Chapter 221: Chapter 222

Anna dialed Selina’s number after Scott and Randal had left. She asked, “Hello, Auntie Selina. Where’s Tammy?”

“We had just finished eating our lunch. And Joe is trying to let her take a nap.” Selina replied, and her voice sounded much softer than before.

“What? Uncle Joe? Doesn’t he have to work?”

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that your uncle retired last week. He travelled to London this week for a jazz event. But he returned as soon as he learned Tammy was coming to stay with us. I knew he wasn’t good at getting along with kids, so I told him to let me take care of Tammy. And he said he was sure he could make it. What a fool!”

Anna laughed and said, “Uncle Joe just retired, so he’s probably looking for something to keep himself busy.”

Selina also laughed and said, “You’re right. By the way, there’s a family gathering this Friday night. There won’t be too many people there, just us and Bruce’s family. You should come too, Anna.”

Anna paused for a bit before responding, “Is it necessary for me to go? Well, we haven’t seen one other for a long time.”

“What do you mean? Don’t you want to spend time with us anymore?” “Oh, no, that’s not what I mean.” “Okay, then you must come. I’ll pick you up at your place on Friday.”

Anna felt that she couldn’t refuse Selina’s invitations any longer. Moreover, she realized that she didn’t have any family members other than these two uncles and their families.

In fact, she knew why Selina invited her.

Selina arrived on time at Anna’s house on Friday night to pick her up and drive her to the hotel for dinner. Her black Rolls Royce was parked next to Anna’s apartment.

Tammy hugged Anna as soon as she stepped into the car. She said, “Hi, Mommy! What took you so long? I’m starving!”

Anna smiled, stroked her hair, and said, “Well, sit in your seat, honey. The car is about to start.”

Anna greeted her uncle, who was sitting in the passenger seat in front of her, once she was seated.

“Mommy, look at my new dress! Do you like it? It has diamonds on it!” Tammy exclaimed as she lifted the hem of her dress to show Anna when she sat down.

Tammy wore a little blue yarn skirt and a black leather jacket. There were two brown leather shoes on her feet and white socks with lace. Anna had recently watched a lot of Fall/Winter runways of fashion brands because she was beginning a clothes company. She guessed that the outfit was the latest clothes from Bottega Veneta. She had no idea how 1/3 much Tammy’s dress was worth, and she saw that she was holding a Gucci handbag.

“You don’t have to buy such expensive clothes for Tammy, Aunt Selina.”

Selina shook her head, “Tammy is your only daughter, so you should let her wear nice clothes. You should strive to spend much money on your daughter if you have one. Otherwise, the lads will think that dating her is easy.”

At that moment, Joe said, “Yes, I agree with Selina. We aren’t coddling her in any way. We just want Tammy to be happy.”

“Aunt Selina, you shouldn’t make life so easy for her.” Anna said.

“If you want to talk to me about how to grow up in a stressful environment, then you can stop talking. My parents used to give me a hard time when I was a kid, and that’s why! have a weird temper.” Selina said.

Then, Anna froze.

She realized this was the first time Selina had described herself as odd. When she peered in the rearview mirror, she noticed Joe also showed a surprised expression.

“That’s rare,” Joe said slowly.

Selina, of course, heard what he said. She rolled her eyes and said, “You know, someone even abandoned his wife and kids! Is that rare? Well, luckily, he got exactly what he deserved.”

Anna immediately understood what she meant. She guessed that maybe Tammy was the only person in the car who couldn’t understand what Selina was saying.

“Come on, Selina, Tammy’s here. Don’t bring it up again.”

Selina stated straightforwardly, “No, I don’t think we need to hide it from her. Tammy is little, but she knows how to tell right from wrong. So, we don’t have to make her believe that this is a wonderful world. She isn’t living in a fairy tale, after all.”

“Okay, honey,” Joe said as he felt resigned.

Selina was obviously irritated by his attitude. She then furrowed her eyebrows and seemed to lose her temper.

Anna immediately said before she got angry, “Okay, Aunt Selina, it’s all right. We don’t need to bring it up again now that it’s over.

Tammy’s a big girl now, isn’t she? She actually knows what’s going on.”

She then cast a glance towards Tammy.

Tammy instantly responded with a nod and said, “Yes, I know everything. You don’t need to be concerned about me.”

At this moment, Selina appeared to be less angry. She looked Anna in the eyes and said, “Well, Anna, you shouldn’t get involved with the Gabriel Group anymore. You know, it’s a big mess.”

Anna nodded, trying not to appear concerned.

Everyone in the city knew that the Gabriel Group had run out of money after Allie’s death. Furthermore, the news had made every media outlet’s front page. And everyone was speculating about why this occurred, and why the tax office looked into it.

Furthermore, Gabriel Group’s ongoing projects had all been temporarily halted.

Hundreds of people lost their employment as the real estate projects were halted.

They were on their way to a downtown hotel for dinner, so they had to pass by the Gabriel Group headquarters along the way.

Without glancing out the window, Anna could envision how chaotic the headquarters building of the group was right now.

Many workers demonstrated, yelling, “Give us our money back!” Although there were many police officers there, none of them could stop the chaos.

Unhappily, Selina said to Joe, “Hey, stop looking at them. You know, his company is just as lame as he is. I really didn’t expect them to have the nerve to evade taxes.”

“Hey, we don’t know the whole story yet, so we can’t make any assumptions,” Joe said in a soft tone. He was a politician, so he was used to seeing things from an objective standpoint. Moreover, he had a good temper.

Anna wasn’t going to pay attention to what was going on. But, as the traffic downtown became increasingly congested, she heard the gathering grow louder and louder. Then, she noticed a fire-fighting truck pass by them.

She realized something was wrong at that instant. When she peeked out the car window, she noticed a large crowd gathered around the bottom of the building. Also, all of them were looking up to the top floor.

Firefighters arrived at that very moment. They made their way through the crowd, set a cordon, and then filled the air mattress right away.

Anna realized what had happened right away.

“Someone is trying to jump off the building!” she heard a man say aloud at that very time, confirming her suspicions.

Her expression became frightened, and her heart skipped a beat. She remembered the image of Allie falling from the roof she had seen on TV in the cafe