Chapter 456 Demolition
Hannah showed Josephine around as soon as they entered the room in an effort to make her feel more at ease. At the same time, Jared drifted in and out of the rooms drunk on nostalgia.
“Take a good, long look, son,” sighed Hannah. The house is coming apart soon. I don’t know where we’ll go to once they evict us.”
“Aren’t they going to rehouse you, Mom?”
“Hah!” exclaimed Hannah scornfully. “They didn’t even subsidize our rent. Some of us have been living here for decades and they are only giving us about a hundred thousand per home. That’s what we’re worth to them. Though we should be grateful that other villages receive much less compared to us, it’s hard to feel too optimistic when our future is that uncertain. Besides, your father and I had just forked out so much for the renovation and it’s going to get torn down just like that!”
“Come to Horington with Dad,” Jared suggested. “The place in Dragon Bay is still vacant anyway. I haven’t had the time to drop by and sort things out over there.”
Hannah glared at her son. “Though Josephine’s family is rich enough to let you live in a huge house like that, you can’t be sitting on your hands all day, you hear me? You can’t be spending all of her money for the rest of your life. Be a man!”
“You are mistaken, Mrs. Chance. Actually-”
“I know what to do, Mom,” Jared cut across Josephine. “I’m working on it!”
“It’s sweet of her to not look down on us, you know.” Hannah gazed fondly at Josephine. “You must treat her well, son. If I hear that you do anything to hurt her, I will disown you.”
How rare it is to find a nice, polite girl from a rich family who does not mind our poverty!
Josephine smiled reassuringly. “Jared has been good to me, Mrs. Chance. I’ll twist his ear off if he hurts me!”
“Yes, yank it right off!” Hannah reciprocated the smile. “Inform me when you do. I’d like to get in on that.”
“I’m your son, Mom!” Jared protested despite being secretly delighted at how quickly the two most important women to him bonded. “Are you ganging up with Josephine on me?”
Josephine burst out laughing at Jared’s expression.
“Jared! Jared!” A young female voice suddenly came from outside the house.
Jared recognized his cousin’s voice at once and dashed out to meet her.
Ingrid was several years younger than him. From as early as she could remember, she had been inseparable from Jared, who had gotten into more fights than he could remember to protect her from her own mischief. Despite being cousins, they were closer than most siblings.
It’s been years. I wonder how my favorite cousin is doing?
A tall girl, five foot nine at the very least, greeted him when he arrived outside the room. Her ponytail bounced excitedly at his appearance, revealing two deep dimples on either side of her cheeks when she beamed.
“Ingrid?” Jared asked in disbelief.
Ingrid laughed. “Don’t you recognize me, Jared?”
“I don’t,” he murmured in a daze. “You were half this height when I last saw you. Look at you! You’re as tall as I am now!”
Jared walked around Ingrid and stood back to back with her to measure his height against hers.
It’s been around five years. She was only fourteen the last time I’d seen her. How quickly has she grown!
“You grew slowly, that’s all,” she teased in return. “Watch out, I’ll be even taller than you in another two years! By the way, I’d heard word that you were back. Is that your Mercedes parked out front?”
Jared smiled mysteriously. “It’s a friend’s!”
