Sarah Shelby looked away and a smile tugged at her lips. Her voice returned to its usual lighthearted tone. "You silly girl, what are you apologizing for?"
Then she changed the subject. "Since you've decided to take care of him, whether it's temporary or long-term, as your best friend, I can't just stand by and do nothing. If you need anything from me, just say the word. Don't try to handle it all by yourself."
Clara Grant nodded. 'Thank goodness I still have a good friend like Sarah. I can tell her all my troubles, and she'll always help me.'
"Alright, I definitely won't be shy about asking. Just don't get sick of me then."
"Sick of you? I'm already sick of you! Now get going, get going!" Sarah Shelby feigned impatience and playfully pushed her with both hands.
The two of them burst into laughter.
...
When Clara Grant returned home with Cherie, her mother, Skylar Hayes, had the exact same reaction as Sarah Shelby upon seeing the little boy trailing her daughter: confusion and astonishment.
Before she could even ask, Cherie had already called out to her sweetly, "Hello, Grandma! My name is Cherie."
Seeing how polite and well-behaved he was, Skylar Hayes could only suppress her questions for the time being. She bent down and stroked his little face. "Well, hello. Cherie, you're such a good boy."
Clara Grant shot him a look and gently tapped his head. "Hey, little guy, you've got your generations mixed up, haven't you? You call me Sister, but you call my mom Grandma?"
"Well, calling you Grandma does make you sound old. To me, Grandma, you look very young, almost the same age as Sister. But when I saw you, I just felt you were so kind and approachable that I couldn't help but call you Grandma."
Clara Grant was already familiar with Cherie's silver tongue. She just shrugged, showing her disdain for his habit of charming everyone he met.
Skylar Hayes, however, was amused by his words and started laughing. "Cherie, you certainly have a way with words. Hearing that really makes this old grandma feel much younger."
"But Grandma, you are very young! I'm telling the truth. I don't lie," Cherie said with a solemn expression, as if he was afraid she wouldn't believe him.
Skylar Hayes chuckled again. Watching her, Clara Grant smiled as well.
'In her memory, although her mother never looked worried in front of her and often smiled, it seemed rare for her to laugh so genuinely from the heart like this.'
Clara Grant looked at Cherie and ruffled his hair. "Cherie, why don't you go play for a bit?"
Cherie knew instantly that she was sending him away again so she could tell "Grandma" his "tragic backstory."
He nodded and ran off to play by himself.
Once he had run into another room, Clara Grant explained the situation and her decision to Skylar Hayes all over again.
After listening to her, Skylar Hayes remained silent. 'Of course, she was worried. It would be fine if they found Cherie's mother, but what if they couldn't? Would Cherie stay with them forever?'
'Clara wasn't even married, and she herself was divorced. What would people think about a child suddenly appearing out of nowhere? Even if they didn't care what others said, it would still look bad.'
'But, she knew her daughter. Once Clara had made up her mind, it couldn't be changed.'
After a long silence, just as Clara Grant was about to say something more, Skylar Hayes spoke up. "Let him stay. He's a poor child, to have met with such irresponsible parents! You don't have to worry. Just focus on your studies. I'm here."
"Thank you, Mom. I'll do my best to find his mother. If I really can't, I'll help Cherie find a relatively good orphanage."
"We can talk about that when the time comes." Skylar Hayes smiled at her daughter. "Actually, this is nice. When you're at school, I'm usually home all by myself. Now that Cherie's here, it's like heaven sent me a child to keep me company. Besides, he's handsome and sweet-talks so well. I quite like him."
At this, she sighed again. "It's just hard on you. You already have to go to school and earn money to support the family, and now there's another child. Your father and I got divorced, and it's bad enough you don't have a complete family, but now you have to work so hard to support us while you're still a student... It's all my fault!"
"Mom, what are you talking about?" Clara Grant took her mother's hand and comforted her. "You haven't wronged me in any way. I'm all grown up. My parents getting a divorce doesn't do me much harm. Let's not bring this up again. We can live perfectly fine without him."
'The divorce wasn't her mother's fault in the first place. Her father had wronged her, and she was right to divorce him.'
'Cedric Grant, her father, not only had an affair during the marriage but also had an illegitimate daughter who was already so old. That was the greatest blow to her mother.'
'But she didn't want to bring any of this up in front of her mother, for fear of hurting her.'
Although Clara Grant didn't say much and her tone was light, Skylar Hayes could still see the unconcealable resentment in her daughter when she spoke of her father. She wouldn't even call him 'Dad' anymore. Skylar's heart trembled at the thought.
'Her daughter was grown up now. She probably should tell her the truth of the matter. But... she just couldn't bring herself to say it.'
'That incident wasn't her fault, but it was her shame! If she could, she would rather never mention it for the rest of her life.'
'Telling her daughter would surely add to her emotional burden, but if she didn't, her daughter would continue to resent Cedric Grant.'
Skylar Hayes stared at her daughter, her lips moved, but in the end, she said nothing.
「...」
While the mother and daughter were talking, Cherie, who had run to the other room, first peeked out at them in the living room. Then he closed the door, quickly ran to the small balcony in the room, and pressed a few buttons on his watch. A BEEPING sound came from it—he was making a phone call.
It only rang twice before the call was answered. A woman's voice immediately came through. "Cherie Shaw, you little brat, what took you so long to contact me?"
"Mom, I just didn't have a chance to call you," Cherie said with a pout.
"Quick, quick, tell me what's going on! I saw you guys leaving the hotel in a huge hurry, like your asses were on fire. What happened? How did the meeting between those two go?" The woman on the other end didn't sound concerned about her son; instead, she was buzzing with excitement to hear the gossip.
Hearing her words, Cherie wrinkled his nose in distaste. But time was short, so he couldn't be bothered to dwell on his dear mother's somewhat crude language.
"They... it wasn't very harmonious!"
"...How was it not harmonious?" 'No wonder Clara Grant ran off in such a hurry. But why did she take Cherie with her? Wasn't she supposed to give Cherie, who was in the suitcase, to Seth Quinn?'
"He tried to bully Sister, but luckily I got out of the suitcase in time. Sister said I was his son, but he denied it, so Sister got really angry, and then..."
"Wait, wait, wait, how did he 'bully' her?" The woman clearly latched onto the more interesting part of his sentence.
"Well... he was holding Sister really tight, with one arm around her waist and the other hand pinching her chin..." His little head worked hard to recall the scene.
"Cherie Shaw, you idiot! Who told you to come out then?" the woman exclaimed in an exasperated tone. "Wouldn't it have been better to just let them do the deed? That would have saved so much trouble!"