Dumped Then Claimed By A Billionaire (Nerissa and Owen) novel Chapter 96

Chapter 96

Chapter 96

Lennox wasn’t fond of the kitchen.

He hated the smell of grease in the air.

In his mind, a man’s place was strategizing in the boardroom or commanding on the battlefield.

What business did a man have being stuck in the kitchen, anyway?

That was just not real work.

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Luke knew Lennox’s personality well. When he heard that answer, he didn’t bother trying to persuade him. “Alright, alright. Dad and I will head to the kitchen first.”

Ethan glanced at Lennox. “Hey, Lennox, cooking isn’t beneath you. Who knows, maybe someday you’ll meet someone special and actually want to make her soup or cook her a meal yourself.”

“Ethan, you’re you, and I’m me. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m definitely not going to turn into the kind of man you’re talking about,” Lennox replied.

Ethan just shrugged. “You never know.”

After all, who could really say what tomorrow or the day after would bring?

Lennox sat down on the couch. “Actions speak louder than words”

Ethan nodded. “True that, Lennox. Just don’t crash and burn, or #ll be the first to roast you.”

“Me too,” Hannah chimed in. “And trust me, I’ll make sure everyone hears me laughing at you!”

“Same here!” Riley jumped in.

Even Snowball, lounging on the couch, chimed in with a meow.

“Too bad, you guys probably won’t ever get to see that,” Lennox said as he walked over to the couch and scooped up Snowball. “You little troublemaker, finally decided to show your face at home, huh?”

He buried his face in Snowball’s fur and took a deep sniff.

‘Nice, Lennox thought, feeling satisfied.

Yep, still smelt familiar.

Lennox hugged Snowball a little tighter.

Ethan and Luke’s cooking was seriously good. During dinner, Inah just couldn’t stop raving about it.

Even Lennox, who was usually super picky, had to give them some props and threw in a few compliments himself.

After dinner, Hannah suddenly remembered something and sai “Oh, Riley, Ethan, if you three are free this Saturday, swing by home, okay?”

“Saturday?” Riley replied. “Mom, I’ve got a facial booked that day so I can’t make it home.”

“Grandma, I’m going racing with my friends on Saturday, so I won’t be able to come either. Is it something important?” Luke chimed in.

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“I’ve invited Nerissa over to hang out,” Hannah said.

As soon as Riley heard that, she immediately said, “I’m free! Totally free!”

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Luke ditched his racing plans too. “I’m free too. Guess I’ll show off my cooking skills for Ms. Jamison on Saturday.”

Lennox silently picked up his phone and shot off a quick text. [Cancel all my plans for Saturday.]

After sending the message, he set his phone back down on the table.

He said nothing.

When Melinda saw Lennox’s message, she thought she was seeing things.

‘Cancel all my plans for Saturday?’ she thought, her eyes widening in disbelief:

‘All of them?’ she repeated to herself, still trying to wrap her head around it.

She’d been working at Stratford Group for three years now.

Lennox had never canceled his plans for no reason.

‘What’s up with him today?’ Melinda wondered.

‘Did Lennox forget about that big contract he needs to sign on Saturday?’ she thought, a bit concerned.

So she sent him a quick message. [Mr. Stratford, there’s a contract scheduled for you to review on Saturday.]

His phone buzzed.

Lennox picked it up again and shot back a two-word reply. [Postpone it.]

Just those two words made Melinda break out in a cold sweat. She didn’t dare send him another message.

This time, Lennox didn’t just turn off his phone. It suddenly hit im that he hadn’t posted on Instagram in days. He quickly switched to camera mode and snapped a photo of the dinner spread on the table.

He captioned it. [Dinner.]

Just like last time, as soon as he posted it, the likes and comment started flooding in.

Riley was just scrolling through Instagram right then..

When she saw Lennox’s post, she couldn’t help but ask, “Lennox, you never posted on Instagram, but lately you’ve posted twice in a row. Is there someone you like?”

Hannah got all excited. “Who is it, you brat? Is it Nerissa?”

At the mention of Nerissa, Lennox gasped a little, but he quickly steadied himself, keeping that usual cool vibe. “Once you hit a certain age, you just find new hobbies, like opera or exercis What’s so weird about that?”

Luke nodded. “True, I used to hate exercise, but now I’m totally to it.”

Riley squinted suspiciously, sure something was fishy, but she just couldn’t figure out what.

Hannah instantly lost all her excitement. She’d thought Lennox nally had a breakthrough.

Well, that was unexpected!’ Hannah thought, feeling a bit let down.

