To Be Yours Again

Chapter 4: The favorite daughter-in-law

As soon as Joseph left the hallway, Isabella's smile on her face turned to a grimace. She looked at Rose coldly and turned up her nose like she smelled something foul.

If she remembered correctly, it seemed that this woman and a little boy were in the little restaurant which Joseph decided to have the meeting in that day.

Her intuition as a woman told her that there must be some connection between this woman and Joseph. Not to mention, how he went close to whisper in her ear!

Isabella evoked her red lips and opened her mouth and said in a voice that only Rose would hear. "I don't care what you had to do with Joseph before, but now he is mine! You will do things by his side in the future, and keep your hands and legs to yourself and away from him!"

Rose thought, ‘I can't think that this beautiful woman who is rumored to be among the first hundred most beautiful women alive is jealous, of me.’

It just didn’t make sense.

"How come you are sounding worried, I cannot dare to steal a man from Miss Isabella."

Rose takes two steps back and smiled, trying to present a non-threatening image to the lady in front of her. "The thought itself is laughable."

Isabella ego rose and she snorted, her disdainful eyes assessing Rose once more before she turned her face away, determining that the secretary was indeed right. She was no competition to her.

"Isabella." Joseph's cool voice floated from his office.

Isabella's slightly stretched lips tightened for a second then she gave Rose a sharp stare before she changed her face into a beautiful afloat expression and moved up to Joseph's office with a beautiful smile.

Isabella took his hand when she entered his office. "Joseph, did Rose really study medicine before? What if she doesn't adapt to this job?"

"Dismissal." A simple word that spoke with certainty what he would do.

His voice floated over to where Rose stood by the elevator. She took a deep breath and forced herself to laugh. "Well, I also think, after all, M&R will not allow useless people to be in its employ if it is going bankrupt."

Isabella smiled and gloated. "You don't want to invest in beautiful women!"

Joseph took her slender waist and smiled at her. "Can they be as beautiful as you? Hmm?"

Rose looked at the back of their departure and said to herself. “I hate this! If I had known that Joseph was the external CEO employed by M&R, I would never have promised my boss that I will take over this role.”

The secretary tentatively shouted, "Rose?"

Rose pulled back her attention to the present and nodded to the secretary. "Pardon me for that, let's go to the office."

Michelle's office is a little farther away from the CEO's office because she has to take care of the various things. She had someone tidy up the office next to the CEO's office and led Rose into that one instead of hers.

Facilities are readily available, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and excellent lighting.

That is, the left-hand side and the president's office are glass-to-glass, and the people and things inside were only covered by a shutter, and the shutter can only be opened or pulled down from the president's office, which makes Rose very embarrassed. Joseph could decide who gets to see into her office or not.

If the shutter was opened, she won’t have no privacy?

Michelle brought in a box of documents marked as confidential and gave Rose a look. "Rose, this is the information of M&R for the past one year. You can have a look inside. In addition, this is Joseph's travel itinerary in the next week."

After Michelle left, Rose flipped through the itinerary.

After touching the words' Isabella, cocktail party, dinner', her eyes moved down from the travel itinerary, rubbed her temples as a headache formed, and her heart was somewhat sour, she was not expecting to be around Joseph and his mistress 24/7.

In the past seven years, has Isabella become his regular female companion?

I don’t care, you are here tonight.

I can be your hero, baby.

I can kiss away those pain.

The mobile phone on the desktop abruptly rang with the tone being Enrique Iglasis song, hero, it was her ringtone but she was startled. When she saw that it was a familiar number, her eyes filled with tears.

When she went abroad, Rose kept the number line and charged it for several years at a time so it would not be disconnected. Today was the first day to put the number in her mobile phone for a long period of time. She didn't expect Charlotte to call first.

When answering the phone, her voice choked for a moment. "Grandma..."

"Hey, is this Rose?" She asked at the same time Rose spoke. After hearing Rose's voice, Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief. "You girl, but you worried Grandma to death! Grandma has been thinking about you for so many years. Silly girl, say sorry to grandma!"

Charlotte's words made Rose feel very uncomfortable. "Grandma, I'm sorry."

Charlotte lightly chastised her and said, "Girl, since you are back, come over for dinner in the evening. Grandma misses you."

Rose hesitated for a moment, but finally said yes.

When she was a daughter-in-law of Woods family, Charlotte was very kind to her, like her own grandmother was when she was alive. Charlotte didn't see her for seven years, and she also wanted to see how the old woman was doing.

...

Half an hour later, the taxi arrived at Woods's house in the southern suburbs.

Woods's ancestors used to be a founding family, and their status was not something to joke about. The house has been passed down for several generations and was how an historical site and its interior retains the era it was built as much as they could maintain it.

