Kendall reacted with a pair of furrowed brows, feeling annoyed about the locked gates. Why did they have to lock the gates? They are obviously trying to keep me from returning to Dylan's place. She then recalled giving Amos her purse and her bag that contained her phone, realizing she couldn't even call Dylan for help. Thus, she wondered to herself in frustration whether she was forced to accept her fate and wait until Tilly woke up. Not long after Tia's footsteps were gone, she suddenly heard the sound of someone opening the door.
It turned out that Alice had popped her head out of the door to peek just as Kendall saw her. "Young Mistress Kendall." Alice waved at her.
"Miss Coleman." Kendall walked in Alice's direction.
"Shh." Alice shushed the lady and let her enter her room. Upon closing the door behind her, she looked at Kendall and said, "Young Mistress Kendall, my grandma is a light sleeper, so you could have awoken her with your voice. She tends to get cranky when she is disturbed during her sleep, and I, for one, would not like to see that happen." She then seized Kendall's hand and walked her to the couch before they both sat down. "By the way, why did you return so late at this hour? My grandma has been waiting for you for eternity, and I could tell that she was not happy. That was probably why she made Tia lock you up here."
"Why did Old Madam Coleman send for me?" Kendall probingly asked, "Do you know what's going on, Miss Coleman?"
Alice shook her head. "It beats me as well. I was away until the evening. All I know is that Grandma made Vivian check whether you were back every half an hour, but when you weren't, her face just became more and more darkened. In fact, none of us dared to talk much during dinner because we were afraid that she might lose her temper and snap at us." Despite being the favorite daughter in the Coleman Family, Alice didn't dare to defy her grandmother's wish.
"I was working overtime in the office." Kendall added, "Amos has my number, so if Old Madam Coleman wanted to see me, she could have told Amos to call me instead."
"Wait, you have a job?" Alice asked in confusion. "Aren't you supposed to take care of my brother? Why are you still working? Aren't you paid for what you're doing?"
Alice replied, "Well, you're right. I'm not paid for what I'm doing because Dylan told me to earn my keep. That's why I decided to work and make some money for myself."
Alice smiled and said, "You nearly got me, Young Mistress Kendall. You're the great Parker Family's daughter, so why are you still so desperate for money? I heard that your mom pays you 300 thousand per month for your pocket money, which means you have about 10 thousand to spend a day. That's quite a lot of pocket money you have there, plus you're not a spendthrift who squanders her money extravagantly, so there is no way you're going to use up all of that 300 thousand—unless you've been using that money to aid your foster mother and her family financially."
"Well, you seem to know me pretty well, Miss Coleman," Kendall replied awkwardly.
Alice responded with a smile to Kendall's words. Although she might be known as the most influential daughter from the wealthy and respected Coleman Family in Orapolis, she was a rather humble and amiable person with whom Kendall felt quite comfortable getting along. Deep down, Kendall thought Alice was not approachable at all since they didn't interact much the last time they met. "We've heard a thing or two about the news regarding the imposter in your family around Orapolis. In fact, anyone who has access to the internet will probably not miss the interesting stories about your return to the rich family." Alice added, "After all, humans are curious creatures, and I'm no exception."
"Well, my foster mother and her family have been managing pretty well by themselves, financially. So, they don't actually need me to aid them. In fact, every time I wanted to do that, they'd turn me down." Kendall recalled the times that she made her foster parents accept her financial aid. "Furthermore, I'm bored because Dylan has to go to his office every day, so that added to my decision to find a job and make some money for myself. After all, I find that kind of lifestyle rather fulfilling and enriching."
"Did my brother agree with that?" Alice asked.
"Of course, he did. If he didn't, I wouldn't even be allowed to go anywhere close to the mansion's gate."
Alice enviously said, "Aw, my brother really treats you well, doesn't he? I want a job, but my brothers won't allow me to do that. They even transferred money into my bank account, thinking I wanted a job because I was tapped out."
"Well, isn't that happiness to you? I wish I could live a life like yours in which I can spend money without having to make it myself, but unfortunately, I don't have so many brothers to aid me financially," Kendall said with a smile.
Alice answered, "Well, I guess you're right. I should be grateful for the life I'm living now." Maybe I'm indeed the happiest and luckiest lady in the world, she thought to herself. "Young Mistress Kendall, why don't you set an alarm and take a catnap here? Then, when she is about to wake up, you could wait outside her room and pretend to look sleepy so that my grandma thinks you've been waiting for her throughout the night. That way, I believe she'll lighten up pretty soon because she is actually pretty fond of young ladies." After all, there are more men than ladies in the Coleman Family.
However, Kendall appeared to be less optimistic about Tilly's attitude toward her. "No matter how much Old Madam Coleman likes young ladies, I'm sure she isn't going to like me. After all, I turned down Dylan's proposal earlier and pulled off something outrageous. So, if Dylan hadn't let me off, the Parker Family would have suffered the consequences along with me." D*mn it! I must have been really dumb in my past life. How could I turn down Dylan's proposal after what Kelly said to me? Maybe I was blinded by my love for Jackson so much that all I cared about was marrying him. How dumb I was!
Nevertheless, Alice knew Dylan wasn't going easy on Kendall. Instead, he was going to execute his plan of retaliation step by step as he began by taking Kendall back to the Coleman Family. Then, whenever he felt like messing with her, he would pull a prank on her until he was satisfied. Therefore, she could tell that it would get a lot worse for Kendall with time, but nonetheless, she wouldn't betray Dylan because he was the brother she respected the most. "You're about my height, so maybe you could wear my pajamas. You should get a shower now," Alice said while going through her clothes in the wardrobe.
"Thank you so much, Miss Coleman."
When Alice turned around, she noticed the pair of flip-flops that Kendall was wearing and smiled. "You know what? My brother has never taken anything from me before, except this pair of flip-flops. For that, I'm going to help you."
"Well, I still owe you a thanks anyway."
"Don't mention it." Alice reached for her pajamas and walked up to Kendall before she handed them over to her. "Your shower awaits."
Kendall then held the pajamas in her hands and entered the bathroom as Alice told her to. As soon as she closed the door behind her, Alice chuckled and murmured to herself, "Dylan is going to come and pick you up in half an hour, Kendall."
Despite her young age, Alice was rather smart and shrewd. In fact, she had been acting as if she didn't know anything in front of Kendall. When she previously had Amos retrieve her flip-flops from Dylan to let Kendall wear, she could tell how much her brother cared about Kendall. Thus, she couldn't wait to witness the moment Dylan brought up the matter between him and Kendall to the rest of their family members. At the same time, she was also curious about how the rest of the people in her family would react when they heard it firsthand from Dylan that he wanted to marry Kendall. Besides that, she also wanted to see if Kendall would resort to her extremity by threatening to end her life like she did earlier, in order to reject Dylan's proposal.
Although Dylan made it clear that he only wanted Kendall to live with him and impose on her to take care of him because he wanted to retaliate against her, Alice believed that he was actually trying to move Kendall by allowing them both to know each other's daily life so that she would willingly marry him. If it weren't for that, Dylan wouldn't grant Kendall so many privileges and exceptions. In fact, Alice proudly considered herself the only lady in the world to know how her brother could melt a lady's heart when he sincerely treated her well.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Love Knows No Bounds novel (Kendall and Dylan)
Beautiful story....