“It’s only a minor issue, so I can’t be bothered to submit a claim. Why the sudden question, Zachary?” Zachary fell silent before uttering, “The woman who scratched your car this morning is the sister of my nana’s lifesaver. The sisters only have each other, and the woman is a housewife without an income. They’re worried they can’t pay for your car’s repairs.” Duncan replied, “… Talk about a coincidence. I can’t believe she was the sister of your grandma’s lifesaver. How did you find out?” Zachary lied. “My nana is fond of her lifesaver and often seeks companionship in her. Nana had to ask why she was looking blue today, so Hunt told her what happened.” “Hunt? Is that her last name? The woman who damaged my car is Liberty Hunt. What’s the name of your grandma’s lifesaver?” “Serenity Hunt.” “They must be sisters, judging by the name. I’ll drop the matter since she’s the sister of your grandma’s lifesaver. The money means nothing to me, but I’m the victim after all. I can’t b
Serenity tossed and turned all night as stressful dreams were triggered. The disturbed sleep drained her energy by the time she woke up the following morning. As usual, Serenity hung her laundry on the balcony after turning the washing machine on before bed. It was then she realized that stainless steel rods had been installed on the balcony. They were for her to air the laundry. There were also a variety of potted plants stacked on the huge balcony. Many of them had bloomed and budded. No matter the size, the petals were all the intricate kind. Serenity’s attention was immediately drawn to the flowers. She hung her clothes out and got straight to assembling the flower stands she bought yesterday morning. Serenity then displayed the potted plants on the stands. While busting her gut over the task, Serenity got a crawling sensation of a pair of prying eyes. She looked up and met Zachary’s unfazed gaze. His eyes were nothing short of piercing and emotionless. Serenity had lea
“What’s the matter, Mr. York?” Serenity’s voice was heard from the balcony. Chewing on the wrap, Zachary made his way to the balcony. “Your sister’s thing is nothing to worry about. The car in question happens to belong to one of our important clients. It dawned on me last night, so I gave Mr. Lewis a call. He said the repairs cost about ten thousand dollars.” Although she appeared rather lively dabbling the plants, Zachary could tell that she was not at her best, likely due to a lack of sleep last night. The matter with her sister was the cause of trouble in slumberland. Serenity lifted her chin and observed him munching on the wrap. While thinking to herself that Zachary was easy to appease in the food department, Serenity asked, “How can you be sure it’s the car of your company’s client?” Her sister was clueless about the car owner’s name. All she knew was that he was big, strong, and had an intimidating scar on his face. Sonny was scared stiff of the man. “I attended to
On the other hand, Zachary spoke to Mr. Lewis on behalf of Liberty and probably put in the good word for her too, so Mr. Lewis knocked a thousand dollars off. Of course, nine thousand bucks were a great deal of money to Liberty now. It would serve as a painful lesson to keep her eyes peeled on the street and stay away from luxury sedans! “Is your husband coming back soon?” asked Liberty.“Yeah. He’ll be back tomorrow.” “Great. My husband and I will be there ahead of time. Are you cooking? I’ll help out.” Having lived independently with her sister for many years, Liberty had so much on the ball from her career, and social life, to domestic life. Now that she was held down by a child and without an income, her husband put her in a position where she could be nothing more than a housewife. The sisters exchanged small talk on the phone before ending the call. “Mr. York, do you work late every day?” “Why?” “It’s almost the weekend that Nana and your parents will come over f
Last night, Serenity stayed up late for Zachary to come home so she could make plans with him to shop for groceries on Saturday morning. Serenity called Nana the night before to get a headcount. As it turned out, Zachary’s brothers and cousins were also coming along. The way Nana saw it, Serenity was part of the York family now that she was married to Zachary. By meeting the family, Nana wanted to bring together everybody to introduce the family tree. Since there was going to be a lot of food, Serenity would not be able to carry all the groceries on her own. Hence, she requested Zachary to take her to the market by car. Like the other day, Zachary was startled awake by Serenity’s morning call at six o’clock sharp. Feeling grumpy from the early rise, Zachary had to bottle up his grievance to stop himself from yelling at Serenity. “Mr. York.” Serenity’s clear voice washed away some of the unpleasantness in the morning. With eyebrows pinched together, Zachary answered gruffl
The shopping trip took two hours. Accustomed to the convenience of five-star transportation, Zachary was exhausted from the two-hour shopping as Serenity’s personal porter despite taking self-defense classes and keeping a fitness routine. He would rather be buried under a pile of work and meetings than go shopping with a woman. As the car came to a stop, Serenity got a call from Grandma May before she stepped out of the car. “Are you home, Serenity? We’re downstairs.” Serenity replied with a smile, “We just returned from the market, Nana. Wait for us. We’ll be right there.” “Did you go to the market with Zack?” That put a smile on Nana’s face. Nana thought to herself, ‘To think my callous and stuck-up grandson put aside his pride and go shopping with Serenity at the market.’ Since he wanted to play the pauper, Zack might as well step into the shoes of an ordinary person. “Yeah. We went to get groceries.” “Zack has always been busy with work, so he’s never been to th
It was an inconceivable mental image. “Be alert and don’t expose our identities to Serenity. Son, say that you don’t have pensions. You grow vegetables and flowers for a living.“Get your stories straight. Zack will go after you if you blow your cover. Don’t come crying to me then.” Seeing the fun in her grandson’s plans, Nana was committed to helping Zack stay in character. Nana had no doubt that Serenity was a good kid and not driven by greed. At her age, Nana was a good judge of character. “Got it,” answered everyone. The Yorks were no stranger to Serenity as the latter saved the old lady's life. In fact, Grandma May's sons and daughters-in-law were the ones who expressed their gratitude toward Serenity back then.Zachary’s mom mostly kept to herself as she was not in favor of Grandma May nagging her son into marriage. Nevertheless, her resistance was futile as the old lady managed to sell her proud son the idea. Sure, Zachary’s mom was grateful that Serenity saved Grand
The ever-friendly Rowan had a blast chatting with Serenity. After witnessing Serenity using Zachary as a porter, the boy was on Team Serenity now. Rowan believed he could hide behind Serenity for anything! Liberty and Hank, together with their son, Sonny, arrived a little later than the Yorks. Since Serenity’s husband knew the car owner whose luxury sedan was scratched by Liberty, the damages only came to nine thousand bucks. Hank did not dare to make light of his new brother-in-law. Hank did not take the meeting seriously at first but adopted a different attitude when he actually met with the family. After meeting with Zachary, Hank was in awe of his brother-in-law as Zachary commanded the room with his revered presence, more so than his boss could. “Mr. York.” All smiles, Hank extended his right hand to Zachary, “Hello, I’m Serenity’s brother-in-law.” Zachary shook hands with Hank and faintly uttered, “Hello, Hank.” He then extended his greetings to Liberty. Liberty