Book 2 : She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement

Chapter 15

Chapter 653: Old Maddy is Awake!!

“I’m so angry, I’m so angry. Jumbo, are you fighting with a wild beast? You stayed in the jungle for so long, don’t you see that the middle lane has already opened up! There’s so much HP, are you blind?”

Although Cherry was very fierce when she scolded people in her childish voice, it was funny to see her dancing on the sofa. “I think he might be a Buddhist who can’t bear to kill.”

Xander stood behind Cherry’s sofa and played the supporting role.

Cherry rolled her eyes and turned around with her back to Xander. It was obvious that she did not want to talk to him. “Can you shut up?”

Xander stuck out his tongue and closed his eyes. He stood there obediently.

Cherry continued the next group battle. “Jumbo! I’m an ADC, do you know what an ADC is? Why are you stealing from my minions? Don’t you know I’m looking for more resources?”

She had just finished complaining when Xander said again, “This guy probably died of poverty in his previous life, so he wants whatever money he sees in this life.”

Cherry was in a fit of anger. She nodded immediately. “You have a point!”

However, as soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly realized who had said those words. Cherry immediately rolled her eyes and glanced at Xander. She tilted her head and said in a childish voice, “Can you not talk to me?”

Xander stabbed his elbows into the sofa and hung his chin. His chubby face was held in his hands. “But there’s only you and me in this house. If I don’t talk to you, who will I talk to?”

Cherry: “The butler!”

“Tsk, I’m not talking to him.” Xander continued to look at Cherry. “I just want to talk to you.”

Cherry: “…”

She rolled her eyes again and stood up from the sofa. She strode upstairs with Xander following behind her. “What are you going to do?”

Cherry: “I’ll play upstairs.”

Xander nodded. “I think it’s quieter upstairs too. It’s too noisy with people coming and going downstairs.”

The two of them went up to the second floor one after another and arrived in front of Cherry’s room. Cherry walked in and Xander was about to follow when Cherry suddenly turned around and looked into the distance. “Daddy!”

Xander suddenly looked over but realized that there was no one there. He turned around to see Cherry’s door close with a bang.

Xander: “…”

The door almost hit his nose.

He touched his nose. That appearance was really identical to how Justin usually looked when he felt uncomfortable.

Why was Cherry so angry? She was not as cute as she was on the Internet.

As Xander thought about this, he pursed her lips. Then, just as he was about to knock on the door, he heard footsteps downstairs. When he turned around and saw Nora and Justin coming upstairs, he immediately strode forward and rushed into his room.

Bang!

The door closed. Xander was prepared to sleep.

Sigh!

He sighed silently.

Before he returned to the country, Trueman had said that the woman beside Justin was very annoying, so Xander hated Nora.

However, who would have thought that Nora was the mother of his only friend?

What should he do now?

He originally wanted to tease Nora. But if he did that now, would his only good friend really cut ties with him?

Xander placed his arms behind his head and lay on the bed staring at the ceiling in frustration.

Outside the room.

Justin raised his eyebrows and said, “Why do I feel like Xander is avoiding you?”

“Really?”

Nora touched her face. “I’m not that scary, am I?”

However, it was quite strange that the two children did not quarrel.

She did not know what had happened previously.

As Nora thought about this, she and Justin looked at each other and then went their separate ways. Nora went to Cherry’s room.

Justin went to Xander’s room, planning to probe.

Nora had just entered when she saw that Cherry had finished her game and was video calling Pete.

The little girl lay on the bed, her legs swaying. “Pete, that Xander really looks identical to Daddy. He keeps trying to curry favors with me. Fortunately, I listened to you and realized his goal long ago. I ignored him!”

Pete: “Okay, keep ignoring him. Cherry, I’ve asked around. Everyone says that he’s the illegitimate child of Dad and another woman. He must have a reason to curry favor with you, so this person can’t stay. Otherwise, Mom will be very sad! We have to firm our resolve!”

