Chapter 355 Prickly Hedgehog
Half a month went by. One morning, Rachel brought the two children downstairs, preparing to send them to school. “Charlotte, hurry up. You’re going to be late.”
“Wait for me, Mommy, I want to braid my hair.” “There’s not enough time.” Rachel was exasperated. “You’re definitely going to be late if you braid it.”
Charlotte immediately became unhappy upon hearing that.
“Pouting won’t work. I asked you to wake up earlier this morning, but you had to insist on sleeping in. Whose fault is that? Anyway, it’s time to go. Now.” Rachel glanced at her watch. “I still have a meeting to attend later. We’re really out of time.”
Samuel also looked like he still wasn’t awake yet as he held Rachel’s hand and followed her to the elevator. They were immediately greeted by a black car the moment they exited their apartment complex—it was Justin’s car.
Justin was looking at his watch as he leaned against his car. When he saw Rachel, he stepped toward her. “I thought that I was late and already missed you three.”
Rachel was a little stunned. “Didn’t you say that you were going to pick Charlotte up later tonight after school?”
According to the court’s verdict, Justin could take Charlotte every Friday night to spend the weekend with him. However, Charlotte didn’t accept the olive branch Justin offered her. Even now, she was still upset with him. Although more than a month had passed, the only thing she would agree to was dinner with Justin every Friday night.
“I didn’t have anything on my schedule today, and I just so happened to be in the area. Let me send you to your destination.”
Before Rachel could answer, Samuel was already squinting in concentration while scrambling into the back of Justin’s car. He even put his safety belt on before his head tilted to the side as he fell asleep again. All his actions seemed like he was sleepwalking.
Rachel couldn’t possibly get Samuel to get out of the car at this point. With no other choice, she agreed. “Charlotte, get in the car.”
Charlotte looked unwilling and decided to kick up a fuss. “I don’t like black cars. I like red ones better.”
Rachel’s car was red.
Charlotte was typically a reasonable girl, but the moment she saw Justin, she was like a prickly little cactus, repeatedly pricking him. The saying that daughters were daddy’s girls was completely untrue here. This “daddy’s girl” was more like a hedgehog.
Justin frowned. “Charlotte.”
Charlotte folded her arms, disgust on her face.
In the end, Rachel couldn’t take the sight anymore and unkindly put a stop to Charlotte’s antic. “Red cars? Stop being so unreasonable. You’ve been taking the taxi to school this entire week. Were any of them red?”
Charlotte had no comeback for this. Her little face was tense, her cheeks puffed out.
Rachel’s voice then softened. “Alright now, get in. I’ll braid your hair for you in the car.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ll count to three. If you still haven’t gotten into the car and put on your safety belt by then, then I won’t braid your hair.” With that, Rachel began to stick her fingers up and count. “One, two…”
Before she could finish saying ‘three,’ Charlotte had already smoothly climbed into the back seat and put on her safety belt. “Mommy, I’m done!”
Rachel nodded, satisfied, before looking at Justin apologetically. “Let’s go.”
The car left the residential district and trundled onto the main street. Since Rachel and the children were in the back, they were visible in the rearview mirror. Rachel was in the middle of braiding Charlotte’s hair.
Justin’s hands loosely gripped the steering wheel, his fingers long and slender, and his knuckles prominent. He glanced at the mirror before asking, “Why have you been taking taxis recently? Where’s your car?”
“Sent to the workshop for maintenance,” Rachel answered.
“It’s not exactly easy for you to pick up the kids then.”
“It’s definitely inconvenient during the morning and evening traffic jams, especially when both kids have finished school for the day. Fortunately, Victor would sometimes pick them up and bring them back by subway.”
“The subway?” Justin was taken aback. “Did Charlotte agree to take the subway?”
This pampered girl had been raised like a princess since she was little. She had never once taken public transport. Whenever she went out of the house, she would be escorted by a horde of attendants. She would wish for nothing more than for the cars to make way for her.
