Chapter 490 Buy a Present
The situation inside the living room was pretty quiet. An exhausted Courtney burrowed herself into the couch and supported her head with one hand. At the same time, her eyes remained fixated on the near-empty glass of red wine on the coffee table.
There was a slight breeze in the room, and the fragrance of the newly blossomed roses in the backyard filled the room. Courtney wrapped the throw that was around her shoulders tighter as she felt a slight coldness that came from within her.
At the press conference that ended an hour ago, the director of World Vision Orphanage, Mr. Raymond Newman, had brought with him a stack of evaluation reports as he angrily barged into Citron Apparel all of a sudden. The originally calm situation had descended into chaos from then on.
“Three months ago, our orphanage ordered a batch of summer attire from Citron Apparel for the children. Back then, our staff members felt that the clothes smelled strange, but we chose to trust Citron’s well-maintained good reputation. However, we’ve finally caught on to things now that it’s been revealed in public this time. Miss Hunter, is this the way Citron Apparel claims to behave conscientiously?!”
As Raymond spoke, he took out a light blue T-shirt from his briefcase, and the T-shirt was all scrunched up. However, the label that hadn’t been removed clearly showed Citron Apparel’s logo on it. At that point, he angrily flung the T-shirt onto the ground.
Several agile reporters managed to swiftly point their cameras to the ground, and they managed to take plenty of pictures as their shutters flashed repeatedly. Subsequently, Raymond also flung the evaluation report to the ground.
“This is the evaluation report on this batch of clothes we received, and the results are horrifying. Right now, there are two children from our orphanage who have shown abnormalities in their health reports, yet here you are still trying to find excuses for your staff members’ illness—”
His expression darkened significantly at the mention of that, and there was a pained look in his eyes as he clutched his chest and left the scene with reddened eyes after saying, “I trust that justice will prevail, and you’ll definitely receive the punishment that you deserve.”
At that moment, Alexander came out of the kitchen with a glass of warm water in his hands, and he replaced the wine glass in front of Courtney with the water. Suddenly, the clank of the glass hitting the marble table disrupted her thoughts.
In response, she looked up and revealed a forced smile.
“Why didn’t you switch on the lights in the courtyard? The path is windy, so wouldn’t your servants lose their ways here?”
All of a sudden, Alicia’s voice rang out from the backyard. Before Courtney could get up to greet her, a tiny figure in pink bounded over toward her and hugged her thighs.
“Mommy.”
Josephine rubbed her plump little face against the back of Courtney’s hand as she complained to the woman with an aggrieved expression, “Great-Aunt Alicia didn’t know the way, and she circled the garden several times. I suggested asking a servant to lead the way, but she got upset with me. Great-Uncle William was right!”
“What did he say?”
“Josephine!”
Suddenly, Courtney’s interest was piqued as she took Josephine into her arms. As for Alicia, she trailed along behind and had just entered the living room too, so she heard Josephine’s words as well. Instantly, Alicia called out and stopped Josephine from saying anything else.
As for Josephine, she beckoned for Courtney to move closer to her with a cunning look in her eyes.
“Hahaha! Did Great-uncle William actually say that?!”
Meanwhile, not too far from them, Alicia had a resigned expression on her face as she reached out to point a finger warningly at Josephine, who was currently pulling faces at her. Josephine blinked several times and frantically signaled to Alexander by the side. “Daddy, Great–aunt Alicia wants to talk to you about something.”
At that point, Alexander was slightly shocked. He glanced at Alicia and nodded his head before pointing to the staircase by the side. “Let’s talk upstairs.”
Courtney kept her eyes on Alexander and Alicia as they walked off to the study room on the second floor. Her expression changed slightly, but before she could actually figure out the flash of suspicion in her mind, a pair of soft little hands cupped her face and disrupted her thoughts suddenly.
Josephine took a seat on Courtney’s lap with her legs wide open, and the former shifted the latter’s face in her direction before staring at her with a pair of troubled eyes. “Mommy, I’ve sent Daddy and Great-Aunt Alicia away because I want to tell you something important.”
