Claire understood how Octavia felt, but she just couldn't bring herself to care. If anyone here was actually innocent, it was Claire. Honestly, Cindy not being good enough wasn't her fault. Just look at the genes. Claire's real parents, Agassi and Melissa, were both insanely smart. Meanwhile, Octavia was just..... average. And the guy she cheated with, Cindy's biological dad? Not impressive either. Honestly, Cindy never had a chance. No one could fix that kind of gap at the starting line.
Sure, Claire knew that environment mattered too, and for that, she was willing to repay the James family for everything they'd done raising her. But she wanted to do it on her own terms. Octavia trying to guilt-trip her into it? Absolutely not.
Realizing she couldn't get anything out of Claire, Octavia just gave up, which was fine by Claire because she didn't have the time or patience for drama. She was swamped. Even though high school finals were finally over, she was already living a straight-line routine-lab to home and back again, every single day.
When Barry heard Claire wanted to go on a trip with her classmates, he was super conflicted. He wanted to shut it down so she'd have more time for lab work, but Claire had made up her mind. He didn't have the right to stop her. All he could do was try to pack her days with as much work as possible and keep the experiments moving.
Plus, Claire had already promised Lawler she'd meet his father, and that meeting was scheduled. She was busier now than she'd been during her exams.
Jenny wasn't giving her any peace, either. After finishing the big SUNNY headquarters move, Jenny saw that Claire's college entrance exams were over and started bugging her every day to get serious about their business plans.
It was too much all at once. If Octavia could just behave and not start any more drama with Cindy, that'd be perfect. Honestly, if those two even thought about stirring things up, Claire was ready to spill all the James family's dirty laundry for everyone to see. If they were bold enough to do those things in the first place, then they couldn't be afraid of a little gossip, right?
Octavia definitely didn't want to
push her luck with Claire. She was terrified that if she ticked her off again, Claire would send those pictures of her and Wade to literally everyone in the company. Unless she had no other choice, Octavia had zero interest in getting a divorce anyway. That whole affair was just an impulse. Divorce wouldn't do her any good. Her son was about to get married, she wasn't young anymore, and honestly, who could she find that'd be better than Latham at her age?
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These days Octavia was walking on eggshells. She called Henrietta to confirm their
dinner plans and then ran off to the spa for some pretty desperate anti-aging
treatments.
Meanwhile, Mabel's family didn't stress about her love life at all.
Whether she got married or not was totally up to her. But she was an only child, and Henrietta really wanted a grandchild someday. Mabel herself?" Not exactly excited about marriage. As for the heir thing her parents mentioned, she wasn't actually against it, just... not interested right now.
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So when her mom invited her out for dinner, Mabel didn't think twice and just went along. She threw on something simple and casual, nothing fancy, which made Henrietta frown the second she saw her.
"Mabel, go put on something nice. We're eating at a fancy restaurant tonight. Why did you dress so plain?"
That set off alarm bells in Mabel's head. Usually, her mom never cared what she wore. "Wait... Mom, you're not setting me up on a blind date, are you?"
She'd been out of school for a while now, and her parents had never nagged her about marriage. Mabel herself wasn't worried either. This whole sudden matchmaking thing just didn't make any sense.
Henrietta saw
saw her daughter had
figured it out, so she didn't even bother to deny it. "It's just a look. Your dad and I aren't trying to rush
you. Abfirst, he wanted to find Some
upstanding young guy to join our family, but we haven't found the right fit Life's different now anyway. Plenty of young women are chasing careers, but they still manage to date. Unlike you, still acting like a
little kid."