Cristofer remained stubborn, firmly stating, “There’s no need for her to return. I won’t allow her to humiliate me again.”
‘Estelle doesn’t love me anymore, and we won’t be back together. Even if she suddenly changed her attitude toward me and wanted to see me just because she wanted to get the children back to her side. I’ve almost lost everything. I won’t be softhearted and give her any chance to take the children away from me.’
“Mr. Hans, even if you don’t want Estelle to come back, you don’t have to refuse to see her. Maybe you have misunderstood her again. Why don’t you have a good talk with her?” Luke suggested.
Back then, Cristofer and Estelle had been apart for many years due to a misunderstanding. Luke, who had witnessed their separation, didn’t want Cristofer to repeat the same mistake. However, Cristofer hesitated for a moment and then declined Luke’s suggestion, saying, “I don’t need to talk to her.”
Deep down, he knew he was avoiding seeing Estelle partly because he was afraid. He feared that if he met her, he might abandon the principles he had newly established and end up hurt by her again.
Just as Luke was about to say more, Cristofer’s phone rang suddenly. Cristofer checked the caller ID and said softly, “Uncle Luke, please keep the kids company and take good care of them. Ensure they go to bed early. I need to get back to studying for the company’s matters.”
With that, he maneuvered his electric wheelchair out of the playroom. The wheelchair’s noise wasn’t loud, but it stood out in the quiet hallway. Luke remained in a daze, staring at Cristofer’s departing figure until Yohan’s voice brought him back to the present.
“Grandpa Luke, when will Mom come back?” Yohan asked, his eyes filled with hope. As a child who hadn’t seen his mother in a long time, he missed Estelle dearly.
Seeing his hopeful expression, Luke couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him. He was about to respond when Yvonne and Christina rushed over, looking like two adorable dolls.
“Grandpa Luke, will Mom return if we behave perfectly from now on?” they both asked at the same time.
Earlier, to prevent his two sisters from interrupting Luke and Cristofer while they talked, Yohan had told them that Estelle would return soon if they were on their best behavior.
Looking at the children before him, Luke made a firm decision and said, “Yes. I promise that I will do everything I can to bring your Mom back as soon as possible.”
****
Luke came to Cristofer’s study five days later with a stack of résumés. Cristofer took a glance at the résumés and saw that on the résumé at the top, the applicant had a master’s degree in education. Then he asked calmly. “Have you investigated the background of these applicants?”
“Mr. Hans, I contacted the top domestic service agencies in our city before. When they heard that the Hans family was going to hire nannies for the children, they were all willing to help and were very conscientious when selecting the candidates. These candidates were selected with the most strict standard. You can rest assured,” Luke said. Hearing his words, Cristofer nodded slightly. He wanted to review the résumés but had no time to do it because now he had some urgent documents to read. Therefore, after thinking for a few seconds, he trusted Luke with the task of screening the résumés.
“Uncle Luke, I’m a little busy now. Could you please choose the top five among them for me? Then I’ll decide who I will hire,” he said.
Hearing this, Luke was much relieved, unclenching his fists, which had been clenched out of nervousness, and wiping the cold sweat on his forehead. Then he replied to Cristofer with a calm look, “Okay, Mr. Hans.”
After that, he picked up the résumés and left the study. As soon as he turned the corner, he took out a résumé that he had temporarily put into the thick stack of résumés just now. Looking at the photo on it, he sighed and said, “Estelle, it looks like God is on your side this time. Hope you can get a chance to have a good talk with Mr. Hans.”
Five days ago, when Estelle got the news that the Hans family wanted to hire nannies, she went to a domestic service agency to apply for the job. However, when the company’s human resources specialists saw her résumé, they were suspicious of her motives. After all, it was unusual that a famous jewelry designer like Steal suddenly wanted to be a nanny. When they were about to eliminate Estelle in the first round, a specialist who often watched the news recognized that Estelle was Cristofer’s wife, and then they decided to let Estelle enter the second round.
In the second round, things still didn’t go smoothly. Since there were so many résumés and Luke couldn’t finish reviewing them in a short time, he asked the other servants of the Hans family to help him. The servant who got Estelle’s résumé directly eliminated her for fear that Cristofer would get angry when he saw it.
Seeing that she was about to miss the precious chance to get in touch with Cristofer, Estelle had no choice but to ask Luke for help. She encouraged herself to try every means to return to Cristofer’s side even though he misunderstood her. She didn’t want him to live in the pain she brought to him for the rest of his life.
Fortunately, Luke agreed to help her. But as he didn’t have the final say on hiring nannies, he just said to her, “Estelle, the children miss you very much, and I also hope you can come back. But all I can do for you is to let you enter the final round. I’m not sure whether Mr. Hans will hire you in the end.”
Since Cristofer didn’t read those résumés carefully, with the help of Luke, Estelle got the interview. Later, after screening the other résumés, Luke chose four other candidates and sent them interview notifications. On the day of the interview, Luke went to Cristofer’s study after arranging everything well.
“Mr. Hans, all the five candidates have arrived here. Shall we begin the interview now? According to the interview processes, we will let them meet with the children first and choose the children’s favorite two candidates,” Luke informed him.
The most important criterion for the position of nanny was that the candidates must make the children like them. At the moment, the children were playing in the playroom.