’s. Thanks to Trueman’s grooming, his moral compass had also strayed from the right path a little.

Trueman was not a good man. Besides, one could tell from what Xander had said that he did not treat Xander that well either.

Moreover, didn’t Xander leave her side precisely because Trueman had taken him?

One couldn’t hold gratitude towards a human trafficker just because they didn’t kill their son.

Thus, Nora didn’t want the two of them to ever make contact with each other again.

Besides, the way she saw it, Xander was nothing more than Trueman’s pawn.

Judging from Trueman’s attitude towards Ruth, one could tell that the man was rather unfeeling.

She stared at the gift box in her hand and slowly opened it.

When she saw the contents, a look of shock suddenly formed in her eyes, and she instantly slammed the lid shut! She thought of all the events in the past, as well as what Caleb had told her, and her heart suddenly started to pound madly.

“What’s wrong?”

Just as she was a little flustered, Justin’s low and deep voice came from the back, putting her at ease a little.

She looked behind her and narrowed her eyes. Just as she was about to speak, someone nearby noticed Justin and came over to talk to him.

Nora kept quiet.

Justin said, “Uncle Ian is in the lounge upstairs. Why don’t you go over there? I’ll come over in a minute.”

“Okay.”

Nora’s fingers around the box tightened, seemingly very afraid that the box would fall and shatter. She took a deep breath and went upstairs.

Before she entered the lounge, a cry of surprise suddenly rang out from below.

Nora looked down to see a few people holding cages. Inside the cages were some rabbits, as well as cats and dogs.

Xander was circling around them in joy and surprise. “No. 6! No. 3! And Rabbit No. 5! Why are you guys here?”

Nora: “?”

It was the butler again who had brought the cages in. He had only brought them in after consulting Justin.

In the midst of Nora’s hesitation, Justin had dismissed the person who came up to him with just a few words. He went over to her.

Nora kept quiet for a while. Then, she asked, “Are those also gifts from Trueman?”

“Yeah.”

Justin said, “I allowed the butler to bring them in here when he asked me about it. Since Trueman has shipped them to Xander by air freight from a great distance away, they are likely very important to him.”

Before, he had neglected Xander a lot when they couldn’t be sure of his identity.

The two of them were currently dying to give Xander everything he wanted so that it would foster a sense of belonging in him. It was indeed beyond their expectations that Trueman would send the animals here.

After all, with the animals here, Xander would probably no longer have any longing for that basement abroad, right? Moreover, with the company of these animals that had grown up with him, perhaps he wouldn’t be so difficult to get along with anymore.

The two of them stood at the door and stared at that little corner below.

Some people simply loved having cats and dogs around, so they weren’t surprised that someone would give them to Xander as gifts. The butler put them in the corner and said to Xander, “Mr. Xander, these animals have to be tested for diseases. We didn’t know that you have so many pets. Are you planning to keep them with you, or would you like us to specially set aside a room in the garden and let them stay there? If it’s the former, then we’ll have to merge your room with the one next to it, so that it’ll be big enough.”

Xander replied without any hesitation. “They are not my pets, they are my friends! Of course they are gonna stay with me!”

The butler was a little troubled. “But this would mean that you may have to stay in a guest room during the renovation.”

Xander was very happy at the moment because of the animals, so why would he possibly mind all that? He immediately waved. Just as he was about to say that he was alright with it, Pete said, “Why don’t you stay with me for the time being?”

Xander was a little surprised. Then, he grinned and asked, “Aren’t you afraid that I will beat you up in the middle of the night?”

Pete sighed. “So be it, if that’s the case. Don’t worry, I won’t retaliate. After all, you are my younger brother.”

Xander: “??!”

“Get lost! I’m the older brother!”

Pete shook his head helplessly. “Okay, okay, you are the older brother. Will that do?”

Xander: “?”

That way of speaking… Why did it sound so much like he was giving in to him?

When he thought of what Pete had said just now about how an older brother should give in to his younger brother, he immediately understood. It was just like how an adult faced with a child’s unreasonable demands would say “Will that do?” in a pampering manner! That was exactly what it felt like!

Xander suddenly felt rather frustrated.

How was it that he simply could not get the upper hand when he faced Pete?

He bared his teeth at Pete and acted as if he was going to pounce forward and bite him. At the sight, the animals in the cages also howled at Pete.

In fact, Butterscotch-aka No. 6, the wolfhound-even got ready to pounce forward.

