Edward remained calm and found it unrealistic. His sister had always opposed having a third child, especially at her age. "Mom, don't make conclusions yet. Let's have Rose ask her first. Maybe there's a misunderstanding."
Rose nodded, fully agreeing with her husband's words. She recalled that Sherri strongly opposed having a third child and planned to enjoy her happy life with Hackett without taking care of the kids. So, Sherri wouldn't easily consider pregnancy at this age. Then, Rose spoke up, "Let me call Sherri and ask."
"Sure, put it on speaker, I want to hear what tricks this girl is up to again," said Juana.
Seeing that the four children had almost finished eating, Edward urged them to go upstairs. He was mainly concerned that Sherri might talk nonsense. "You guys. Go upstairs and do your homework. I'll check all of them later. And you, you don't need to be here. Go upstairs to help your brothers with their homework. If you make a mistake in tutoring, copy it 20 times." This statement completely eliminated Harper's thoughts of playing games, complaining in his mind, 'Is there no justice? Can't I just return the knowledge to the teacher when I graduate?'
"Upstairs," Edward urged again when he saw Harper still standing in place.
Harper's curiosity for gossip was extinguished by his father, Reluctantly, he led his three younger brothers upstairs to do their homework. As they reached the staircase, he leaned over the railing toward the dining room, though he couldn't see anything. With ears perked up, he was ready to eavesdrop and even gestured to his younger brothers to keep quiet. However, Edward seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, saying, "You guys have one minute." Caught in the act, Harper reluctantly climbed the stairs again. He accepted his fate and closed the door with a loud bang as if telling his father, "I have entered the room. Are you satisfied now?"
After hearing the door close, Rose picked up the phone to call Sherri. The phone rang for quite a while before Sherri answered. "Sherri, what are you doing?"
Sherri had just finished the dinner that Hackett had served her. She was lying in bed and had no idea that Rose was calling her with the speaker on in the dining room at home. She responded with a touch of complaint, "I almost died these past few days. Rose. If tomorrow isn't the weekend, I would've had to take a leave again."
"You're pregnant, so you're taking a leave?" Sherri had taken two consecutive days off, and since Natalie mentioned Sherri feeling tired and staying up late at night, Rose assumed it was due to binge-watching dramas.
Rose's voice was not loud, very light, and Sherri didn't hear it clearly. Now Sherri was confused, wondering, 'Who took two days off and got pregnant again? Was there another newborn in someone's family again?' So, she questioned, "What's going on? Who's pregnant? Are you pregnant?"
Rose raised her eyes and glanced at the other three people. Edward immediately knew it wasn't about pregnancy. He tried to signal Rose to turn off the speakerphone, but Juana insisted on keeping it on, wanting to know why her daughter took leave to sleep and eat so much.
With a phone in one hand, Rose leaned closer to the phone and replied, "I said it's you who's pregnant, not me." She muttered in her mind, 'I already have four children. Why would I be pregnant now? If I have one more kid, Edward could be tired to death, and me being a widow then. Besides, I'm going to have four daughters-in-law, which is great. Mine are all boys, and none of them will be married off.'
Sherri was speechless. "Why am I the only one that does not know I'm pregnant, and you all know about it? Is the baby in my belly right now? Why do I feel like it's only a rumor?"
After listening, Rose was surprised. "You're not pregnant? Didn't Joy say you're pregnant?"
"Who? Joy?" Sherri was confused.
Rose was speechless, realizing everything was truly a rumor. "Hey, if you're not pregnant, why have you been taking leave and eating so much?"
"Damn it. Blame it on Hackett. After I confessed to him that night, he clung to me intimately all night, and he was all over me, and I was fucking..." Listening to Sherri's complaint, Rose hurriedly pressed the microphone button and turned off the speaker. The last two sentences were not clear to everyone, but they could roughly guess.
Everyone felt a bit awkward. Juana, accustomed to such situations, couldn't be bothered to say much. She just casually remarked, "Always fooling around, causing unnecessary trouble all the time." With that, Richard and Juana left. Finally, there were only Rose and Edward at the dining table. Rose continued to listen, and Sherri rambled on inside the phone. Thirty minutes later, Rose finally hung up the phone. In the end, it was not Rose who hung up; it was Edward who took the phone from Rose's hand and turned it off directly. He was now glad that the four children had gone upstairs early.
The next day, Jasper parked his sports car in front of the Blackwell family's villa early in the morning. After turning off the engine, he got out of the car and then took many gift boxes from the trunk to ring the doorbell. The door quickly opened, and the maid greeted, "Mr. Jasper."
Jasper nodded politely and then he greeted the family by first shouting towards Joy who had been watching TV early in the morning, "Mrs. Joy, Mr. Nathan, Mr. Hackett."
Hackett raised his posture when he saw Jasper. He responded indifferently, "Hmm, Ruby is still upstairs."
"Okay, I'll wait," Jasper said as he put the things in his hands on the table. Joy spoke up instantly when she saw the gift boxes, "Why did you bring gifts when you came to pick up Ruby? Don't bring them from then on. Just treat this place as your own home."
Jasper replied, "Okay, I know."
"You're getting more attractive. Ruby has a good eye." Joy liked Jasper pretty much, and she found him pleasing to the eye. She pondered, 'No wonder Sherri always mentioned him, indeed likable. But with such looks, it's indeed a cause for concern. No wonder Sherri is worried.'
Nathan, seeing his wife acting like an infatuated woman, said to her, "Go and see if Ruby is coming down. Tell her that Jasper is downstairs."
"Alright, I'll go take a look." Joy happily ran upstairs.
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