It took nearly three hours for Deanna and the others to finish trying on all the dresses.
Fortunately, none of the dresses needed alterations.
After hearing the report from her staff, Amy smiled at Deanna and Lance. "Since the dresses are all fine, I'll hand them over to you... and settle the bill."
With that, she pulled out a stack of invoices from her leather bag and handed them to Lance.
Lance didn't take them. Instead, he raised an eyebrow slightly. "Didn't you say these were gifts from an elder to the younger generation?"
"I did say that, but not to you. It was for Anna, my nephew and niece. Your dress needs to be paid for, so settle the bill quickly!"
Amy urged again.
Deanna and Sienna were both stunned.
The topic had shifted quite abruptly.
Seeing this, Lance showed a helpless expression and eventually took the invoice. Seeing the numerous zeros on it, he realized he had been overcharged.
However, he didn't argue and promptly took out his checkbook, wrote down a number, and handed it to Amy.
Amy took the check and immediately gave it to Deanna with a smile. "Anna, this is a gift from your aunt for you and your kids. I'll give you another gift at the banquet."
"This... this isn't necessary."
Deanna was completely shocked.
She never expected Amy to give her this money.
But Amy didn't give Deanna a chance to refuse. She stuffed the check into Deanna's hands firmly. "It's necessary. You should know that you can't refuse a gift from an elder."
With no other choice, Deanna accepted the large sum of money.
She turned to the two little ones who were still confused about what had happened and said softly, "Quickly thank your grandaunt."
"Thank you, grandaunt."
The two little ones thanked her obediently.
Lance, on the other hand, couldn't help but laugh and cry.
It felt like his money was being used to gain favor.
Old Ashley also looked at them with a smile.
That evening, Amy stayed at the manor for dinner.
The meal was lively and full of laughter.
In contrast to this warm scene, the Jones family villa was in a state of gloom.
Due to the recent pressure from Mercer Group, the Jones Group, which had shown some improvement, fell into crisis again.
To prevent the company's projects from halting, Garrett had to sell some of his properties to temporarily solve the company's problems.
This led to a significant reduction in the household expenses he provided for Mia. Many luxury bags and jewelry could no longer be purchased.
Of course, Mia knew Garrett had been overwhelmed with company matters recently, so even though she was unhappy, she didn't voice her complaints.
Looking at the troubled man across from her, an idea suddenly came to Mia's mind. "I heard that the Mercer family is hosting a grand banquet in half a month. It seems they want to introduce Deanna and those two children publicly. They've invited elites from home and abroad. If we could connect with someone influential there, wouldn't our company's difficulties be resolved?"
Hearing this, Garrett looked up at Mia coldly. "I know that if we could get noticed by someone influential there, our company's problems could be solved. But have you received an invitation from Mercer Group?"
Mia shook her head awkwardly.
Garrett snorted coldly. "You didn't receive one, and neither did I. How are we supposed to get in?"
This question left Mia speechless.
At the same time, she regretted her previous actions. If she had known earlier, she wouldn't have let Emily instigate Garrett to approach Deanna, which ended up angering that girl.
Garrett also regretted it now.
But he mostly felt that Deanna didn't respect him as her father.
No matter what, he was Deanna's biological father. For such a significant public event, that girl didn't even send him an invitation.
Didn't she know that without support from her maternal family, marrying into a wealthy family would be very difficult?
For the next two days, Lance forced Deanna to rest at home while working remotely.
Lance was worried that whoever was behind the previous incidents might act again. Threats and danger out of home were hard to guard against.
Deanna didn't insist otherwise.
After all, she was still shaken by what had happened before. She didn't even dare let Whiskers and Luna appear in front of her yet.
In the blink of an eye, another two days passed.
Xavier finally found some clues.
"Mr. Mercer, we have progress."
He pushed open the office door and looked at Lance with relief.
Lance paused and then coldly lifted his head. "What did you find?"
"We followed your lead and monitored Emily for several days. Just now, we discovered that Emily transferred a large sum of money to an international account. We traced that account and found it ultimately went to a security company with a bad reputation in the industry-they'll do anything for money. I suspect they undertake Emily's commission."
Xavier reported their findings truthfully.