As if she was doing a spy mission, Cherry nodded. “Pete, don’t worry. Although he fawns on me in every way and his words are indeed quite nice, I won’t be bewitched by his sweet talk! Daddy can have other babies apart from you and me, but this baby has to be born from Mommy. Otherwise, he’ll be our enemy! We can’t be good to him or be soft-hearted to him. Or else we’ll be betraying Mommy!”

It was as if she was talking to Pete and herself.

In fact, after her father left today, Cherry had sneaked upstairs with the intention of messing with this little demon. After all, she had heard that on the day she was not around, the little demon had bullied several servants in the house!

He even bit the hand of her favorite bodyguard.

How detestable.

She had to teach this lousy child a lesson!

Therefore, she had secretly entered Xander’s room with a spider in her hand. When she pushed the door open, she realized that the person, who looked like her father, was sleeping on the bed.

She smiled and walked over to place the spider in Xander’s hand, wanting to scare him.

The spider in her hand was big, as big as a thumb, but it did not bite or poison. Cherry did not plan to hurt him. She just wanted to scare him.

When the spider crawled on her arm, Xander seemed to have sensed it. He slowly opened his eyes and raised his arm. When he saw the spider, Xander was indeed frightened.

He screamed, his face turning white!

Cherry felt that it was about time. After all, she couldn’t scare him to death. She was about to take the spider away when she saw…

Xander seemed to be frightened. His other hand suddenly grabbed the spider, and then.

He stuffed the spider into his mouth…

He stuffed it into his mouth…

In his mouth…

Cherry was shocked. She looked at him with wide eyes.

Xander took two bites and said calmly, “It tastes good, but it’s a little hard. Find a soft one next time.”

Cherry: “…”

She was bewildered!

The little demoness who had been making trouble and bullying others since she was young was stunned by this unpredictable little demon in front of her!

Cherry was dumbfounded.

After a moment, she rushed toward Xander with a loud shout and reached out to poke his mouth. “Return my spider to me! She’s my pet!”

That’s right. She had raised that spider. Otherwise, she wouldn’t know so much.

But unexpectedly!

Xander had eaten it!!!

Cherry was furious. Then, she saw Xander look at her. “Then should I spit it out for you?”

As he said this, he planned to reach into his throat and even made a disgusting retching gesture. Cherry was a little princess who loved cleanliness. She hurriedly jumped out of bed and took a few steps back.

Xander did not spit out anything. Instead, he smiled at Cherry.

Cherry knew that she had been tricked.

She cried out loud. It was not because she had been deceived, nor was she at a disadvantage. It was because her little pet was gone!

She did not want to care about this stinky boy anymore.

“Hey, why are you crying?”

Xander was anxious. He jumped out of bed and was about to comfort Cherry when she suddenly opened her mouth and bit Xander’s arm.

Xander: !!

When he saw Cherry’s tearless eyes, he knew that he had been tricked too.

The pain in his arm made him cry out, “Hey, let go. Are you a dog?”

However, Cherry did not let go at all. She wanted to take revenge for her pet spider!

Xander was furious. He suddenly said, “If you don’t let go, I’ll crush your spider to death!”

Hearing this, Cherry was stunned.

She looked up and saw Xander reaching out with his other hand. His chubby hand slowly opened, and her spider was lying on his palm.

Cherry: “…”

Cherry ignored him.

However, Xander found her amusing and followed her downstairs.

Cherry played games and scolded people in-game, so Xander played along and said a few words. When it came to scolding… Pete had never been able to say it, so it made Cherry feel a little warm?

Furthermore, it felt like two swords had combined!

At the thought of this, she shook her head suddenly.

She slapped her head.

Cherry, what are you thinking about?!

How could she have a good impression of that bad child, Xander? She had to dislike him! Because liking him would be betraying her mother.

Cherry tried to build up her emotions, but she could not help but say, “Pete, Xander doesn’t seem that bad~”

Pete: “?”

Oh no!

His sister had been corrupted!

Pete was silent for a moment before suddenly saying, “I’ll come back tomorrow.”

