Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

”Elmer, come here!” Zoe Ellsworth waved and called out.

Elmer ran over. ”Auntie, what is it?”

Zoe Ellsworth pointed to her stomach. ”When Auntie has her baby, if it’s a girl, can she be your girlfriend?”

Elmer Grant squirmed. ”I don’t want one.”

Zoe Ellsworth laughed out loud and teased him, ”You don’t want a girlfriend? Well then, how about this? If the baby is a boy, he can be your boyfriend instead...”

Elmer Grant’s little face turned bright red, and he turned and ran away.

Everyone immediately burst out laughing.

”When our second son was in preschool in Harrowin, he met a little girl named Melody White. We lost touch with her for a while, didn’t we? Just a few days ago, he even asked his daddy to look for her. It seems like we have a lead now,” Nora Ainsworth said.

Zoe Ellsworth smiled. ”They’re just little kids. They don’t understand anything. They just like playing with certain people. It’s all just messing around.”

Quentin Grant added, ”For other families, it might be just messing around. But our two little crown princes are more serious than you’d think. You can’t even dismiss what they say as childish prattle.”

”It seems they really take after their parents. Other kids who are almost three are still nursing, but your two are not only tall, they also know so much. I guess it’s true what they say: a dragon gives birth to a dragon, and a phoenix to a phoenix.” Zoe Ellsworth sighed theatrically. ”Sigh, it looks like my baby, boy or girl, won’t even have a chance...”

This drew a round of laughter from everyone.

Nora Ainsworth couldn’t help but smile. ”Holly Wood is also pregnant right now. Maybe their kids will hit it off.”

Zoe Ellsworth looked disdainful. ”Leon Lynch is fine, and Holly Wood is fine, but I really can’t say the same for his mother. I’d rather not get involved with the Lynch Family.”

Quentin Grant interjected, ”The kids’ futures are a long way off. Why are we talking about things more than ten years from now? We’re leaving for our honeymoon tomorrow. You two couples just wait for our return.”

”Have fun!” Ethan Ellsworth said with a smile, his eyes narrowing. ”When Young Master Grant gets back, you’d better bring us some good news.”

”What good news?”

Ethan Ellsworth nudged him. ”Stop playing dumb. You should bring back a daughter-in-law for our Zoe, of course.”

Zoe Ellsworth stood up and raised her glass. ”Nora, I hope you and Young Master Grant conceive a daughter during your honeymoon. That way, if I have a boy, he can marry your little girl.”

”What if Nora has another boy?” Herman Hawthorne asked.

”Then mine will be a girl, and she’ll marry into their family. I’m calling dibs.”

Herman Hawthorne asked again, ”But what if your baby is a girl, and theirs is a girl, too? Or if your baby is a boy, and Young Master Grant’s is another boy?”

The three children had only just gotten together again in the past few days, so they naturally had a lot to talk about. Dorothy Ellsworth, in particular, was still thinking about the little girl in the elevator at the hotel in Zelkova.

”Dylan, Mommy and Daddy said that wasn’t a little girl at all. I overheard them. Tell me, was it really a rag doll?”

Dylan Grant told her solemnly, ”That night, what we saw was just an illusion. It wasn’t a little girl at all. It was fake. Dorothy, do you know what a ghost is?”

Dorothy Ellsworth tilted her head. ”I know. A ghost is someone who died. Was that little girl a ghost?”

Elmer Grant said with certainty, ”Of course she was! Daddy said he saw a rag doll too, and Daddy would never lie.”

Dorothy Ellsworth sat on the swing chair, propping her chin in her hands and pouting. ”Oh... so ghosts really do exist in this world.”

After saying that, she turned to the two boys. ”Can I ask you guys a riddle?”

Elmer Grant grinned. ”Dorothy, you’re pretty brave, trying to show off in front of my big brother. Go on, we’re all ears.”

”What do you call a dog with no weenie?”

Elmer Grant blurted out, ”A no-bird dog!”

Dorothy Ellsworth shook her head. ”Wrong.”

”Hmm... a no-weenie dog,” Dylan Grant answered after a moment of thought.

Dorothy Ellsworth: ”Dummies! It’s a female dog!”

”...”

”...”