May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 16: Her plans 2

Aila reached the spacious area of the villa where new buildings are now standing tall. The warehouse was being constructed and the three interconnected greenhouses looked so particularly pleasing. She definitely didn't waste her money on these facilities.

She first went to explore the greenhouse where the seedlings looked dandy and fine. They are ready for transplanting from her understanding of their growth. Maybe she should instruct the family employees to slowly transfer them to the next greenhouse for them to be ready for its next growth phase.

Checking things until she was satisfied, Cindy then told her about some problems they had encountered during the period they were taking care of things. Apparently some of their neighbors, relatives of her cousins who intermarried into the family, have been harassing them for some reason.

The whole plot of land was strictly family only and these people were not supposed to be there. Aila was aware of the arrogance of these people ever since her last life and had long held contempt for them. These same people were one of the many factors why her parents became infected back then. Ungrateful bastards whose only good ability is to suck people dry.

The estate nearest to her villa was her uncle Martin’s villa. He and his family are rarely there all year round. Only trusted family servants stayed there to take care of it until his wife’s family moved in, without his knowledge.

Her uncle, Martin, was a busy man. He has a lot of business to take care of to monitor each and every property of his. The housekeeper of this estate periodically sends him reports, but he has been unilaterally dismissed by April—her uncle Martin’s wife, since a year ago. Therefore, he really had no idea that his ancestral property was being occupied by outsiders.

It might sound weird and all, but it stands to reason why this particular community was only for the family ; precisely, it was the land where their family first started. It holds great importance to them that there are rules that states outsiders cannot own this property. Only immediate family can live here, and outsiders like relatives of those who married into the family are not allowed to stay unless they are guests.

From what Aila understood of this aunt-in-law of hers, she had been transferring titles and properties to her relatives in secrecy. Which was not a surprise to her at all, as she was always nifty in her eyes. Though Aila is looking forward to the time when they will know that it is impossible for them to own the properties without the signatures of all direct Justine family descendants...or at least the approval of the heads of the three branches. It was a great foresight of their grandparents to set some legal fine prints in the prenuptial agreements for all those who marry into the family.

Honestly, Aila does not understand the taste of her uncle. It was clear that day that his chosen spouse was problematic in nature. Her cousins growing sensibly without being too influenced by her was already a miracle that she was thankful for. If they had inherited the same characters as their mothers’, Aila would cut ties with them as soon as she could. She would not care if it would hurt her uncle's feelings or her parents' feelings in regards to such a decision.

With her life as a Fortin, she more than knew the damage of greedy, selfish and unfeeling bastards in the family. Living with those kinds of people has caused her quite some pain growing up. And now in her new life, she will take her chances to stay away from them as much as she can.

“What did they do this time around?” Aila said as she coldly glanced at the direction of the estate.

“They are clamoring for them to do as they are told,” Cindy vaguely said. It was reasonable that she holds contempt for those arrogant upstarts who do not know where they stand.

“I see they are eyeing my things this time around.” Aila easily sees through them. “Greedy as they always have been. Wasn’t it enough that they had already hollowed out my uncle’s estate?”

Cindy wisely did not say anything as this topic was way outside of her station. But inside she agreed to what her young miss was saying. Because of what their servants had seen and understood of the state of the estate next door, it was indeed hallowed out in ways that those carefully preserved for generations were long missing.

Last, Cindy heard that one of the priced paintings of the old matriarch had been sold by a relative of the wife of the second head. That painting was one of the collections that has been dubbed as a missing piece, as the family just didn't want to get out of the family. She once saw it and had helped with maintaining it once and she knew how valuable it was.

“Miss, what are we going to do now?” Cindy asked, as they cannot act out on those people as they are only servants here and without any speaking rights towards the behavior of others. Her heart hurt thinking that other than those paintings, some of the jewels were also missing, as she could hear from those who stubbornly stayed in the house next door.

“I’ll speak to my uncle later.” Aila simply said, as she had to deal with these annoyances as early as she should. Not to mention, she vaguely remembered her uncle would have an accident because of this aunt of hers in the early apocalypse.