He could not let his sister be abducted by a bad child!

Cherry nodded. She was about to say something when Nora entered. She hurriedly hung up the phone. When she turned back, she saw Nora looking at her tentatively.

Cherry immediately blinked her large grape-like eyes and flew into her arms. “Mommy, why are you here? Did you feel that Cherry missed you?” Her little mouth was like honey.

Nora rubbed her head and was about to ask her how she was getting along with Xander when her phone suddenly rang.

She lowered her head and saw that Lily was calling. “Boss, Old Maddy is awake. He said that he has something to say to you!”

Old Maddy had woken up…

Coincidentally, Nora wanted to ask him about the triplets!

Chapter 654: Twins Or Triplets?

Nora hung up the phone and looked at Cherry. After a moment’s thought, she nevertheless gave her a reminder. “Don’t bully the boy.”

Cherry nodded at once, the very picture of a well-behaved girl. She replied, “Don’t worry, Mommy! Xander and I will get along very well!”

For some reason, when she saw how she was behaving, Nora was entirely unconvinced.

But if Cherry was refusing to say it, then she couldn’t possibly force her to, right?

As such, she let Cherry stay obediently in the room while she went out. When she did, she happened to bump into Justin, who was coming out of Xander’s room. When the two met, Nora raised her eyebrows and asked, “How did it go?”

Justin looked a little awkward. “He said that he’s getting along very well with Cherry and told me not to worry.”

Nora: “…”

She had obviously seen the two little fellows being awkward around each other, so how could they possibly be having fun?

But both of them were refusing to tell the truth.

“Do you believe him?” She asked.

Justin kept quiet for a while before he suddenly replied, “Whether the children are fated to get along or not is out of our hands. There are siblings who have trouble getting along. Let’s not force it.”

He was afraid that Nora would tell Cherry to treat Xander better, which might instead make the children rebellious.

Nora had always taken an easy-going and stress-free approach to child-raising.

If Cherry liked playing games, then she would let her play.

Of course, this was also because of Cherry’s unique character. It definitely wouldn’t do for other children to become as addicted as Cherry was to games. However, Cherry’s IQ was too high. She had to use games and play with Barbie dolls to calm down her hyperactive brain.

Since Justin had put it that way, she nodded and walked out of the Hunt Manor.

When she was going down the stairs, she suddenly turned and looked back, upon which she saw a small head quickly darting backward in Xander’s room as though he was afraid of being seen by her.

Nora withdrew her gaze, though a faint indescribable emotion welled up in her.

However, she quickly suppressed the emotion.

She didn’t want her judgment to become impaired because of her emotions. Before she could be sure of whether Xander was her son or not, it was better that she had less contact with him, lest she developed feelings for him. If that happened, things would become troublesome.

She wasn’t the only one who thought that way. As Justin walked her to the parking lot, even he himself suddenly said calmly, “For Trueman to send the child back so easily, yet not for the purpose of saving Ruth, something must be wrong. Although it is highly likely from a DNA perspective that Xander is our son, until we can confirm it, we must not be soft-hearted.”

Nora, who knew what he meant, nodded.

After leaving Justin’s villa, she started to drive out of the manor. However, someone stopped her while she was on the way out. With a frown, Nora stopped the car and looked at the Hunts’ housekeeper who had stopped her.

The housekeeper was looking at her with a smile. She said, “Ms. Smith, Ma’am invites you over to her place.”

Nora cast her eyes down and suddenly smiled. “Sorry, but I’m not free.”

As soon as she said that, the housekeeper’s expression instantly changed.

She looked at Nora in surprise, upon which she saw a glint of indifference bursting forth from the woman’s cat-like eyes. She started the car and drove forward.

Fanny, the housekeeper, had been working for Mrs. Hunt for many years and had been taking care of the Hunt Manor for several decades. She was highly respected in the manor, and even Justin generally treated her a little more politely than others.

Fanny didn’t expect Nora to be this rude to her!

