Free Web NovelChapter 134: A Guest
This wasn’t the first time Wendy had seen the wallpaper of Michael’s phone lock screen. She had briefly seen it when they were in the elevator the last time, but she didn’t get a good look.
This time, she could see it very clearly.
That was a photo they had taken together five years ago at a mall. It was also the only photo they had together. When Michael had asked to take this photo, she had been fairly surprised and she had also saved this photo on her phone. But after she had fallen into the sea, she deleted this photo.
Why did Michael have this photo? But this wasn’t the time to think about this. She didn’t know if Michael had purposely let her see this photo or not. But whether he had done it on purpose or not, she wasn’t going to ask him why he had this photo or why he set it as his lock screen wallpaper. Instead, she took the ingredients she needed and walked several steps away like she hadn’t seen anything. She even warned him, "Please keep a three feet distance from me at all times. If you come too close, don’t blame me for getting nasty."
Michael was fine with Wendy getting nasty, but he didn’t want her to get angry. So the two of them carried on doing their own thing in their own space, which ironically made them look like they were getting along just fine.
Mrs. Lucas was in the games room with Jake. She figured that since Jake was a boy, he probably enjoyed playing with these things. She didn’t understand anything about video games, but Jake seemed to be able to get through every stage very quickly. She began to smile and clapped for him. "Jake, you’re so amazing! You’ve made it to the next stage again!"
Actually, these games were child’s play to Jake. He grinned happily and revealed two little canines. "That’s because I’ve got Great Grandmother watching over me! That’s how I’ve cleared these stages so easily!"
"What a sweet talker you are!" She liked the boy so much. Before this, she hadn’t interacted much with him. But today, she got to be alone with him for so long. The more she spent time with him, the more she liked him.
Jake was completely different from Michael at the same age.
Michael was very smart as a child too, but he behaved like a typical spoiled brat from a rich family. As a child, he would get into fights with others and say to his victims disdainfully things like, "My dad is Anthony Lucas, so I can get him to break your dad’s legs anytime!"
When Michael was in kindergarten, the family often received calls from the school as well as complaints from other parents. Michael was a big bully who didn’t know when to stop at all. On top of that, Michael never said anything nice back then, unlike Jake who knew how to make her so happy. But when Michael turned ten, he seemed to have transformed into a completely different person. He became reticent, didn’t like to smile anymore and didn’t even want to go home.
At the same time, he was willing to study. From being a problematic student who never scored more than 20 marks on an exam, he turned into a student that all teachers were proud of, getting full marks on almost everything.
She knew that Michael had always been an intelligent boy. He had scored badly previously only because he hadn’t put any effort into studying. But his good scores came at the expense of his childhood and happiness.
Thinking about the past made tears come to her eyes.
Anthony owed Michael so much fatherly love and hadn’t given him a complete family either. But God had been merciful and allowed her to live for so long.
She didn’t know what Michael would have become if she had passed away early.
She turned to look back at Jake and saw that his eyes did look a lot like Michael’s. But he didn’t have any of Michael’s personality in him. She was very pleased with that.
Mrs. Lucas patted Jake on the head and sighed quietly as she said softly, "Looks like Wendy had taken very good care of you and you’ve been able to grow up happy and carefree."
Of course, Jake had no idea what she had been thinking about earlier. Perhaps Jake would continue being so happy and carefree if he never knew who his father was.
Jake’s face became a little serious, then he quickly put on an even brighter smile. "Of course! Mummy loves Jake the most in the world!"
"That’s right. So when you grow older, you must take good care of your Mummy and not make her angry," said Mrs. Lucas in a gentle and tender voice.
Showering Jake with concern was now the way for her to make up for Michael’s lost childhood.
She was now really grateful to Wendy for giving birth to this intelligent and adorable child. But one problem still persisted. Wendy and Michael’s relationship was still strained.
"Jake will do that!" Jake nodded repeatedly with a big smile on his face.
"Jake." Mrs. Lucas softened her tone and spoke slowly, "Have you ever thought of being reconciled with your Daddy? That way, you will be able to play with Mrs. Lucas anytime, and a lot more people will love and care for you. Switch your surname to ours, alright? Doesn’t Jake Lucas sound nice?"
"Jake Lucas?" Jake knew what Mrs. Lucas was driving at, but he didn’t intend to acknowledge Michael as his father.
So he pretended not to understand and just frowned as he said very innocently, "I don’t think Jake Lucas sounds nice. I think Jake Stewart still sounds better."
"But I think Jake Lucas sounds nice." she tried to persuade him again.
Jake didn’t give her the chance to go on. He quickly picked up his game console again and said, "Let’s play more games! With Great Grandmother around, I will clear the stages very quickly!"
She just laughed and sighed when she saw how cute and innocent he was.
