Chapter 205
Chapter 205
Chapter 205 Are You Done Yet?
The middle-aged woman didn’t take offense to that. She giggled and looked at Christopher. “Chris, you and Annabelle are so filial. Despite living so far away, you still come back every year to visit Daryl. If Daryl knew this, he’d be very touched. By the way, your uncle and I just went to clear the weeds around Daryl’s grave before the New Year. Don’t worry while you’re outside. Your uncle and I will take care of everything at home.”
The woman went on and on, but Christopher only nodded politely and thanked her.
After some chattering, the woman looked at Yuliana who stood beside Christopher. Her gaze swept over Yuliana from head to toe, and then she asked with a smile, “Who is this young lady?”
Christopher held Yuliana’s hand and answered. “This is my wife, Yuliana.”
Hearing that, the people around was stunned. They took a few glances at Yuliana and then looked back and forth between her, Christopher, and Annabelle with different expressions on their faces.
Juliet Johnson grabbed Yuliana’s hand as she smiled and said, “Yuliana, you’re so good-looking. You and Chris would make a good couple.”
Christopher led Yuliana around to introduce her to the people at the scene, including Annabelle’s grandparents, uncle, aunt, and a few kids who were all cousins of Annabelle.
During the whole process, Annabelle was like an outsider.
On the contrary, Yuliana and Christopher seemed more like relatives of the Johnson family.
Annabelle looked at them for a while. She then sneered and interrupted them. “Are you done yet?”
Everyone present turned to look at her, but she didn’t even look at them. She turned to Christopher and said, “Are you going or not? If not, I’ll go alone then.”
With that said, she grabbed her stuff and turned to leave.
“Her temper hasn’t changed a bit.” Seeing that, Juliet looked at Yuliana and said with a smile, but her words somehow made the latter feel uncomfortable.
Yuliana responded with a faint smile and didn’t say a word.
Christopher was still holding Yuliana’s hand, and he was about to chase after Annabelle. However, Yuliana stopped him by grabbing his hand.
Christopher looked at her with suspicions in his eyes. Yuliana paused for a moment before she pulled Christopher aside and whispered, “Go with Annabelle. I won’t go. I’ll wait for you here.”
Christopher’s apple bobbed slightly as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only said, “Okay. Stay here with the driver. Call me if there’s anything. I’ll be back soon.”
Yuliana nodded.
Christopher led Yuliana toward the car. After exchanging a few words with the driver, he followed in the direction that Annabelle had left.
Yuliana stared at their backs for a while. Juliet who was beside her came over and pulled her toward the direction of the house. Yuliana didn’t know how to refuse her warm hospitality and could only be led into the house.
Seeing that, the driver got out of the car and followed behind them.
Juliet invited Yuliana to take a seat, and then she served various beverages, snacks, and fruits to Yuliana.
Meanwhile, the two children who were sitting nearby watched Yuliana with great interest.
Annabelle’s grandparents were also sitting not far away. They were not as warm as Juliet, and they didn’t like to smile. Annabelle’s uncle was the same.
“Help yourself to whatever you like, Yuliana. We don’t have anything special here, so I hope you don’t mind.” Juliet sat down next to Yuliana.
Yuliana took a sip of water and said, “Of course, I don’t mind. Thank you, Mrs. Johnson.”
Juliet sighed. There’s no need to thank me. Don’t be so polite to me. You and Chris are so thoughtful, unlike that brat Annabelle. As you saw earlier, she didn’t even greet us. It’s fine if she didn’t want to greet me and her uncle, but she should at least have greeted her grandparents, right? Now that she’s a city person, we poor
relatives are naturally beneath her notice.”
Yuliana didn’t know how to continue the conversation.
After that, Juliet continued to talk to herself, saying a lot of things about how ungrateful and materialistic Annabelle was. Other than that, she also offered some compliments to Yuliana and Christopher.
Meanwhile, Daryl’s grave was on the mountainside, which was quite a good location.
Christopher and Annabelle walked in silence for more than ten minutes before they arrived at the graveyard. As Juliet said, the weeds around the grave had been cleared, but it was also evident that they had been cleared recently. Moreover, there were hardly any people who came here normally, so even the road from the foot of the mountain to the graveyard was overgrown with weeds.
After they arrived, both of them were busy with their things. Christopher took out two red candles and three incense sticks. He then lit them before inserting them in front of the gravestone. Annabelle took out paper money and lit them on the candles, burning them one by one.
“Dad, I’m here to see you. Do you miss me?” Annabelle looked at the gravestone which only had Daryl’s name carved on it without a photo. She tried hard to imagine what he looked like, but she couldn’t outline Daryl’s appearance in her mind.
All of a sudden, tears rolled down her cheeks.
Taking a glance at Annabelle, Christopher once again saw the image of her when she was little.
He walked toward Annabelle, took out another pile of paper money from the bag, and burned them silently. Christopher and Annabelle took nearly an hour to come back.
During that hour, Yuliana learned quite a bit of information from Juliet. It turned out that Annabelle’s biological mother eloped with her lover when Annabelle was two or three years old. At that time, Daryl worked in another city and couldn’t take care of his daughter, so he had no choice but to leave Annabelle at home with her grandparents.
According to Juliet, Daryl later found another partner. When Annabelle was five years old, she was taken to a big city by Daryl. After that, the little girl became arrogant and looked down on her relatives for being poor. She only wanted to climb higher social circles.
She also said that Daryl saved Christopher’s life, and the Solace family paid him a lot of money. However, he wasn’t willing to give a single cent to his parents, leaving them to raise Annabelle for several years for nothing.
Just as they were getting into the story, they heard a few barks in the yard. Juliet peeked out and saw that Christopher and Annabelle had returned. Her expression immediately changed and greeted them with a smile.
“Let’s join us for lunch later. You rarely come back, and it happens to be the New Year.” Juliet invited Christopher into the house, but Annabelle stood by the car and didn’t move an inch.
Christopher said, “Mrs. Johnson, we have to catch a flight back tonight, so we won’t bother you any longer. It turned out he came into the house to pick up Yuliana.
Yuliana immediately walked toward him when she saw him come in.
Christopher looked at the two elderly people in the house and the two kids who were looking at him eagerly. He took out all the cash from his wallet and handed it to Juliet. “We didn’t buy anything for you. Take this money and buy something for Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, and the two kids.”
Juliet pretended to refuse for a few moments before accepting it with a beaming smile.
She figured there were at least a few hundred dollars, and possibly more than a thousand dollars.
Yuliana looked at her quietly and said nothing.
When they were leaving, Juliet took some marinated meat from the house and put it in the car. Then she carried a box of milk from the house before sending them off with great joy. Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.
As soon as Annabelle closed the car door, she snorted coldly. “Do you have so much money that you don’t know where to spend it? People like them can shamelessly accept whatever you give them no matter how much.”
Christopher pursed his lips. “After all, they’re your grandparents.”
“They are not!” Annabelle turned around and stared at Christopher with her reddened eyes.