The sixty-year-old Fanny frowned. Just as she was about to speak, she realized that Nora was really driving off. She could only step aside and say, “Ms. Smith, please wait a minute. I’m doing this for your sake. I doubt you want to put Pete in a spot, right?”

Nora: “?”

She let go of the gas pedal. The car came to a halt.

Fanny followed beside the car and went on. “Ms. Smith, it won’t do for you to continue taking things so seriously with Ma’am like this. After all, she’s your elder. If you give in, Ma’am definitely won’t make things difficult for you, either. Take Mr. Livingstone’s illness this time for example. If you take the initiative to cure Thomas’ condition, and get the baby-making formula from the Stewarts -you’ve done them such a huge favor this time, so they will definitely give it to you when that happens, you will be the Livingstones’ benefactor. Ma’am will definitely remember what you’ve done for them. This way, Pete won’t have to be caught between his great-grandmother and his mother too, right?”.

Nora knew it. Fanny must have come to her to get her to treat Thomas’ condition.

She scoffed and looked at Fanny. “You want me to treat Thomas’ condition? Sure.”

Seeing her relent so easily, Fanny smiled and said, “I knew Ms. Smith is a smart person. I’m sure you won’t want to make things difficult for Mr. Hunt either. In that case, when can you treat Mr. Livingstone’s illness?”

Nora replied casually, “Oh, I’m not sure about that because you’ll have to get an appointment. You can contact my assistant and talk to her about it.”

After saying that, she stepped on the gas pedal right away. The car zoomed forward at once, puffing dust into Fanny’s face!

Fanny: “…”

It was then that she realized that she had been tricked.

If she went to her assistant to get an appointment, god knows how long they would have to wait!

Everyone knew how good Anti’s medical skills were, so they all went to her for medical consultations. However, Anti only accepted two patients a month, so there was a huge line at Lily’s at the moment.

Thomas really did want to have his condition treated. However, Mrs. Hunt had already gotten people to ask around-if they were to really join the queue, they would have to wait for at least ten years!

By then, Thomas would be nearly forty. What was the point of having his illness treated then?

Fanny stamped her foot angrily.

When she returned to the villa, Mrs. Hunt was sighing. She said, “I owe her big this time. Sigh! Never mind, if she performs well in the future, then I’ll just stop making things difficult for her!”

But as soon as she said that, she instead saw a troubled-looking Fanny.

Mrs. Hunt was stunned. “S-he didn’t agree to it?”

Fanny nodded.

Mrs. Hunt smacked the sofa angrily, her expression instantly becoming awful. She clutched her chest, so angry that she actually couldn’t breathe for a moment. Fanny hurriedly gave her a Zabe Corporation’s Calming Pill. A short while after she took it, she finally felt like she could breathe again. She said, “How dare she refuse! This is so maddening!”

Mrs. Hunt took a deep breath. “How dare she disrespect me again and again. It seems that I really have to teach her a lesson!”

—

Nora was completely unaware that she had infuriated Mrs. Hunt. She had already arrived at the hospital by then.

Lily was waiting for her at the door.

Nora asked, “When did he recover?”

Lily lowered her voice and said, “Actually, he was already showing signs of it two days ago. He had stopped making a din or kicking up a fuss, so I think he had likely already recovered at that time. He looked more like he was observing his surroundings at that time, and seemed to be full of hostility. It was only today that he finally said that he wanted to see you.”

Nora nodded and entered the ward with Lily.

Old Maddy was seated on the bed. The burns on his face made him look extraordinarily scary. His entire face was flat with two holes in the area where his eyes were supposed to be. There were also two holes at his nose, and his outer lips were gone. He was completely disfigured.

Previously, when he was crazy, he had looked a little more pleasing to the eye. But now that he was no longer crazy and had calmed down, he actually felt scarier.

If a child stumbled into the room and saw him, they would probably burst into tears out of fright.

After Nora entered the room, Old Maddy stared at her hard with his beady eyes. A long while later, he sighed and said, “You two really look alike! Too alike! You practically look just like Yvette.”