Courtney blinked in response, and she was unconsciously taken aback by Josephine’s serious look. Suddenly, she had a bad feeling about this and hurriedly took out her cell phone to turn it off.
“Did you hit Ethan again?”
“That’s not it, Mommy!” Josephine’s expression was disdainful. “Can you believe that Ethan actually told me that he likes Fiona?! I’ve stopped playing with him ages ago.”
“Who’s Fiona?”
“She’s a crybaby who only eats strawberry-flavored candy and dresses up in pink.”
Josephine blinked her eyes, and Fiona’s adorable face with a curly mop of hair appeared in the little girl’s mind. Subsequently, the former frowned.
Soon after that, Courtney heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s a good thing that you didn’t hurt anyone. Otherwise, Aunt Cameron would definitely call me relentlessly. Well, what exactly is it that you want to say to me?”
“I would like you to go shopping with me tomorrow. It’s Great-Aunt Alicia’s birthday two days later, so I want to buy her a birthday present.”
As Josephine spoke, she took out a wallet from her kitty backpack. Inside her wallet, there were three cards and some coins. Subsequently, she placed the cards one by one into Courtney’s hands. “As long as it’s something that Great-Aunt Alicia likes and the amount it costs is less than the money here, it should be fine.”
Josephine blinked her eyes, and Courtney couldn’t help kissing Josephine on her pinkish, plump cheeks as soon as she saw the serious, matured look in the little girl’s eyes. Josephine had turned up at the right time, and she even managed to dispel all of the bad emotions in Courtney’s mind.
“Mommy, you’re drooling too much.”
In response, Josephine grabbed Courtney’s shawl with a disgusted expression and wiped the latter’s face with it.
Suddenly, Josephine recalled that episode of Ethan secretly trying to kiss Fiona during naptime before he failed. After he had realized that she had seen it, he lost his temper and turned to kiss her on her cheeks instead. At that point, Josephine’s face was flushed.
Meanwhile, Alicia and Alexander remained in discussion for quite some time. After they came down from the second floor, Josephine had already secretly made her way into Courtney’s bed and was currently deep in slumber.
“Let Josie stay over for the night and I’ll send her home tomorrow.”
Courtney clutched her shawl tightly with both hands as she leaned against the bedroom door. As soon as Alicia heard that, she looked into the room and coincidentally saw Josephine turn on her back. Subsequently, Josephine shifted from one end of the six-foot bed to the other end.
“Alright.” Alicia nodded and left the Duncan’s ancestral home with a solemn expression.
Alexander took a few steps forward and leaned against the other side of the door to the bedroom. By then, Josephine had already tumbled over and shifted back to her original position. Suddenly, she yelled out, “Ethan, you’ve wet the bed!”
He massaged the spot in between his brows and asked, “Well, what should we do then?”
“I’ll keep Josie company, and you can stay in the guest room.”
——
Early the next day, Courtney jolted awake after hearing some rustling noises. She forced herself to open her eyes and saw that Josephine had already changed her clothes, and the latter was now looking into the mirror as she tried to braid her hair.
“Mommy, it’s time to wake up!”
After Josephine had tied her hair up in two uneven braids, she went to wake Courtney, who was pretending to be asleep.
“It’s only 6.30AM. Josie, I need to give you some important advice. Sleeping in during the weekend is the least one could do during the weekends.”
At that point, Courtney tapped on her phone to check the time and was nearly hysterical upon realizing how early it was. She burrowed her head back into the blanket as her voice sounded muffled.
“Great-Aunt Alicia and Great-uncle William wake up at 5.00AM every single day, though.”
As Josephine spoke, she used all four of her limbs and forcefully dragged Courtney’s adult-sized body toward the edge of the bed. Next, she took out some clothes that she thought suited Courtney and flung them at the latter.
Meanwhile, Courtney couldn’t help doubting herself as she changed her clothes with her eyes shut. “Josie, did I make the right decision by sending you to stay with Great-Aunt Alicia?”
In response, Josephine blinked. “By looking at the star signs, I am indeed much compatible with Great-Aunt Alicia.”
