Gina hadn't been around last night, so she was very surprised to hear Zoey's snark remark and called her out immediately.
"I thought we were past this. Don't you know better to be nice to your sister?"
"Honey, we don't want the girls running late to school. We still have to go to work too, okay?" Henry butted in before either of the girls could say anything.
As he spoke, he pulled out some money and handed it to both Zoey and Kate, leaving the girls astounded.
Though the amount was ridiculously small, it still surprised Zoey he was giving her pocket money at all.
Kate, on the other hand, thanked him profusely.
But inwardly, she was fuming.
Henry had carelessly pulled out cash and split it between them without even bothering to count it to see if it was equal. From where she stood, Zoey's looked thicker.
But even if it wasn't, since when did they start giving Zoey pocket money?
Gina was the only one genuinely surprised and beaming happily.
"Honey, you're going to spoil the girls. It's almost month-end before they get their monthly allowance. If you give them money now, you'll only be teaching them to splurge."
Henry embraced her back and simply smiled.
To be honest, he was in a cheerful mood.
Not only had Alden Leith visited his home yesterday and brought a gift for his daughter, but this morning, he also woke up to news that a million-dollar idea he pitched had been approved.
Surely, it must be because he couldn't wait to meet his daughter?
He looked Zoey over.
His wife was a beautiful woman, and Zoey had taken her features to a tee. If anything, she was even more stunning.
Had Alden, perhaps, seen Zoey walking home one of these days and decided to hasten the marriage?
As he asked himself these questions, Kate caught him looking at Zoey—his shimmering eyes not missing her attention.
That look… she'd only seen it a few times in her life.
He rarely showed it, but he was actually excited about something related to Zoey?
Could it be that he finally saw her as his daughter and was planning to toss her aside?
"Sister, Father is right. We should hurry to school now before we're late. Bye, Mother. Bye, Daddy." Swallowing the lump forming in her throat, she smiled forcefully and walked ahead of them.
Gina heartily bade her farewell while Henry barely looked in her direction.
Not that he ever said goodbye like Gina, but a nod her way or simply glancing at her with a small smile was his signature move at times like this.
However, he suddenly wasn't sparing her even a glance.
As they drove to school, Kate grew desperate.
Today, she didn't even pretend to be reading and simply stared out the window thoughtfully.
Indeed, it was no surprise she had fallen out of favor with Henry.
Every year around this time, she always returned with news of how she'd been chosen as the female lead for a drama at a festival held somewhere. But this year, that role went to Zoey.
He was definitely disappointed and planned to teach her a lesson about it.
With a performance like that from Zoey, she'd never get to play Brielle Sloane, but with an intelligent mind like hers, she'd show her parents that Zoey only had acting skills, nothing else.
While she bothered herself with all this, Zoey sat quietly beside her, gaming. After a while, a message briefly appeared at the top of her screen.
She ignored the message from Wealthy Mister and returned to the game.
Her game buddy of six years, SoaringEagle, was online and happened to be one of the random people to join her team.
Since it was just the two of them, they'd never been able to form a proper team and simply played with strangers unless on days when they created a team with others.
Unfortunately, they were both rarely online at the same time.
But today, she shockingly got paired with him by the system.
After the game, she swiped out to respond to Alden's message.
Alden, who was in a conference meeting, looked away from the speaker when Zoey's profile lit up with a bright green circle.
The small, hasty action of picking up his phone made the presenter and everyone else pause.
"Chairman, do you not like the idea? I already had it in mind to tweak, but it'd help a lot if you could point out exactly what you didn't like." The presenter said nervously.
This was the first time Alden had ever picked up his phone during a presentation. For someone who usually followed every meeting to the end, this only hinted at one thing: the idea was so boring he needed an escape.
Alden, however, didn't respond. He just stared at the one-word message Zoey had sent.
"No."
No? That was it?
He had waited ten hours for a response only to get a 'No'?
To make it worse, her profile turned dark as soon as she sent it, and his mood for the day just soured.
"I-I really will change everything about the project, sir. I-i will do that right now and submit to you before the end of the day!" The presenter panicked, seeing Alden's darkened face.
"Let's continue the meeting another day. I'm tired."
Saying that, Alden wheeled himself out of the room without another word.
Sebastian was waiting outside and promptly got to his feet when he saw him, but he didn't get the chance to ask why the meeting had ended so soon as Alden gave a stern order, "Reschedule the other missings I have today."
Unaware of what she had just done, Zoey returned to the game, chatting briefly with SoaringEagle as she walked to her classroom with a calculating Kate trailing behind her.
Meanwhile, in an empty classroom on the left wing of the school, Dylan Berschwith sat with both legs spread wide open, his device in his right hand.
SoaringEagle: So you're in town?
SmoothGlider: I should be here for about a year.
SoaringEagle: Let's meet!
SmoothGlider: Location and time?
Dylan quickly dropped the details.
After a while, SmoothGlider replied: I'll be there.
Beaming, he lowered his phone, finally settling his eyes on the fifteen boys kneeling in front of him.
"You can't even handle one girl. Give me one reason why you should remain in my gang."
The boys sucked in a deep breath, vigorously shaking their heads in disagreement.
"Boss Dylan, she wasn't ordinary. She did this stuff with cutlery that made it difficult to move."
"It was so scary, I felt like I was going to die."
"She's also a master at darts. When we ran, she accurately threw one at us and it…"
The last guy was saying when he suddenly shivered under Dylan's death glare.
After a while, he huffed.
"I've never heard of such a person. She must be an adult. How shameless could she be to pick on fifteen highschool boys?"
The boys glanced at each other quietly.
To be honest, they were ashamed.
The entire school had the video of them barking like dogs. They, the bullies, were now the bullied.
They were famous troublemakers, known in practically every school, and people knew exactly who their boss was.
So it was only normal that Dylan assumed the one who reduced them to such an embarrassing state was an adult.
Right then and there, they made a silent pact not to tell him that the person responsible for their wounds was a fellow student at their school.
Especially seeing how excited he was to finally meet his gaming partner of six years.