Nora didn’t care about that. She immediately voiced her biggest concern at the moment. “Last time, you said that I needed to have children. In that case, did I give birth to twins or triplets?”

Chapter 655: Why She Would Die If She Didn’t Have Children!

Nora stared hard at Old Maddy to look at his reaction after she voiced the question.

She would never trust a person’s words that easily, so she wanted to determine whether he was telling the truth through his reaction.

What she didn’t expect, though, was that because of the burns on Old Maddy’s face, he couldn’t make any facial expressions. Even his eyes were too small for her to see anything. This made him hard to read.

Old Maddy kept quiet for a while. Suddenly, he asked, “Twins? Triplets? What are you talking about? Didn’t you only give birth to a daughter?”

In Old Maddy’s impression, the daughter of the lady he served had returned and gave birth to a daughter.

How could it have been twins or triplets instead?

Seeing how logical his answer was, Nora frowned. “Uncle…”

“I’m not worthy of having you call me that.” Old Maddy interrupted her and said, “My name is Jake Reed. I am your mother’s subordinate, and you are the young lady whom I now serve.”

Seeing that he had brought up her mother again, Nora asked, “What on earth happened back then?”

Old Maddy heaved a sigh. “Your mother was tricked into doing human research by a mysterious organization back then. When she realized what was happening, she hurriedly ran away from the organization. However, that organization was simply too powerful. In order to avoid implicating your father, your mother staged an elopement and made everyone think that she had betrayed your father. Then, she left New York and went to a small town in California. At that time, she only took me with her.”

Old Maddy’s explanation was simple, but it matched the story that Nora had previously heard.

“And then?” She asked.

“Then, your mother found someone with the last name Smith-Henry Smith, I think-and pretended to marry him. The two of them then lived in secret in California. Do you know why she went to Henry?”

Nora had a guess, but she didn’t say it.

Old Maddy then said, “Because she wanted you to have the last name ‘Smith’. Even if you couldn’t grow up under your real father’s love and care, she still wanted you to keep your real last name.”

It was just like what she had thought.

Her mother must have been deeply in love with Ian back then!

That was why the tiny company she had founded in California was named Idealian Pharmaceuticals.

Nora did not comment on the love between her parents. Instead, she listened quietly.

Old Maddy went on. “But later, she was still discovered by the mysterious organization. Because I had never made an appearance in front of others, she told me to leave and hide somewhere. Then, once you turned twenty, I was supposed to tell you that you must have a baby!”

He continued. “I had no friends or relatives and had been working for your mother the whole time. I didn’t know what I should do during all those years, either. Moreover, I knew that your mother was in danger, so I had only one thought in my mind, and that was to look for your father! The Smith's were strong and powerful. If there was someone who could save your mother, it was your father. But on my way to New York, I encountered people from the mysterious organization. They injured me.”

Old Maddy seemed to be recalling the events from back then. He said, “After that, my mind was in a state of confusion. All I knew was that I had to go to New York to look for your father… but I forgot why I had to do that. I also kept your mother’s order strictly in mind, that was, to tell you that you must have a baby before you turn twenty!”

Nora had been stunned the moment Old Maddy mentioned that she had to have a baby. Upon hearing him bringing it up again, even though she knew that she shouldn’t be interrupting him at this time, judging from his demeanor, he should have already finished the story. There was nothing after that. Thus, she finally couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Why did I have to have a baby?”

Old Maddy heaved a huge sigh. “Because… you would have died if you hadn’t!”

Nora became more confused.

Trueman had also told her the same thing. He had told her that she would have died if she hadn’t had a baby. At that time, she had been dubious about his answer, but Trueman had said that he was telling the truth. Later on, however, she discovered that what he had said was only half-true.

Nora had always wanted to know why she had to have a baby back then. It seemed that, be it her mother or Trueman, both of them had made that choice for her. But… why?

Thinking about this, she asked, “Why?”

Nora knew that the answer would finally be revealed today.