May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 28: Preparations Underway

Aila was confined by her parents in her villa after that accident. In that incident, Aila had to stay in the hospital for at least 2 weeks as she had apparently lost quite some blood from an injury to her back that she had not noticed. She required some blood fusions to see how much she had lost. It was a good thing that she and her friends had routinely donated and stored blood in the blood bank once in a while. With the reserves she had in the blood bank, her infusion and subsequent treatment were not as hard.

Once she was deemed fine enough to get out of the hospital(there was chaos about how fast she healed, but her father had done something about that to quiet it down), Aila wanted to look over the site of the incident to see if she could get anything that might connect with what she saw back then. But this idea of hers did not even have the chance of being realized as her parents immediately sent her back to her villa.

They say that she has worked hard enough and she should just stay in a safe place until the apocalypse arrives. Convincing her to see her preparations with her own eyes as she no longer needed to hide some things. Citing that they would be helping her with preparations that being in the city could fix. They also told her not to mind the issue of money for expenses and go wild in her preparations in the villa, giving her access to their joint savings for her to spend.

Knowing that she was scared of her parents about what happened to her, she obediently stayed at the villa and focused her attention on the various things she had arranged ahead of time. There are plenty of places that Cindy and her coworkers cannot deal with, so her presence was a relief to them. Fearing that they will not finish things on schedule.

Though this was not the first thing that Aila took care of the moment she recovered from her wounds. To increase their security confidence, she first contacted her uncles to strengthen the whole community here, at the side reporting the actions of Leighs to his uncle Martin. Subtly telling her uncle that she wants them out of the property, going to the extent of offering to buy them a luxury house just to get them out.

The Leighs were time bombs Aila did not want to deal with personally. These people will no doubt die on their own as long as they are as far away from them as possible. They can spread their refreshing personalities in other places to see if they can live as comfortably without Justine's protection.

She is sure her uncle will do things cleanly as he is a very decisive person. Only that his wife is sure to be well protected by him in this incident as always. Aila really needed to find some dirt on the woman later for her foolish uncle to see reason. After all, she is a much more dangerous bomb than her relatives.

Aila was not sure how her uncle Martin ended up in the last days, as they were simply far from each other. She is currently in City A and her uncle, Martin, was based in country Z. With the collapse of human conveniences such as communications, the last she heard was that her cousin was in charge after her father became missing. She could remember the despair of her cousin on the last call they shared with one another.

“Young miss the walls you asked for reinforcement and the height increase is about to start. The company has promised that it will do its best to finish everything before the end of the month. But they asked for additional payment for the rush job.” Cindy said as she gave the letter the engineer had written in regards to the project.

Aila did not care about money now and thought that the request was reasonable. Considering she was squeezing them dry, she added a generous amount to the pay. As of now, the payment they will receive will be very useful to them. And for good will, she will give them advice to stock up some essentials, regardless if they will follow her words or not.

“Other than that young miss, the seedlings are already transplanted and are growing quite well at the moment. The other side of the backyard, which you have ordered to be an enclosed barnyard, is already under construction. It is estimated it will be done by next month. For the fowls and husbandry essentials you ordered to be brought, we have already contracted some businesses to supply as of the moment the barnyard is done.” Cindy then took out a tab which can show the current phase of the construction. “As for the pond you asked to be made at the barn, there were some issues in regards to space. They propose having some high-tech cultivation equipment if you are to raise some fish. Saying that this will make things more convenient and you can breed more varieties.”

“How about the news next door?” Aila asked, as she was satisfied with the speed things were being built. She then sought suggestions and professional knowledge about fish’s cultivation. She would follow through with suggestions. There is still a room for her to use. If there is not enough, she will ask her cousins to lend her their houses for her use. This way, the servants over there can also have something to be busy with if they don’t turn into zombies.

“Master Martin is said to have arrived today.” Cindy only said and no more. It is imaginable how noisy things are there currently.

“Thankfully, uncle Martin is a fast worker. Those people really need to get out of here before they start robbing people’s houses. I heard that they had been staring at uncle Arthur’s house. What was this about?” Aila grimaced.

Cindy has a bad face as she starts to report what James has done to the other residences. If Aila has not come back in time or has told them to do various things that require constant respondents, it is not sure if there will be anything left in the villa. James is simply too lawless to consider himself a master of the place where he, in fact, is not allowed to be in.

“I always thought he was shameless, but this is going too far. Did none of my cousins or my uncle Arthur know about this?” Aila asked, as she knew James had threatened the servants in the absence of the true masters, using his status of an ‘in-law’ to shut the voices out.

“They should not have. James has more than once said that he will have us fired after he talks with the masters. Of course, we did not believe him because we were outside of his jurisdiction. But he did something drastic that made us really mute, going as far as targeting our families who are outside.” Cindy said with huge resentment. “He has arranged an accident on my little nephew’s side, young miss. My brother, who worked at Master Arthur’s house, had no choice but to leave the property to take care of his child. As of now, he should not have notified the master of the incident other than him needing to take a leave to take care of little Jerry.”

