Since Claire was back, she planned to visit Mary first.
Once she headed to the countryside for the holidays, she wouldn't have time to make multiple trips back and forth.
After all, driving from Apex to The James Village took a solid three or four hours.
"She's in the city."
Shirley knew this because Patti had called Pandora to invite her over for the holidays.
They usually spent the holidays at Latham's house, but now it was their turn to host.
Her mom knew that Pandora had practically come out of retirement to handle the fallout from Lance's accident.
But she was getting older, and the whole family was terrified something might happen to her.
Having her spend the holidays at their place would be much less stressful than leaving her to deal with Latham and Lance on her own.
"Is she living with Latham and the others?"
Claire frowned instinctively.
If that was the case, she had absolutely no desire to go visit.
She'd rather just book a weekend getaway and take the old woman on a road trip.
But that would have to wait until after the holidays; her schedule was completely packed until then.
"I don't think so," Shirley replied.
"She's staying over near the medical university."
"She's guest lecturing two classes a week over there right now."
"She hasn't been going to the hospital anymore."
Claire suddenly remembered that since Pandora held an honorary position at the university, they had provided her with a faculty apartment.
She had never been the type to inconvenience others, and she despised people inconveniencing her even more.
Not living with her eldest son and grandson was her way of keeping out of sight and out of mind.
She hadn't raised her son right, and he had done despicable things. This was his karma.
Pandora carried her own regrets.
She probably felt that Latham was her own personal karma, too.
"Let's go see her tomorrow, then."
"We can casually ask her where she wants to spend the holidays."
Claire suggested.
Shirley had no objections to the plan.
She dropped Claire off at her apartment, which was located in Silverpeak.
Claire planned to sleep the entire afternoon and catch up with her friends that evening.
"Has anyone cleaned your place? Do you need to hire a maid first?"
Shirley wasn't exactly detail-oriented, so she hadn't thought of it until now.
"No need. Edison already hired someone to take care of it."
bet
Once Edison found out Claire was going on break, he had asked for her arrival time and arranged for
housekeeper to prep the apartment.
He always handled every detail flawlessly, leaving Claire with absolutely nothing to worry about.
"Alright then. I was about to make the boss here clean it for you."
"He's sixteen or seventeen now. It's high time he learned how to do some chores."
"Otherwise, how is he supposed to impress his future mother-in-law?"
Shirley had found the perfect excuse to torture her brother.
Claire couldn't help but look at her. "Brilliant idea!"
She just wondered what Dexter thought about it.
The brother in the backseat?
He desperately wanted to tuck and roll out of the moving car, or maybe just call the cops.
His sister was absolutely ruthless!
Ever since she had stopped treating Claire like an enemy, her brain had seemingly leveled up.
Dexter was starting to find life at home utterly unbearable.
"We'll draft him next time we get the
chance, Claire added, noticing Dexter's completely completely speechless
FindNovel.net
The two girls found teasing him highly entertaining.
When they arrived at the apartment, Claire didn't make Dexter haul all the luggage upstairs She just had om loadut into the trunk of her own car parked in the garage.
Dexter obeyed without question.
What else could he do when he was at the absolute bottom of the food chain?
After the bags were sorted, he and his sister headed home, and Claire went straight to bed.
She slept soundly until four in the afternoon.
She woke up because her stomach was rumbling.
There was absolutely no food in the house.
They were hitting a buffet for dinner anyway.
Claire, Shirley, Sophia, and Gwen had already made the plans.
Oh, wait. Now they had to add Dexter to the reservation.
Well, he had done a lot of heavy lifting today, after all.