Pete was not frightened. Instead, it was Xander who got a shock. He immediately tried to calm them down. “Stop that, Butterscotch!”

Only then did the wolfhound stop. It looked at Xander perplexedly, probably wondering to itself, “Doesn’t master hate that guy a lot?”

As though sensing its hesitation, Xander rolled his eyes. He looked up at the ceiling and said in a stuck-up manner, “He is my younger brother. Even though I don’t like him, I’m the only one who can bully him. Understand?”

“Woof! Woof!”

Butterscotch let out a couple of barks. While there was no way of knowing whether it had understood Xander, it certainly didn’t bark at Pete anymore.

“This cat is so cute!”

Princess Lucy said as she pointed at a listless little cat in the cage.

Cherry had also squatted down beside the cage. She stretched out her chubby little hand to touch the animals in the cage, but when the cat saw her hand reaching into the cage, it shrank back and stared at her with its green eyes. Cherry’s heart melted at the sight. “Xander, this cat is so cute! Can you give it to me?”

“Heh, no way! Emerald is not a pet, I can’t give her away just like that!”

But after Xander said that, he added, “Unless you acknowledge me as your older brother.”

“Big Brother Xander!” Cherry yelled out without hesitation, taking Xander by surprise. Cherry rushed up to him and said, “Big Brother Xander! Big Brother Xander! You’re the best, yeah!”

Xander: “!!”

Could the girl please have a limit to how low she could go?

The corners of his lips spasmed a little. “I can let Emerald stay in your room, but you mustn’t bully her.”

“Okie-dokie! I promise! No problem!”

Cherry and Lucy looked at each other and the two of them secretly giggled. Lucy then asked, “Can we sleep with her tonight?”

“Of course!”

Without Nora and Justin’s permission, Cherry had agreed to Lucy’s request to stay over!

Also, the reason why she had happily acknowledged Xander as her older brother was that she was very sure that she was the youngest! Her mother had said so.

Her mother had said that back then, after she regained consciousness, she had only managed to save her last child.

As for who the older one between Pete and Xander was, it was hard to say. After all, Nora didn’t know which of the two boys, that had been carried out of the room, Trueman had taken…

Cherry looked at Xander again and looked him up and down.

Xander was a little flattered by her gaze. “Are you looking at how your big brother is more handsome than Pete?”

Cherry replied, “Nope. I was just thinking that it’s fortunate that you treat these animals very well. Otherwise, I would think that you’re the psychotic little friend I had met online!”

Xander: “??”

Cherry explained, “I met a little psycho on the Internet. He is very annoying and also very foul-mouthed, he’s basically just like you. He also has a lot of pets… but he’s always carrying out psychotic experiments and bullying those little animals every day. You are not like him, though. You love and care for the animals so much, you would never bully them, right?”

Xander the Little Psycho’s lip corners spasmed a little. He quietly replied, “Nope!”

He swore that he would never let Cherry know in his lifetime that he was that exact little psycho himself!

The two adults upstairs didn’t know about the children’s conversation. The two looked at each other and entered the room.

Ian was sitting on the sofa. He looked at Nora when he heard the door open.

He wanted to ask about her aunt—in other words, about Queenie-and ask her how they had met, and also what kind of person she was. But unexpectedly, when he looked up, he instead saw a very grave and solemn look on Nora’s face.

Ian immediately abandoned his thoughts and asked, “What’s the matter?”

In just a split second, a sharp and forceful feeling had already crept into his voice, and he sounded much like he was ready to fight it out with the person who had bullied his daughter.

Additionally, after he spoke, he glanced at Justin.

Justin was speechless.

In an attempt to explain, he hurriedly asked, “What did Trueman send?”

Nora clenched her jaw.

She looked at lan and then at Justin.

In the past, she had always shouldered everything by herself whenever she met with trouble. But now, she had a father, as well as a lover.

Nora did not push herself beyond her capabilities. At the question, she immediately opened the gift box in her hand.

Lying quietly inside the box was a small bottle of serum.

The serum was stored in a tiny glass bottle, and there was only a very small dose. However, written on the note beside it was its name: ‘Gene Serum’.

For a while, all three people in the room fell silent.

Justin stared at the serum. Suddenly, he sighed. “I knew it. It was just a matter of time before we eventually found out. So, why would Trueman still send the boy back when he could have used the boy to threaten us. So that’s how it is!”

Ian frowned. The man, who wasn’t in the loop about the ins and outs of what had happened, asked, “What do you mean?”

