Chapter 70 Fortunately, He Came
Has he kept it in the back seat this whole time without giving it to her?
He suddenly found it a bit funny. He thought she didn't want it, but it turned out she just hadn't received it yet.
Steven's gaze drifted over to Nora, who was crouching in the fruit shop picking out fruit. Her clean profile looked very gentle.
She was serious about everything.
Steven watched her for a while, then noticed a wine shop nearby. He got out of the car and walked in.
Nora put together a beautiful fruit basket. Hospital discharge needed some sense of ceremony. Today, Jasmine was being discharged, and Olivia might come too.
Nora carried the pretty fruit basket back to Steven's car, but Steven wasn't there. She looked around.
Where did he go?
She called Steven on her phone. "Where did you go?"
"Turn around," Steven said on the phone.
Nora turned around with her phone.
The handsome Steven stood behind her, wearing a gray-blue sweater, tall and straight, with a cool demeanor.
Those light gray eyes were so beautiful you couldn't look away.
Nora's heart stirred, beating hard.
"What did you buy?" Nora smiled, noticing he was carrying gift boxes in both hands.
"I figured since it's my first time going to your family's place, I shouldn't be too rude." Steven's lips curved up as he showed Nora the gift boxes he'd bought. "Is this okay?"
In the Adams family's eyes, he was just a manager. He couldn't buy anything too expensive, but he couldn't be too rude either.
Nora glanced over. He'd bought two bottles of wine, flowers, and some other things.
"You bought too much." Nora touched the items. "Actually, just getting one or two things would've been fine."
"You can't go wrong with more gifts." Steven smiled.
"Okay then." Nora was still happy. Although her family was just so-so, Steven had this thoughtfulness and wasn't going empty-handed, which showed Nora he had good emotional intelligence.
Her refusal was just being polite, but if a son-in-law really didn't buy anything when visiting, it wouldn't look good.
The two drove to the hospital with all the gifts in the trunk.
Steven walked into the hospital with Nora when, suddenly, Nora got a call from the police station telling her they'd found her bag.
Nora's face lit up with a bright smile. "Really? Where's my bag now?"
"Our police station is located at... You can come pick it up when you have time."
"Okay, okay." Nora was in such a good mood. She said to Steven, "Steven, they found my bag!"
No need to report it lost or replace her cards!
Steven saw her happiness and smiled too. "That's good."
"Yes." She nodded, and they went up to the thirteenth floor together.
Her nephew was still in the incubator and couldn't go home yet, but he was out of danger. A little life had been saved.
Nora and Steven had just reached the hospital room door when they heard Jasmine scolding Marcella.
"You don't know how to take care of someone after childbirth. I told you to hire a caregiver, but you wouldn't, making me angry here every day!" Jasmine was yelling in the room.
She'd dropped out at 19, then chased after Tanner when he was in college. The two young people got pregnant without thinking, and later, Jasmine's family came to the Adams family to make a scene. Jasmine's parents pressured them, demanding that they pay for the wedding and all the child's expenses. In the end, the Adams family used everything they had for the wedding and to support this new family. They were almost bankrupt.
From then on, Wayne always felt their family had lost too much. He started hoping to "make up for it" through his two daughters—dreaming that when they got married, their husbands' families would pay for everything, so he wouldn't feel like he'd lost anything.
After marriage, Jasmine didn't want to work. She said she couldn't do anything and just wanted to stay home with the kids, though she didn't really take care of them much. Usually, she'd dump them on Marcella and Nora while she went out, hanging out with friends here and there.
And the Adams family didn't dare say anything to her, because she was childish—once you criticized her, she'd go complain to her parents, then they'd call and fight with the Adams family, causing chaos. So everyone just let her have her way.
"The one yelling is my sister-in-law, Jasmine Faye," Nora quietly told Steven outside the door. "She doesn't know how to talk properly. If she offends you in any way, please don't mind."
Steven didn't say anything.
Nora added, "The one getting yelled at is my mother."
Marcella had been timid and cowering her whole life. She was used to taking whatever came. No amount of talking to her would help—she wouldn't listen.
Nora used to hate this about Marcella. Later, Olivia said that when she was young, Wayne beat her so much she became this way. Just respect her—she's in her fifties, she can't change.
And the reason she became like this was for her three children. Otherwise, she would've chosen divorce and escaped her misery long ago.
Steven said nothing.
Nora pushed open the hospital room door. "Mom, Jasmine."
Steven followed behind her. He saw a thin woman and a woman who looked very young.
The thin woman was Marcella. The one who looked like a middle schooler was Jasmine. The whole Adams family was skinny.
"This is Steven," Nora revealed Steven behind her, introducing him to the family.
As soon as he walked in, the whole hospital room seemed to light up.
Everyone looked at him with amazement.
Especially Jasmine. She'd never seen such a good-looking man—like a celebrity walking out of a magazine. Her eyes went straight, and she raised her hand to fix her messy hair. "Hello!"
Jasmine took the initiative to greet Steven.
Nora raised an eyebrow. Jasmine usually liked to look down on people and was rarely this proactive.
Mainly, Steven was too good-looking, like he wasn't from this world.
Even Marcella, at her age, stared without blinking. After a long moment, her open mouth finally closed, and she walked over with a smile. "You're Steven?"
"Yes." Steven nodded politely. He didn't put on airs but had a natural sense of distance. "Mom."
Steven called her mom.
Nora's eyebrow twitched. She didn't expect him to be willing to call her mom. But he didn't greet Jasmine—Steven had a bad impression of her.
Steven didn't like Jasmine. On the drive back, he got to see even more—Jasmine talked non-stop, going on and on.
No one in the car responded. Everyone was silent except her, chattering away.
The Adams family's house was rented in a residential building outside the city center. It was far from downtown and far from the subway station. Places with good locations had expensive rent.
Steven parked the car outside the alley.
Jasmine complimented, "Steven, your car is pretty comfortable to ride in. Not bumpy at all."
Steven didn't say anything and went to the trunk to help carry the gifts.
Nora was the first to get out of the car. She lifted her arm and pulled out Jasmine's large suitcase, which was full of Jasmine's hospital things.
Steven glanced over and suddenly felt he'd come at the right time today. Otherwise, Nora would've been doing all the heavy lifting.