۞ VII ۞

I CLOSED MY EYES, TRYING TO CONTROL MY TEMPER. "DON'T YOU DARE to try to gaslight me, Katherine. I favor you over the others, but there's a limit to everything, got it? So, if that's all, I would appreciate if you could leave me alone so I can finish my work here and go take a bath and sleep a bit."

She clenched her jaw, "You really are infuriating and stubborn, Elizabeth-Freya, you know that?" She growled. "The guests of the company will arrive tomorrow, so, behave."

"I'll take your insults as compliments, Kate. And I'll behave as much as I want. This CEO orders you all around, not me. So, don't try to control me, or that won't end well. You know it," I warned her calmly, then put my plate and glass together and handed it to her. "Thank you, for the breakfast. I appreciate it a lot. Now, please, go. Otherwise, you will make me lose my temper and I'll say things you won't appreciate hearing."

Annoyed, she turned around and left. She's very audacious, I'll give her that.

Let's finish this.

𖣔 𖣔 𖣔

In the next day I woke up at 7 am, got up, took a bath and change clothes, and left in my Harley before talking to anyone. In my air pods played Karma by Christian French, and I arrived at the mall as quicker as I could, since it was quite distant from the villa. I bought an iced tea on Starbucks with a brownie, and followed to the baby clothes shop.

I bought three baby girl dresses, four pajamas, some cute socks, and some shorts with shirts for newborns, all in pastel colors. Then I bought a big caramel teddy bear. After buying all of that and packing it, I bought some equipment to make a special toy for the kid, that will emit soft songs and rain sounds, that will help the baby sleep.

It was kind of hard to bring it all back, but I managed. Thankfully my Harley in huge, so it wasn't as hard as it looks.

When I arrived, there were some fancy huge black cars on the parking lot, so I decided it wasn't a good time and then I went to the lake house. Flower and Chase were eating some cake when I entered the house. And they gasped when they saw all I had with me.

"What's this?" Chase exclaimed and helped me out.

"Didn't you already bought the kids presents?"

"Yes. But this is for my niece that hasn't been born yet. I went out and bought some small things for the baby," I said while putting the big teddy bear on the couch.

They shared a look and turned to me. "Small?"

I rolled my eyes, "You got the meaning, don't be an ass. Now, go back to feeding each other's cake. Pretend I'm not here and use all this time for yourselves, that's why I brought you here," I winked. "The room you are in is sound-proof. All the rooms here are, actually. So, use it as much as you want."

Seeing them blushing gives me joy, "Have you eaten?"

I nodded to her. "I ate on the mall." Then I threw my Harley's keys in the coffee table. "Riding in the morning was good, I needed some air. Yesterday was exhausting having to breath the same air as them."

"What are you gonna do today?" Chase asked.

"Before working later?" A nod. "I'll make a toy for my new niece, then I'll read a book, eat a bit, work, and later tonight I'll go ice-skating. That's why I asked to stay in the lake house in the middle of winter. I always came ice-skating here at this time of the year, while I lived here. It's one of the few things I miss."

"If you need us," they said together.

I stopped them, "I know. But don't worry, I won't need to carry anything heavy anymore. You helped me a lot yesterday. The power generators don't need to be replaced, I'll just take my time fixing them. Just use your time as much as you want for each other. You just got engaged, you have to spend the holidays together, so just… live your love." Said that, I went up the stairs to where the master suite was, changed to more comfortable clothes and headed to the lake's house garage to work to Dean's little girl's toy.

Of course, I took the portable Dove with me, since I haven't installed her in the lake house yet. But before I could began working on it, I heard a knock on the door I had just locked it and sighed. "Who is it?"

"It's me," dad's voice echoed.

Getting up, I unlocked it, "Aren't you busy?"

A nod. "Well, yes. The guests arrived a while ago. So, I wanted to get that whiskey you talked about and ask if you want to come in to meet them now."

I made a disgusted face, "Not really. Let us meet when it's unavoidable. Now, I have some personal things I'm working on, dad." Sigh, "But wait here, I'll get the whiskey." Running, I went to my room and got it on my bag, then I came down again.

No. It's not the same I got for the CEO, but it's my dad's favorite. But since it's too strong, mom doesn't like when he drinks it, because she doesn't enjoy the taste. He does. So, I bought it to him when I saw it on the mall some weeks ago.

"Here," I handed it to him.

He smiled wide, "Oh, I love it."

"That's why I got it."

Then his gaze when to the things I bought to build the toy. "What are you inventing now, daughter? Looks interesting." He doesn't meant that. He never does.

"A musical toy for Dean's new baby."

By how he raised his eyebrows, he seemed quite skeptical. "A musical toy? What for?"

"It'll help the baby sleep."

"Wow, he'll be overjoyed. And the others are going to be envious because you didn't make that for them. But I get it. He's your favorite. He's mine too," he winked. As if I didn't know. "Little Cindy will love it."

"Cindy?"

"Short of Cinderella!" He seemed happy.

While to me it's quite the cringe name. "Oh. Cute. Cindy sounds adorable. I'll try to personalize it then. It'll make it more special. Now, please, dad. Go back to your guests. I need to focus."

He seemed a little off, "Oh, sorry. I'll go now." Thankfully, he left and closed the door for me.

Sighing in relief, I turned to Dove, "Dove, play Set Fire to the Rain by Adele in replay, please." She followed my orders and the song began to play, and instantly I felt relaxed. "I really can't live without music." Especially this one, since it's one of my all time favorites, and I can listen to it non-stop.