Chapter 56: Three Men With Different Thoughts
Chapter 56: Three Men With Different Thoughts
"Babe! The bath is ready!"
Moore shouted, making sure that the guy Michelle was talking to could hear it on his end.
Grinning to himself, he acted as if he were her lover to scare off whoever that guy was.
'Humph! You'd better get through me first before you can make a move on Michelle!’ "Michelle, where are you? Who are you with?"
George's forehead creased in confusion and jealousy upon hearing a man's voice on the other end of the line.
Covering the mouthpiece on her phone, Michelle glared at Moore and said through gritted teeth, "Go to hell!"
This made Moore burst into laughter and it didn't go unheard by George.
'Why is Michelle with a man at this hour? Why does he call her babe? And what the hell does he mean that the bath is ready?’ George's thoughts went crazy as he realized the implications of what he heard.
"Nothing.It’s just the sound from the TV show I'm watching.You misheard it!"
Not in the mood to explain her cousin's foolishness, Michelle made up an excuse to cut off George's interrogation.
"I'm going to hang up now if you don't mind," she informed him dismissively.
Before George could even respond, Michelle pressed a button on her phone to drop the call.
"Moore! You'll pay for this!" she shouted as she ran off to come after him.
Much to her dismay, she wasn't able to get even with Moore since he already managed to escape quickly.
Later that night, three men gathered in the study of the Mills family house.
All had serious expressions on their faces and they seemed to be brooding over something.
It was David, Elliot, and Moore.
Each of them claimed a separate seat on the black leather couch.
David's stance was an epitome of a strong patriarch while Elliot was hunched over the center table as he smoked.
On the other side, Moore held a wine glass by its stem as he inhaled the aroma of the deep red wine.
As the deafening silence stretched, the tension in the room grew more unbearable.
It was Moore who broke the silence and spoke first.
"Grandpa, father, I overheard what you two talked about last night."
After saying good night to Michelle, he passed by the study to do the same for David and Elliot and that was when he learned of the story.
Gulping the wine to give him more courage, he blurted, "I think Michelle has the right to know this.We shouldn't hide it from her!" Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!
Moore set the glass down on the table with a thud and looked at the men before him.His eyes challenged them to agree.
"No!" David and Elliot exclaimed in unison.
"Chelle must never know about it or else she would hate us," Elliot added while shaking his head.
As he reached over to light another cigarette, David swatted him.
"You'd better cut down on smoking if you want to live a longer life," he reprimanded sternly.
David took the cigarette pack away from Elliot and continued, "Moore, as much as we don't want to keep Michelle in the dark about it, she'd already endured so much.It might make her suffer even more if we tell her.Don't you want her to live peacefully?"
While Moore still had a part of him that disagreed with David and Elliot's decision, it was true that what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Wasn't that what they were aiming for Michelle ever since? After giving it much thought, Moore eventually nodded in agreement.
Hours later, the three men finally emerged from the study when Julie called them for breakfast.
The moment they opened the door, Julie had a coughing fit due to the stench of the cigarette.
"Ahem, ahem, Elliot, you wouldn't stop smoking, would you?!" Julie didn't approve of Elliot's habit at all.
He especially turned to smoking whenever something bothered him.
Judging from how they looked when they left the study and how strong the cigarette smell was, something unpleasant definitely happened.
Unbeknownst to Julie, the three men didn't sleep a wink in the room as they argued over what was best for Michelle.
As the entire family gathered for breakfast, the ambience at the table was light and cheerful and it hadn't been this way for many years.
If only Rose could see them now, she would certainly be relieved that her decision turned out right.
She was the one who urged Michelle to go home.Without her, Michelle wouldn't have had the chance to be reunited with her grandparents.For that, she would always be grateful.