Wendy pursed her lips and grinned. “I’m fine,” she said
as she lifted her head to look at him. Apparently, Henson was the ‘saviour’ Howell was referring to just now.
Initially, she was a bit worried when she found out that he’d showed up,
but she’d been fully convinced after spectating the show he just put on. Not only did he manage to avoid all their questions, he even made an example out of one of them, causing the rest to leave with their tail in between their legs.
“Capitalists always have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves, it seems,” she thought to herself.
When Saturday morning rolled around, Howell invited Henson and Wendy to the pub he’d just finished renovating.
They could tell that Howell had put a lot of effort into making his dream pub a reality.
The decorations were very artsy.
Wendy circled the pub then went up to the counter to talk to Howell. “Well, don’t these decorations look wild. Aren’t you afraid that no one will turn up with such abstract art all around?” she asked.
“Ack, I didn’t know that you were so knowledgeable about such things, Sister Wendy,” Howell replied.
“Didn’t you know that your Sister Wendy was coined the Queen of Part-Time Jobs back then?” Henson quipped calmly in a corner.
“‘Queen of Part-Time Jobs’?” Howell asked then turned to her. “Have you worked at a pub before, Sister Wendy?”
“Yes, I have,” she replied with a shrug.
“Whoa, I didn’t think you were the type! You’re more ballsy than I thought. With your looks, weren’t you scared of being taken advantage of last time?” Howell probed.
“Didn’t you know that she fronts as a lesbian every time she clocks into work at a pub?” Henson joked as he took a seat at the counter.
“I love this idea, Sister Wendy! You must’ve been really cool back then,” Howell snickered.
She could only roll her eyes at the two of them in response. “Can’t the two of you go a day without talking sh*t? I’m too lazy to reply y’all now,” she giggled
then turned to the side to look at the collection of the photos on the countertop.
She initially assumed that Howell would put a lot of photos of famous celebrities there, but she was surprised to see that he’d put a lot of old photos there instead.
The same person was depicted in all of the photos.
She felt like she’d seen the person in the photos before.
When Howell noticed that Wendy was transfixed on the person in the photos, he called for her behind the countertop. “Something caught your eye, Sister Wendy? Isn’t he just the coolest?” he said.
“He does look pretty ravishing. Who is this?” she asked as she turned around to face him.
“He was my second uncle, a pretty influential figure in San Diego back in the day. His looks were second to none,” he answered.
“Tell me who’s more handsome, me or my second uncle?” Henson teased.
“Of course it’s your second uncle,” she pouted.
This made him roll his eyes at her. “You know how people say that women should only give praise to their lovers, right? So, you have one more chance to make things right,” he taunted.
“Heh, should I even be here right now?” Howell chimed in mischievously.
“Don’t you know how to take a hint?” Henson replied snarkily as he looked at him through the corners of his eyes.
“Alright, settle down now,” she commanded with a goofy grin on her face.
The three of them proceeded to laugh it off.
She eventually shifted her gaze back to the photo with a smile on her face.
She wanted to laugh at herself as she honestly thought that their second uncle looked familiar to her.
It was obvious that the both of them were living completely different lives.
She surmised that the familiar feeling must’ve come from Henson, since the both of them looked pretty alike as uncle and nephew.
Since Henson had a few things to attend to on Sunday morning, he left the house early for work.
This made Wendy feel more at ease as she could study better now, with him at the office.
But just as Henson was about to leave after dealing with a few things, Dayne came knocking on his door and invited himself into his office.
“I managed to dig up some information regarding Jane Nicholson’s illegitimate child as per your request last time, Master Henson,” he announced
then took a step forward to place a folder on Henson’s desk.
After Henson picked it up and started flipping through the pages, Dayne continued, “I have a feeling you’ll be fairly surprised once you finish going through everything, sir,”
A cold smile formed on his face as he went through the document. It didn’t seem like he was surprised at all.
