Chapter 272: Can’t Tell
Wendy’s first guess was that Todd was treating her to dinner. It was her birthday and Todd was a good friend, so that made sense.
However, she had only guessed half of it right.
A hotel staff led both of them into the hotel and out into the garden at the back of the building.
It was obvious that the garden had been specially decorated for tonight. Flowers were tied together to form a huge ’Happy Birthday’ in the middle and the sound of a violin concerto filled the air. It sounded both melodious and pleasing to the ears.
She smiled faintly and turned to look at Todd.
"You prepared all this?"
"I actually prepared an entire day’s worth of activities for you. That’s why I was at your place this morning. But then you said Michael was coming, so I decided to cancel these," he replied. "And after you fainted and ended up in a hospital, I thought we might not even get the chance to have this dinner. But thankfully, you didn’t need to be hospitalized."
"Thank you so much, Todd." Wendy was pleasantly surprised that someone in Rheinsville City would have planned something so elaborate for her birthday.
"I’m not the only one you need to thank," he said with a smile before pointing behind her.
She turned and saw a group of people walking towards her.
The one leading the group in front was Timothy.
He was holding a garland in his hand and raised it when he got near her, so she bent her head and let him put it around her neck.
Behind Timothy was her design team. She knew all of them and were very familiar with them after spending the past month with them.
"Happy birthday, Corrine," Timothy greeted her.
The design team greeted her in unison after Timothy.
She smiled and thanked all of them one by one.
"Happy birthday." Todd’s voice rang beside her ear.
She turned and saw that Todd was holding a box in his hand.
He opened the jewelry box and took out a bracelet. "I meant to design a necklace or a ring, but I didn’t want Mr. Lucas to get the wrong idea, so I eventually settled on a bracelet instead."
Since Todd had already put it this way, Wendy couldn’t use this reason to reject his present and she felt bad having to do so too.
After all, it wasn’t really that uncommon for friends to give each other something like bracelets. A necklace was fine too, but a ring was definitely out of the question.
She saw that Todd was waiting to put it on for her, so she smiled and held her wrist out.
"He spent a good two weeks designing this bracelet," Todd’s assistant chimed in from behind.
Wendy raised an eyebrow and asked, "You started thinking about my birthday so long ago?"
"Like I said, I’ve always been the one who celebrated your birthday," Todd said as he deliberately pretended to look really disappointed. "I guess you don’t remember the clothes and hair accessories I designed for you too."
"I...." She really couldn’t remember these things.
"I knew it." He looked at the bracelet and said, "Do you like it?"
"This is a bracelet designed by the famous designer, Todd Lewis! Of course, I like it!"
Wendy quickly nodded in response. "Thank you."
"If you say thank you one more time, I’ll get really annoyed." Todd let go of her wrist but continued to stare at it.
Wendy’s complexion was fair, and her fingers were slim and long.
He had designed this bracelet especially for her, so it looked really beautiful on her.
After he was done admiring it, he stretched his hand out and looked up at her.
"Birthday girl, this way please."
Wendy was truly pleasantly surprised by this birthday. She initially thought that she might have to spend it all alone. In the end, the entire HG design team threw her a real party instead. She ended up with a huge birthday bash.
Both Timothy and Todd couldn’t stop piling more food on her plate. It didn’t take long for the plate to be completely covered in food.
"You should eat more meat," said Todd in a concerned voice. "And there’s cake later, so you should eat more of that too. Your blood sugar level is low and the cake’s got plenty of sugar."
She was about to say something when her phone rang. It was a call from her own house in Lake City.
She immediately put her utensils down and said, "Sorry, I need to take this call."
Then she ran off to one side to take the call. The first voice she heard belonged to Jake, "Happy birthday, Mummy."
Leah yelled from the side, "Happy birthday, Mummy!"
"Thank you!" She was relieved to hear her children’s voices.
Even though Todd said earlier that they were fine, she was still worried since she hadn’t been able to contact them. Now, she could stop worrying.
"Mummy, we’re sorry we couldn’t celebrate your birthday with you today," said Jake in a guilty voice.
"It’s all right," Wendy replied. As long as her children were fine, nothing else mattered. "What happened today? Why couldn’t you guys make it in the end?"
"It’s Grandmother," said Jake. "Grandmother’s illness has worsened. We had already arrived at the airport when great-grandmother called and told Daddy to return to the house, so we went home again. It was very late at night for you when that happened, so Daddy told us not to call you since you were probably asleep."
"Winnie Quinn’s condition has worsened?" murmured Wendy to herself.
She knew that Winnie was already ill, but Michael had already gotten her a doctor.
So, how did it get worse?
The fact that they turned around after reaching the airport meant that Winnie’s condition must have become very serious.
"Is everything all right over there?" asked Wendy.
"It’s all right."
"No, it’s not..."
The former was said by Jake and the latter by Leah.
"So, is everything all right? Or not all right?"
Wendy knew the children well. Jake knew how to hide the truth about the seriousness of certain things from her just to keep her from worrying, while Leah usually just said what she saw, so her response was more likely to be closer to the truth.
Jake quickly cupped a hand over the phone and turned to whisper to Leah, "We agreed not to tell Mummy about what happened, remember?"
When Leah heard this, her eyes widened as she clamped a hand over her own mouth immediately and nodded.
Jake then continued speaking into the phone, "It’s not serious, Mummy, don’t worry. By the way, did Grandpa Timothy and Uncle Todd celebrate your birthday with you?"
"They did. In fact, I’m having dinner with them right now." Wendy knew that Jake was purposely trying to change the topic.
"Mummy, we’ll visit you another time, so take care of yourself over there," said Jake with concern in his voice.
"Sure. Be good and wait for me to come back, okay? I’ll be back soon."
She chatted with the two children for a while more. Leah was reluctant to hang up.
Jake told Leah that they were interrupting Wendy’s meal and finally convinced her to end the conversation. But after hanging up, Wendy began to worry again, and she couldn’t stop thinking about what might have happened.
