Chapter 26
He chuckled, “No biggie, you’ll get the hang of it soon enough” Today was Roxanne’s first day peddling goods at the market. She initially planned to wrap things up around 11 or 12 at night
At 11, Chloe called her, saying that her kid, Arla, was having a fever. There was no one at home, so Chloe was hoping that she could come over to help.
She hopped on her e-bike and rushed over
Aria was indeed burning up.
Roxanne immediately hailed a cab, and together
Chloe, they took the child to the hospital
In the car, Chloe kept urging the driver, “Could you speed up? My daughter’s temperature has hit 39 degrees?
“Even if it’s urgent, we can’t break the speed limit. The’s a speed camera around here.”
Chloe was almost going mad
Her child wat her life, and any illness would make her extremely worried
Chloe was on the verge of tears as the thought about the possibility of Aria getting pneumonia if she continued to have a
Roxanne comforted Chloe for a while and then asked, “Chloe, why is there no one else at home? Where are your mother-in-law and sister-in-law? What about Oliver?”
Just mentioning this bunch made Chloe seethe
rage
“My mother-in-law said she’s tired from looking after the kid five days a week, so she’s taking the weekend off to play at my nister-in-law’s place”
Normally, Chloe would take care of
ithout any complaints of being tired
Once she mentioned this, her mother-in-law, Charlotte, would indicule her, saying things like “Every woman needs to look after kids. what’s so tiring about that?”
But when it was Charlotte’s turn to look after the kid, she would always find excuses, whether it was a backache or headache. She totally melodramatic
What upset her wasn’t what Charlotte said, after all, she was the mother in-law, an elder, and she indeed had no obligation to help her look after the kid
What upset her was Oliver, he didn’t understand at how tough it was for her to juggle work and taking care of the child, and he eve talked down to her
He said her going to work. all her own doing and self-inflicted suffering
But at this point, Chloe didn’t want to complain
anything. She just wanted Aria’s fever to subside as soon as possible.
Ana had grown up and gained some weight. When they arrived at the hospital, Chice couldn’t carry her anymore, so she had to carry her on her back
With Aria on her back, Chice practically ran to the emergency room.
Roxanne helped carry the sleeping Austin.
Both of them were extremely busy
During this. Austin woke up crying probably because he was hungry.
But Roxanne had no milk to feed Austin, and she couldn’t calm him down.
After hearing Austin’s cries. Chloe had to look after Ania, who was on an IV drip, while feeding Austin in the infusion room Rusanne standing by the side, felt extremely sorry for her.
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olding Austin, I carry Ana”
“Are you sure you can handle it?”
“No worries, I’m strong.”
Although Aria’s fever had subsided, she was still very weak and looked extremely tired.
But Aria was very understanding, “It’s okay, Auntie Anne. I can walk on my own.”
“Are you sure you can walk? You were almost fainting from the fever just now. Let me carry you; come on.” Roxanne squatted down. Aria looked at Chloe.
Seeing her weak state, Chloe gently nodded at her, “It’s okay, let Auntie Anne carry you. Auntie Anne hasn’t carried you for a long time.” So Aria then leaned on Roxanne’s back and let Roxanne carry her.
“Aria, you have indeed gained some weight.” Roxanne said while walking, “But I still find it easy to carry you. After your cold is better, you should eat more meat. Your mom said you don’t really like meat, but you’ll be undernourished if you don’t eat meat.”
Aria chatted with Roxanne for a bit.
Then, while leaning against Roxanne’s back, Aria sighed, “Anne, you’re so good to me. I wish my dad could carry me like you do.” Chloe, carrying Austin, followed behind them.
After hearing what she said, tears started to roll down Chloe’s checks.
Aria and Austin’s dad, Oliver, didn’t care about the kids as much as Roxanne did.
She increasingly felt that, although she had a husband, she was parenting solo. What marriage gave her, besides these two adorable kids, were all negatives. Exhausted and worn out, Chloe quietly wiped away her tears.
She really couldn’t figure out why she got married in the first place.
What a ridiculous decision.
As they got into the cab, Roxanne noticed Chloe’s wet eyelashes and quickly asked with concern, “Chloe, were you crying just now?”
In front of the children, Chloe pretended to be strong. “No.”
Aria also noticed the dampness in her mom’s eyes and quickly said, “Mom, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have made you take me to the hospital late at night, you must be tired.”
Aria was always considerate, so considerate that it tugged at your heartstrings.
Chloe felt that even though her marriage was a failure, having a daughter like her made it all worth it.
“Silly girl” Chloe patted Aria’s head, “it’s my duty to take care of you, it’s not tiring at all.”
When the car passed by a movie theatre, Aria accidentally saw Oliver’s car, “Mom, isn’t that dad’s car?” Chloe and Roxanne both looked over.
It really was Oliver’s car.
There was someone in his car, and due to the angle, they couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
But one thing was for sure, he definitely just came out of the movie theatre
Aria didn’t dare say more because she saw that the person who just got into his car was a very young lady, probably only about 20 years
old.
After sending Chloe home, Roxanne had no intention of leaving.
“Chloe, let me ask Oliver who he went to the midnight movie with.”
His own kid was sick as a dog with a high fever, but instead of being there, he was out at the movies with someone else.
That was just too much!
Roxanne was totally choked up over this.
But Chloe lowered her voice and said, “Anne, don’t get involved. I’ll talk to Oliver. I don’t want to have a big blowup in front of the kid. Aria is old enough now, so she gets really insecure every time she hears us arguing”
“You’re not just gonna sit there and take it, are you?” Roxanne held back her anger.
“Anne, do you think I’m so weak that I just take everything?” Chloe asked back, with bitterness written all over her face.
Roxanne understood that Chloe had no other choice but to handle things this way; after all, Oliver wasn’t always like this.
“Chloe, it’s late. Go home; I’ll handle this. Don’t worry.”
Although she was worried, Roxanne had no choice but to accept Chloe’s decision.
There were some things she just couldn’t interfere with, let alone change.
After Roxanne left, Chloe put the kids to bed.
Oliver didn’t get home till half past two in the morning. After seeing that his wife, Chloe, was sitting in the living room with a serious look on her face, his good mood vanished in an instant.
“Why are you sitting in the living room late at night instead of sleeping? What are you thinking about?” Oliver said, annoyed.
Chloe looked up at him, her voice cold and distant. “Oliver, where have you been?”
“Didn’t I already tell you? I took my mom and sister to a relative’s house for a late-night snack. That’s why I came back late.”
Chloe gave a cold laugh.
Did he think she was some kind of fool who could be easily fooled?
She couldn’t help but ask, “But I saw your car coming out of the movie theater, and there was someone in it. Were you at the movies with someone?”
“Chloe, have you been spying on me?” Oliver, far from feeling guilty, seemed to be on his high horse.
Oliver’s self-righteous attitude cut Chloe to the core.
