The colleague went downstairs after that, leaving Avery all by herself on the second floor.
After unlocking the door, Avery saw that it was a small room with about twenty square meters of space.
It had wooden flooring, a single bed, and a simplistic-looking cabinet.
Avery was about to start unpacking her stuff when her colleagues from another department came upstairs.
The first one to show up was a young man in his late twenties. Walking up to Avery's room, he dared not enter her room. Instead, he stood at Avery's room door and said, “Hi, are you Avery from the design department? My name is Christopher Zimmerman.”
“Hello, Christopher. I'm Avery Rumpley,” Avery greeted him politely in response.
Christopher pointed at the stairs and said, “We haven't had lunch yet. We checked the restaurants in town, but we couldn't find any with a decent environment. Some ladies on our team who seldom go on a business trip couldn't stand dining in a lousy restaurant. Our team leader says you grew up here, so I figured it'd be best if you showed us around instead. We could do some grocery shopping on our way back and cook our own meals next time.”
“No problem. I'll be downstairs in a minute!” Avery replied while setting her suitcase down.
“Take your time. We're in no rush,” Christopher said before heading down the stairs.
Christopher might say they're in no rush, but it's almost two in the afternoon now! I have to hurry up, or it'll be dinner time soon!
With that in mind, Avery plugged her phone into a power bank and ran after Christopher with just her keys and purse.
As her phone started up, messages and notifications started flooding in one after another.
The first thing she saw were notifications of Cayden's missed calls. There was also a WhatsApp text message from him that read: Call me back when you switch your phone on.
Since Avery was about to head out with her colleagues, she found it inconvenient to give him a call at the time. As such, she texted him a reply: We'll talk later. I'm heading out to shop for groceries with my colleagues.
Surely enough, Cayden quickly texted her: You'd better not let me catch you cooking for other guys!
Meanwhile, in Ackleton, Allie headed straight for Toby's house after leaving the hospital.
“What happened? Why did you come rushing over in such a hurry?” Toby asked while staring curiously at her.
Allie glanced at Talia, who was coming down the stairs, before saying to her elder brother, “What else do you think? Of course it's about the young ones! Avery may be your daughter-in-law, but she's also in a rather 'complicated' relationship with my son, Cayden.”
The looks on both Toby's and Talia's faces turned gloomy when they heard that.
No one liked hearing about their daughter-in-law being with another man, even if it was the truth.
Despite knowing full well that they would get mad, Allie decided to say it anyway.
“A year ago, the company managed to secure the development rights for a town in the neighbouring city. Now that the development process has finally started, Avery headed over to the town as a member of the design department. Had I not done everything in my power to stop my son, he would've gone there with her this morning!”
Toby's eyes went wide instantly. “What?”
As Talia looked down on Allie, she reacted to her statement a little differently. “Your son knows that Avery is my daughter-in-law, but he still—”
Allie cut her off, “Listen up, Talia! My son wouldn't have wanted to go there if it hadn't been for Avery dropping all those hints! There's no way a healthy young man like him could possibly resist that vixen's temptations!”
Right as the two of them were about to go off at each other, Dylan came out of his room after spending half the day sleeping.
“What are you all arguing about? Who's the vixen?” he asked while coming down the stairs.
Allie, who was sitting on the couch, shot him a glance and eased up on her tone significantly as she replied, “Who do you think? Your wife is the only one charming enough to be called a vixen!”
One of the housekeepers came over and handed Dylan a glass of water.
After downing the entire glass to relieve his thirst, he handed it back to the housekeeper and said, “You're a woman too, Aunt Allie. You should know that you can't just brand every single charming woman out there as a vixen.”
“I'm not wrong about her being a vixen, though! Avery is just a nobody from an ordinary family whose father and grandfather are gravely ill, and she shamelessly relies on seducing rich men just to support herself! That's exactly what a vixen does!” Allie protested.
“You stole my late uncle from his wife back in the day, Aunt Allie. That's a lot worse than what Avery has done to Cayden and me, but you don't see us calling you a vixen,” Dylan replied with a smile, talking back to Allie for the first time.
Because he had said all that with a polite smile, Allie found herself unable to lash out at him.
Handling such messy family affairs wasn't Toby's strong suit, especially when his daughter-in-law was involved.
As such, he shot Talia a glance and motioned for her to take over instead.
Talia took the hint and turned toward her son as she said, “You really should do something about your wife, Dylan. You two are legally married, and we have acknowledged her in front of our relatives. Your father and I have always wanted you to divorce her and cut her out of your life completely, but we're willing to put up with her because of her baby!”
“Wait... Are you saying that Avery is pregnant?” Allie asked in confusion, as she didn't know about the pregnancy at all.
Talia nodded and replied, “Yes, that's right. She's pregnant, which is why Toby and I are accepting her. We may not like her, but we do like the baby she's bringing us.”
Unsure if that was good news or bad news for her, Allie fell silent as she pondered about what she had just heard.
Talia then shifted her gaze back toward Dylan and continued, “Avery is your wife, so we're in no position to get involved in this. As if her hardly coming home even after marrying you wasn't bad enough, she went to some developing town while she's pregnant with your child! What on earth is she playing at? Is she trying to cause harm to the baby?”
As Toby wasn't getting any younger, he feared that Dylan would end up doing something wrong and get himself locked up in prison again. For someone of his age, having a grandchild around was all that he could possibly want in life.
Toby, too, believed that Avery was planning on getting rid of the baby after he heard Talia's words. “Go to Livingsfill right now and bring Avery back here! She can go wherever she wants after she gives birth to my grandchild. Until then, she stays here with us! No exceptions!” he shouted angrily while pointing a finger at his son.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The CEO Gets What He Wants