Before he could finish speaking, Lance made a gesture to be quiet and waved his hand, indicating they should talk outside.
Xavier nodded and turned to leave.
Seeing this, Lance gently released Deanna's hand.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he moved, Deanna, who had been sound asleep, woke up with a start.
Seeing the anxiety and unease in her eyes, Lance felt a deep ache in his heart.
He quickly reassured her, "Sleep, I won't leave."
Deanna, still not fully conscious, nodded drowsily at his words and closed her eyes to sleep again.
Xavier stood outside the door, looking conflicted, unsure whether to leave or stay and continue his report.
Moreover, what he had to report was urgent.
Lance noticed Xavier still standing at the door and knew that if it wasn't important, Xavier would have left by now.
After thinking for a moment, he gestured for Xavier to come back in.
"Mr. Mercer?"
"Speak softly."
Lance reminded him and then asked, "What do you need to say?"
Xavier lowered his voice and reported, "The people we sent to the police station last night have called in lawyers today. They want to appeal and claim they were deceived into thinking Dr. Deanna was... that kind of person."
He didn't dare utter the word "prostitute," even vaguely implying it made him notice Mr. Mercer's face darken instantly.
Lance ignored Xavier's gaze and continued in a calm voice, "What else?"
"They also want to sue Miss Jones for intentional injury."
Xavier couldn't help but admire Deanna. Alone, she not only saved herself but also seriously injured three drunk men.
Lance laughed as if hearing a great joke. "They want to sue us? Let them try. I haven't even settled accounts with them yet!"
Hearing this, Xavier shivered involuntarily and silently pitied those ignorant fools.
Why couldn't they just wait for their sentence quietly instead of provoking Mr. Mercer?
...
That afternoon at the bilingual international kindergarten, two little ones walked out of the school gate hand in hand with their classmates.
Samantha saw them from afar and waved happily. "Gregory, Chloe, over here."
"It's Grannie!"
Chloe exclaimed and ran over with her brother in tow.
Gregory wasn't as happy as she was; he looked around but didn't see their mommy. His delicate brows furrowed.
Since last night when Mommy went out and Uncle Lance didn't show up either, he felt something bad had happened.
If it weren't so, Mommy wouldn't have left without saying goodbye.
Chloe didn't share her brother's heavy thoughts. She saw Samantha and sweetly asked, "Grannie, why are you here?"
For some reason, she liked this Grannie very much. Maybe because Grannie was Uncle Lance's mommy, so she loved her by association.
Samantha didn't know these thoughts. Seeing the sweet smile on Chloe's face softened her heart; she couldn't resist pinching Chloe's chubby cheeks.
"Grannie is here to pick you up."
"Why is Grannie picking us up? Where's Mommy?"
Chloe asked curiously with a pout.
Samantha repeated the excuse she had prepared. "Your mommy and Uncle Lance had something urgent come up and had to leave Cloudmere temporarily. They asked me to take care of you for a couple of days."
She said this but thought differently inside. She knew about Deanna's incident. As an benefactor of the Mercer family now involved in trouble because of them, it was their duty to take care of her. But having her son personally take care of Deanna made her feel uneasy about their relationship. However, she wouldn't show these feelings in front of the children.
Chloe didn't know Samantha's inner thoughts; hearing that Mommy and Uncle Lance went out without them made her pout unhappily.
"Uncle is so biased; he took Mommy out but didn't take us."
"You're right; let's ignore your uncle from now on," Samantha played along with Chloe.
But then Chloe became conflicted again. After thinking for a moment, she shook her head. "Never mind; I'm big-hearted and won't hold it against Uncle."
Samantha couldn't help but laugh at Chloe's proud expression. She gently patted Chloe's back and said with a smile, "Let's go home; your Gramp is waiting for you there."
Of course, she didn't forget to take Gregory's hand too.
But Gregory stood still and refused to go with her.
"What's wrong, Gregory?"
"Grannie, you lied to us!"
Gregory looked at her with a calm expression.
Samantha felt a jolt under his dark gaze; it seemed like he saw through her lie. But she quickly dismissed the thought. How could he see through it? She believed there were no flaws in her story.