After lunch, Julian Zane set up the chessboard and invited Nathan Moore to play a game with him.
The two men sat opposite each other, with the yellow rosewood chessboard placed right in the center of the coffee table.
For some reason, Titus Zane always felt that his father did not like him very much, as if now, both he and his sister were at home, yet his father only beckoned to his sister, "Come, Olivia, sit next to Dad, help me with some advice."
Olivia Zane wheeled over, clearly not very knowledgeable about the game, yet continuously acting as a strategist. Under her guidance, their father lost but merely shook his head with a helpless smile, "You, you must have deliberately let me lose to Nathan."
Olivia Zane stuck out her tongue in dissatisfaction and retorted, "Who asked you to let me help you, knowing full well I don’t understand much?"
Yet their father said no more and set up the chessboard again, preparing for another game.
Titus Zane dared to say that if it were him advising by the side and his father lost the game, he would definitely be unhappy.
There was a time when he saw his father and an uncle turn red with rage over a chess game, unlike now where he is generous.
Their mother was doing something unknown with the maid in the kitchen, and Titus Zane got up and returned to his own room upstairs.
While watching their father and her man play a game of chess, Olivia Zane boredly covered her mouth and yawned, saying, "You guys play chess, I’ll go see what mom is doing."
After saying that, she wheeled herself to the kitchen.
Ariana Evans was in the kitchen organizing ingredients for the evening meal. Seeing her daughter come in, she smiled and chided, "The kitchen is so crowded; what are you doing rolling in here?"
As she spoke, she picked up a towel to wipe her hands and pushed Olivia Zane out of the kitchen.
The room at the far end of the first floor, originally used for storage, had been cleared out to serve as her temporary bedroom ever since Olivia Zane started using the wheelchair.
Ariana Evans pushed her daughter into the room, and Olivia Zane hurriedly spoke out.
"Mom, how much longer must I wait? I’m at my limit!"
Ariana Evans turned around and closed the door, her face no longer gentle and kind but replaced by shrewdness and calculation.
"What’s the rush? Now is not the best time."
"Mom..." Olivia Zane called out again, turning her wheelchair to grab her mother’s arm, deliberately lowering her voice, yet unable to hide the bitterness and agony within.
"Do you know? Every time Nathan goes to her room, I’m so jealous, I could kill her with a knife or poison her food so she would disappear from my sight forever..."
Olivia Zane’s expression turned from hateful to ferocious, her eyes spitting venomous flames.
Last night, her deliberate teasing yielded no response from Nathan Moore, which, to her, was undoubtedly an insult.
There was a time when Nathan Moore would have had lustful looks from just hugs and kisses with her. If it weren’t for that wretched Titus Zane satisfying him, how could he be indifferent towards her!
Therefore, she wished Titus Zane would disappear from her sight immediately, immediately!
"What nonsense are you talking!" Ariana Evans sternly scolded with a cold expression, "If something happens to her, what will you do!"
"Mom, but I can’t wait any longer." Olivia Zane looked distressed, watching the man she loved go to her sister to satisfy his needs—a cruel fact for anyone to bear.
"You have to wait whether you like it or not!" Ariana Evans sharply interrupted Olivia Zane’s complaints, "We’ve waited for more than twenty years, what’s another two or three more? Patience in little things protects our bigger plans. If it weren’t for your current condition, do you think she would obediently stay in the country?"
Her mother’s logic was clear to Olivia Zane, but still,
"Mom, I’m in pain..."
"Even if you’re in pain, you need to endure it. Compared to life, what does pain count for!"