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Chapter 96

“So, are you coming back on Saturday?” Hannah asked.

“Maybe,” Lennox replied, picking up his spoon and taking a sip of soup.

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“I’m warning you,” Hannah said, absolutely determined to set Lennox up with Nerissa. She’d even learned to swim for her future daughter-in-law, never mind that she had always been terrified of water! “The whole family’s gonna be home that day. If you dare skip out, I’ll come after you!”

Lennox shot Hannah a look, pretending to be all put out. “Since you want me back so bad, I’ll try.”

With that, Lennox set down his spoon. “Mom, Ethan, Riley, I’m full. I’m heading upstairs.”

“Go on, get out of here!” Hannah waved him off. “You’re driving me nuts just sitting there.”

No one noticed the faint smile on Lennox’s face as he turned away.

Before they knew it, Saturday rolled around.

Nerissa came over to the Stratford family just like she’d promised.

She brought a bouquet of flowers, some fresh fruit, and a box of tea.

Hannah came out to greet her herself. Seeing Nerissa with her hands full, she couldn’t help but tease, “Nerissa, you really didn’t have to bring anything! Just having you here makes me happy enough. Why bring all this?”

Nerissa flashed a smile. “It’s just a little something, Mrs. Stratford Please don’t fuss over it.”

Lennox walked over to Nerissa and lowered his voice. “Let me take those for you.”

“Sure,” Nerissa replied, handing her things over to him.

As soon as Lennox took them, he gave Nerissa a surprised look.

It was just that

the stuff was a lot heavier than he’d expected. Nerissa had made look effortless, so he’d figured it was no big deal.

Looks like I totally underestimated her,’ Lennox thought.

‘Clearly, what I know about Ms. Jamison is just the tip of the icelrg, he mused.

Riley, Ethan, and Luke came out of the house together.

“Nerissa, you’re here!” Riley called out.

“Ms. Jamison!” Luke greeted her.

“Ms. Jamison,” Ethan greeted her.

Each of them greeted her.

Nerissa walked over to Riley. “Hello, Riley, Ethan, Luke.”

Every time Nerissa called her that, Riley felt years younger.

“Come on, Nerissa, let’s head inside! I have to tell you, our chefst whipped up a bunch of new desserts, and you’re gonna love them!” Riley said, practically bouncing with excitement.

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Hannah hurried after them. “Wait for me, Riley, Nerissa! Don’t leave me behind!”

Autumn had already arrived.

The back garden was looking gorgeous.

So Riley suggested they go out back for some tea and to enjoy the view.

Nerissa was totally on board.

To be real,

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the whole “enjoy the scenery” thing was just a cover. The real plan was to set up some alone time for Nerissa and Lennox.

So

after they got to the back garden, Nerissa just popped into the bathroom for a minute. When she came back out, she found Lennox sitting there all by himself in the gazebo.

Nerissa glanced around, a bit puzzled. “Where did your mother and Riley go?”

Lennox replied, “Looks like they went over there to admire the camellias.”

“And what about Ethan and Luke? Where did they go?” Nerissa asked.

“They headed to the kitchen to cook. Said they want to impress you with their skills today,” Lennox said.

“They’re cooking?” Nerissa blinked in surprise. “Seriously? Ethan and Luke know how to cook?”

“Is being able to cook really that impressive?” Lennox asked.

“Of course it is!” Nerissa grinned at Lennox. “Wait, you can cook oo?”

“Sure, I can,” Lennox nodded, trying to sound casual. “If they can I can too.”

He could feel cold sweat trickling down his back.

He was totally faking it.

“That’s pretty awesome!” Nerissa said, taking a sip of her tea. “I ted cooking once, but it was way too much hassle. So how’d you learn? I seriously never pictured you as someone who cooks

Nerissa had always figured someone like Lennox would never set foot in a kitchen.

But to her surprise, he was full of surprises.

“Cooking’s actually pretty easy, It’s really not as hard as you thin Lennox said, keeping his cool on the outside, but inside he was freaking out.

“I’m impressed!” Nerissa gave him a thumbs-up.

‘If this keeps up, I’m doomed, Lennox thought, feeling sweat prkling at his forehead. He quickly changed the subject. “Nerissa, since we’ve got some time, how about a game of chess?

“Sure!” Nerissa’s attention immediately shifted to the Go board.

Lennox quickly messaged the staff at Stratfordland to bring over Go set.

Soon enough,

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the two of them dove straight into the game.

Move after move, each answered the other in a relentless back-and-forth.

Hannah and Riley were hiding behind a nearby pillar, sneaking peeks at everything happening in the gazebo.

