Chapter 143 The Richardson Family, Is It All Over?
A birthday party with no festive atmosphere at all.
It was obvious that many people present had shown up uninvited.
The Hagen family members were nowhere to be seen at this moment, with only a bunch of servants busy receiving guests.
Amelia noticed several familiar faces besides Felicity.
Among them were Steven and Maeve.
Steven looked like he hadn't rested well, with obvious dark circles under his eyes.
But when he saw Amelia, his eyes instantly lit up.
He walked toward Amelia.
"Ms. Miracle Physician, you came to the birthday party too?"
"I came with my mom." Amelia's voice was flat, clearly brushing him off.
But Steven continued chatting with her.
Amelia found this annoying, made an excuse, and pulled Natalie away.
Natalie asked in a low voice, puzzled: "You know Steven?"
"No."
"That Steven is not a good person," Natalie added.
Amelia nodded: "I know."
Natalie felt relieved.
Although the Richardson family had made peace with the Sullivan family, she didn't like Steven.
He was too frivolous and didn't seem like a responsible, good man.
She hadn't approved when Yasmin was with him back then.
Now, because of Yasmin's abandonment of the Richardson family, she disliked Steven even more.
She didn't want Amelia getting too close to Steven.
Fortunately, Amelia was different from Yasmin—she ignored Steven.
Seeing Amelia deliberately avoiding him, Steven felt quite frustrated.
Maeve sneered at this sight.
"Steven, don't tell me you're interested in Amelia."
Ever since that day at the pharmacy when the herbs were snatched by Amelia, she'd been hostile toward her.
She didn't want such a woman as her sister-in-law.
She'd rather have Yasmin as her sister-in-law.
Although Yasmin wasn't a good woman either, at least Yasmin knew how to read the room and always flattered her.
Steven glanced over.
"None of your business. You should worry about your own affairs. Mom and Dad are very unhappy with him, and I heard he's been working from home for almost half a month without going to the company."
"It hasn't been half a month, just a week. His hand was injured—can't he work from home?"
Steven couldn't be bothered with her.
He just looked down on Isaac anyway.
He just couldn't understand how his sister, who always had high standards, could fall for Isaac.
Isaac had nothing but a pretty face and no other merits.
The Sullivan family couldn't even accept Yasmin, let alone Isaac.
"Whatever!" he said.
In the end, his sister's value was just for an arranged marriage for the family's benefit—she'd have to break up with Isaac sooner or later anyway.
Maeve was unhappy with his attitude toward Isaac and couldn't help adding, "Are you going to be ruined by the Richardson family daughters for the rest of your life? Did you owe the Richardson family something in a past life? Why must you cling to their daughters?"
"I told you, none of your business."
Maeve scoffed and stayed silent.
Steven ignored her and walked toward Amelia again.
Meanwhile, upstairs in the study.
Frank was annoyed by the growing number of guests.
"I don't know how they found out it's Adrian's birthday today—they all came to visit us."
Anna smiled helplessly.
"Who told you to be transferred here at this time? Since the guests are already here, we can't just keep ignoring them. Let's go down with Adrian. We'll just end the party early."
Frank was firm.
As someone neutral, he had to avoid getting too close to any faction.
The guests now were either aligned with the Hays family or the Porter family.
Getting too close to either side would be bad.
"I'm not going down. Just say I'm not feeling well and won't be appearing today. Just entertain them briefly, and let them leave after lunch."
"Is that okay?"
"Better than me going down to entertain them. Sorry to trouble you, though."
Anna shook her head: "Why talk like that between husband and wife? I'll take Adrian down then."
"Go ahead."
Frank picked up a book and quietly began reading.
The commotion downstairs had nothing to do with him.
Soon Anna came downstairs with Adrian.
As soon as they appeared, guests swarmed over.
"Adrian, happy birthday!"
"Anna, I can't believe you're so young—you look like you've never had a child."
Anna didn't enjoy socializing either and smiled stiffly.
People kept praising Anna as they presented the gifts they'd brought.
All were priceless.
But Anna politely declined.
"We didn't plan to hold a birthday party today, so how can I accept your gifts? Please take them back."
As she spoke, she vaguely glimpsed a familiar figure.
When she looked closely, the figure had disappeared.
Had she seen wrong?
Just then, Felicity pushed to the front.
"Anna, you won't accept others' gifts, but you can't refuse mine. We're acquaintances after all. This gift is to celebrate your move to Goldenvale—nothing more. You must accept it."
As she spoke, she ignored Anna's refusal and shoved the gift into her hands.
Billy had worked at Thornfield before and had only been transferred back over the past two months.