Today, if it was appraised, it was worth a billion dollars if not more.

When the taxi stopped in front of the mansion, a sports car also stopped beside it.

The man who got off Sports car, his black suit was in pristine condition, his lips were in a straight line, and he looked at Rose with a glare on his face.

Joseph, why was he visiting the same time that she was?

Rose was shocked and even though he was a Woods and this was Woods's house, he moved out a long time ago. It seems that he comes back for dinner once in a while and today of all days, he came back.

Several roads in the courtyard lead to the main house.

Rose doesn't want to meet Joseph, so she chooses the scenic route. When she arrived at the main house, the servant came to greet her. "Good evening, Madam."

Rose stiffened, nodded, and followed the servant into the house.

Charlotte Woods, who is only over 80 years old this year, was dressed in modern day wears. She was talking to Joseph in the living room with a big smile. After hearing the servant's notification, she quickly stood up.

Rose went to the living room to greet Charlotte warmly. "Grandma."

"Ah! Girl, come here quickly!" The graceful way which Rose walked made Charlotte smile deepened on her face, she took back her seat but moved her body to create space for Rose to sit close to her. "Sit here, girl, let Grandma have a good look at you!"

Joseph, who was sitting in another chair close to Charlotte, drank his tea with his eyes down on his cup like he was more fascinated with the tea, his whole body was indifferent, pretending that Rose didn't exist at all.

Rose bit her lip and sat.

As soon as she sat, she was very close to Joseph as she seat offered to her was the side closest to Joseph.

The strange and at the same time familiar buzz which happened to her body, anytime she was close to Joseph lingered on the air making her to feel dizzy and uncomfortable, and she moved her hips a little away from the man beside her.

Charlotte was delighted to see Rose from the bottom of her heart and pulled her attention to herself by asking some questions.

Later, Rose was somewhat frozen when she touched on the topic that Smith and his wife, her parents died in a freaky accident.

Charlotte looked at Rose in the eye and saw her struggling, so she dearly hug her to the bosom, "Silly girl, why didn’t you tell grandma about such a big thing?"

"Grandma, these are things of the past, and it doesn't matter now."

It took Rose a while to calm down, sipping tea and eventually smiling. "As long as you are well Grandma, I will be very happy."

Charlotte gave her a good poke on the forehead. "You know how to care about people."

When Charlotte said this, she turned her head and looked at Joseph. When she saw that the man had nothing to show, his face unreadable as usual, she was furious.

She blamed her grandson for being useless, and that was why he couldn’t keep such a good daughter-in-law!

Woods's family came to eat at the table. After Rose divorced Joseph, her place was to be that of a guest so she was supposed to sit at the other end of the table but Charlotte insisted on letting her sit next to Joseph.

"Joseph, the soup is close to you. Give the girl a bowl of soup for her to eat. I am sure that she is famished."

"No grandma, I am okay.” Rose tried refusing.

Charlotte scolded her with a look, "That is a lie, let Joseph pass you the food, Why are you taking forever!"

With that, Charlotte gestured to Joseph with her eyes.

Joseph bit his lips to keep his mouth shut from saying something he would spend the rest of his life apologizing for. He got up, picked up Rose's soup bowl and filled her bowl with soup. Rose reached out and took it. When he touched her hand with his fingertips, they both froze and avoided each other’s eyes.

Charlotte smiled cheerfully. She picked up her spoon and then others did the same, waiting for her to start since she was the eldest at the table.

Halfway through the harmonious dinner, Charlotte asked Rose where she lives now, and when she learned that she still lived in Smith Mansion, she frowned and felt distressed.

"Girl, that house has not been lived in the past seven years. It must need a lot of work. I will send some people over tomorrow. Before it is repaired, you should come back to live. Grandma’s mind will be at ease to know that the roof would not collapse on you anytime soon."

"Mom, did you forget?" The lady sitting on the right side of the dining table couldn't take Charlotte pestering anymore so she spoke, "Joseph has divorced Rose. She is not a daughter-in-law of Woods's family. She is an outsider and shouldn’t be allowed to stay in our home."

Charlotte never liked her eldest son's current wife. This time though, she was dissatisfied with just letting the woman say whatever she wanted to say so without glancing at her, she replied with impatience in her voice. "Rose can stay at my apartment as my guest not a daughter-in-law? Do I still need your approval?"

The lady's face was stiff and she said, "Mom, I, I didn't mean to make it seem..."

"Like I have no right to do anything that pleases me in this family? Or did you all forget that I still have majority shares to everything and I can give them to whoever I chose?"

When Charlotte said this, everyone was silent as the processed the threat which Charlotte has not issued to them in a long time.