Chapter 26: Your New Neighbor
"Whoa!"
Eli let out as they walked through the doors of their new apartment.
He then turned towards Liam, who was behind them with a small smile on his face, "This is our new home?"
"Yup," Liam responded as he crouched down and placed a hand on the kid’s head, "you like it?"
"Yeah," Eli nodded as he looked around, "it’s big."
And the kid was right.
Compared to their previous apartment, this was heaven, especially given the view they were presented with the moment they stepped in.
At the far end of the apartment, where the living room was located, was a ceiling-to-floor reinforced glass window.
The glass displayed a view of the entire city below them.
Eli walked towards it and pressed his face against the window.
"We can see everything from here," he muttered, his breath fogging up the surface.
"Don’t press your face into the glass," Lea finally spoke up as she also walked towards it.
If it were before she got kidnapped, she might’ve questioned where her brother got the money for a place like this from.
But now, she knew a thing or two about his job, and although she didn’t like it in the least bit, it wasn’t as if she could stop him either way.
Lea placed a hand on the glass and looked towards the city, enjoying the view.
Liam looked at the two for a while before letting out a sigh and turning around. He was worried that his little sister might change due to what she had recently gone through.
Fortunately, she seemed mostly fine...at least that’s what Riley said, and Adrian trusted the detective’s judgment.
Liam continued inspecting the apartment with a small smile, aside from the other reason, which caused him to buy this particular apartment,
There was also the fact that this place was luxurious, almost as much as the one he owned back on Earth.
This was a testament to how rich Sable truly was since he saw the cost of this apartment as barely anything.
A few minutes later, he returned to the living room where his siblings were still quietly looking through the glass.
He joined them, and the three stood there for a while without saying anything,
That is, until Liam broke the silence, "Quite the view, isn’t it?"
"Hmm," the two nodded and went silent again.
After a while, Liam moved away from the glass and clapped both hands together, "Alright, it’s time to pick rooms."
Eli immediately turned towards him, the excitement evident in his eyes as he spoke, "I call dibs on the biggest one!"
"No, I get the biggest room," Lea said as she also turned around.
"Not if I reach it first," Liam chimed in and before the two could react, he immediately ran towards the direction of the rooms.
"No fair!" Eli said as he chased after his older brother, Lea being the last to move.
****
It took a couple of hours, and by the time the siblings were properly settled in, it was already nighttime.
"Are you sure you don’t need help, big brother?" Lea asked from the couch as she looked at him in the kitchen.
"Don’t worry, Eli and I will handle everything," Liam responded with a smile as he grabbed another onion from Eli and started chopping.
"Okay," Lea said, though she didn’t look entirely convinced as she watched her brother hand Eli another vegetable to wash.
The kid handled the task with the seriousness of someone handling something important.
Since the kitchen didn’t seem to be burning, and their big brother somehow knew what he was doing, she finally relaxed.
Lea put both her feet up on the couch and rested her chin on her knees as she watched the city lights outside the window.
She was momentarily lost in thought until she heard the doorbell.
"I’ll get it," she said, standing up and walking towards it.
She looked at the screen by the side of the door, and after confirming that whoever was standing outside didn’t seem like a threat, she opened the door.
"Hi," the woman greeted with a small smile on her face when the door opened, "you must be my new neighbors."
"Oh, hello," Lea replied with a smile of her own, "yes, we just moved in today."
She noticed that the woman seemed exhausted, but she still took the time to come greet her new neighbors.
Her apartment was probably the only other one on this floor, since each floor held only two apartments.
"I figured," the woman said with a nod before extending what she had in hand, "I didn’t know I’d be getting neighbors today, so I couldn’t prepare a proper gift."
She hadn’t prepared a gift at all, but the girl didn’t have to know that.
"You didn’t have to," Lea said as she accepted the rectangular box currently in a wrapper, "thank you for this."
"You’re welcome," the woman nodded, already getting confirmation that she did well.
She was about to return to her apartment without proper introductions, but just before she could take a step, her stomach let out.
Rumble~
Ah, that’s right, the cake currently in the kid’s hand was supposed to be her dinner, but thanks to her cursed agent, she was forced to hand it over as a welcoming gift to her new neighbors.
"Um," Lea spoke up again, "if you don’t mind, you can join us for dinner."
"Really?" The woman let out a bit too fast before clearing her throat in embarrassment.
[Control yourself, you’re going to make them think you’re weird.]
"Yeah," Lea said, almost as if she didn’t notice the woman’s eagerness, "though, I can’t promise it’ll be good."
After all, Liam was the one doing the cooking and the last time he did so, they suffered from food poisoning.
"Thank you for the invitation, umm," the woman finally remembered, "I’m not sure what to call you yet."
"Lea," the girl responded.
Before the woman could say anything else, a voice came from within the apartment, one that the woman found familiar.
"Who is it?" Liam asked since Lea seemed to have been at the door for a while.
"Our neighbor," Lea answered from the door before turning towards the woman, "please come in."
The woman nodded, and the two walked into the apartment, only to have her stop in her tracks as she saw Liam standing in the kitchen,
"You?" She was quite surprised to see him here.
"Oh, it’s you," Liam feigned surprise, "Olivia."
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