She would nip the bud before it could even do anything to her family like they did in that one lifetime.

Cindy was relieved to hear that and then continued to report what was happening on the clan properties one by one. As there are only a few times that their masters return to their lands, it was a habit that servants would report everything to whoever came. Cindy reckons that the third master's loyal servant has already given an overview of what are the latest happenings when he arrived.

Aila gave precautions, instructions and solutions for things that were related to her own property as they returned inside. Along the way, Aila did not forget to tell them to strengthen their bodies and to take the vitamins she had purchased for them. And if necessary, she also told Cindy that she is increasing the budget for their food just to raise their body well. Which the maid only shook her head at, as they already had enough and some with the budget already allocated to them.

Knowing that their servants were stubborn in their own ways, Aila did not insist and let them be. Besides, if she insisted more, Cindy and the others would shut down on her, only listening to her instructions regarding the estate and going all professional with her. She hates it when they do that.

“There you are Aila!” Liza said as she spotted Aila. “We were just wondering where you’ve been!”

Cindy nodded at the guest and excused herself. Aila was not able to say anything else as the maid quickly traversed the halls and left her to Liza’s presence.

“What were you doing?” Liza asked, as she was somehow curious at the quick retreat of the maid.

“I was at the back, checking the greenhouses I had ordered to be made.” Aila replied as she pointed at the window where the said infrastructure could be seen.

“Greenhouse?” Liza said as she followed the direction of Aila’s finger. “Why did you have them made?”

“It was related to what I am going to say to you guys later,” Aila said as she dragged the now curious girl to the living room.

Liza could only quell her curiosity and cooperatively followed Aila to the living room. The others were already there and she was sure that they were currently tormenting Jerome about something stupid he had done. When she left there, that i***t thought it was brilliant to hide and scare Alexa. Did he forget how ferocious the small girl was in their group? She is a scary girl when angered.

The living room was a mess when Aila saw all her friends doing their thing. It was not a mess in the traditional sense, rather it was in the atmosphere and how subtle things seemed to be. Maybe the saying ‘there is gunpowder in the air’ was the most accurate description of the mood of the room.

Aila’s parents were also in the room, they were having fun supervising the ‘fun’ of the children while having tea with Bella, who saw it fit not to be involved with the mess the rest were making. Aila would have found it unbelievable that Bella hadn't joined in, if she had not seen how immersed the girl was in the presence of her parents. Making her promptly remember that Bella saw her parents as hers rather than her own set of biological parents. Compared to doing nonsense, their PresidentialGirl will definitely spend more time and energy entertaining Judith and Stephen any time.

“Aila!” Her mother called to her as she motioned Aila to take a seat next to her. No doubt letting her take the first row in the spectacle her friends are making.

Aila moved her eyes between her parents and her friends who were so immersed in their unspoken battle before she shook her head at her mother. She needs to herd her people now that their resident shepherd is not up to it. Else, when they explode later, it will definitely be something she cannot fix in a short period.

“What are you guys doing?” Aila finally spoke as her friends’ eyes fell upon her. “What? I have just arrived here and it is like you are about to bomb my house for whatever you guys are up to.”

Alexa wanted to speak up, but decided against it ultimately. She has to admit the reason for their little ‘war’ is silly and too dumb to say outloud. She is pretty sure that others also think so as they are hesitating to speak out.

It was Aila’s mother who spoke out for them after none of them wanted to speak out. Nevertheless, Aila and Liza have a good laugh over their blunder. It was unbelievable that they actually almost got into a physical for something the hypothetical they were debating about. Liza was pretty sure that it had begun with Jerome, but she did not expect that the thing she had avoided had actually evolved into something like that.

“But hey! My concerns were legitimate, you know!” Jerome wanted to argue as his face turned red in embarrassment. “Although it sounds silly and all, what if zombies are real and we are heading towards the apocalypse without knowing it?”

Aila stopped her laughter as surprise was marring her face. She wasn’t expecting one of her friends to open up the topic so easily. She was just thinking of how to bring up the topic for later, but Jerome had first brought it out first, then she had better use this opportunity to say her piece about it.