Roxanne and the kids had just entered the mansion when she saw Jack sitting in the living room. “Ah, you’re all home!” Jack greeted them with a smile.
“Mr. Damaris came over this afternoon. I had him wait in the living room since he’s a friend of yours, Ms. Jarvis,” Lysa said as she came out of the kitchen.
Roxanne nodded in response and motioned for Archie and Benny to go and wash their hands. However, they refused to budge and stood there staring at Jack.
We were just talking about Mr. Damaris today! Who would’ve thought we’d bump into him so soon?
Benny’s eyes were filled with resentment as he glared at Jack. Naturally, Jack was well aware of Benny’s hostility, but he pretended to not notice it.
“What brings you here today, Mr. Damaris?” Roxanne asked in confusion. Jack lifted his chin slightly and gestured at her to look at the single-seater couch on the right.
Roxanne saw a medium-sized basket on the couch, but she couldn’t make out what was inside. “What is this?” she asked with a frown.
Jack arched an eyebrow as he replied, “I told you about this before, didn’t I? Our family would grant you access to our ancient medicine books if you become our business partner. My grandfather had me bring these over. Said they might be of help to you, Dr. Jarvis.”
Roxanne’s eyes lit up when she heard that those were the Damaris family’s ancient medicine books. She quickly walked up to the couch and opened the basket.
Sure enough, it was filled with all the ancient medicine books that she had wanted really badly before. “Thank you very much, Mr. Damaris! These are just what I needed!” Roxanne said in a cheerful tone.
Jack flashed her a faint smile in response. “It’s my grandfather you should be thanking. Of course, you can thank me tomorrow if you’d like.”
Noticing the confused look on Roxanne’s face, he continued, “Your research institute is running out of medicinal herbs, right? I just purchased a new batch. They should be arriving tomorrow.”
The smile on Roxanne’s face faded slightly when she heard that. “You’re being far too kind, Mr. Damaris. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you.”
Jack was about to say something when Benny called out to Roxanne from the bathroom, “Mommy! We’ve run out of soap!”
Archie and Benny had been listening in on the conversation from outside the bathroom. Roxanne was still upset about Essie on the way home, but she suddenly sounded all happy after seeing Jack.
Given how quickly her mood had changed because of Jack, it was only natural that Archie and Benny would get the wrong idea.
Benny got so upset that he had to interrupt their conversation. Of course, Roxanne didn’t give it much thought at the time. She flashed Jack a polite smile and excused herself to fetch the kids a bar of soap. Upon entering the bathroom, however, she saw a brand new bar of soap on the sink.
Roxanne froze and stared at her two sons in confusion. Benny reached out and tugged at the hem of Roxanne’s shirt, silently telling his mother that
he wanted her to stop talking to Jack. Roxanne was overjoyed to receive the books and the herbs, so she got carried away talking to Jack.
It wasn’t until she saw Benny’s actions that she recalled how much they disliked Jack.
“Mr. Damaris is only here to give me something. He’ll be leaving very soon. I can’t kick him out now because that would be rude,” she said with an awkward look on her face.
Benny tugged even harder on her shirt and shook his head profusely. “No!”
Roxanne didn’t have time to comfort him any further, so she just gave him a pat on the head and said, “Mr. Damaris is still waiting for me outside, so I need to get back to him now. Behave yourselves, okay?”
She then stepped out of the bathroom and made her way back to the living room.
