Chapter 79
He was already a complete mess himself. Could he really take care of Emily's situation?
If he gave her hope only to let her down, wouldn't that make Emily even more upset?
So William hesitated. Better to deal with his own issues first before anything else. For now, he'd just wait.
Emily was out of sorts all day, and the kids noticed, too. When they asked her what was wrong, she wouldn't say, and William helped cover for her.
Kids wouldn't understand the adult world. Even if Emily told them, they couldn't help solve anything. It would only make the children worry along with her. What was the point of that?
After lunch that day, William found an excuse to send the kids out to play, then went into the room to find Emily.
Emily was a bit startled. "Why are you here?"
This was her bedroom. Although William often came around, he'd always been proper about it and wouldn't easily enter her bedroom. At most, they'd chat for a bit in the living room.
William's expression was serious. "Are you feeling better?"
"Much better."
Emily nodded. "You didn't come specially just to check on me, did you?"
"Of course not."
William smiled and sat down at the table. "I have a suggestion for you. I hope you'll consider it."
"What suggestion?"
"Move."
"What?"
Emily froze.
"Move?"
"Yes, move."
William nodded with certainty. "You're worried Sophia will go after people around you, but now you're famous online. Wouldn't it be easy for Sophia to find where you live?"
"And now even Rodolfo knows you live here. If he could come once, he could come a second time. If you don't move and he comes again, what will you do? You can't just avoid him every time, right?"
William had a point.
When Rodolfo left today, Briar was reluctant to go, his eyes full of concern for Emily and attachment to the kids. It was hard to guarantee he wouldn't come back again.
What if one day he caught Emily right there and they came face to face? How would she explain herself? Thinking even worse, what if Sophia's people ran into them?
At that thought, Emily's heart jumped. "But... but I've never thought about moving."
She looked up and around the whole house, her eyes full of reluctance.
Although she hadn't lived here that long, when she paid the rent, she'd paid for a full six months upfront. If she moved now, wouldn't all that rent money go to waste? No matter how she thought about it, it didn't make sense.
"Let's forget about moving."
Emily refused directly. "I admit what you're saying makes sense, but I'm not rich. I finally have some savings, and I can't just spend it like that. If I really moved, I'd have to rent a new place."
Emily counted on her fingers for William. "Renting now basically requires one month deposit plus three months upfront. Spending that much money all at once, plus I have to support three kids - the money I have isn't nearly enough."
"Not necessarily."
William's thinking was completely different from Emily's. "You made at least several hundred thousand dollars from that variety show, right?"
Emily nodded. "I have about five hundred and fifty thousand dollars now."
"Then you can make a down payment on a house."
William crossed his legs, his expression relaxed and tone casual. "Five hundred and fifty thousand dollars definitely can't buy a house outright, especially with the kids. But for a down payment? That's more than enough, isn't it?"
William was right. In recent years, housing prices have dropped. Property values across the country were falling, and Silverlight City was no exception. This was the perfect time for Emily to buy a house.
William's thinking jumped around too much. Emily couldn't quite keep up.
"You mean you support me buying a house?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"
William raised an eyebrow. "But you - have you never thought about owning your own place?"
Emily shook her head and couldn't help but smile bitterly to herself. "When I worked at the funeral home, I only made a few thousand dollars a month. After supporting the kids, I didn't have any extra money to spend. I wanted to buy a house, but where was the opportunity?"
"You have a point."
William nodded. "Then there's nothing more to say. Now you have money. Buy a house first. At least give yourself and the kids a place to shelter from the wind and rain, so nothing else goes wrong. Right?"
She had to admit William made sense. If Emily were alone, of course, she could live anywhere. When it was just her, she had nothing to worry about.
But now she had kids to raise. So many mouths to feed every day. She couldn't afford to be reckless.
"Think carefully about my suggestion."
William patted Emily's shoulder lightly. "I just searched online. Houses around here aren't expensive. One would only cost about a million dollars."
"Only a million dollars?"
Emily repeated in surprise. "You rich people really don't treat money like money, do you?"
William didn't think much of a million dollars. In his mouth, that million dollars was like a hundred dollars - he just said it so casually.
But for Emily, if she relied purely on working, she couldn't earn a million dollars in her lifetime. The difference between people was really huge.
William scratched his head awkwardly, quite helpless.
If he could, he wanted to pay for a house for Emily himself. She could pick anyone she liked - anything she wanted, he could afford.
But the problem was Emily didn't want to spend his money. Before he left, he'd given Emily a black card.
At the time, William had told Emily clearly that no matter what happened in the future, she could use the money in it, and he would never ask questions.
But after all this time, not a penny had been spent. Emily had practically forgotten about that black card and hadn't thought about touching the money at all.
If William brought up helping her buy a house again, Emily would definitely get angry.
"Let me think about it."
Emily rested her chin on one hand, her expression troubled. "I've never bought a house before. Now that you've suddenly brought up this suggestion, I really need to think it through carefully."
"Okay."
William didn't push her either.
For him, buying a house was just a matter of saying the word - easier than drinking water. If he wanted to buy, he'd buy.
But looking at Emily like this, she really did need to build herself up mentally first. The money she had seemed like a lot, but every bit of it couldn't be wasted.
That was fine. Let her think it through slowly. That would also give him time to do some other things.
After William's talk, Emily felt much more relaxed.
Sophia wasn't so happy, though. These past few days, she'd been busy dealing with things online and was already overwhelmed, unable to even sleep peacefully.
To calm the online discussion, Sophia spent money to have people hire internet trolls to post comments online. Even if she couldn't improve her own reputation, at least it couldn't get any worse.