Chapter 2799

Jared lifted Lana up and made his way to the couch, his eyes filled with tenderness.

“We’re home,” he greeted Daniel and Gloria as soon as he had sat down with Lana.

After a while, Nicole came over with Nolan and joined them on the couch.

After glancing around, she asked, “Mom, is Stanley not back yet?”

“No, he said there’s a seminar tonight, so he won’t be back for dinner,” Gloria explained. “There’s no need to wait for Stanley. Let’s go ahead and eat.”

“Okay,” they agreed, whereupon the group headed to the dining room, save for the twins, who tottered their way upstairs while the four adults had their dinner.

“I heard Ellar got injured. What happened?” Daniel asked Nicole.

As expected, the sudden question from her father surprised Nicole. “Dad, how did you know?!”

She had not told anyone except forthose present on the day of the incident.

Thus, she was surprised that Daniel had gotten wind of it.

“I overheard Samuel mentioning it, but when I asked for details, he refused to say anything,” Daniel explained.

Because of this, his curiosity grew, leading him to want to know more about what had really happened.

“Oh, he got a minor gash by accident. Nothing serious, but he’s afraid that his parents might get too worried about him, so he told them he went abroad, even though he is currently staying in the office.”

Nicole explained, omitting the fact that the injury was severe and the reason for which he had been injured in the first place.

“Ah, his mom is going to be very worried, alright.” Gloria nodded in agreement.

“It’s good that he’s staying in the office and returning only once he has fully recovered.”

“But all he does is work. How did he get scratched?” Daniel asked, still puzzled.

According to Samuel, the injury seemed quite severe.

“An accident happened when we went out for dinner the other day. Otherwise, Samuel wouldn’t have known either.” Nicole explained, making up another excuse.

Then, she quickly changed the subject. “By the way, Mom, didn’t you mention that Emery was also going on blind dates? How did it go?”

“He’s doing quite well. According to your aunt, the two families are already preparing for an engagement,” Gloria replied cheerfully as her attention was quickly shifted to the good news.

“Oh, that’s good.” Nicole nodded, relieved.

This would work in Ellar’s favor too. If Emery had something to keep him occupied, Emma would be less concerned about Ellar.

“Yeah, your aunt also said that she used to think Emery was harder to take care of than Ellar, but it turns out that she was wrong,” Gloria added.

Initially, Emma thought that Emery would be the more challenging one forthem to deal with, but with the recent developments considered, he was more than fine.

“When will they get engaged?” Nicole asked in genuine concern, because they might be able to offer some help to Dexter’s family if they needed it.

“The specific date hasn’t been set because the two families are still discussing it,” Gloria said somewhat regretfully.” Anyway, I can’t help but feel that Stanley and Cherry have been rather distant as of late. What’s going on?”

Indeed, Emery was already preparing for the engagement, while Cherry had stopped all visits to them as of the past week.

‘I can obviously see the difference,’ Gloria thought.

“Hmm…” Nicole hesitated. “You should ask Stanley about it later.”

“What do you mean?” Gloria furrowed her brows, unable to shake the feeling that something bad had happened.

Then, she asked Nicole, “Did they get into a fight?”

For reasons she could not explain, Gloria could feel that Nicole was hiding something from her, and that was when she figured that something was indeed not right.

Nicole then took a deep breath and forced a smile. “I don’t think so.”

It was not a lie for Nicole to say that. Indeed, they had not gotten into a fight, but the truth might be even more difficult for Gloria to swallow.

‘Man, I guess it’s true that once a lie is told, one would have to come up with countless more lies to cover it up,’ Nicole thought to herself.

Since Cherry and Stanley’s relationship was a ruse from the very beginning, they did not know how to explain anything to the family without shocking them.

And to add to that, they would have to wait for Cherry to leave before addressing the situation.