Baby, I Found for You an Awesome Daddy

After dinner, Shane received an urgent call and left in a hurry.

Sheryl’s eyebrows were knitted tightly together as she stared in the direction of Shane’s departure with reluctance.

A long while later, Sheryl was still unwilling to head home.

“Mommy, can I invite Mr. Handsome over more often to play?” Sheryl suggested cautiously but ceased to conceal the eagerness in her eyes.

Although Sheryl was barely four years old, she could tell that Charlotte had been keeping her guard up around Mr. Handsome. Still, that didn’t change the fact that she was extremely fond of him.

Seeing her daughter acting this way, Charlotte let out a soft sigh and surrendered. “Sure.”

“Yay! This is amazing!” Sheryl jumped for joy. “Mommy, I love you.”

A contented grin emerged on Charlotte’s face. “Mommy loves you too, honey.”

Later at night.

After coaxing Sheryl to sleep, Charlotte lay on the sofa and stared at the ceiling in a daze. The image of Shane’s face kept looping in her mind like a movie when a thought suddenly flashed through her head.

‘The only thing keeping him from scoring full marks is the fact that he’s Yuliana’s fiancé.’

“Charlotte Emerson, what are you thinking?” She gave herself a firm slap on the head to ward off the idea.

Still, she couldn’t help recalling the warm scene of Shane and Sheryl interacting at the dinner table. Sheryl’s smile, especially, looked like the exact replica of Shane’s.

Charlotte pursed her lips and pulled out her phone from under her back. She clicked open the messaging app and started composing a message for Anne.

‘Anne, are you there?’

Not too long later, Anne replied with a voice message. Her words were interspersed with subtle background chatter.

It sounded like she was out.

‘I’m here. Is everything alright, Lottie?’

Charlotte hesitated for a moment before replying, ‘I’ve given it some thought. About what you said the last time, I think there might be a teeny possibility.’

It took more than just hard work and luck for Sheryl to grow a liking toward someone, but it didn’t even take long for her to become so attached to Shane. No one would know for sure if Shane was the person from that night five years ago…

‘What did I say the last time?’ Anne’s reply was long overdue when it finally arrived.

Charlotte shook her head vigorously. This presumption of hers was perhaps more than just a little too daring. It was best for her to keep her imagination from running wild.

‘It’s nothing. I’m off to bed. I’ve got things to settle tomorrow.’Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

After hitting send, Charlotte tossed her phone aside.

She rubbed her temples and decided she had to keep her chin up to face tomorrow’s matters.

‘Shane’s issue can wait for another day,’ she mused. And just like that, she brushed it off.

Early the next morning, Charlotte headed straight to the office after dropping Sheryl off at her kindergarten. However, she had barely stepped past the main doors when gossip erupted behind her in hushed voices.

“Did she really sell our designs off to Emerson Corp?”

“What is there to doubt? It’s confirmed all over the internet already!”

“I still don’t quite believe it. I mean, she was promoted to a managerial position within days of her entry. Doesn’t this indicate that the higher-ups trust her an awful lot?”

“Oh, dear, how naïve must you be! I heard Emily say that after yesterday’s bidding, she even met up with someone from Emerson Corp. You know what they say, cats hide their claws.”

With that, the group let out a sigh in unison, which marked the end of the conversation.

Even after settling into her seat, the walls to her office didn’t keep the judgmental gossip out.

Her fingers tightened around the pen in her hand and her eyebrows furrowed increasingly tautly together.

It was as the saying goes, bad news travels fast. However, she had done sufficient mental preparation in anticipation of the company’s investigation.

Just as her mind wandered off contemplating about when the design plans could’ve been stolen, the phone on her desk rang and broke off her train of thought.

It was Anne.

The second she picked up the call, Anne’s voice cried from the other end of the line, “Lottie, are you okay?”

“What’s wrong?”

“There are pages after pages of online scandals claiming you sold the designs to Emerson Corp! What exactly is going on?”

Once Anne broke the news to her, Charlotte was floored. How did Anne find out about this?

Had she become the breakfast anecdote of River City citizens overnight?