“Young master and young madam, the dumplings are ready downstairs. Mrs. Nelson asks you to go
down.” Thomas stood in the doorway.
Dolores swallowed the words that hovered on the tip of her tongue and said, “Let’s go down.”
When Matthew was drinking with Armand and Boyce, he just drank some wine but did not eat anything.
He was a little hungry at the moment.
So, he responded with a light hum.
It was not yet the end of the year, but Victoria had prepared a sumptuous meal, presumably it was
because Dolores and Matthew had brought their two children over, so she prepared a lot of food to
make Matthew happy.
But she did not know what he liked, so she prepared more.
Dolores knew what Victoria was thinking. She looked up at Matthew.
Matthew pretended he did not see it and pulled out a chair to sit down.
Dolores went into the kitchen. The maid had just turned off the fire. There were dumplings inside the
pot. Dolores picked up a ladle, “I’ll serve it.”
The dumplings in the pot were prepared by Victoria, Dolores and her children, which seriously affected
the attractiveness of all the dumplings.
Dolores put the dumplings made by her two children in a large bowl.
The maid took a look at it and was a bit confused, “Since you’re serving them together like this, it’s not
appetizing. Who can finish such a big bowl of dumplings?”
Dolores smiled and said, “Someone can finish it.”
She was doing it on purpose.
He did not want to eat the dumplings that were prepared by Victoria. Then, she gave the dumplings
prepared by her and the children to him.
It was good to make him feel extremely full.
He was so stubborn.
Simona had eaten the dumplings and did not want to eat them now. So, Dolores served the rest of the
dumplings in three bowls, one for Samuel, one for Victoria and one for herself.
The maid helped to bring them to the table.
Dolores put the big ‘miserable’ bowl in front of Matthew and said, “You won’t mind, right? These were
all prepared for you by me and your children.”
Matthew looked at the big bowl of dumplings in front of him and trembled his eyelashes slightly, was
this feeding the pigs?
“Daddy, you have to finish eating it, don’t let us down.” Samuel was so smart that he could know what
Dolores was thinking at a glance. So, he added and pulled his sister, “Sister, look at daddy eating the
dumplings you made, are you happy?”
“Yes. Daddy, do you like the dumplings that I made?” The little girl asked with blinking eyes that were
full of hope.
Matthew was speechless.
Could he say that he did not like it?
He took a spoon and stirred it. It looked like a huge lump of dough with vegetables on top of it. It did not
look like a dumpling in any way.
“Why aren’t you eating, daddy?” Simona did not think too much, she just felt a sense of achievement
when her father ate the dumplings she made.
Dolores ‘kindly’ poured vinegar for him, “Dumplings taste good with vinegar.”
“It’s true, daddy, it’s good when being dipped in vinegar,” Simona said innocently.
Victoria sat aside with a little distress. There were so many dishes, could he still eat other food after
finishing that big bowl of ‘dumplings’?
She hesitated for a moment, “Give me some.” She placed an empty bowl in front of him.
Without even raising his eyes, Matthew scooped up a dumpling and put it into his mouth. He would still
eat them even they were ugly as they were prepared by his wife and his children.
It was clear that Matthew would rather eat them himself than accept Victoria’s kindness.
Victoria was sad. Dolores put two of her dumplings inside the empty bowl and brought it to Victoria.
She did not want Victoria to feel embarrassed and sad. Trying to not embarrass her, “Mum, I can’t finish
it, you help me to eat some.”
Victoria smiled stiffly and said, “Okay.”
After eating that huge bowl of dumplings, Matthew could not sleep well as he was still very full.
Tossing and turning, it did not matter how he lay, he still felt ill.
It was morning and inside a hospital.
That night, Armand called several times for water. Mrs. Leslie woke up for a while during the night. She
was not very conscious. After a while, she slept again.
Theresa barely closed her eyes during the night. She could only take a nap for a while on the sofa
when it was almost morning. She gradually slept soundly in the nap. She did not notice that the sun
rises in the morning.
After drinking for one night, Armand’s whole body ached. He turned over and opened his eyes slowly.
He remembered that he was drinking with Boyce and Matthew last night. Then, Boyce took him out of
the restaurant. After that, he could not remember anything.
He got up and looked at his surroundings. He realized that Boyce had sent him to the hospital.
He looked around and noticed that Theresa was not covered with anything. Although the air
conditioning was on in the ward, it was still a bit cold as it was the twelfth moon of the lunar year.
He picked up a thin quilt on the bed and went to the sofa to cover her gently. When he lowered his
head, he saw green patches beneath Theresa’s eyes.
It was obvious that she had not rested well.
Armand thought secretly, she must have not slept all night, otherwise, she could not be this tired.
It might be because Armand had just woken up, the quilt was still warm. So, she felt warm and moved
her body to find a comfortable position to continue sleeping.
Armand squatted by the sofa and looked closely at her. She seemed to have lost some weight and she
did not look good.
He thought that it must be because of his and Phoebe’s matter, Theresa was sad and hurt.
Armand sighed slightly. In fact, he never wanted to hurt her, but he had inadvertently hurt her.
The door of the ward was gently pushed open. Armand heard the rattling and thought it was the doctor
warding round. He stood up and looked towards the door.
However, it was not the doctor, but Phoebe. She stood at the door with a fruit basket and a bouquet of
flowers.
“I hear that grandma’s sick, so I come here to have a look.”
In fact, she did not leave the Bernie family’s house that day but hid outside to see if Theresa had left.
Later, she did not see Theresa leaving but saw Armand running out with Mrs. Leslie in his arms.
She followed them to the hospital at that time and knew that Mrs. Leslie was sick. She did not show up
yesterday as it was too obvious, so she came over today.
Armand’s face sank, “What are you doing over here?”
“Can’t I see grandma?” Phoebe’s eyes were red, “No matter what, in the past, you had formally brought
me home to meet with grandma and I had called her grandma, now that she is sick, is it wrong for me
to come and visit her?”
Theresa seemed to hear a loud noise, her brow furrowed in impatience, as if she did not like such a
cacophony.
Armand helped her to cover the quilt nicely, afraid that Phoebe would wake her up. He glanced at
Phoebe, “You come out with me.”
Phoebe looked at Armand’s action just now and her heart ached. He used to do all this for her, but now
he was doing it for another woman.
She could not help but clenched her hands. She did not show much expression on her face, “I’ll put the
things here.”
She put the flowers and the fruit basket on the table, then looked at Armand and said, “Okay.”
Armand did say anything and walked towards the door. Phoebe followed him at the back.
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