After he was done, he closed the folder shut and turned his body towards Dayne. “Apart from the two of us, please make sure that no one gets a hold of this information at all costs,” he ordered.
“Rest assured, Master Henson. My lips are sealed,” Dayne reassured.
Then, with a wave of his hand, Henson said, “If there’s nothing else, you can get off work first,”
“Thank you, sir,” Dayne replied and left.
When Henson returned to the villa, he was just in time for lunch.
Seeing this, Donald the butler made a trip upstairs to usher Wendy down for lunch.
She then lightly jogged over to the edge of the dining table upon noticing his return. “When did you come back?” she asked, surprised.
“I just came in the building not more than 2 minutes ago. Anyways, let’s both take a seat and have lunch together,” he said.
Once the two of them took their seats at the table, she only managed to stomach two bites of her food before putting down her cutlery.
“Why’d you stop?” he asked.
“I had too much fruit just now, so I’ve got no appetite now,” she answered with a shrug.
This caused him to stare at her in disbelief. “You eat like a child, you know. Promise me you won’t snack on junk food or fruit before meals next time,”
“I bet you’d be the type of parent who’d constantly nag their children,” she giggled.
“What’s wrong with that? I’m just doing it for their own good, you know,” he huffed.
“How would a child understand that you’re doing that for their own good?” she quizzed.
“Isn’t it always the case where there’s a good cop and bad cop in any family? I suppose I can be bad cop while you be good cop,” he suggested mischievously.
Her face flushed crimson at that. “Who’d want to have children with you anyways,” she mumbled.
“You, obviously,” he teased.
“Well, I don’t want to,” she huffed.
Her shy demeanor made him chuckle. “Anyways, I have a question for you,” he said.
“Okay, fire away,” she replied.
“You’re always on about how Bain’s so good to you, but when did you start getting so chummy with him? Were the two of you always this close?” he asked.
After a while of mulling it over, she shook her head and said no.
“Don’t tell me he bullied you before?” he probed.
“I won’t count it is as bullying, but my mom didn’t bring me to the Nicholson household that often when I was a kid, so I didn’t have that many chances to meet him anyways. When I younger, May used to blow off her steam on my mom, and now that there’s news of her getting her *ss beat on the streets for being a sl*t, I couldn’t bring myself to follow up on her whereabouts, since that was how she treated my mom back then.
“I vividly remember that time when my mom was still working at a coffee shop. That day, I was on my way to the coffee shop to look for my mom after school. May just so happened to tag both her children along to go shopping with her too.
“Julia saw me sitting at a table doing my homework and pointed at me and that was how May knew that my mom was there. She then stormed into the shop, grabbed a fistful of my mother’s hair and started spouting profanities at her, calling her a shameless sl*t. This managed to garner an audience.
“When I managed to squeeze my way through the crowd, May pushed me into my mother’s lap and started telling everyone there how my mother was a mistress and how I was a rat b*stard. She even beat the both of us up so badly while my brother and Julia just stood there and watched, as if they were watching a movie play out. The events on that day have been engraved into my memory, and I’ve never once thought of the Nicholson’s as good people since then,” she said.
Every time he listened to her talk about her past with the Nicholson’s, he’d get so enraged he’d get the urge to murder somebody.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine how she and her mom managed to survive all those years
while being oppressed by a family that didn’t even regard them as humans.
“Well then, when would you say that your relationship with Bain started to improve?” he asked.
“Well, after my brother went abroad for his studies, there was one year where he returned to the country for his semester break and had secretly bought a lot of things during his visit to my place to gift to me and my mom. I recall he gave my mother a card and told her to take care of me and herself, all while reminding her not to be easily enraged by his mother’s arrogance or shenanigans. He even apologised to my mom on his mom’s behalf. I suppose that was when I started getting closer to him,” she explained with a frown.
“How come you’re so curious about my brother today?” she followed up with a question.
“Well, that’s because…” he trailed off.