The two had met a few times in Thornfield, though they weren't really acquaintances.
Anna didn't know whether to accept or refuse.
While hesitating, seeing this, others also rushed to push their gifts over.
"Anna, if you accept Felicity's gift, how can you not accept mine?"
"Anna, just a small token for the child—please accept it!"
With Felicity's example, others stuffed gifts into Anna's arms.
Anna wasn't good at socializing either, and being young, with Frank absent, she suddenly didn't know what to do.
In a moment of distraction, her arms were already full of gifts.
She had to ask the servants to put them away first, planning to return them after the party ended.
Natalie also walked up at this time.
She was carrying a cake, saying gently, "Anna, I'm part of the Richardson family. Just call me Natalie. I didn't know what to give, so my daughter and I made a cake together. I hope you don't mind."
Hearing it was just a cake, Anna's face showed no difficulty, and she nodded: "Thank you, Natalie. I'll accept the cake."
Unlike the other gifts, Anna took Natalie's gift directly.
It was just a cake—not some expensive thing she couldn't accept. Frank wouldn't blame her for accepting it.
And since it was handmade, it showed genuine sincerity.
Seeing this, Felicity found it quite laughable.
If Natalie couldn't afford a bracelet worth over a million dollars, she should at least give a designer bag worth tens of thousands.
A small cake worth only a few hundred dollars—how could she have the nerve to give that?
Thinking of the dignity she'd lost at the mall, Felicity immediately mocked her.
"Natalie, why did you only bring a cake? People who don't know might think the Richardson family can't even afford a proper gift now."
Everyone looked over with mocking eyes.
Indeed, compared to the other gifts, Natalie's cake wasn't even a fraction of their gifts' value—truly embarrassing.
Some busybodies openly gossiped in front of Natalie.
"The Richardson family went bankrupt and gave a worthless cake as a gift!"
"So perfunctory—better not to come at all."
"The Richardson family is truly poor now. If I were them, I'd hide and not show my face to save some dignity."
"They say none of the Richardson family children are successful—now we can see it's true. Otherwise, how could they let their mother give just a cake?"
"The Richardson family isn't what it used to be."
Natalie heard their comments, her expression darkening.
Then she heard Felicity say with obvious mockery, "Natalie, you should take your cake back. Otherwise, it'll seem like the Hagen family is short a cake."
Natalie was about to speak when Adrian suddenly broke free from Anna's hand and hugged the cake.
Children all love sweets.
Adrian had been holding back, but hearing Felicity tell Natalie to take the cake back, he immediately got anxious.
"Cake! I like cake! Mommy, let's not return the cake, okay?"
Felicity choked, about to say something to coax the child into letting go of the cake, when she heard Anna say: "This is Mrs. Richardson's thoughtfulness. Mommy won't return it."
"Then I want to eat it now."
Anna looked at Natalie apologetically: "Natalie, the child likes it. Sorry about this."
"Not at all. Since he likes it, why not cut it open and have a piece now? I've tried it—this shop's cream is sweet but not cloying, perfect for children."
Anna nodded and asked a servant to bring over a small table.
The cake box was opened, revealing the cake inside.
It had a "The Little Prince" theme.
A cartoon Little Prince lay in lifelike roses, incredibly exquisite.
Everyone present was amazed.
It wasn't that they hadn't seen prettier cakes, but this was handmade by Natalie—none of them could make such an exquisite cake.
"What a beautiful cake." Anna asked in delight, "Natalie, you made this yourself?"
Natalie nodded: "My daughter and I made it together, though she did most of the work. I just helped."
"Such skillful hands. Didn't your daughter come?"
Natalie turned her head but didn't see Amelia.
Strange, where did Amelia go?
She was just here a moment ago.
"She came, just don't know where she went."
Amelia had gone to avoid Steven.
He kept pestering her, and she found it annoying, so she hid in the small garden behind the villa.
Adrian tugged at Anna's sleeve.
"Mom, I want to eat it, I want to eat it now!"
Anna smiled and nodded, cutting a piece of cake for Adrian.
Adrian took a bite, overjoyed.
"Cream, so good, Adrian loves it!"
It was so good that he could barely speak clearly.
"Cut a few more pieces and share them with everyone." Anna smiled.
The servant complied and quickly distributed some to everyone.
Felicity was handed a small piece of cake, her expression extremely unpleasant.
She'd spent over a million dollars to win Anna's favor, yet it wasn't as pleasing to Anna and Adrian as this few-hundred-dollar cake!
She'd just mocked Natalie for only bringing a cheap cake, and now Anna's satisfied expression was like an invisible hand slapping her face.