Sophia retracted her gaze from Isabelle after taking a look at her and said to Matilda, “Let’s go. I would like to drop by the shop after shopping. I’m a little worried about leaving Robin alone.”
“Alright,” Matilda replied and gestured toward Isabelle with a look before leaving with Sophia and John. When she passed by them, she commented, “Miss Jaeger seems to be an honest person and it’s hard on her for helping you out like this. Why don’t you give her an increment?”
With a hint of a smile in her tone, Sophia uttered, “I’ve already decided to give her a commission, which is higher than an increment.”
Matilda grunted and said something else which was inaudible to Isabelle because of the growing distance between them.
Frowning, Mrs. Bailey asked in astonishment, “Since when did the relationship between the three of them improve so much?”
Shaking her head slowly, Isabelle answered, “Beats me.” Staring at Matilda and Sophia’s back with an icy look on her face, she muttered, “How did the two of them become so close now?” But just a split second later, she snorted. “Well, seeing how hopeless Matilda is, she’ll be useless to Sophia as well. She’s probably just an extra person to say sweet things next to her.” With that, she grabbed her mother’s arm and said, “Let’s go. Forget about them.”
Still, Mrs. Bailey was worried. “Looks like Matilda has accepted her now, and it will be a piece of cake if Sophia wants to return to the Constance Family.”
Pausing in her tracks, Isabelle said, “Even if Matilda doesn’t accept her, it’s not a difficult thing for Sophia to return to the Constance Family. Matilda is no help in this matter at all.”
Mrs. Bailey thought through her daughter’s words and nodded. “You’re right, and it seems like John doesn’t really heed Matilda’s advice either,” she said as they walked away.
Meanwhile, the three of them browsed through a couple more stores before going to Sophia’s shop in John’s car. On the way there, John asked, “So you’re not contacting Isabelle recently? Earlier when you bumped into each other, the atmosphere seemed a little odd between the two of you.”
“Yeah,” Matilda replied. “There’s nothing odd, but it’s true that we’re not contacting each other so often recently. She said she’s busy, so I didn’t disturb her.”
“She’s busy?” John repeated. He sounded thoughtful as he went on, “The business dealings between our family and theirs has nothing much to do with her. If I don’t get in touch with her, she usually won’t be in contact with us either. So, I don’t think there’s anything keeping her busy.”
Truth be told, he had also checked up on Isabelle for the past couple of days. Besides going to the office, she would stay at home and not go anywhere else. She didn’t seem to be busy, for she stayed home most of the time.
Matilda giggled at his words and said in a casual tone, “Since she said she’s busy, so be it. There’s nothing especially important when we meet up anyway.”
Matilda giggled at his words and said in a casual tone, “Since she said she’s busy, so be it. There’s nothing especially important when we meet up anyway.”
Every time when they met up, they were always discussing how Isabelle could get closer to John with her help, and it seemed like there was nothing else they spoke about besides this. Back then, she really liked Isabelle a lot, and she longed for her to be married into her family so that the younger lady would become her daughter-in-law.
But now that she had more time on her hands, she could think about more issues, and she couldn’t help but wonder what she used to like so much about Isabelle in the past. In fact, she had seen a lot of ladies from similar backgrounds as Isabelle’s family, and she wasn’t the exceptionally unique one.
Matilda couldn’t understand the reason behind her logic either, so in the end, she could only attribute it to her previous lifestyle, when she was in a rut. That probably resulted in her monoscopic point of view and she immediately grew an interest in an obedient girl like Isabelle who lived by the book.
When they arrived at the shop, Robin’s boyfriend, Lincoln, happened to be there as well, and he seemed a little uneasy at the sight of them. Even Robin was acting flustered seeing that John had turned up, and she didn’t even know where she should place her hands.
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