Chapter 207 He is Here!
When Wentworth came back, he naturally went to hug Matilda first.
"Honey, you've been through so much lately. Did those siblings cause you any trouble?" Wentworth asked, shrugging off his coat.
"Of course not, they're so well-behaved. I really like them." Matilda hung his coat on the rack by the door.
"When I returned just now, I overheard Mary from the instructor's house spewing vile things about my brother. Is Zoey fanning these rumors abroad?"
Matilda thought to herself: Doesn't Charles deserve it?
Yet she shrank from broaching it with him. The brothers were inseparably tight, whatever one did gleamed righteous in the other's gaze.
"Zoey never uttered those words. Outsiders are merely speculating. Besides, your brother's entanglement with Janice is precisely what propelled Zoey here."
When people see her coming alone, of course they're going to speculate, right?"
Wentworth replied, "Janice was raised in the Gonzaga family. Even if she can't reclaim my brother's heart as first love, familial bonds linger." I think Zoey is making too big a deal out of it and not trusting my brother enough. "I trust my brother would never stray." Matilda fell silent. Do all men delude themselves this way?
Even if he wouldn't mess around, he shouldn't give his wife reasons to be suspicious either.
That evening at dinner, with Wentworth returned, Sally and Nick buzzed with excitement. Sally, now wise enough to spot a handsome man, beamed especially bright.
so she looked at Wentworth with both endearmentand a bit of shyness, stealing glances at him from time to time.
In scouting future boyfriends, she'd seek a Wentworth clone. Nick had always adored him. "Mr. Gonzaga, when can we hit the soccer field?"
Wentworth said, "Right after dinner."
"Great!" Nick wolfed down his food. From the side, Matilda chimed in, "Nick, didn't you already play soccer after school? Homework awaits tonight."
Nick said, "Just for a little while, can I Ms. Spencer?"
"How long is a little while?"
"Half an hour." "Okay." Matilda relented. "Exactly half an hour, no extra minute." As Nick lunged for a chicken wing, Zoey snatched the last one.
Nick looked a bit disappointed. Zoey said, "I got it first."
Nick had to say, "I'll let you have it."
Wentworth looked at Zoey with displeasure, He itched to call out her snatching food from a kid, but spotting Zoey as half a kid herself, he bit his tongue.
Zoey noticed Wentworth's displeasure and said, "Someone here doesn't like me. He has an opinion even when I eat a couple more bites."
Wentworth said, "It's not that I don't like you, I just think you're not mature enough."
How could she just ruin someone's reputation like that?
Zoey turned to Matilda, feigning injury: "Look at your husband. Back in Europe, whenever he wasn't nursing an injury, he was getting a fresh one." "Who nursed him through it all in Europe? And now he calls me immature? Is his brother the pinnacle of maturity?" Matilda's head throbbed.
She quickly gave Nick a drumstick. "Nick, you're going to play soccer later. Eat a drumstick so you can run faster."
"See, both kids are here, don't bicker in front of them. You're adults, after all." Post-dinner, Wentworth took Nick for soccer while Matilda aided Sally with homework.
Zoey played the piano for a while.
The compound was hosting a talent showcase. Word from the women held that anyone could sign up to dazzle with whatever gift they possessed. Zoey planned to sign up for a performance if she had time, to make Matilda look good.
Just then, Scarlett passed by outside again.
Scarlett stopped to listen to the piano for a while. Not a single note was wrong—it didn't sound like someone actually playing.
She thought to herself: Sure enough, It's that recording again. Matilda's truly lording it up. Can't play piano? She fakes it with tracks. All to flaunt her superiority?
...
Since there were people upstairs and downstairs, Wentworth and Matilda had to be quiet when making love at night.
Yet Wentworth's vigor proved relentless, and the bed's flimsy frame betrayed them with relentless creaks. Once passion ignited, such trifles faded entirely.
Downstairs, Zoey couldn't sleep because of the noise.
Next morning, Matilda whipped up breakfast. Sally and Nick devoured theirs and dashed to school, but Zoey lingered abed. Wentworth turned to Matilda: "Does she customarily sleep this late?"
"Not really, just a bit later today."
Wentworth murmured, "You've endured so much lately, not just minding the kids, but tending to Zoey too."
Matilda was about to say it was no problem when Zoey's bedroom door opened. She had just heard Wentworth's words.
"No wonder nightmares plagued me, someone views me as a burden. I came to bunk with Matilda, not you." Wentworth stood momentarily speechless.
He just thought Matilda was working hard—he didn't say Zoey was a burden.
"What, imagine I came to sponge off you? Don't fool yourself, this house was assigned to you, but Matilda holds equal claim."
Wentworth fell silent.
Zoey edged into unreasonableness. Ignoring Wentworth, she eyed the lingering breakfast and served herself without a word.
Matilda and Wentworth went outside for a walk.
As they walked and talked.
Wentworth said, "Zoey seems full of resentment toward my brother, and she's transferring all that resentment onto me."
Matilda pressed, "But don't you harbor grudges against Zoey just for trash-talking your brother? He truly wronged her." "I thought we kept this behind closed doors?"
"So what, should she just take being bullied and keep quiet about it?" Matilda was also starting to feel dissatisfied with Wentworth.
Matilda's stance forced Wentworth to relent. "Fine, I'll leave her be. My brother earned this mess." His words barely landed when Charles called.
"Charles." Wentworth answered the phone.
"Is Zoey at your place?" Charles asked.
"Yes."
"How has she been these past few days?"
Wentworth reached for the call when Zoey caught his eye across the soccer field, ringed by women like Phoebe and Rose..
Wentworth covered the phone and asked Matilda, "What are they doing?"
Matilda said, "Even though Zoey just got here a few days ago, "She's already rallied supporters. They whisk her out daily to unwind and dispense advice." Wentworth broke into a cold sweat.
He picked up the phone again and said to Charles, "Bro, if you have time, come pick up Zoey. But she might not go back with you."
Next day, Charles pulled up. Even the gate guard, logging his entry, shot a worried glance toward Wentworth's quarters.
First the wife settled in, then swiftly the sister-in-law, and now the brother, had calamity struck the Gonzaga clan? Had they gone bankrupt? Otherwise why would they all be coming to stay with Wentworth?
Charles, in his suit and tie, pulling a suitcase, walked through the military compound. Everyone who saw him couldn't help but look at him a few times.
The military compound wasn't short of handsome men, but someone with Charles's imposing aristocratic air was rare. Phoebe and Rose saw him too.
"Who is that? He really looks like a businessman."
"Like a celebrity, right?"
"Nah, pure tycoon. Stars lack that unflappable poise. Trust me, I've circled the globe." Rose declared.
Everyone watched as he stopped in front of Wentworth's house.