Chapter 12

Rose had been waiting for Alison downstairs of the office building. When she saw her coming out, she asked, "How did it go? Did the professor say how he would punish you?"
Alison carried a backpack on her shoulders and held onto the straps with both hands as she replied in a calm voice, "Why should I be punished? It was self-defense!"
Rose looked at her incredulously and said, "Nicola's leg is broken. Her father came over aggressively. How could things end like that?"
Alison smiled and said, "It's already been resolved."
Although Rose was skeptical, she breathed a sigh of relief and followed Alison out of the school gate while muttering, "It's all my fault. If I hadn't bothered Crush so much, we could have left earlier, and this wouldn't have happened."
Alison didn't care and said calmly, "Nicola came prepared. Maybe she was waiting for me there all along. Whether we left early or late doesn't matter!"
"She deserved to break her leg!" Rose exclaimed angrily before suddenly changing expression with shining eyes as she looked at Alison." Alison, have you ever practiced martial arts?"
As they strolled towards the school gate while chatting away happily, Rose tugged on Alison's arm to indicate that she should look ahead towards their left, "Quick! Look! It's Lily!"
When Alison turned around, she saw a Mercedes parked by the roadside. The driver got off his seat and protected the door for Lily. So many people stopped to watch. Ladies were envious, while men admired them. There were even some who shouted, calling Lily their goddess!
Rose sighed, "Why is Lily so lucky? She excels academically, is beautiful, and comes from a wealthy family. If I had any of those, I would kowtow to the heavens and thank them for their blessings!"
Alison looked away and smiled, "The last two are predetermined, but you can work hard on the first one."
"Forget it. With my IQ, even if I study hard, I still won't be able to catch up with her. But you could!" Rose turned to look at Alison." If you had a rich dad, you wouldn't have lost out to Lily in terms of being the school's belle. However, it's a pity that your family background is inferior to hers."
Alison nodded in agreement, "You can call me 'school belle' privately, though."
Rose laughed and pulled Alison across the street to buy ice cream." Stop dreaming! Today I'm treating you. Let me treat you as compensation!"
"Then I want two scoops!" Alison took advantage of this opportunity.
"Okay. You're pretty, so whatever you say goes!" Rose replied jokingly.
...
Lily returned home by car. Matthew came back early today. The three of them sat together for dinner.
Matthew sat in the head seat and said to Victoria, "Do give Alison a call when free. Ask her over for dinner this weekend."
Victoria raised her head and asked, "Is something going on?"
"Why can't we invite Alison for dinner for any reason?" Matthew frowned slightly." Besides, on your birthday, something happened. So we should all meet again so that misunderstandings disappear once we see each other face-to-face."
When he mentioned what happened that day, Victoria felt guilty. Finally, she muttered awkwardly, "Then why don't you make the phone call instead?"
Lily picked up some sea cucumber with chopsticks, gently smiling as she said, "Dad is right. There shouldn't be any grudges between family members. I'll personally bake a cake for my sister this weekend."
Victoria was filled with joy, "Lily is so sensible! Oh, by the way..." She put down her spoon and said hurriedly," Mr. Li called me this afternoon. He said there's an art exhibition at the museum in early June, and he wants you to prepare a traditional Chinese painting. Maybe it can be exhibited."
"Really?" Lily's eyes lit up." Then I'll start preparing right away."
"Mm." Victoria nodded with affection.
After dinner, Lily returned to her room to think about what theme she should use for the exhibition. Victoria knocked on her door and came in, holding a bowl of bird's nest soup with snow pear. She said gently, "You didn't eat much just now. So Lucy made some soup for you."
Lily took out her previous artwork and asked Victoria to help her reference it. After chatting for a while, Lily yawned and asked Victoria to take a look first while she went to take a shower. Victoria helped tidy up the desk and accidentally touched the mouse, causing the computer on the table to light up immediately. Victoria frowned when she saw it was a Columbia University forum with a main post title: Alison and Nicola fight over school hunk!
She browsed through it briefly about Alison fighting with another girl in school over a boy. There were various comments below the post. Victoria's face darkened as she read through them. Alison was her biological daughter, who had been switched at birth and only returned to their family at age 17. She wanted to make it up to Alison, but seeing how unambitious she was compared to Lily, who was intelligent and sensible, made her feel biased toward Lily. She couldn't help but be grateful that they never publicly revealed that Alison was from The Grey Family; otherwise, they couldn't afford such scandalous news!
Leaving Lily's room, Victoria remained unhappy until she returned home, where Matthew was about to dial his phone before being stopped by Victoria, who said, "Don't call Alison!"
Matthew looked puzzled. "What happened?"
"I don't want to see her!" replied Victoria angrily.
"What happened? We talked well during dinner," Matthew frowned, looking at her.
"Nothing much, I just don't want to see her!" said Victoria before taking pajamas from the closet and heading straight into the bathroom for a shower.
Matthew sighed heavily after throwing his phone on the table.
Sag Harbor
Alison returned from jogging and then sat on the couch after taking a shower while stroking Cooper's head with one hand while playing mobile games with another. As soon as she logged in, there was already an invitation from a friend. Alison was delighted to see that it was from Ares.
She first sent him a voice message, "Have you finished your homework?"
Ares replied, "Why don't you come over now and check?"
Without hesitation, Alison said: "Follow me, sister will help you level up!"
Ares rolled his eyes at her.
Alison wasn't good at playing games, but Ares loved finding her to play with him. Perhaps he also wanted to feel important by being better than someone else!
They played the game for an hour and a half until Alison realized it was almost ten o'clock and urged Ares to bed. Although Ares didn't reply, his character in the game went offline.
...
On Saturday, The Rosier family's driver picked her up again and took her to their villa. When she went upstairs, she didn't see Alexander around, so she wasn't sure if he had gone out or woken up. Emily wasn't there either; probably on another date again.
When she knocked on Ares' door and entered his room, he was still playing games. Then, after putting her bag down gently on the floor beside the sofa where he sat, he said softly: "Let's review what you have learned this week."
"Okay!" replied Ares as he sat there without moving even after five minutes passed... then ten minutes... fifteen minutes… Half an hour had passed before Alison noticed that Ares had never moved from his spot!