“It’s all right.” Justin pushed the processed documents on his desk to the side. “Hand these out to the departments.”
It took a long time before Frankie came to his senses. “Yes, President Burton.” Since he was still worried, he asked while taking the documents, “Is your eye really all right, sir?”
Justin gave him a frosty look.
Frankie shuddered instantly. “I’ll deliver the documents now.”
“Wait a minute,” Justin called out to him. “Find another school for Charlotte.” He was worried. Since that brat named Victor held a grudge against him, it was not a good thing for Charlotte to be in his class.
Soon after Frankie left, there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” said Justin.
“Hey, Justin.”
Justin looked up when he heard Amber’s voice.
As she hurriedly stepped toward him, Amber exclaimed, “Oh, gosh! What’s the matter with your eye, Justin?”
“I knocked into something by accident.” Justin frowned as he didn’t want to elaborate much. “What brings you here?”
“I have a lecture on medicine this afternoon, so I came to get something and bring you breakfast while I’m at it.” Amber waved the breakfast bag she was holding. “It seems pretty bad. Let me look at it.” She put down the breakfast bag before immediately searching the office for the first-aid kit.
Justin hadn’t had time to take any ointment when he left Julian’s place hastily last night. Since the bruise around his eye was left untreated, it had gotten so bad at the moment that he couldn’t even hold this morning’s meeting.
Amber had been a doctor before, so her skills were more than sufficient to treat such a minor bruise. “It may hurt a little, so please bear with it, Justin.” She dipped the cotton swab in the ointment and applied it around Justin’s eyes. Then, she patiently blew on the bruise to relieve the pain.
Justin was somewhat moved inwardly when he saw how meticulous and attentive Amber was. After all, she was at his bedside when he regained consciousness after the car accident back then, and she had always been by his side over the last five years. Even though he was indifferent to her, she never made a fuss about it. She had a meek disposition, for which she should be given credit.
After treating the bruise, Amber lowered her head and packed the first-aid kit back up. “It’s done. Try not to let the bruise come into contact with water over the next few days. I’ll tell Frankie which medicine to buy.”
“Are you here expressly to bring me breakfast?”
Amber was startled for a moment before her eyes reddened slightly. “I can’t hide anything from you, can 1? I just want to see you since I haven’t seen you for a long time. I know I shouldn’t disturb you while you’re working.”
“It’s all right. I’m not busy today.”
“Really? I didn’t bother you?” Amber was pleasantly surprised at Justin’s rare display of patience.
“No, you didn’t.” Justin had a thoughtful expression on his face. “Since you’re here, I’d like to ask you something.”
“Sure, just go ahead.”
“Rachel is your sister, so you should know very well why I married her and divorced her back then, right?”
Amber’s smile froze on her lips in an instant. It seems like he’s asking about Rachel, she thought to herself. “Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?”
“Julian said I had done a disservice to your sister back then, but no one can tell me what happened at the time.”
Amber pinched her palm as she tried to calm herself down. “Why would Julian say that? How could you possibly have done a disservice to Rachel? Had she not gotten in the way back then, I would have been the person who married into the Burton Family as your wife.”
Justin frowned with a puzzled look in his eyes. “What do you mean?”
Meanwhile, when Rachel left home early in the morning, she received a text message from Victor asking her out for dinner. After five years of separation, it surprised her that the delinquent teenager back then was now a primary school teacher-and Samuel’s class teacher at that!
They met up at a hot pot restaurant for dinner that evening, during which Victor kept filling Rachel’s bowl with blanched ingredients. “Try this, Rachel. My colleagues and I often visit this hot pot restaurant.”
“All right, that’s enough. I can’t finish everything here.” Rachel felt helpless since she couldn’t stop Victor. “By the way, the fight didn’t affect your job, did it?”
“No, it didn’t. Charlotte didn’t come to school today, though. Did something come up?”
Rachel was startled. “Didn’t Charlotte go to school?” The girl had gone downstairs for breakfast when Rachel was about to go out early this morning. The servants even had Charlotte’s school bag and school uniform ready in preparation before taking her to school.
“Is she upset because of the fight I had with Justin yesterday?”
“No, it’s all right. I’ll find out why once I go back and ask her about it tonight.”
“Rachel, are you staying under the same roof as Justin?”
“That’s a long story. I have just come back from overseas, after all.” Rachel decided not to tell Victor too much about the details since she thought he and Justin had little opportunity to meet each other. Moreover, Justin’s amnesia was too complicated to explain in a few words. “Don’t worry about these things. Now that you have become a teacher, I can put my mind at ease since you’re doing well.”
“What about you, Rachel? How have you been doing these years? Why are you suddenly able to speak? Was it Dr. Peters who cured you? Also, what about Samuel? Are you married?”
Victor fired so many questions at Rachel in rapid succession that she didn’t know which question to answer for a moment. She threw her hands up helplessly and replied, “You’ve asked me so many questions. Which of them should I answer first?”
“I’m sorry, Rachel. I was too excited.” Victor scratched his head. “It’s okay, just take your time and tell me about it. We’ve got plenty of time for that, anyway.”
“You’ve become a sensible man, Victor. Your Grandma must be happy to see you like this right now.”
“My Grandma passed away the year before last.”
Upon hearing this, Rachel looked visibly stunned. After a long time, she reached out and held Victor’s arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”
“It’s okay.” Victor replied with an anguished smile while trying hard to put on a look of relief. “Grandma had been senile for many years. In the end, she passed away quite peacefully without suffering from much pain. Luckily, Miss Janice was there to help me with Grandma’s funeral at the time. Let’s not talk about this
anymore. Have some more of the food, Rachel-you’re skinnier than you were back then.”
“You too.”
The clouds of steam enshrouding the hot pot restaurant seemed to transport them back five years in time to the days when Nancy was still alive and Victor often came to her place to help her make pierogies. As Rachel recalled these memories, she suddenly felt a twinge of anguish in her heart.
Night soon fell, and it was already late when Rachel returned to the Burton Residence. As soon as she came home, she heard the sound of something being smashed in the dining room. A priceless piece of bone china bowl flew directly out of that area. Luckily, she dodged it quickly enough, and it instantly smashed into pieces at her feet.
“I’m not transferring to another school! Who told you that I’m going to do that?!” The girl’s shrill voice nearly pierced Rachel’s eardrum. At this moment, Charlotte was like an angry little bird; her face was red with anger as she pounded the table with her tiny fists. One had to say that she definitely inherited Justin’s hot temper and irritable disposition.
On the other hand, Justin looked imperturbable. “Your teacher isn’t a good person, and your school isn’t that great either. I’ve already gotten someone to find a new school for you.”
“I’m not going to a new school! I want to go to the same school as Samuel!”
“Is this why you insisted on going to school?”