There was no point in talking to a small child about such matters. She would still need the go-ahead from Wendy.
As long as Michael and Wendy’s relationship is less strained and Wendy was willing to confirm that Jake was indeed Michael’s son, Jake would naturally acknowledge Michael as his father.
...
Winnie had taken the trouble to put on makeup, get changed, and went downstairs to look for Michael.
The maids told her that Michael was in the kitchen, so she went there to look for him.
She started yelling for him as she walked towards the kitchen.
He put everything down and walked out of the kitchen when he heard her calling for him. When she saw the apron around his waist, she couldn’t help but snort. "What’s with you today?This is the first time I’m seeing you cook."
What Michael did today surprised her.
"Mrs. Lucas said she wanted to try my cooking, so I decided to cook" replied Michael.
"And how’s it going?" Winnie peered into the kitchen, curious to see what dishes Michael would whip up. But just as she took one step towards the kitchen, her phone started ringing.
She picked up the call merrily when she see who was calling.
"Are you on your way? What? You’re at our gate? OH! Give us a second, we’ll open the gate for you right now!"
After that short conversation, she hung up and grabbed hold of Michael’s hand as she said excitedly, "Come with me to receive our guest!"
"Receive a guest?" He frowned and looked confused. "Who’s here?"
"Our guest is already at the gate, so you’ll find out if you come with me," she said as she just dragged him out with her without giving him any chance to protest.
Michael thought that Winnie was behaving like this because a really important person had arrived at their house. But when they got to the gate, he saw that their guest was actually Yonina, the same girl at the birthday banquet.
Before the banquet, he didn’t really have any impression of her at all. But after all that happened at the banquet, he was going to remember this woman for life.
"Auntie Winnie..." Yonina held out a present at Winnie and said in a gentle and elegant manner, "My mother heard that I was coming to visit you today, so she asked me to bring this present along."
"How nice of you!" Winnie took a step forward to take hold of Yonina’s hands as she beamed from ear to ear.
Then she turned and glared at Michael as she whispered, "Come on, say hello to Yonina!"
Michael refused to budge. He was clearly rather unhappy about this.
Winnie had called him the day before and this morning just to hurry him back to the mansion. So, she had clearly done this because st wanted him to meet Yonina.
He just knew something was up Winnie’s sleeve when she seemed so unusually concerned about whether he was back or not. This wasn’t the first time Winnie had done this to him.
About half a year ago, she had tricked him into coming home by saying that she missed him. When he arrived home, the first person he saw was a strange young woman in the house. He only found out later that Winnie had arranged for him to go on a blind date with this young woman he didn’t know at all.
Even though he had told Winnie many times that he didn’t want her to do this, Winnie never gave up.
And this time, she seemed to have set her eyes on this Yonina.
"Mr. Lucas, why are you."
Michael looked pretty comical in an apron around his collared shirt and pressed trousers, so Yonina couldn’t help but smile a little amusedly. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
She did like Michael very much. But she had been humiliated at the banquet for the first time in her life. She had always been prideful and treated like a princess since she was a child, so she had never had to endure other people making snarky remarks and pointing fingers at her like that.
So, she had initially decided to cut all ties with the Lucas family, but...
When Winnie saw that Michael wasn’t saying anything, she laughed and spoke on his behalf, "Well, he knew that you were coming, so he decided to cook for you personally"
"Mum." Michael immediately retorted when he heard what she said. "What nonsense are you talking about? I..."
"I’m not talking nonsense, " Winnie cut him off at once and turned around to glare at him fiercely.
She was clearly telling him to shut up and play along with her, or she was going to teach him a lesson.
Michael had moved out to live by himself a long time ago, so he respected her as his mother. But he only had respect for that and had no other feelings toward her.
He opened his mouth to speak again, but Winnie started walking towards the house with Yonina.
Then he remembered that Wendy was still in the house.
He couldn’t let them run into each other. If that happened, Wendy would definitely get angry. Yonina had been the reason why his relationship with Wendy had gotten worse. Even though Yonina wasn’t at fault the last time, he still didn’t want them to meet.
In his panic, he reached out and grabbed Yonina’s hand. "You can’t go in..."
Yonina was a little taken aback when he suddenly grabbed hold of her hand.
He noticed her shock and let go immediately.
"I’m sorry."
Yonina was a little awkward as she looked up at him and asked hesitantly, "Mr. Lucas, what do you mean by that?"
"What else could he possibly mean?" Winnie stood between the two of them and refused to let Michael speak. "My son’s just getting really impatient."
Then she turned and said to Michael, "You can’t just grab a girl’s hand like that! Yonina is a decent girl, you know."
"Mum!" Michael was really furious now and he sounded clearly displeased. "Can you stop stirring sh*t here?!"