Chapter 693: Xander Is Bait

Justin pursed his lips and handed a piece of paper beside the medicine in the box to Ian.

Ian opened it and saw a line of words: “You have to inject Xander within half a month or he’ll die.”

Ian’s pupils shrank as he looked up in disbelief.

Nora took a deep breath and explained, “Caleb once told me that there is no way to expel the side effects of the gene serum on an adult. Therefore, even if an adult succeeds in improving their genes, their lifespan is greatly shortened. Within the mysterious organization, they had once found thousands of children to do experiments. Among these children, those who could not withstand the gene serum died. Those who could withstand it had to be injected regularly. Otherwise, they would die too. Just like Caleb and Trueman have to inject the gene serum regularly.”

Ian drew a sharp breath. “Are you saying that Xander will be controlled by him from now on?”

Nora nodded.

Ian clenched his jaw and gripped the handle of the chair tightly. Then, he said sternly, “How dare he scheme against my grandson! He’s really suicidal! Our family will fight this mysterious organization to the end!”

Nora looked at him and lowered her eyes. Justin looked at Nora nervously. “Xander’s DNA can’t match yours and mine. It’s because of this medicine, Nora. Is there something wrong with his body?!”

Nora frowned. “To be honest, I don’t know.”

She looked at Justin. “At least he’s healthy for now. Do you think Trueman is lying to us?”

Justin took a deep breath. “Yes.”

Justin’s suspicion was very reasonable.

Trueman was both good and bad. He had never done things logically. It was indeed reasonable that he really planned to cheat them.

What if Xander didn’t need a gene serum but was still injected with it under Trueman’s deception?

Nora kept quiet for a long while.

At this moment, her phone suddenly rang. She picked it up and heard Caleb’s deep voice. “Miss Smith, you might be in trouble.’

Nora was taken aback. “What’s the matter?”

Caleb said in a low voice, “I noticed that Trueman secretly sent a V15 gene serum to the country… You might not understand what V15 means. Let me tell you—The gene serum is divided into 16 stages from 1 to 16. The serum is also divided into 16 injections. Only after these 16 injections can you completely become a transgenic person. Your life will be worry free, and you might even get more benefits from your body and live longer. But before this, if any injection is missed, you would die! I once told you that the mysterious organization raised a group of children who were very powerful. Among those few, there were five who survived. The five of us have taken the doses up to V15. Currently, only V16 is left, but V16 is in your mother’s hands.”

Nora’s eyes narrowed. She stared at the gene serum in her hand and took out that small bottle. She flipped to the back and realized that the words “V15” were written on it!!

She asked, “Xander is my son. He sent this gene serum to my son!”

The other party paused and sighed. “Trueman only has three months left to live. No wonder he’s in such a hurry!”

A cold light flashed across Nora’s eyes. “What do you mean?”

Caleb sighed. “The longer the interval between the injections, the lighter the body’s endurance becomes. They have realized that one can’t take more than two years to take the next injection. I’m the same age as Trueman. We’re 29 years old. After the initial few, we had taken injections every two years. We injected V15 nearly 21 months ago. If V16 is not found within three months, Trueman will die.”

Nora instantly grasped the logic behind this. “So Xander was not even six years old, but he was already injected with 14 serums? This means that he was injected with three serums annually!”

“…” The other party was silent for a long time before he sighed silently. “Yes.”

One word made Nora’s heart hurt like a needle.

She could not think about it. She had no idea what Xander had experienced in the past five years!

She clenched her jaw.

Caleb sighed. “Trueman must have realized your existence when you were giving birth, so he deliberately stole your child. When your mother died that year, the mysterious organization could do nothing to her. The mysterious organization was probably afraid that you would not come out and hide the antidote your mother had left behind, so they deliberately took Xander to force you to

yield!”

Nora took a deep breath.

Trueman’s actions had really infuriated her!

She was furious!

Trueman used the child as the bait just to force her to find the V16 left by her mother!

She said angrily, “Let Trueman die!”

With that, she hung up.

That’s right. This was Trueman’s true motive.

Sending Xander back to drive a wedge between them was not his real goal. If Justin and Nora could not even save a child, they were not worthy of being the heads of the Hunt's.

His goal was to force Nora!

Nora took a deep breath and looked at Justin.

As the two of them were thinking, there was a sudden violent knock on the door. “Mommy, mommy, open the door quickly! Something’s wrong!”