Hayden called Scarlett after Freddie left.
“Aunt Scarlett, where is Stella?”
“She had just finished lunch and now napping along with your uncle.” Scarlett's voice seems to be
gentler than before.
“With Uncle? Uncle Nathan is not working today?”
“I haven’t told you that your uncle had officially retired last week. He was scheduled for a calligraphy
event in Hubei Province but he rushed back knowing that Stella was coming. I told him he is not good
with kids, but he insisted on the opposite, sigh.”
Hayden laughed, “Uncle had just retired, he’s probably trying to keep himself occupied.”
“That's true.” Scarlett laughed too, “Oh yeah, there’s a gathering on Friday night, let’s have a family
dinner together, only us and your other uncle’s family, come join us.”
Hayden hesitated for a while, “I haven’t seen them for so many years, it’ll be awkward for me to be
there.”
“Why? Are you cutting ties with your relatives from your maternal grandfather’s side?”
“That’s not what I meant, Aunt.”
“Well, come then. I’ll pick you up at your place on Friday.”
It was hard to reject Scarlett’s genuine invitation. Besides, her maternal grandfather’s side of the uncles
were the only relatives she had left.
She understood Scarlett’s intention.
On Friday night, Scarlett came to pick Hayden up for the dinner at the hotel.
A black color low-key Rolls Royce stooped at the neighborhood. She was welcomed with a warm
embrace soon as she got on, “What took you so long, Mommy, I’m starving.”
Hayden caressed her little head helplessly, “Sit upright, we are going.”
After they were seated, Hayden raised her head and greet her uncle on the passenger seat in the front.
“Mommy, look at my new dress, is it pretty?”
Stella didn’t stay still even after seated, she held her gauze skirt and showed it to Hayden, “See, there
are little stars.”
A pink blue gauze skirt matched with a thin small leather jacket, brown leather shoes with a pair of
white floral lace socks. Hayden had been studying on the autumn/fall fashion shows lately due to work,
if she was right, this was the latest design by BV this year.
Even if the price of the clothes was not visible, the double G logo on Stella’s slanting bag was clearly
visible.
“Aunt Scarlett, there is no need to buy such expensive clothes for a child.”
Scarlett disagreed.
“Stella is your only daughter, of course, she should be dressed up well. Girls are meant to be raised a
princess to prevent her from being easily seduced by boys in the future.”
“I agree.” Nathan spoke from the passenger seat, “Girls are meant to be raised a princess, but we are
not spoiling her, we want her to be strong and independent.”
Hayden felt a sudden headache.
Both Scarlett and Nathan were childless and they like Stella so much. Dressing her up with branded
clothing at such a young age was overindulging, they might even pick the stars and moon for her.
“Aunt, this… don’t overdo it, we need to be strict…”
“If you want to discuss tiger parenting, there’s nothing to talk about. I was raised that way, having a bad
temperament brings no good.”
Hayden was stunned by her speech.
This was the first time Aunt Scarlett admitted her bad temperament. She saw the disbelieved and
surprised looked on Uncle Nathan’s face from the rearview mirror, he uttered slowly, “How rare.”
Scarlett’s sharp ears caught what he said, she threw a glance,” There are loads of rare happenings in
this world, isn’t abandoning your wife and kid and ended up with a broken family rarer than this?”
Her words struck Hayden’s heart.
Perhaps Stella was the only one who didn’t understand the meaning behind it.
“That’s enough, why are you saying such things in front of a kid?”
“Those are the truth.”
Scarlett said coldly, “Even at such a young age, Stella can make sound judgments, there is no need to
beautify the world for her.”
“Scarlett, that’s enough…”
Nathan said helplessly.
Scarlett was not satisfied with his attitude, she frowned and about to lose her temper, but was stopped
by Hayden, “Aunt Scarlett, don’t keep mentioning the past, Stella is a grown-up kid, she understands
everything, right?”
She glanced at Stella.
Stella nodded collaboratively, “Yes, Mommy, Great Aunt, Great Uncle, I know everything.”
Stella’s face softened and looked at Hayden.
“Don’t get involved with the Downey Group, stay as far away as possible, don’t invite troubles to
yourself.”
Hayden nodded and tried to hide the sadness in her eyes.
Since Chelsea’s death, the news of money embezzlement by the internal finance team of Downey
Group was exposed, it even made the front page of the mass media. Rumors were spreading while the
Bureau of Industry and Commerce intervened to investigate. All projects involving the Downey Group
were suspended.
The suspension of real estate development projects resulted in hundreds of migrant workers lost their
jobs.
Hayden and the family were heading to Nanking Hotel for dinner, they will surely drove past the
headquarters of Downey Group. One could easily guess the situation outside the building.
Migrant workers holding a banner written, “Black-Hearted Developers, Return My Hard Earned Money”,
kind of old phrases. The entire square smelled like a five yuan lunch box while reporters filled up every
corner of it.
Even with police intervention, there was not much effect.
“Stop looking.”
Stella said to Nathan with an annoyed tone, “As the tree, so the fruit, tax avoidance and tax evasion,
there’s nothing that they don’t do.”
“We can’t jump to a conclusion while the investigation is still going on.”
Nathan’s voice was gentle, that was his style. His many years in the political arena built him a habit of
being objective, he was a gentle person in private too.
Hayden didn’t plan to look at first, but the traffic in the city was clogged up, noise from the outside was
getting louder, she saw a fire truck coming from far and realized something had happened.
Hayden saw a huge crowd of people in front of Downey Group’s building, everyone was looking up.
Their car went through a small lane between the crowd, police cordons were set up, the firefighters
wearing yellow-orange clothes were inflating the safety cushion urgently.
Hayden sensed something, in the meantime, someone from the crowd spoke out loud what she was
thinking.
“Someone jumped off the building…”
Her face changed and she felt she had skipped a heartbeat. The image she saw at the café where
Chelsea fell from the building crossed her mind, she blurted.
“Stop the car.”
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