Their spying game was on point, and they were absolutely loving it.

Riley couldn’t help but gush, “They’re a perfect match! Lennox and Nerissa are so gorgeous together!”

Hannah nodded, her eyes sparkling. “I can’t even imagine how beautiful my future granddaughter will be!”

She could picture her adorable little granddaughter waving at her.

Later that evening,

after Nerissa left, Lennox wasted no time and ordered two massive cookbooks online.

Then he went ahead and signed up for a local cooking class.

‘I really talked myself up,’ Lennox thought, feeling the pressure.

‘No matter what, I have to see this through, even if I have to crawl to the finish line.’

And he had to keep the whole thing on the down-low. No way could anyone find out.

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Monday morning rolled around.

Nerissa and Faye arranged to walk to school together.

Just as they reached the school gates, Charles came running up fom behind.

“Nerissa, wait up!” he called out.

“What’s up?” Nerissa turned around, giving him a curious look.

Charles handed her the test paper. “Here is your paper.”

“You finished it already?” Nerissa asked.

“Yeah, all done, Charles replied, looking a little defeated You’re way out of my league. I don’t think I’ll ever beat you in the next monthly test”

Man, this sucks, Charles thought, feeling sorry for himself

Guess I’m stuck being second place for life he sighed

“Why so down on yourself? Nerissa raised her eyebrows

“It’s not that I’m not confident. It’s just that you’re on another level Charles said, sounding a bit defeated. He’d gone over Nerissa’s test paper in detail and realized something scary Her say was basically perfect, and she only got a few words wrong. The math mistakes were just silly typos on the easiest questions

He’d even tried taking the test himself

Even if he gave it his all and didn’t peek at the answers, he could only manage around 690

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So yeah, he really didn’t think he could beat Nerissa in the next monthly test.

Charles looked up at Nerissa, determination in his eyes. “Even if can’t beat you in the next monthly test, don’t get too proud, Nerissa. I’m gonna work my butt off and beat you in the final exam. Just you wait!”

“Alright,” Nerissa nodded.

With that, Charles turned and walked away.

Watching Charles walk away, Faye folded her arms and grinned. That nerd’s actually kind of funny!”

Nerissa nodded. “Yeah, he’s pretty interesting.”

As soon as Ivy stepped onto campus, she saw Charles making a beeline for Nerissa.

Ivy frowned, jealousy flickering in her eyes. “Unbelievable! She already cozied up to Charles? She really has no shame!”

Charles was not only a total brainiac but also came from a seriously wealthy family.

With his good looks, he had a ton of admirers at school.

But Charles was a complete bookworm, obsessed with his studies and never bothered with girls.

‘Nerissa’s only been here a few days, and now even Charles’s got his eyes on her?’ Ivy fumed to herself.

The more Ivy thought about it, the more it ate at her.

She was so jealous that she could barely breathe.

‘No way. Not happening,’ Ivy gritted her teeth.

‘I can’t let Nerissa steal the spotlight!’

Ivy quickened her pace and caught up to Charles. “Charles, Charles, wait up!”

Charles stopped in his tracks. “Do you need something?”

“Nerissa’s been divorced,” Ivy blurted out.

Charles frowned, momentarily taken aback.

A triumphant glint flashed in Ivy’s eyes. “Yeah, you heard me right. Nerissa’s been married before! She’s just secondhand, and nobody wants her. Trust me, you shouldn’t get too close to her!”

Charles’s face went cold in an instant, his tone sharp. “So what if he’s been married? Honestly, the way you’re backstabbing her and spreading petty gossip is way more disgraceful than anything she’s ever done.”

Ivy froze, her face turning livid, then flushing with humiliation

‘Why?’ she thought, confused.

Why is this turning out so differently than I expected?’ she wondered.

‘Wasn’t Charles supposed to join me in dragging Nerissa’s name rough the mud?’ Ivy fumed.

Why is he taking Nerissa’s side?’ Ivy thought, her confusion mixing with irritation.

‘Damn it!’ Ivy cursed to herself, feeling her anger spike.

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‘Damn Nerissa!’ Ivy seethed, jealousy twisting in her chest.

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Time flew by.

Before they knew it, the semester was over.

On the very first day of winter break,

Faye showed up at Nerissa’s place, bubbling with excitement. “Nerissa, let’s go have fun for a few days, and then come back right before New Year’s! You in?”

Coincidentally, Nerissa had been thinking about traveling before the New Year too, but hadn’t made any plans yet. She turned to Faye and said, “Sounds good, Fifi! So, where are we healing?”

“How about Minttown?” Faye suggested.

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