“Quit looking down on me.” Charlotte’s brows furrowed. “I like taking the subway. It’s amazing! It just goes ‘whoosh whoosh whoosh,’ and then I’m home. It’s way faster than a car.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Rachel explained patiently. “But this is how normal people live. You’ve never experienced it before, so maybe you find it unthinkable, but this isn’t a big deal.”
“But it’s really inconvenient when you have the children with you.”
Justin might not take public transport himself, but he did know about the crowds at least. Just watching the news was enough to make him aware of how crowded the subway could be during the morning and evening rush hours. Coincidentally, Justin drove by a subway station. There were scores of bicycles and motorcycles parked by the entrance to the station. The volume of people there was truly frightening.
Rachel didn’t think much of it. “It’s fine. Everything will be okay once the workshop tells me that my car is ready.”
The car came to a stop by the school’s entrance. Justin and Rachel then walked with the children past the school gates.
Upon seeing Samuel’s sleepy face, Rachel rubbed his cheeks. “Wake up, it’s time for school!”
It was then that Samuel reluctantly opened his eyes. Out of habit, he took Charlotte’s hand. “Let’s go.”
After watching the children walk further inside the school, Rachel eyed her watch and frowned. “I need to go. I still have a meeting to attend.”
“I’ll take you there,” Justin offered.
“No need. I’ll just get a taxi.”
“It’s not too far from here. I’m already here now anyway. It’s not worth avoiding me just to be late for your meeting now, is it?”
“I’m not avoiding you.” Rachel glanced at him. After hesitating a moment, she caved. “Sorry to bother you for that car ride then.”
“Hop in.”
The school was only a few kilometers away from Hudson Pharmaceuticals, so the trip was only a mere ten minutes. Just as Rachel was about to alight from the car after they arrived, she heard loud noises from outside. She could see through the window that a group of people were holding banners above their heads outside of the company building while yelling about something. Hudson Pharmaceuticals’ security guards had shown up.
“Thanks for the ride.” Rachel hastily got out of the car and dashed over in her high heels.
Justin thought that something was off, so he quickly followed her out of the car as well.
The crowd outside of the company entrance was composed of young girls and women, all of them bearing banners and LED signs. The words ‘Get Out of Riverdale, Jolly Carter’ on those signs were especially noticeable.
“Where’s Jolly Carter? Get her here. We want to see her for ourselves!”
“That woman has the guts to do what she did but not the guts to own up to her actions. Does she think that we Leroy fans are toothless things?”
The few security guards by the entrance did their best to hold off the crowd of women while yelling into their megaphones. “If you keep this up, we’re going to call the police!”
“Call them, then. You think we’re scared?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m telling you guys now—we’ve hired the best lawyer we could get. If you don’t hand that shameless woman over, we’re going to sue Hudson Pharmaceuticals too!”
Rachel saw all of this when she ran over. She immediately grabbed the closest girl to her and asked, “What happened here?”
“You must be one of the employees here. You should resign and stop working at this place. Their CEO’s assistant is absolutely outrageous. She attempted to trap celebrities in a casting couch deal through the guise of work!” the girl exclaimed.
“CEO’s assistant? Casting couch? Wait, who did you say was conducting casting couch deals again?” Rachel was completely lost.
“This woman.” The girl pointed at her LED board. “Jolly Carter. Her own personal life’s a mess, and she still wanted to drag our Leroy into a casting couch deal!”
“How’s that possible?”
“How is it not? Someone in our fan community saw it with their own eyes. The photos were even posted!”
“That’s not possible either. Jolly’s not that kind of person.”
“How do you know what kind of person she is?”
Rachel frowned. “Because she’s my assistant!”
The moment those words were said, the girl froze. All of a sudden, she grabbed hold of Rachel. “Everyone, look! It’s the CEO of Hudson Pharmaceuticals! Jolly Carter is her assistant!”
