Chapter 732

Nonetheless, Jay stopped her. “Zoe.”

Zoe turned and promptly nodded politely. “Thanks for the ride, Mr. Parker.”

“You left this,” Jay reminded her then.

“Left what?” Zoe patted herself, but her bag and phone were there, and she had nothing else.

“This,” Jay said, holding out a box of food.

While Zoe was left surprised, he said, “It’s your portion.”

Zoe realized with a start then.

Sure, she said she wanted to take the rest of it home, but she did not actually mean it…

And he was the one who bought the chowder in the first place. Why did he have to make up for it?

Still, she did not want to argue and quickly said, Thank you, Mr. Parker. See you tomorrow.”

Jay swallowed.

Was this the only way Zoe would treat him now?

Still, he raised the car window and told his chauffeur to drive away.

Zoe watched as the car left before heaving a slight sigh of relief.

Just now, she felt that Jay was a little angry for some reason.

Well, whatever-the past they shared was far from ideal anyway.

In fact, she would not argue if he wanted her dead.

Nonetheless, she gingerly returned home with the chowder, worried that she would wake up everyone else in the house since she had been returning very late recently.

But just as she stepped through the front door…

“Welcome home, Zoe.”

Zoe was startled—there was only a single faint light in the living room, and Zoe did not notice the person on the couch.

“Did I scare you?” Clara looked very apologetic.

“No,” Zoe replied absent-mindedly. “Why aren’t you asleep? It’s already very late, and I told you you didn’t have to wait for me-l’m going to be very busy for a while.

Clara usually slept early since she had to babysit Yelena and basically slept the same hours as the child.

“I just wanted to ask if you’ll be free in a few days. Yelena will be three years old soon, and she’s been telling me repeatedly that she wants to celebrate it with you. Should we eat here at home or at a restaurant?” Clara asked.

“Oh. Yelean is almost three now…” Zoe could not help sighing.

Time certainly flew by.

“Yeah. She’s growing up so fast I almost can’t catch up,” Clara said lovingly.

One might say that all those affection she could not give Zoe in the past were all being showered on Yelena now.

“I’ll try to come home early on that day. We’ll eat out—I’ll book a place,” Zoe said after some thought.

“Okay. I’ll tell her tomorrow-shell be overjoyed.”

“Yeah.”

“You should take a bath and go to sleep. I’m going to sleep with Yelena.”

“Yeah. Go on.”

As Clara got to her feet to leave, she remembered something else and said, “By the way, there’s some braised short ribs in the fridge. Yelena said that it’s your favorite, so she saved some for you. You should eat it if you haven’t had dinner.”

“Okay.”

With that, Clara headed to her room without bothering her again.

Zoe watched as she left-the woman had been staying with her for three years but was always on her toes and never overreaching.

Even so, Zoe could not say that she actually felt anything toward her, but whatever will be, will be.

She then took out the boxed chowder, which was still warm since it was kept in a heat-retaining box.

After that, she took out the braised short ribs from the fridge and heated it up.

It was a crime to eat this late at night, but she could not resist Yelena’s affection.

Come to think of it, she basically never spent time with Yelena ever since she returned to North City.

Truly, you could either care for your career or your family but not both.

After finishing everything and cleaning up, she could not resist opening the door to Yelena’s room as she returned to her own.