Chapter 339 They’re Just Thinking of Taking Advantage
Hearing this, the coldness in Alexander’s eyes slowly disappeared. His hands gradually became warm, and the resentment in his heart dissipated. A moment later, he held Courtney’s hand. “I’m sorry.”
As she shook her head, she said thoughtfully, “It’s alright. I know you didn’t mean to take it out on me.”
With that, he took her into his arms. “To be honest, I’ve thought of how she would come back to see me many times. After all, I’m her son. Yet, she never came back for the past twenty years.”
Who would ever understand the myriad of emotions that overwhelmed me when I saw her in Oreus before?
Courtney wanted to tell him something, but it didn’t seem to be the right time to do so because it might backfire if she stood on Fiona and Oliver’s side now. Hence, she didn’t mention anything. Besides, she was still troubled with some questions, so she had to make things clear with them first.
In the evening, they picked up the children before going to the hotel for dinner. Stephen and his family were invited too as they wanted to go over some details about the wedding.
Seated at one end of the table was Scott. As soon as he saw Alexander and Courtney arrive, the imposing look he had on melted away at once, and he beckoned them to take a seat.
“Hey, we’ve been waiting for you. What took you so long?” Maryse, who was nearly 50 years old, spoke. Her sable fur coat hung on the chair. There was a judgemental look in her eyes as Courtney entered through the door.
“We went to pick up the kids,” Courtney explained drily.
In truth, Courtney wasn’t exactly close with Maryse because she was usually with her grandfather during those years when she stayed with the Somerfields. Occasionally, she would meet Alicia’s family. As for Stephen and Maryse, she would only meet them once every year on New Year.
This time, Stephen and Maryse were invited to dinner simply because Scott thought that Courtney had no one else from her side of the family and was afraid that people might think she had no one to count on. Besides, according to Melrose’s tradition, Stephen was considered the head of the family. Hence, he would have a seat at the bridal table during the wedding. That was why Scott asked Courtney to invite Stephen.
“I heard that the kids are studying at Sapphire Kindergarten, right?” Maryse smiled warmly. “Henry and Brandon have also reached the age where they’re supposed to attend kindergarten, so Cindy and Joshua have been visiting many schools. They visited nearly all that’s in Melrose, but they couldn’t find a suitable one. Then, I heard that Tina attends Sapphire Kindergarten, so I went and took a look yesterday. It seems like a really good school. Why don’t you arrange for Henry and Brandon to study there as well? The kids could accompany each other.”
Upon hearing this, Courtney furrowed her brows. “Aunt Maryse, you can just give them a call to register.”
Speechless, Courtney couldn’t believe that Maryse had the nerve to ask her to help arrange the children’s kindergarten enrolment after only speaking to each other for a while on their first meeting.
“I wouldn’t have asked for your help if I could just register. It’s not too much trouble anyway.”
Right then, Alicia couldn’t bear to watch anymore. “Not too much trouble?” she scoffed. “We’re not here to discuss your grandchildren’s kindergarten enrollment, are we?”
In the Somerfield Family, she had relatively high standing. Thus, even if people didn’t listen to her, they still respected her. With that, Maryse closed her mouth as she sulked.
Then, Alicia turned to Scott and apologized softly. “Sorry about that, Mr. Duncan.”
The old man seemed as if nothing had happened. “It’s alright. Alexander, let Courtney take a seat. We’re just having dinner together as a family, so there’s no need to be so cautious about everything. Just say whatever you want to.”
Courtney glanced at Alexander, who sat beside Scott, and took a seat beside Alicia.
The room was large enough to accommodate all twelve of them sitting at the table. From the Duncans’ side, there were only Scott and Alexander. The rest were from the Somerfield Family.
It was obvious why Maryse and her family had come. Throughout the dinner, she never once took an interest in the wedding and kept asking about Alexander’s business as soon as she had the chance. In the meantime, her daughter, Courtney’s cousin, kept thinking of ways to talk about her children’s kindergarten enrollment.
They were all thinking of taking advantage of them.
Fortunately, William and Alicia were of much help. Ignoring the others, both of them discussed the wedding date and arrangements with Scott.
Just then, Tina lifted her head to look at Courtney with a bored expression. “Mommy, I’m full.”
“Do you want to go and play?” Courtney smiled and touched Tina’s nose.
“Tee-hee…” Tina giggled, showing her white teeth. “You’re so smart, Mommy.”
“Oh, stop with the flattery. Go ahead and take Jordan with you. Just don’t be too crazy.”
After that, she rubbed Jordan’s forehead. “Watch over your sister, okay?”
“Okay.” Jordan nodded with a serious expression on his face.
He hardly spoke when there were strangers around. Hence, he caught up with Tina after acknowledging Courtney.
As soon as Cindy saw this, she urged her two sons to join them. “Henry, Brandon, go and play with Tina and Jordan. Go ahead.”
The children were always happy to see the playground, so the boys ran over immediately when they heard this. Suddenly, the table was much quieter.
Gazing at Courtney, Cindy hinted, “Look at them. They’re roughly the same age. Wouldn’t it be nice for them to play together in school?”
With a faint smile, Courtney noted, “They’re a year apart. They’d be in different classes even if they’re in the same school.”
In actual fact, helping the two boys with their kindergarten enrollment wasn’t hard, and she knew that Alexander would say yes as long as she asked; it was a piece of cake. However, she refused to let Stephen and his family take advantage of them because some people would take a mile after giving them an inch.
Slowly, Cindy became impatient after trying to convince Courtney for quite some time but to no avail. Cindy’s face turned grim, and she sneered scornfully, “True. I guess I’d better do it myself.”
In response, Courtney pretended that she didn’t notice the obvious resentment in Cindy’s remark and turned to look at Alicia. From time to time, she would even talk to Scott and William.
Meanwhile, Stephen and Maryse seemed to have hit a wall with Alexander. Together with Cindy and Joshua, all of their faces turned embarrassingly dark.
That night, a normal family dinner had turned into an unpleasant one. Courtney had hoped that they would at least get to dine together in peace, but sadly, one couldn’t always get what they wanted.
All of a sudden, a boy’s loud wail erupted from the children’s section.
“What happened?” Cindy turned around and took a look before rushing over. Then, she screamed, “Henry!”
Under the children’s slide, the four-year-old Henry was lying face down with blood all over his mouth. At one glance, one could conclude that he must have fallen to the ground and cut his lips. Meanwhile, Tina was sitting at the top of the slide, preparing to slide down. At that moment, she was staring blankly at the bottom of the slide.
“What happened?” Cindy was so terrified that she didn’t know what to do.
“She pushed me, Mommy…” He sobbed.
