Chapter 2

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps interrupted Cecil's stream of thought.

She looked up and immediately met Cleo’s eyes.

When he noticed Cecil sitting all by herself at the dining table, he darted a glance at the clock mounted on the wall.

It was almost eleven o'clock.

He frowned faintly before heading upstairs without saying a word.

He never bothered to greet her the entire time. It was as if they were strangers.

Cecil felt bitter about it and could not hold back from calling out after him.

“Uncle Cleo, dinner…”

Cleo kept walking up the stairs while remarking in a cold voice.

“I’ll have dinner with Amelia. How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t have to wait for me?”

Then, it was followed by the sound of the door closing with a thud.

Cecil felt something stir inside her. The edges of her eyes welled with tears.

Cleo would never have spoken to her in such a dismissive tone in the past.

He was sympathetic to the fact that she was afraid of being alone after losing her parents and would never let her eat by herself.

Even if he was busy with classes or with work later on, he made a point of rushing back home to dine with her.

Whenever he went overseas, he would return as soon as he could because he was worried about Cecil losing her appetite and getting sick while he was away.

It had been that way for a decade, and he had made no exceptions.

Then, everything changed after the first time Cecil confessed her feelings.

He started to keep his distance from her and frequently worked overtime or went on business trips to minimize the time he spent with her.

Furthermore, he stopped surprising her with gifts and even withheld his affection.

Ever since Amelia had shown up, there was an increasingly sharp look in his eyes when he looked at Cecil. It was as if he had turned into a stranger.

Cecil understood the reason. There was nothing she could do about it.

She grabbed her spoon and finished the food that had gone cold. It felt like chewing on candle wax.

There was a large variety of dishes, but they all tasted bitter to her.

After the meal, she packed up everything and went to knock gently on Cleo’s door.

Cleo opened the door with a sharp frown. His voice sounded disgruntled.

“Didn't I tell you to not bother me if there’s nothing important?”

Cecil pursed her lips and twisted her fingers into a knot.

“Uncle Cleo, I was thinking I’d like to change my room.”

A strange look flashed across Cleo’s eyes, but he did not seem to think much of it.

“Do whatever you want.”

With that, Cecil nodded and silently returned to her room.

She stared at the French window and all kinds of exquisite furniture in the room. Then, she regarded the dresser stuffed with her clothes, shoes, and bags.

It all filled her with a sense of loss.

The bedroom was the largest in the villa, with a lot of natural light.

It used to be Cleo’s bedroom.

When he first brought Cecil in, he was the one who made a point of yielding his bedroom to her.

She remembered the way he gently touched her head and told her that she was a little princess who deserved the best room in the house.

Now that Cecil was leaving, Amelia was going to move in soon.

She was only an adopted girl at best and a guest at worst.

What right did she have to take the master bedroom?

That was why she proposed the idea of ​​changing rooms. It was mainly to yield the space to Amelia and also to help with her packing up.

By the next afternoon, she had moved all her belongings into a smaller room at the end of the corridor.

The room used to be Cleo's study.

After cleaning the room, she gathered her documents and prepared to head out to sort out her visa.

When she passed the living room, she made a very faint nod in Cleo’s direction to acknowledge him.

She no longer greeted him with the same amount of warmth she used to.

Cleo was not used to how quiet she was.

When he observed the way she was slithering out of the house, he could not shake off the feeling that she had changed.

With a slight frown on his face, he called out to her before he thought better of it.

“Where are you going? It’s snowing too much out there. Need a ride?”

It was a long time since he offered to drive Cecil anywhere at all. She was a little too stunned to react.

“It’s going to be Christmas tomorrow. Aren’t you going on a date?”

She murmured in such a low voice that Cleo could barely hear her.

“What did you say?”

Cecil clenched her hands into a ball and dropped her eyes.

“I saw the news yesterday that mentioned something about you buying a diamond necklace that cost almost ten million dollars at the auction house. You’re going to give it to Amelia, aren’t you?”

Cleo was taken aback and blurted out sheepishly, “I was going to…”

Then, his voice was interrupted by the doorbell.

Shortly after that, Amelia showed up wearing a knitted mini-dress. Her long and curly hair was draped down to her waist, and her makeup made her look very delicate.

She immediately took Cleo by his arm when she walked in and spoke in a flirty voice.

“I’ve got a Christmas gift for you, Cleo. Do you want to guess what it is?”

It was just as Cecil had expected. She lowered her head and smiled bitterly.

Perhaps because she had made up her mind on leaving, it no longer hurt as much to know that they were going on a date.

She quietly withdrew to make room for them.

It helped that Cleo had dismissed their previous conversation as well.

Just as she was about to leave the house, he suddenly called out after her.

“Hold on, where were you going? I’ll drive you.”

Cecil was briefly taken aback by the gesture but still accepted it timidly.

“Thank you, Uncle Cleo.”

This time, she thanked him sincerely.

She was especially sincere in addressing him as her uncle.