11 Dinner Together
Mandy turned to see her father walking into the room and was overjoyed.
'Let's see how long this bitch can remain arrogant! I'll make dad take revenge for making me fall down just now.'
She completely forgot that she was the one who had rushed to push Lina away from the Head's position and had slipped while running in her high heels.
She turned to give Lina a triumphant, gloating smirk then limped towards Patrick.
Lina saw her smirk and just raised her eyebrows waiting to see Uncle Pat's next move.
Mandy held onto Patrick's hand and looked at him with a pouty face.
"Daddy!" She said with puppy dog eyes.
Sure that looked cute to others, but all Patrick could feel was an icky and cringey feeling.
Slowly pulling out his arm from her grip, he distanced himself. Then turned to look at Butler Ping and he repeated himself.
"What's going on here?" He was angry at how careless they were just now.
The moment he walked in, he heard that woman yelling at his kiddo. He rushed in thinking that she would get hurt in their argument.
'Big brother and that mad woman Diane will kill me if Lina gets hurt on the very first day she comes home.' Thought Patrick and looked at Lina from top to bottom, checking if she was injured in any way.
Mandy, who heard the anger in Patrick's voice, thought that he was angry at Lina for being disrespectful by sitting in his seat.
She decided to fan the flames and send this woman packing.
"Daddy! This woman tried to sit in your seat and when I tried to stop her, she pushed me down. Look at how my face is swollen now!" She then pointed at her nose, which was all red and swollen.
"You are already 25 years old. Learn to talk properly!" Was all that Patrick could say after listening to her whine.
"Patrick, go upstairs and wash up. The food's getting cold and I'm very hungry." Said Lina with a mischievous smile on her face.
Patrick was confused when he heard Lina calling him by name, but when he looked at her smile he understood that she was trying to piss them off.
'Lina wants to play, how can I spoil her fun? I'll just play along with what she does.'
"Just a minute!" He flashed his charming smile and obediently ran up the stairs.
Looking at Patrick run up the stairs in a hurry, Lucille and Mandy's faces were complicated.
'That was the smile I fell for!' fangirled Lucille for a split second then looked down to hide her expression.
'Why would daddy ignore what I said and obediently follow what this woman said? He even scolded me for not acting my age just now!' Mandy was once again dissatisfied with her father's behaviour.
Her hatred for him grew a little bit more and she projected that hatred onto Lina, who had walked back to the hall to wait for Patrick.
Gnashing her teeth she also walked in and sat opposite Lina.
"You won't have any teeth left if you continue doing that." Advised Lina but all she got back was a nasty look from Mandy.
"Why did you come back here? I thought you wanted to start eating because you were hungry. Are you scared now that daddy is here? Haa! Wait till he comes back and deals with you!"
Mandy was sure that Patrick was being nice to her because she had a nice face and that she was young.
She terribly misunderstood their relationship, but that wasn't entirely her fault as Lina had misled her to believe that.
After exactly five minutes, Patrick, neatly dressed in sweatpants walked down the stairs. Without the glasses, you wouldn't think that he was 47 years old.
Lucille, once again had googly eyes while looking at him.
Both the young girls, one 22 and the other 25 looked at each other and had awkward smiles on their faces when they saw the old lady behaving this way.
Walking down the stairs, Patrick had goosebumps on his arms, feeling the eyes on him. Then calming himself down, he walked to the couch.
"Let's eat" He said to no one in particular then walked to the dining table.
Pulling the chair for the Head's position, he smiled at the women walking in slowly.
"Come sit!" Said Patrick with a gentle smile.
The mother-daughter pair were surprised at his gentleness. Then Mandy nudged her mother to quickly sit down.
'Maybe he heard what happened before he came and he wants to show this bitch that only mother can sit on this seat.' Mandy decided.
Lucille was shocked at first, then thought that he must be in a good mood today to offer his seat to her.
As she was about to take a step forward, she felt someone overtake her.
She watched as Lina sat at the Head's position and Patrick even put a napkin on her lap just like how a butler would.
He then sat at the next seat to her right and started serving Lina.
He neither waited nor cared if the two extras in the room sat down or not.
When Mandy saw what had just happened, she was about to yell at her father for disrespecting her mother in front of his mistress.
Luckily, Lucille stopped her by holding her hand very tightly.
After sitting at the other two seats where the cutlery was placed, Mandy looked at Lina being served by her father, in indignation.
The place where they sat was a couple of seats away from the uncle-niece pair, who were in their own world eating in silence thanks to Mrs. Ping's watchful eyes.
Not being able to cope with her dissatisfaction with the situation. Mandy stopped eating and faced the two.
"Daddy, who is she? And with what right did you let her sit in your seat? How can you let your mistress live in the same house as us? And this bitch does not even show a little respect to me or my mother!...." She went on and on about how she felt.
'Mistress? What did she just call my kiddo?' Patrick's eyes darkened.
His niece being called a bitch broke the last string of his patience and he glared at Mandy, who immediately shut her mouth.
'Uh oh! Bad move, little fly. Did mommy fly not teach you any of her white lotus moves before she brought you here?' Lina, who was silently watching her uncle's face, knew that he was angry now.
"What did you just call her?" Patrick spoke through gritted teeth.
Mandy who had seen this side of her father for the very first time was scared.
'He usually ignores whatever I say, even if I yell at the maids here, he never cared. But today, he spoke to me in such a tone because of this bitch?'
"I called her a bitch! What else do you call such a woman?" Not aware of the surrounding temperature dropping, she continued.
"Why do you care so much about her? Is she more important than me?" She yelled.
"Yes" was all Patrick said.
"What did you just say?", This time it was Lucille who looked at him incredulously.
"She's more important than your daughter?" She repeated when she saw that Patrick was silent. She thought that he felt guilty for saying that just now.
"Yes. She is more important than anyone else in this room." He looked calm while answering them.
"You wanted to know what right she had to sit in the Head's position, right? I'll tell you that right now." Pumped up, Patrick raised his voice at them.
"The position that my father sat in, the position that he gave Lina the right to sit in, who do you think you are to question him?"
Lina saw their faces change with the new information provided by Patrick.
'Good job , uncle. They are stunned by this news.' Lina wished she had some popcorn to munch on.
"What right does she have to order the servants here?" He continued with a mocking smile.
"With the right that she is 'THE HEIRESS' of the Yang Group, the owner of this manor, my niece, Lina Yang!"
He looked at Mandy and emphasized, when he said 'heiress' and saw her face twist with anger.
'Well, technically me and Simon own half the place but they don't need to know that.' Patrick made up a tiny lie.
"So tell me, if she doesn't have the right to do that. Do you have it?" Looking at their stunned faces, he turned and winked at Lina.
'Bravo!' Lina gave a thumbs up to her uncle's performance in her mind.
'Wow, this is just like the daughter despairing that her father loves someone else more than her arc in the novel I read before!'
She then diverted her attention to the two statues in front of them.
"Lina Yang?"
"Heiress?"
Lucille and Mandy muttered respectively.
