Chapter 148 Are You Going to Tell Him?
“Don’t be so rash. Oliver hasn’t even graduated yet, and he still doesn’t remember what happened back then. Who knows? He might already have a girlfriend.”
Based on her understanding of Cameron, Courtney knew that whenever she started paying attention to a man, it most likely meant that she was interested in him.
So much about Gale being a jerk. They’re both equally bad, Courtney mused.
“Why do you sound like my mom?” Cameron scowled at her. “I only asked a question. Why are you acting like I’ve already made a move on him?”
“You were thinking about it.”
Cameron flung a pillow at her. “Don’t you have fantasies, too? What’s so wrong about being attracted to a young man?”
“Whatever. Don’t you think I don’t know you? It’s just a spur of the moment. Go and watch some Korean dramas about older women dating younger men and forget about your feelings. I think Gale treats you really well. He always listens to what you say.”
“He listens to any female person.”
At the mention of Gale, Cameron’s spirits fell, and she slowly looked away from the kitchen. “A tiger never changes its stripes.”
“What happened? Did he flirt with another woman again? Aren’t things going well these days?”
“Just because he doesn’t flirt with them doesn’t mean no one comes up to him first. He’s not like Alexander who has always been a man with integrity. Gale is infamous out there. Do you really expect him to clean up his act and be able to hold himself back? We’re all adults here. If we want to have a peaceful life, we just have to feign ignorance.”
Seeing how downhearted Cameron was made Courtney upset.
“Cameron, don’t dwell on the past. We have to live life looking ahead. You don’t have to constantly be afraid of looking forward to the future. Don’t try to bear all the burden on your own and pretend like you don’t care about anything. Besides, the things that happened in the past might never happen again.”
With a stiffened expression, Cameron clenched her fists and explained, “I’m not bothered by the past. You saw how I was back then. People’s futures are in their hands, but mine is not. It’s better not to have expectations or expect too much from others. I’m content with just being happy now.”
“What if it doesn’t recur? Hasn’t it been three years already?” Courtney grasped her hand. It felt icy as though there was not a degree of warmth in her body.
“Like you said, it’s only a ‘what if’.”
Cameron looked pale. At that moment, her usually cunning eyes were filled with a myriad of untold stories. Only a handful of people in this world knew about her past—it was an unbearable past that made a lasting impact on the rest of her life.
After being silent for a while, Courtney looked in the direction of the kitchen where Gale was preparing vegetables and turned back around to ask, “Do you plan on telling him?”
Cameron shook her head and blinked. “Why would I tell him? What if we break up again after this meal?”
Courtney let out a sigh. A crease was engraved between her brows.
Not long after, the hotpot was ready.
It was the dog days of summer, so the air conditioner was on full blast while the boiling hotpot continued to exude heat.
Since the age of three, Tina had not been a finicky eater and did not shun spicy food. On the other hand, Jordan started coughing until he teared up after having just one bite of some beef from the spicy hotpot.
Cough! Cough!
When he was coughing uncontrollably, Courtney quickly got him a cup of water and managed to quell the heat. After that, he did not want to eat anymore and grabbed a box of chocolates to bring back to his room. Tina shoved two more spoonfuls into her mouth and also followed after him.
“He can’t eat spicy food, just like his dad,” Gale teased. “When Alex was younger, he always had a stiff expression on his face like an old man. One time on April Fool’s Day, one of his friends gave him a biscuit that was covered in chili sauce. He was clearly in agony, but he still put up with it. Luckily, I noticed in time and rushed him to the emergency room.”
Cameron looked at him. “Why were you the one who noticed it?”
“Well…” he touched his nose, “it must have been fate.”
“Really?” Courtney interrupted. “I heard that when Alex was hospitalized for two days after the incident, you cried by his bedside every day. Was it brotherly affection?”
“Alex even told you about that?” Panic grew in Gale’s eyes.
“So what was the reason?” Cameron pried.
“Don’t say it.”
But, it was too late for him to stop Courtney.
Without hesitation, she revealed, “Because Gale was the one who covered the biscuit in chili sauce. When Alex was in the hospital, he went to see him to apologize in tears every day because his father had spanked him. As long as Alex did not forgive him, he continued to get punished. Even after he apologized for a whole week, Alex did not utter a single word to him.”
“That’s brutal.” Cameron burst into laughter.
“No!” Gale was displeased now. “That’s because he hurt his throat from the heat and couldn’t speak for that whole week! When his voice returned, he immediately forgave me.”
“It’s not like he was in a coma. So what if he couldn’t speak?” Cameron countered. “Look at Jordan! He can’t talk, but does it affect his ability to express himself?”
Gale boiled over with rage.
While Gale was being teased repeatedly, Oliver suddenly remembered that Jordan was unable to talk.
“Was Jordan born mute?”
“No.” Courtney shook her head. “After suffering from a high fever when he was younger, he was unable to speak anymore. I don’t really know the details either.”
The moment Gale found an opportunity to save his pride, he interjected, “When he was around three years old, he was still living with Old Master Duncan. I had gone over to talk to Old Master Duncan about something, but he wasn’t home at the time. I thought I’d go see my nephew since I was already there, but when I got to Jordan, I saw that his nanny wasn’t with him. He was just lying on the bed and crying all alone inside the room.”
“The nanny wasn’t around? No one tended to him even though he was crying that badly?” Oliver inquired.
“You’ve never been to the Duncans’ ancestral home before, so you don’t know this.” Gale glanced at him. “The ancestral home is huge. Jordan and the old master didn’t live in the same building. If I hadn’t intentionally gone over to see Jordan, I wouldn’t have discovered the situation, either.”
Courtney felt a tug in her chest.
If Gale hadn’t cared to go check on Jordan, he might not have been here today.
“Doesn’t the Duncan Family care a lot about Jordan? How could his nanny be that irresponsible?” Oliver was hung up on the nanny’s agenda as if he had found a loophole.
Courtney pulled her focus back and was perplexed by the same question.
She had been to the Duncans’ ancestral home before, and there were housekeepers all over the house. Even Scott’s adopted daughter always had two housekeepers following in her shadow. Considering how much Scott adored and cared about Jordan, it did not make sense that he only had one nanny with him.
Something isn’t right here. Oliver’s reminder sent chills down her spine.
If it had been someone’s doing, then that person must have been familiar with the Duncans’ housekeepers’ work schedule. They had to know when the house was bustling with people and when it was not. They might have even been able to bribe people off and enter the house when no one was around. These were not things that just anyone could carry out.
This person was definitely familiar with the ancestral home. Perhaps, it was even someone from the Duncan Family.
