"Lance sent me a lawyer's letter under Deanna's name, demanding that I apologize to Deanna, or else he would take action against me!"
Bella briefly explained the situation.
In the end, she had no other options and looked to her mother for help. "What should I do now?" she asked, seeking advice.
Kelly's face darkened.
To her, Lance's actions were clearly a slap in the face to their Cody family.
She snorted coldly, "Does Lance really intend to choose a woman who has had children with someone else? Even if she agrees, Samantha won't!"
Hearing this, Bella recalled another matter, her expression turning grim.
"Samantha indeed doesn't agree, but for some reason, she used to like me a lot. Now she's started introducing other ladies to Lance!"
"When did this happen? Why haven't I heard about it?"
Kelly immediately frowned.
Bella explained, "Last night, I got the news that Samantha invited Martha from the Chan family over for a visit."
Kelly was instantly displeased.
The Cody family was determined to form an alliance with the Mercer family; they couldn't allow anyone else to interfere.
Thinking of this, Kelly's eyes darkened. "I'll handle this. For now, don't go looking for Lance or causing trouble for Deanna."
Bella nodded in understanding.
That afternoon, Kelly arranged to meet Samantha for shopping and afternoon tea.
During their casual chat, she gradually steered the conversation towards their children.
"Actually, there's something I wanted to discuss with you today."
"Oh, what is it?" Samantha asked, looking surprised.
Kelly got straight to the point. "It's like this: our Bella was a bit thoughtless and did something wrong that angered your Lance. Now Lance wants to sue Bella. I was wondering if you could consider the long-standing relationship between our families and just give Bella a lesson instead of proceeding with the lawsuit."
Samantha was slightly taken aback.
"Lance wants to sue Bella? Why didn't I know about this?"
She looked at Kelly in confusion and asked, "What did Bella do wrong? Tell me."
Hearing this, a calculating gleam flashed in Kelly's eyes.
"It's not a big deal. You know how much she likes Lance. Recently, she saw Lance spending a lot of time with his private doctor and took some measures that caused the doctor some trouble."
Samantha suddenly remembered the incident involving Deanna from a while ago.
So it was Bella who did it.
As she was thinking this, Kelly's voice rang in her ears again.
"I know Bella shouldn't have done that, but she was just too jealous. I hope you can speak to Lance on her behalf. After all, who hasn't done something reckless for love when they were young? And the private doctor wasn't seriously harmed. Let's just downplay this matter, shall we?"
Kelly looked at Samantha earnestly, appealing to both reason and emotion.
Considering the relationship between their families, Samantha didn't say much. "I'll talk to Lance about it when I get home, but you know how stubborn he can be. He might not listen to me."
"No problem. If Lance disagrees, we won't push it. We just hope this won't damage the relationship between our families."
Kelly adopted a conciliatory tone.
Samantha didn't catch on and smiled. "Such a small matter won't ruin our families' relationship."
"That's good to hear."
Kelly sighed and gave Samantha a meaningful look before continuing. "By the way, I've never seen Lance protect someone like this before. I heard that private doctor was once the eldest daughter of the Jones family but was kicked out five years ago. She had two illegitimate children after being caught with someone else before her engagement. Now she's latched onto Lance and made him do so much for her. You should keep an eye on her."
Samantha paused for a moment before understanding her friend's implication and fell into deep thought.
Meanwhile, after finishing her call with Lance, Deanna put aside thoughts of Bella and turned her attention to another matter.
This time when she got into trouble, both Lance and Old Hughes as well as Old Wright had helped her a lot.
Her two friends also assisted her significantly. However, due to her previous emotional issues, she hadn't thanked them properly yet. So she planned to thank them in the coming days.
Later that day, after her grandmother had rested well, Deanna discussed this matter with her.
"Grandma, everyone helped me a lot when I was in trouble before. I want to invite them over for a meal in the next couple of days to thank them properly."
"That's a good idea. Do you need my help with anything?"
Old Ashley nodded approvingly and offered to help.
But Deanna didn't want her grandmother to get too tired and politely declined.