Chapter 23 A Stressful Day
Anna smirked. “Who said this was hers? There’s no name on it. I say it’s mine. Don’t worry. We were able to chase her out seven years ago. What can she do to us now?” With that, she went off with the design book in her hands.
Amy quickly held her back. “Hey, wait. You should behave yourself more these days. Don’t make your father angry again. He was busy enough as it is all morning with that post of you on the internet.”
“What post on the internet?” Anna was perplexed. She was so occupied with the design sketches that she did not manage to get on the internet.
“I think one of the customers at the restaurant yesterday recorded a short clip of what happened and put it online. Look at this,” Amy said as she pulled up that video to show Anna.
Anna was fuming by the end of it. Who had that much time to waste to put something as trivial as that on the internet?
“What did Dad say?”
“What can he say in front of me? Anyway, he did not seem too happy. Last night, he even told me that he had never felt so humiliated in his life before. He only married Olivia off to Hugo for your sake, but you need to know when to back off too. More importantly, Olivia is back now. I don’t think your father is that mad at her anymore. He even brought up her child yesterday and seemed quite happy as he was talking. You and Hugo are also on good terms now so don’t bother Olivia for no good reason. Come home this weekend for a meal. Bring Mitch along too.”
Anna answered, “I got it.”
…
The moment Anna returned home that night, the suffocating smell of cigarettes filled her throat. She looked over and saw Hugo nestled on the sofa completely wasted. His facial hair had grown out, the corners of his lips were slightly swollen, and he looked like a mess.
Did he get beaten up? She changed out of her shoes and went inside.
At the dining table, a chubby little boy, Mitchell Gray, threw the bowl in front of him to the ground in defiance. “I don’t want this! I said I don’t want to eat this!”
Mrs. Moore walked over to pick up the bowl. “Okay, you don’t have to eat it. What would you like to eat then, Young Master Mitchell?”
“Meat. I already told you I want to eat braised pork belly,” he said.
Coming home after a stressful day to a crying child and a husband who looked like he was neither dead nor alive made her anger shoot up in an instant.
“Hugo, can’t you hear the kid crying? Why aren’t you taking care of him?”
Hugo was feeling foggy from the alcohol, but when he heard Anna criticizing him, he immediately got furious.
“What are you yelling at me for? Isn’t there someone taking care of him?”
She retorted, “Can’t you see that Mrs. Moore isn’t able to handle him at all?”
Hugo sat up and argued, “Then hire someone else. Why did you hire her when she can’t do anything right? I told you to let my mother look after the kid, but you insisted on looking after him yourself. Why don’t you look after him then? Why are you yelling at me?”
Anna was enraged. She took a few steps forward and pushed him off the sofa. “Do you hear yourself? Is he not your child too?”
He looked a little drunk, but his mind was clear.
Everything Olivia said to him that day still lingered in his ear.
He only separated from Olivia because of this woman, but he was blind to have married such a vulgar woman.
After he eased his spinning head, he reached out and flung Anna onto the sofa. Pinching her chin, he mocked, “How do I know if he’s actually my child? Tell me; how was I so blind to marry a whore like you?”