“So the ones who are left there are actually those who do not know much about the situation of the family, right?” Aila has more or less an idea of what is happening. The family servants that have served the family for generations are the only ones in the core management of the household. Most other servants were in fact just new hires from agencies, therefore it was easy to be spooked by James.

Thinking of seeing how the other houses were, Aila decided to drop by at her uncle Martin’s house. As the real master is already here, she is not afraid to go there. Besides, she wanted to see the festival of them being kicked out. It will greatly make her happy for a long time.

And other than to see James miserable, she also wanted to have a word with Honeylet and see how little Cristine was. The woman and child are the most miserable existence in that family.

Aila did some investigation into the family affairs of James’ family to see if it was feasible for her to help Honeylet. And to her surprise, she came up with a shocking result that perhaps the whole upper society could never expect.

Vincent and Vivian were not her own. They were children of James outside his marriage. Although Honeylet is the righteous wife, James is more partial to the family he made outside. Therefore, without the knowledge and consent of Honeylet, he registered his bastards under his wife’s name for them to have a status using some illegal ways.

To be honest, the old Leighs were honest people. They are a couple of literati and small businessmen. From poor to rich was their story. Their only tragedy was that their children were just too bad.

They are loving people who impose good conduct on raising their children. From start to finish, they did their best to encourage their children to be good people, but black sheep are black sheep. They cannot change the rogueness of their children. Their brats went as far as turning deaf to their counsel and making their hearts depressed.

Honeylet was the bride the old Leighs had arranged for their son. Even by the standards of the arrogant, rich and aristocratic family, Honeylet is indeed a qualified bride that is worth being proud of. From a young age, they arranged the union in hopes it would somehow reign in their unruly child.

But who knows James already has a lover outside the wedding? What’s more, James has not slept with Honeylet, but he has allowed his mistress to give birth to two children. The old Leighs were so disgusted with James’ children that they actually did not acknowledge them when things came to light. The two may share the same blood of theirs, but they are particularly too rigid in some traditions, therefore giving no face to James when they find out.

Feeling sorry for Honeylet, the old couple has made her the sole heir of the fortune they made, leaving their ungrateful children with nothing. Going as far as using divorce as a condition to get anything from them. It was evident that the old Leighs were decent people enough, but their children simply learned badly for some reasons despite all their efforts.

At the moment, the old Leighs were still alive and the will is not yet in public. But Aila gets to know about these things from special channels. And when she read all this, she couldn't help but sigh at Honeylet’s situation.

No wonder James and his spawn did not care much about her. If it wasn’t for public appearances, Honeylet would be buried and be the bad woman in other people’s love stories. The old Leigh's protection has made sure that, at least in this aspect, Honeylet is not too embarrassed.

Knowing all this, Aila is determined to help the Honeylet and her young child. But first she has to meet the old Leighs and advance the divorce on the grounds of derailment, at the same time give enough courage to the old, to sever ties with their rotten fruits. This will allow the poor woman and the pair of helpless old couples to live well at a later time.

Arriving at the luxurious old mansion of the time, Aila could hear the loud voice of her uncle, Martin. From what she heard, most of the antiques that were passed down to the line of his uncle were already sold out by James. With the obedient and respectful character his uncle Martin has towards their ancestors, he is definitely mad enough to kill the other party now. Those antiques are heritages and also something his parents have treasured for so long, he can’t bear to even touch them for the fear of breaking them, yet this outsider dares to actually sell them.

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO BE ALLOWED TO MOVE THE THINGS OF MY HOUSE!” Roared Martin as he instructed his bodyguards to ‘escort’ James and his spawn Vivian out of his property. He is so heartbroken to see the precious paintings his father has paid a huge price to buy for his mother missing in the hall. It was one of the few things his parents had taken care of for their descendants to admire.

“Martin, please calm down!” James smiled with obvious flattery to the raging man. “Let’s talk about this, okay? No need for you to—"

“SHUT UP!” Martin shouted at the man. “Where is Jasper? Where is my housekeeper?”

“He ran away months ago with a few vu—” James tries to pin the blame on the poor servant whom he dismissed all that time.

“Ran away? Are you joking with me? Why would he run away and steal from me? That guy is timid enough not to touch the things I gave him!” Martin yakked James' collar. “If you’re going to lie, you better choose whom you will blame, James. Even if you are my wife’s brother, I will not hesitate to send you to prison should you provoke more than you already do.”

This was the scene Aila saw when she arrived at the origin of the noise. James was in a pitiful position with Vivian being held back by the bodyguards behind. Thankfully, Honeylet and her child were gently escorted out without any rough treatment.